Anyone played with a Soloshot3?

They are discontinuing the Optic 25 version and have marked them down $200. I ordered one. Now I'm wondering if any of you gents have used one before.

So, good? Bad? 

What is it?  

Sort of the ultimate narcissistic accessory, so you can make videos like this... https://youtu.be/dMj2eEvPLOM

In reply to dean1484 :

Not sure what the other guy was thinking...

More like this. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWw0wnPzHts

It's a auto tracking video camera. My wife and I frequently end up in the same run group, or I'm working when she is driving or the other way around. This will let us shoot video without having someone to man the camera. 

https://soloshot.com/products/soloshot3-optic25-camera-bundle. It's a camera that stays pointed at you.

That looks awesome. What type of wireless tech is used for the tracking?

In reply to OHSCrifle :

GPS and 2.4ghz between the tag and the camera. I'm not sure how it works. 

Their site has them priced at $399.

In reply to Floating Doc :

Correct. They were $599. They took $200 off the price. 

kb58 said:

Sort of the ultimate narcissistic accessory,

And so, this showed up today...

In reply to Knurled. :

Lucky. 

Mine is lost in UPS Severe Weather Delay Hell. 

Along with a set of tires for the G35. 

In reply to Toyman01 :

Would it hurt that I ordered it the day after this thread was started, but they didn't actually ship it until Monday?

They made the shipping label last week.

In reply to Knurled. :

They aren't real fast are they.

UPS had it set to deliver yesterday. I think it's sitting in a warehouse in Columbia. With my luck, the roof will get ripped off the building. 

After a week of Severe Weather Delays, it finally showed up.

Instant impressions, nice box. The battery is stone cold dead so it's charging now. Seems to be fairly well made. 

More to come. 

I wonder how long before I start seeing these show up at OneLap

I got a chance to play with this today. 

Over all, I think I'm going to like it. It does have a couple of quirks.

First, it uses GPS for location on the Tag. So, it won't work near or in a building. I'm betting trees would mess with it too. It wouldn't work in my back yard at all. Between the house, shop, trees, and bus, it couldn't get a decent signal. 

I think Tag location is going to be critical. The Tag not only has to have a GPS signal, it has to be able to communicate with the camera. I doubt it will work consistently with the tag inside the car. I'm might have to rig a roof mount for it. 

It may take some practice to get good videos. I will have to find a parking lot somewhere to do some trial and error in. 

Video embed still isn't working so here is a link. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3BHSrKBGEc&feature=youtu.be

that's some interesting footage... from a "how it works" perspective.  I think you're right about the GPS being central to functioning.  I wonder if they're about to announce a new one with stronger antennae and/or faster update cycles on the GPS signal?  Being a closed unit, guess you can't plug in a stronger antennae like you can with Nav / Tablets, eh?

I'd be charging mine if it came with the right cable.

I don't know the names of all the different USB connectors. What I got in the box is a 6' long USB cable (no AC adaptor) with the same type end as my GoPro Hero uses.  What I need is a smaller end that reminds me a little of the weird cable my old Olympus camera had.  (Remember XD cards?  Needed those...)

So I will not be doing any footage at the RallyCross this weekend.

In reply to Knurled. :

You are trying to plug into the mini HDMI port under the little rubber cover. You need the mini usb port under the big rubber cover. 

This plug. 

Not this plug.

Make sure the camera and the tag are mounted. They all charge at the same time. 

Toyman01 said:

In reply to Knurled. :

You are trying to plug into the mini HDMI port under the little rubber cover. You need the mini usb port under the big rubber cover. 

 

 

The what...

Oh.

This thing finally made it out to a autocross with all the necessary parts for operation. Camera placement wasn't ideal, but it was decent. The camera has to be calibrated when set up so I did the calibration during the previous run group and left the camera on. It ran right at 3 hours and used most of the battery. 

The only time it had issues with tracking is when another car ended up in the same shot. My wife drives the green Mustang. Every time her car entered the video the camera tracked her until the GPS signal diverged enough to force it back where it was supposed to go. It did this every run. 

I think with some careful camera placement it would work better. 

Over all I'll give it a 4 out of 5 stars. I thinks it's amazing that they can make it work at all. It can only get better. 

Since embedding is still broken, the video is Here.

In reply to Toyman01 :

BTW, your passenger really should keep their arm inside the car.  It isn't safe and generally against the rules in most sanctioning bodies....

In reply to Stefan :

How did you do that?

In reply to Toyman01 :

clicked the share button on YouTube, copied the link and then posted it into the "Insert Media Embed" window.

This is on Win 7, Firefox 63.0.1