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I have had a couple of requests for details on how I am using my Sony PSP for taking helmet-cam footage. So, well, here you go...
The kit
- Sony PSP (duh)
- PSP camera ($75 @ JB HiFi - about the same on eBay)
- Cable (see below)
- Duct tape, glue, sticky velcro, whatever you want to mount it with
The good
- Great battery life (Lithium rechargeable pack in PSP)
- Great quality real-time video encoding
- Nice resolution (widescreen native)
- Very small camera - easy to mount almost anywhere
- Playback with sound, real-time recording view, etc - on PSP
- Cheap. Second-hand PSPs are easy to find now
- Camera seems to deal with fast motion & light changes very well
The bad
- File size limit on recording: ~50-60 minutes per session (then you need to start a new file)
- Needs custom cable to PSP which some may find a pain
- Tiny lens doesn't work at night/low-light very well at all
- ...?
The details
Ok. JB sell the PSP camera for $74.98 - it's called "Go!Cam" for reasons you will need to ask some crazy Japanese Sony marketing guy about. It comes in a typically large cardboard box to make you feel good about paying $75 for something so tiny. It also comes with a neat little tough plastic case to keep the camera in for the first 3 weeks you own it while you still think it's fragile and you'll never want to risk getting a scratch on it.
The camera is designed to attach right to the top of the PSP - it plugs into the mini USB connector socket.
This is obviously not very convenient for helmet cam, unless you want to duct tape the whole PSP/camera combo to your melon.
It is almost as simple as putting a mini usb extension between the camera and the PSP. Almost, but not quite. There is an additional connection either side of the USB socket on the PSP - the camera uses these for power. Only one is required for the camera to work (the other is a common ground with the USB metal body itself).
You will need to connect one of these (the one closest to the little USB symbol on the PSP) to the corresponding pin on the camera. Here's a couple of my cables that do just that...
Home made with a little bent spring & Motorola 90° USB connector
Home made with springy pin thing & straight USB connector
"Professional" cable
The dodgy one with the spring is the best design because of the 90° connector on it. It is much easier to put the PSP in your pocket, into a protective case, or just wrap it up without the cable sticking straight out the top. I am currently making a new cable with the springy pin design and a 90° usb connector.
For those of you who are looking for the easy way out, check out pc-mobile.net who will sell you a pre-made cable. They all seem to be the straight-out designs though.
Using the camera is pretty straight-forward. You simply select "camera" under the "Photo" menu on the PSP (if yours doesn't have this option you may be running a very old firmware version. Mine is 3.5 which works fine - there are much newer versions available now too)
Press select to toggle between photo and movie mode. The right hand button on the very top of the PSP starts/stops recording. The triangle option button gives you some choice with regards video quality and resolution settings. Note the medium quality option gives very acceptable video but the audio is 12-bit which some players freak out with. I used to play around with these options a bit but just use the highest quality setting now.
Mounting
Obviously this is up to your imagination. The camera is tiny so you can pretty much mount it anywhere. I have had great success with it attached under the peak of my MX helmet. Also taped to the back of the R1 facing backwards gave some cool footage and great audio.
This is how I've mounted it on my road helmet -
My mate's off-road helmet with his camera (sticky velcro mount)
Image flip
The camera is designed so you can angle the lens through about 180° by rotating the "barrel" body of the camera. This makes it really easy to frame your video after you have already affixed the camera in place. Unfortunately, going through the mid-way point causes the image to flip upside down. This is because the camera is designed to go right on the PSP and you can have it pointing towards the user or away from the user - which need the images to be up the other way from each other.
This may or may not be an issue, depending on how/where you mount the camera. I only notice this is annoying on my MX helmet, due to the angle of the visor where I like to mount the camera. It doesn't matter which way up I mount the camera, the picture is upside down.
There's a pretty easy fix for this as it turns out. Removing the two little screws in the bottom of the camera allows you to lever the case apart.
Flip Fix 1 - If you bridge some solder across the two points circled in red below, the image will always be the other way up from the little macro/mountain pics on the front of it.
Flip Fix 2 - If you cut the thin plasticy joiner highlighted in purple below, the image will always be the same way up as the little macro/mountain pics on the front of the camera. Please make sure you cut the right bit - it's on the same side as the "mic". (Once cut, you can pop the little microswitch off and throw it if you want - it's just stuck on with a dob of glue)**EDIT** note that this method causes the PSP to mirror the image left/right on the screen during standby/record. The actual recorded video will not be mirrored, it will be normal.
With either fix the camera will no longer flip the image upside down. You can use the full 180° sweep to frame your video. Fix 2 is certainly easier but fix 1 allows you to keep the mic on the other side. Options!
Sample footage
This is the only footage I have currently have online. It's not the best to showcase this setup, but you will get the general idea.
YouTube - Couple of laps around AHG - bikes
That's about all I can think of that's worth mentioning. Hope it's useful to someone...
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Originally Posted by Kramer 
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