Cal Club Autocross Forums

Working w/ Rhys Millen @ Wendover/Bonneville. He just got the new GoPro w/ GPS overlay to test.

Check out his new Red Bull video next week release. 700+ HP on Hankook RS3's - on a windy mountain road in Brazil mountain road.

Mako Koiwai wrote:Working w/ Rhys Millen @ Wendover/Bonneville. He just got the new GoPro w/ GPS overlay to test.

Knew I wasn't crazy.

Mako - are you sponsord/work for gopro? Just wondering...

(full disclosure: I am sponsored by ChaseCam - and feel good about being involved with a local company whose owner/founder/designer is also an AXer.)

Bill Schenker wrote:Mako - are you sponsored/work for gopro? Just wondering...

(full disclosure: I am sponsored by ChaseCam - and feel good about being involved with a local company whose owner/founder/designer is also an AXer.)

Not to mention a CSCC site sponsor and National event sponsor.

Working w/ GoPro - Randy has no prescence in the "film" industry - GoPro does. If I had the money, I highly recommend ChaseCam!

Gee... thanks Mako.

I will make sure to tell all the studio guys that I talked to at SEMA that I have no "prescence" in the industry.

Randy who?

32 years working in every imaginable type of production, and I've never heard ChaseCam mentioned. Sorry - Mr. Gear Guy over here. I'd get laughed at recommending SD gear, but I'll be sure to mention that ChaseCam will soon have HD.

I will ask the guys at Disney or Top Gear if they have heard of Mako. ;)

Steve walks carefully by the smoking pile of ashes.....

Ekstrand on 16 Nov 2010 14:57

Steve walks carefully by the smoking pile of ashes.....

You must have walked by after me. I'm pretty sure I saw some flames.

Steve Towers wrote:

Ekstrand on 16 Nov 2010 14:57

Steve walks carefully by the smoking pile of ashes.....

You must have walked by after me. I'm pretty sure I saw some flames.

Did anyone catch it on video so the rest of us can see it?

I'm justing saying from my experience. I've done 65 mm with Disney; I've used the very latest $90k Sony HD cameras w/ one of the top Top Gear cameramen but unfortunately I've never had the pleasure to use ChaseCam gear. I'd love to say I have!

Regardless, I think Bill's point is that there is a company here, run by one of us, that sponsors this very forum and our sport by spending his money to benefit you. In fact, I recall sending you some cash because I was trying to be nice for all your picture taking. And yet you keep kicking me in the teeth by constantly pushing competing products of people that DO NOT sponsor the sport, do not sponsor this forum, and are not one of us.

If you don't understand that, then fine. I am done.

I am glad I have the support of the people I care about.

Jason Isley BS RX8 wrote:

Steve Towers wrote:

Ekstrand on 16 Nov 2010 14:57

Steve walks carefully by the smoking pile of ashes.....

You must have walked by after me. I'm pretty sure I saw some flames.

Did anyone catch it on video so the rest of us can see it?

I did...it's on my ChaseCam video...and it ain't pretty.

Mako Koiwai wrote:I'm justing saying from my experience. I've done 65 mm with Disney; I've used the very latest $90k Sony HD cameras w/ one of the top Top Gear cameramen but unfortunately I've never had the pleasure to use ChaseCam gear. I'd love to say I have!

Mako..........you have an e-mail. I suggest you read it ASAP.

Best thing about the video capture of the smoldering ashes is the beautiful Dashware Data overlay with custom gauges. ;)

You guys can send me test hardware from both providers and I'd be happy to share an unbiased, non regional opinion, once I've used them for a year or two...

Michael Wood wrote:You guys can send me test hardware from both providers and I'd be happy to share an unbiased, non regional opinion, once I've used them for a year or two...

Forgive me for opening up an old bag of worms, but I want to clear this up... (and BTW, Mako does have both Disney and Top Gear connections on his resume)
***Please understand that this post is in no way endorsed by Makofoto. It personally stems from Karen's respect for both parties.

@MH et al. I'm sure Mako would have been glad to test cams for Randy & offer his professional opinion on that matter, but was he was never asked, and receiving money for photos and/or video already taken has nothing to do with this. Anything he has received barely makes up for the time I have personally seen him spend on editing and posting -- not to mention the 30 some odd years of professional experience in photography and film/video. GoPro, on the other hand, has sent Mako numerous packages of equipment for testing and evaluation.

However, isn't it really a comparison of apples and oranges? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of Randy's products have been a system that combines camera and data logging, whereas GoPros are merely to record imagery at low cost.

Mako was never attempting to "take business away from ChaseCam" and Randy, I personally don't see how discussing a completely different system can be considered "kicking you in the teeth." IMO the whole thing is ridiculous as the film/video industry targets a different crowd than the racing industry Randy has targeted. In any case, the film/vid industry typically has little interest in the data logging aspect of Randy's superb ChaseCam system, the excellence of which I am sure many on this forum can attest to.

That all being said, I hear Randy has just ACED a contract with NASA (and that is NOT the racing org!):
http://twitter.com/#!/ChaseCam

Go, Randy, go!

Some points.. not to beat a dead horse.

GPS.. the very point of this thread.. is indeed data.

Karen, I did not mean to imply Mako does not have connections. But his statement I have NO presence was a little insulting and over the top no? Just FYI.. I worked with Jeremy Clarkson to help find a place to film Top Gear USA. I should be able to say more publicly about my relationship with TG, but I can tell you that in my conversations with Top Gear producers... they DO NOT like GoPro for their studio work. ChaseCam is not a huge presence in the industry... it was not my focus. But we are on many movies and TV shows and I am proud of that work. I am proud of the TV footage we have helped provide for Traxxas truck series, MX5 Cup series, V8 Supercars, and SPEED World Challenge. If Mako had only said "I have not worked with ChaseCam" that would have been far less insulting and much more accurate... but people skills have never been his strong point. I get that.

So to the point, I do think that pushing GoPro, as hard as Mako has been doing in person and in multiple threads... is a little much. They are a direct competition and it is not apples and oranges, it is more Fuji apples vs Granny Smith. One may be cheaper, one may fit your needs better. This I totally understand.

You don't think GoPro is pushing very hard now to take over the top end racing series and teams? They are working very hard to do that. Which is why I am having to focus on NASA..and the military and such... just to stay in business.

GoPro, on the other hand, has sent Mako numerous packages of equipment for testing and evaluation.

It is easier to do when you import product from cheap labor overseas and it does not cost you much, and you sell that many of them. You can hand those puppies out like chewing gum sticks. They also have the marketing cash to do this. I do not. My budget is more limited.

I will still try to support my friends and the sport. We are still sponsoring solo stuff in SCCA as best we can. I appreciate those that recognize that. I can tell you from a company point of view, when someone starts to feel like nobody cares, it starts to make less sense. But I support this sport, because I am in it, and my friends are in it.

I'm always surprised at all the Chase cam sponsored drivers that seldom or never post their videos on this site. I would think that would be something a sponsoring business would want. Just putting stickers on the car is not much help for this kind of product.

Steve A.

Although not sponsored (the big-ass sticker on the trailer get's grandfathered until I repaint it in, oh sometime this decade), I'll probably post ChaseCam video when I get the DIVA set up on the Menace. Careful selection could be effective sandbagging before nationals.... Until I get all the other issues sorted out, it is way to easy to just use the HD Hero cam. That said, with the motor seemingly working correctly now, I'll probably want that data as I shift to setting up the suspension. Maybe I should move the DIVA installation up on the priority list.

Steve Abbott wrote:I'm always surprised at all the Chase cam sponsored drivers that seldom or never post their videos on this site. I would think that would be something a sponsoring business would want. Just putting stickers on the car is not much help for this kind of product.

Steve A.

Agree with Steve, video's posted especially with data or data discussion would go a long way to creating product differentiation. Depending on NASA and the DoD can be an even more difficult expensive and frustrating road than racing.

Here's the cheap way to go----GoPro, freeware overlay, PerformanceBox:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK96h3rWEtg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Don