Model Rockets And Cameras

[Jerry Bruette]

My grandson was recently introduced to building model rockets and this is reintroducing Grandpa to the hobby.

While poking around on YouTube I saw videos of rocket launches that were taken with "keychain cameras."

Do any of you folks have any experience with these cameras? What would be a good one if I decided to purchase one for recording?

[Alan Rutherford]

I have no recent experience with either model rockets or keychain cameras, but I know a bit about digital cameras and you don't have any other replies. Google "keychain camera" and spend some time learning what the features and prices are. Even Wikipedia has an entry for them. Apparently the "808 Car Keys Camera" is a big seller. This link from Wikipedia takes you to a site with a lot of information about those cameras. A note from that site:

"The 808 is a small color video camera with audio that also takes photos. ... The video quality varies from poor to excellent. .... Buy an 808 from a seller who lists the version number. Otherwise you might get anything, even the worst version."

In about 2 minutes of looking, I found one of those cameras for about $10 at Amazon and one with similar but lesser features on a model rocket site for $41. I'd buy cheap and buy more than one if you can. You should be able to get something useful for $10-15. Not great but good enough to start with. I have a drone that was about $35 over a year ago and that included the camera. Good luck.

[Jerry Bruette]

Alan, thanks for the reply. I never thought Wikipedia would have an entry.

I saw that the 808 was a big seller but was suspicious of the price range. Hate paying $40 for a $10 item.