In the past, I've seen underwater cameras, the kind that coaches often use, or that would be handy for a coach.
For the life of me, I must not be doing my 'googling' right, I'm coming up empty handed.
Hints anyone?
Links? Camera/housing names? Other keyword hints?
Any specific recommendations, something you tried and like?
Thank You :)
Former Member
Now I like working as underwater cameraman around my kid and her teammates, but this didn't go over as well with the Masters team. And the pool wasn't setup as well for this - with the kids I had an area 3 lanes wide with no lane markers.
With the masters group, there was no undivided lane area, and much harder with just a snorkel and little digicam to get down low enough to see the swimmers entire body without being at least two lanes removed from the subject.
So I see that really useful video for deck replay analysis would be best served by a little camera on a boom like the Lorex 6991 in lieu of the venerable Snooper. Letsrace, could you share what pieces of a video solution worked for you? Velcro strapped the cables to a folding painters boom ? What video capture device worked OK for you in the relatively hostile deck environment around a pool?
Thanks!
The important parts of the setup are the camera, a recording device, a support for the camera and a bag or box to carry things to the pool.
The Lorex comes with 100' of cable which which houses two wires. 1 to power the camera and one to return the video output. That video output is a simple RCA jack like you would find on the back of a vcr. 100' of cable is a lot, so I employed an inexpensive cable reel that I had in the garage to help manage the cord to the camera.
For the recording device, you have a couple of options. If you don't want to spend any money, tell your significant other that you need to get your VCR fixed and sneak it out of the house. That is really all you need to record.
Realistically, you will want to see some of what you record at the pool, if for no other reason than to see if your subjects are in frame. That being the case, you will need a video output device, so you may decide to use a video camera. That is what I currently do. I have a Canon ZR 50 which has a little flip-out lcd which works well enough.
The Lorex has a screw-mount similar to what you would find on a pocket camera or video camcorder. It also comes with a little mounting device to mount this to, say, the outside of your house. You can screw that into the side of a pole (I did buy a fancy pole from homedepot which telescopes for portability).
So you have enough now to film while on the deck, but you still need to hold onto the pole and I wanted to set mine in the water, swim my workout and retrieve my equipment when I was done. To do this you need to come up with something to hold onto the pole in a fixed position. Simple. I use a clamp that I already owned to hold onto the pole. I then set the handle of the clamp on the deck and I place a heavy object on the clamp (a 10 lb weight will do).
You will also want to get a small extension cord like you use for holiday lights, because you will most likely have to plug in your camcorder and Lorex camera.
"So how do I setup this stuff to record?", you might ask. To give you some bearings, I practice each morning at a smallish YMCA. At 6 am, we frequently have as many as 3 swimmers in 6 lanes. If you just barge in and setup your camera equipment you are likely to get somebody upset.
So, first off, you need an accomplice. My accomplice is the lifeguard, thankfully. She allows me to setup the camera, on the wall of lane 6. I set the camera at the middle of the pool pointing straight out about 3 feet underwater. This will have lane 5 in a pretty good frame. The awkward thing here is that you will likely be the one swimming in lane 5 but you will have your equipment in lane 6. So this is where the bribery starts.
Although the camera is unobtrusive, you get a lot of questions. "Is that thing going to electricute me?" "Does it measure the chlorine levels, cause my lungs are killing me?" "Does it make my butt look big?" To avoid some of these awkward questions, I usually offer to record the strokes of each person in lane 6. That is usually enough to buy their silence.
Then I set the camera recording and I just swim a normal workout, mindful, of course, about how much recording time my camera has (1 hour).
When I am done with workout, perhaps 30 minutes after the tape is full, I collect my setup and leave. Usually with 6 email addresses and a promise to send their video clips.
Do you have any short videos from head on and from the side. I will put them in my pro trainer program so I can see your swim style. email it to me prefer a 10 sec clip. geochuck@hotmail.com If you want I will send back a disect of your stroke.
This is the program I use for analysis, very good and cheap. http://www.sportsmotion.com/ you can get a free download and use it for 21 days disect strokes but it has logos on it til you buy.
I know this is an old, old thread, but I wanted to bring it back for the good info rather than start a new one.
Has anyone used this Lorex set-up and compared it with the "Coach Cam"? Is the Coach Cam worth all the extra money?
