The decline of in car footage......

[Knowlesy]

I've just finished watching a tape of the 1994 Adelaide GP that I got copied off Sato san and it struck me how much of this title deciding races footage was from on board the cars. And not just any cars - it was the two title protagonists Hill and Schuey. Hill had two different onboard cameras as did Schuey. Also Mansell, Hakkinen and the Ferraris got on boards too.

What has happened to the onboard camera? Nowadays we get an onboard with a Sauber or, at best, a Renault. And it is always in the same roll hoop mounted position. Back in '94 we had cameras mounted on rear wing endplates, looking back at the driver (these have made a brief comeback), ones right under the front wing, on the nose, various parts of the front wing, beside the driver etc.........and always in the front running cars.

Now we get to enjoy the thrills of a Hockenheim lap with Jos Verstappen.

I know I'm sad and need to get out more, but I want to know what has happened to our camera angles. We deserve better!

[Son of Jor-El]

I kind of agree with you, but I feel that this year has been a bit better than in the previous, say, 5 or 6. Please correct me if i'm wrong of course, my memory ain't that good!
However, it certainly does seem as if the current on-board coverage isn't as good as 94 or even 95.

[Knowlesy]

It has improved this year make no mistake.

But it doesn't even compare to those years.

It actually enhances the excitement - even though I'd seen that race countless times and knew the result off by heart for pretty much nine years, it made it extremely watcheable and exciting.

[esorniloc]

Wasn't there a camera in the chicane in Australia 94?
Didn't someone hit it on the first lap and it broke?
Or was it 95?

[903cc]

I think this was because it was done by the GP organiser. Australia led the world in In car Camera technology. I can remeber the first in Car shots I saw was on a Peter Williamson Celica at Bathurst Mt Panarama in 1977. It then spread throughout Touring cars and Channel 7 In Aus really spent a lot of money on it. Formula one was introduced to the technolgy.

However in the early years only 1 or 2 cars had the camera though all cars had to have a standard fitment for it. All others carried a ballast to cover the weight.

Now I am not so sure but I think there is a complex formula of who gets the cameras. It seems to be shared around so everyone gets a turn at "EXPOSING SPONSORS" rather than actually "EXPOSING RACING"

[Adam43]

knowlesy, you may wish to keep your dealings with Sato San a little more discreet - for the benefit of you, him and (more importantly as far as we're concerned) US!!

Bernie's people DO read these forums and do not take kindly to infringement of their Copyright... you have been warned!

[Adam43]

I feel that the director could make much better use of the in board stuff. At Nurburgring this year when it cut to Montoya (by accident) when he got a run on Michael. That was exciting.

[BootsOntheSide]

The change came when BernieVision was launched in 1997. To tempt people to pay extra for the service, whcih wasn't avaialbel in the UK at the time, the quality of the main coverage was changed. Typical two tier system really, btu unfair on those of us in the UK and elsewhere who couldn't get the improved service.

Now that BernieVision is gone, there's no reason why the coverage can't be as good as it was before, and we've seen real improvement in 2003.

[paddywic]

The in cocpit stuff with Mick and Juan is super, But I agree, not enough, and the directors always get it wrong, I don't think they are actually looking at the race, but more are following a sequence of camera exchanges and movements. It kills me when the cut away just at a crucial part.

[speedbump]

Your right. The director, I think, seems to always cut away at a crusial point.
Is it true that ITV viewers in the UK get extra coverage or is it the same every where ?

I love what CART has done with some of the onboard camers, full laps with top drivers and inside helmit cams. Some amazing views.
F1 should take note.

I think it's all to do with money.

[ElScOrChO]

There's not enough onboard when an event occurs. When someone overtakes another driver, It's normal to see it with the normal cameras. When showing the replay, it would be nice to get more than 2 camera angles +1onboard to show what happened.

Where the Premiere 1 channel is located?
They seems to get a lot of onboard footage
(from what I've seen in videos that I got on the internet)

[Yoong Montoya]

Originally posted by 903cc
Now I am not so sure but I think there is a complex formula of who gets the cameras. It seems to be shared around so everyone gets a turn at "EXPOSING SPONSORS" rather than actually "EXPOSING RACING"

Yeah, remember all the onboard footage of Takuma Sato at Suzuka last year? Although, in the director's defence, Sato was the only driver worth watching in that race

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by paddywic
The in cocpit stuff with Mick and Juan is super, But I agree, not enough, and the directors always get it wrong, I don't think they are actually looking at the race, but more are following a sequence of camera exchanges and movements. It kills me when the cut away just at a crucial part.

Mick?

[JR Ewing]

Mickey the Shoe I should imagine...

[DriverT]

Originally posted by esorniloc
Wasn't there a camera in the chicane in Australia 94?
Didn't someone hit it on the first lap and it broke?
Or was it 95?

Yeah, wasn't it Berger?

[paddywic]

Originally posted by Aysedasi
Mick?

I call him Mick when we are out horse riding together. He calls me his little tifosi.

[Bononi]

Originally posted by paddywic
I call him Mick when we are out horse riding together. He calls me his little tifosi.

Tell him he must improve his italian, it is tifoso. tifosi is the term in the plural.

[racer69]

I wish they'd bring back the over-the-shoulder onboard view, rather than the current airbox mount

[Kex]

Wasn't it in 1999 when ITV were only allowed one on-board camera feed per race?

I agree with this, it's a shame that we don't see more variety with onboard cameras these days. As mentioned, I would like to see more than just the standard roll bar camera, I find a little boring nw to be honest. I'd like to see more over-the-shoulder cameras.

On a positive note I think we've seen more onboard footage this and last season, hopefully we will see more. With all this talk of trying to please people watching on TV, it makes sense to me to 'spice up' the coverage at least.

[Logrence]

I like the pit wall cams and stuff as well - it'd be great if they could do split screens with pedal cams, and garage cams and stuff - and the CART helmet cams are immense!

[903cc]

What about In car telemetry.. It would be great to see the actual KPH, Revs and what gear the driver was in when they cut to the in car shot. (or even when they were just following someone)

[spanner]

We still do get the on boards, but only for half a second! I've not seen any full laps or really on during the race. It is a shame

[codename_47]

I'm pretty fussy when it comes to On-board cameras....I only like forward facing ones...I hate the rear or side-looking ones that look at the drivers because you can't see the track or where the car is relative to other cars...I DON'T like helmet cam because all you can usually see is a nose....

It's all those computer games I guess!

Still, there has been some good on-board work this year...I remember it cutting to DC just before he went bouncing through the gravel avoiding Alonso at the Nurburgring, and Micheal's punting of Alonso back at Malaysia too...

[Ian-S]

Premiere in Germany have a dedicated in-car channel on their F1 coverage (see their website for details www.premiere.de) from what I know after talking to a friend over there, they can only view one in-car camera at a time and it's the director who decides what you see like BernieVision was here, generally when we get an in-car 5 second clip on ITV, the germans have had 5 minutes worth or so on their dedicated channel then it switches to another
car.

They do get most of the qualifying runs from each car though.

Each car carries at least 2 cameras.

The reason there's no cams on the rear wings is one flew off a car a few years back at Monza and hit Berger's Ferrari breaking the front wishbone, if it had been a few inches higher it would have killed him so they stopped putting the cams on the rear wings before something happened.