"drclive" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm looking recommendation for a video camera that would stand a VFR in
a Piper 28 Cherokee 140 or a katana DV20.

I think pretty much any camera that doesn't use rotating media (hard drive
or optical DVD recording). That leaves tape or flash RAM.

That said, I'm a bit surprised you had trouble with a hard drive based
camera. Maybe there's something about the orientation of the camera (and
thus the drive) that makes it excessively sensitive to vibration, but I
wouldn't expect normal vibration to cause problems.

I'm curious, have you tried using the camera hand-held, rather than mounted
to the yoke? Maybe being securely fixed to the airframe pushes the hard
drive over the edge.

As far as your specific question goes, I've used tape-based cameras (MiniDV)
in airplanes without any problem whatsoever. A flash RAM storage camera
would be equally reliable, but keep in mind that you sacrifice quality
and/or storage capacity to go that route.

If you want to get really fancy, you could consider using external storage.
For example, a digital camera plugged into a dedicated video storage disk
(that is not securely mounted to the airframe, and so is isolated from
vibration somewhat) or into a laptop (recording directly to the hard drive
of the laptop). Depending on your budget and your specific needs, this
might be an appropriate solution. I think for most people, just getting a
regular tape-based video camera is the right way to go though.

Pete