Given the long-GOP dropout potential for loosing half a second's worth of footage I'd be REALLY nervous about using HDV to film something that's a one-shot AND is likely to shake the camera.

You might be okay - but if the compression waves of the explosion shake the camera just a little too much to keep the tape tolerantly tensioned, then you've lost your shot. Even with DV it's bad enough.

I'd DEFINITELY use a solid state camcorder (HVX200) OR use a DTD hard drive - although that brings its own risks (ie. "Whoops! In all the excitement the firewire cable fell out")!

Another theoretical
 

Couple more questions:

Is the HVR-DR60 compatible with Sony cameras with firewire out (HDR-HC3E specifically?)?

I ask because I have a another shoot coming up with a camera in a car and things are going to get really hairy. Hairy enough that I wouldn't put a HVX in the car because odds are the camera isn't going to make it. In fact- I know the camera wouldn't survive. I could however see welding a DR60 into a black box in the trunk and running a firewire cable from an HC3E in the car. Would this work? Would the DR60 record the signal from the HC3E until the camera met its maker or could shock from the car cause it to cut out before and impact (likely to be a big impact)?

Thanks.

Scott, the DR60 works with any 1394 camera outputting DV/HDV. I've now recorded with the Canon A1, H1, and all of the Sony cams. The difference the V1 makes is that it provides display on the camera, as to the status of the drive.

DR60 Explosion/Car Crash Track Record
 

Thanks, Douglas.

Does anyone have any experience with the HVR-DR60 in close proximity to explosions or inside of car in an accident? Specifically, has anyone tested the 3G censors against a 350 mph car wreck? 200 mph?

Also, are there any small, inexpensive, solid state recorders that'll plug into an HC3E?

Thanks.

Um, is ANYTHING tested to survive 350mph?

With both tape and hard drives, you are dealing with moving parts. The low mass and high rigidity of laptop mechanisms helps them a bit against G loads, but nothing that moves is going to be immune to vibration. If you want to increase your likelihood of getting shots with high vibration, you will need to insulate the camera from vibrations. Unfortunately, rubber mounts that reduce vibration to the camera also separate the camera from the vehicle visually. The vehicle will vibrate even if the camera stays still, so your resulting image will be of a vibrating vehicle as the camera moves in relation to it because of the flexible mount. I'm guessing that a mount with a bit of shock dampening material that is overall fairly tightly mounted will be the compromise between protecting the camera and getting the best image.

True, 350 mph is plenty quick. It likely wont be a sudden stop from that speed. More of a violent roll followed by a gentle stop. Ignoring the speed for just a moment, are there ANY HD or HDV cameras in existence built specifically for crashes, explosions, wrecks, or disasters?

Speed an object is travelling isn't really very relevant to whether it'll survive. What is relevant is how quickly that object stops, - essentially how many G is has to undergo in its deceleration to rest. Depends on distance within which it comes to rest. If it's one foot or something thats probably 500g + (sorry tired & can't be bothered to do the maths..).
Sorry if i missed some detail in preceding posts, but AFAIK, no road or race car will go 350mph except a Top Fuel dragster running nitromethane and while those will exceed 300mph fairly easily in 1/4mile (in less than 5 seconds), they pull the chute then.
- Land Speed Record stuff, yes they go plenty faster..

I'm sure there's specialist cameras designed to have a greater probability of surviving very-high G impacts but i don't know of any offhand. Solid-state i would think would be necessary, radio'ing the signal to an external static hard-drive or tape etc. Airplane black boxes (actually orange..) record many flight parameters and are designed to withstand a very rough ride indeed. And generally the key contents does survive, more or less.

The sensors in a DR-60 are designed to calculate if the unit is accelerating in any direction (thats why it takes 3 sensors, in x, y, z axes..) at 1g or 9.81ms-2. If it is, heads get parked.
In a big impact this wouldnt do much good because it won't be decelerating at 1g, it'll be 100's of G (for a few milliseconds..) and any hard-drive will be, almost certainly, toast. Or at least suffer some degree of platter damage.

You can have an object undergo a 500g deceleration to 0mph even when it's going only, say, 30mph.
It's just that the object will be suffering that 500g deceleration for a very very short time indeed. But it's still 500g..

Thanks Stu. I eliminated the hard drive as a possibility myself after reading its manual last night. Sony rates the DR60 for a drop from 100cm (40in). Grossly insufficient for my purposes.

Looking at the Sanyo Xacti. Solid state and cheap.