Team-BHP - In-car Camera mounts - Attaching a video camera to the Car

Thats a cool idea to mount a camcorder, I doubt anything like this would available in the market, these kind of stuff is always best done DIY style.

However a couple of concerns, the passenger in the co-driver seat will need to be very careful as there is the risk of him getting poked in the eye or head, maybe you need to put some soft material on the other side.

Also have you tried recording and seen the output of the video ? Because I had a similar idea and I always wondered how the camera will handle the vibrations of the car, if the video will be too shaky.

HVK has a video camera mounted on to the rear view mirror and it shoots the videos as some fps and stores it on to the SD card.

he had PMed me the details if you want i can share with you, you can check with him directly as well.

Vibrations would be killing the video camera, unless the camera has some sort of compensation for vibrations.

I have tried using the headrests as a camera mount(not using stand, but a gorillapod), but the problem is that in diesels, there is always some vibration in the seats.
So if you have a cam with image stabilization(most camcorders offer that), it should work good, otherwise you will get slightly soft video.
A better option could be to use a suction cup mount on the front windscreen instead, since the windscreen will vibrate less than the seat.

Found this weekend project on youtube.. seems very easy DIY! Will give it a go this christmas holiday :) ! Only concern is that if I can get the eye-bolt in local hardware store!

YouTube - In-Car Camcorder Mount

PS. If you see the last part of the video, the camcorder seems to hold stiffnessly (not sure the right word) with no vibration.. of course, the roads will make a difference.. but I am guessing, it would be much more stable than the suction holder (I used one in SX4, but camcorder fell off after 5 mins)

I found some other solution, i dont know will it be feasible for this purpose or not.
Why dont you simply get a reverse camera attached to the front bumper, use that for the recording?
I know it wont be high quality, but it also means not a big deal if it does get damaged.

Quote:

Originally Posted by abhayshanu (Post 1644644)

The whole point is good quality vids. And you would then need a secondary recorder to capture the video from the reverse camera.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aZa (Post 1715231)

Oye sanjay! Thats a killer idea, i have the same table top tripod lying with me. Gonna try it out tom and get back!
Cheers

In case your headrest hole is bigger than the tripod leg diameter, try wrapping up the tripod leg with plastic insulation tapes...the key here is to fit it as tight as possible. Also ensure the tighten the screws which hold the legs (towards the top) so that it remains fixed.

This setup enabled me to record my trip from CHN-KOL-CHN, though I recorded only CHN-VIZAG part.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iTNerd (Post 1632759)

...If you see the last part of the video, the camcorder seems to hold ...

Another option to combat some of the vibration is to extend the holder all the way across and also attach it to one leg of the headrest on the other side.

cya
R

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehaan (Post 1726189)

Another option to combat some of the vibration is to extend the holder all the way across and also attach it to one leg of the headrest on the other side.

I built something similar to the one in the video, but it works only on the highways & on the track - on regular city roads, there's simply too much vibration (depends on the roads on what suspension you're running). The next thing I tried was to extend it across to the headreast on the other side. However, a big problem with this approach is that it limits seat movement - you can't tilt a seat as you wish or even move it back & forth since the head-rests of both seats are essentially attached to each other by the camera mount. A design that works very well is to shorten the mount's leg so that the camera is close to (or even rests against) the headrest...

Moved from Bad Drivers thread to here:

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronH4WK (Post 2289376)

tthe HDD of my handycam had crashed; just got it replaced. will have it mounted on a tripod :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by amitoj (Post 2289820)

Ironh4wk, mounting your HDD camera on a tripod may not work. HDD cameras don't take the vibrations well. You need flash based handycam for that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xryder (Post 2289949)

I think there are quite a few HDD cameras that work well on mounted holders which are actually different from the regular tripods. The vibrations should be rather negligible because they are built to absorb that disturbance and distribute it without affecting the shot/video quality. What I am referring to is something like the one shown in the video and the eBay link.

Ironh4wk is definitely going to need these. With the cam on your hood, no BHPian shall be spared on Bangalore roads. :D

Pro2 car suction cups mount 4 video dv hdv DSLR camera | eBay

Whoa that is a neat 270 USDs! But i wonder how long it will stay on the hood before it gets stolen!

There are some really cool suggestions in this thread for mounting a camera. Check them out too.

Cheers
Amitoj