[moorlockx]

Thought I'd share the idea I had for a camera mount in the car. I needed something that held the camera behind the front seats, but would allow the rear seat to be folded down. After seaching around, I gave up and came up with this little gem. It clamps into place so no drilling is required on the car.

[Smokey 4]

Very nice Bob,

Great bit of brilliance there!!

Do you have any clips of the test runs? Wondering what the effect of any vibrations/oscillations might have been on the clarity of the movie?

I can see the welder and power band saw being fired up at many home shops this weekend!

[Rich.Wolfson]

Very nice. I bought the one that clamps to the headrest posts and have been very happy with it. You'll need to remove the rear view mirror to get any usable video. It easily twists off. And remember that whatever you say will also be on the tape. :-)

Rich

[Johnny225]

Very Cool,
Motoring vid's made easy! How much better does it get?

[mrhollio]

looks great... show us some video!

[Root Ginger]

All I have to say is...

WHERE'S THE VIDEO ????????????

Example shots from this fantastic contraption please

[ALD0]

Cool-Looks like a Unmarked MINI Cop Car!!

[AtomicKiwi]

Very cool! I'd love to see some video with that.

[moorlockx]

Thanks all! Initial testing has been good. Heavy bumps, like bad railroad tracks, shake it up a bit, but normal spirited street driving tape just fine. The real test will come at the end of the month at the VIR driving school. Quite possibly the weakest link in the system is the older camera I ended up using. A newer one with better image stabilization probably would have been better.

I'll try to post some video footage, if I can convince this ancient computer of mine to cooperate.

The mirror actually is not in the way. I dropped the camera so that it shoots below it. The mirror is still in the upper part of the picture, but doesn't block the road.

I looked at the headrest type, but didn't fancy a video camera next to my head if it were mounted in front. I fold the rear seats to allow for carrying a spare on road trips, so mounting a camera off them was out of the question.

[Shamster]

wow - that's great! All that remains is to see if the damping is good enough so the image doesn't blur too much. Great work!

[brett]

I simply zip tied my video camera to the vent above the speedo, and from there I can zoom in and zoom out. With my Cameras image stabliser it works fantastic. I use mine on the race track.

Simplest Ideas are the best + it's cheap

[moorlockx]

>>>I simply zip tied my video camera to the vent above the speedo.....<<<<

As you can see in my pics my camera's on the bulky side, compared to a lot of the newer ones. I wouldn't have felt good about blocking that much of my forward vision with it on the dash.

[TSizemore3]

Just what I've been looking for! How about some measurements?

[moorlockx]

The cross support is 3/4" square tube 35" long (this could be easily cut down to 34")

The camera cradle is 3/4" flat steel of 3/16" thickness. For my camera, I made it 6" wide with an 8" drop. There's an "L" shaped support plate under the camera. Also, and it doesn't show in this view is a "C" shaped stabilizing bracket that pushes against the side of the camera.

The upper angle braces are made from 1/8" flat stock.

The clamps are 3/4" flat stock of 12 gauge thickness. Depending on how these perform over the long term, I may redo them out of thicker steel. There are two 1/4" bolts in each clamp with self-locking nuts.

There is no actual adjustment for picture angle. However, you can change the angle some by shifting the assembly to different places on the grab handles.

If you're interested in other pictures please PM me and I'll be more than happy to email them to you.

[Mugami]

I used the same camra when i did the video of my run on the Dragon last year. In which i had it mounted where Brett did his, but i used a mounting bracket instead of a zip tie. I found it not to bad in blocking my view. Verses the set of Fuzzy dice i have hung from the mirror. As for the video .. if your ever in Richmond, VA head to Crown MINI and ask any of the Sales people to see it.. They love showing it off. For those who know the Dragon its the one where i avg. around 60MPH which is a very good clip for the Road.

Have fun, Be safe and Keep MOTOV8N.

[R1]

Quote: Originally Posted by moorlockx

Thought I'd share the idea I had for a camera mount in the car. I needed something that held the camera behind the front seats, but would allow the rear seat to be folded down. After seaching around, I gave up and came up with this little gem. It clamps into place so no drilling is required on the car.

Very nice install.

I've made notes!

[TSizemore3]

Thanks for the info. I might make the camera cradle a little larger, so I can mount a small tripod head in it and still have room for the camera. That way, it would be easy to reposition the camera from a foreward view to one down on the dash to see the guages. When I'm on a hot autocross run, I'm concentrating on the course so much I never look at the speedo or tach, I just shift by ear. I've been wondering how close to redline and how fast I've gotten up to.

[moorlockx]

There may be enough room for the tripod head, but it may take the camera up too high. The picture from mine, without any zoom, shows the bottom of the radio to above the clock in height and from the left of the tach to the right air vent. If I had a helmet on the view of the tach would probably be blocked.

[moorlockx]

Here's a couple pics taken off the camera. You'll have to excuse the quality. The only way I could get these was run the vid on my t.v. and take pictures it with my digital camera. Real quality is much better, but these will give you an idea of the view.

[bluesmini]

if someone can tell me where to post some video i'd be happy to share mine. my mount is between the two back headrest. please see my picture gallery.

p.s. check out this link. anyone up for a trip to VIR to show audi drivers how it's done?

http://www.audiclubna.org/chapters/p.../calendar.html the school is on a monday tuesday in late april