Here is a very inexpensive DIY camera mount solution you might find interesting. I have wanted to shoot some in-car footage for a while now. Nothing real fast, just street speeds, maybe some freeway stuff. It's sort of crude, but it will work.

The build list includes:
2 - suction cup tile pullers (total 400 lbs rating), $6.00 ea @ Harbor Freight Tools
4 - 1.25" U bolts w/nuts & washer plate, $0.98 at any hardware store (HD, Lowes, OSH, etc.)
1 - 1/4 20 bolt $0.50 (I had a few lying around)
1 - 1/4 20 nut $0.10 (I had these too)
1 – 2.5” x 18” steel anchor strap $8.00 @ any hardware store (HD, Lowes, OSH, etc.)
1 – 3”inches of 5/8” heater hose, quartered for insulation
1 – adjustable tether strap to keep from losing the camera
1 - Can flat black spray paint
1 Roll of masking tape

Total cost is less than $25 bucks!

Optional:
Davis & Sanford F12 Video Fluid Head

And of course, a video camera

It only took a day or so including paint drying time to assemble and install. Being a suction mount, you can mount it on your windshield, doors, hood, or the rear deck if you have a vert. I STRONGLY recommend installing a tether on your camera if you care about your camera at all. Enjoy the pics.

I still have some testing and adjusting to do, but with a rating of 400 lbs on the tile pullers, my 10 lbs camera should be fine.

My intent is to use it for the Vettes helping Vets run on November 12, 2006 courtesy of Anjdog. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post links to some short video of the event afterward.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l1...tSideMount.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l1.../Rearmount.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l1...tSideMount.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l1...Frontmount.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l1...untcloseup.jpg

 

Dude, that is awesome, looks very professional & solid & perfect for a vert. i went w/the ram mounts but spent at least $75. http://www.custommounts.com/?OVRAW=g...OVMTC=standard
i use a single suction cup & mount it to my pass window-rear window or astro top, works great.
i took a pic of it. i also have a mount on my motorcycle on the handlebars & onother on my vans dash for when traveling outwest in the mountains, works awesome!

 

Thanks, Rosslato. If I were racing, or doing anything over 55 mph (ok, 80), I am not sure I'd trust building my own mount. I'd want additional engineering work done. Plus, you have to consider the cost and weight of the camera. It all comes down to how much risk you are willing to accept.

 

That is very cool!

Can you tell me more about the camera mount?

 

I'm happy to answer any questions you have. What exactly can I explain for you? It's really a very simple design, using the parts described above. All I did was to U-bolt the flat bar to the two suction cup sets. I painted the tile pullers (suction cup handles) black because they were a hideous safety orange. You will need to make sure that the u-bolts are not so long that they scratch the mounting surface.

Part of my continuing work is to play with the height of the camera. Too high and all I get is the mirror and top of the windshield. I removed the fluid head which dropped the camera about 3.5". The only problem is that I need to figure out how to adjust the camera frame up and down.

 

Looks like it could also be used on a coupe w/ the rear window removed.
I may have to try it out!
Thanks for the idea

 

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I would be very interested in your thoughts to make it even better. 68xlr8 - I like the coupe w/ removed window idea. One of my next steps is to build "L" brackets for mounting to vertical surfaces. That is, after I build sufficient confidence in the suction cups.

If it will help, I can disassemble the mount into the basic components, then take a pic so you can see exeactly how it goes together.

BTW, the lens adapter on the front of the camera is a wide angle adapter in a bayonet mount. Tomorrow, I plan to do a drive test and see just what kind of video I'll get. Initially, the vibration appears minimal using Sony's handi-cam feature.

 

Very COOL!!!!
So....when do we see the video?

 

Why is this optional? can the camera be mounted without it?

How much?

 

Kb2fzq - I need to set up a tether so I don't lose my camera should something go wrong. Planning to do that tonight. Video will come after that.

Jughead - The fluid head is optional because you can mount the camera without the head. Doing so would lose the pan/tilt capability, but you would also lower the camera the height of the selected head. The Davis Sanford F12 head is 3-4 inches. That's quite a bit when you're trying to get around the rear view mirror.

Heads come is all shapes, sizes, and costs. You probably won't need a fluid head, those are used to smooth out the motion when panning or tilting. Not 100%, but I believe I've seen heads for as little as $15. To put it into perspective, the F12 is around $50. I already had it, but was not using it for anything else.

 

Suggest you add about a 4-6" foam ball around the mic or all you're going to hear on that tape is a rather noisy wind roar.

 

Excellent observation on the mic. I have a wind screen for the mic, but did not have it on the camera for the photos. Depending on the type of camera used, a wind screen can consist of a foam ball as suggested, to a commercial wind screen like you see on professional setups. Prices can range from $1.50 (foam ball type) to hundreds of $$ for pro models. I have seen in some cases where camera has a piece of foam taped over the camera mic to reduce unwanted wind noise.

Also, the higher the camera, the more noise you'll hear.

 

another place to look is www.filmtools.com. they have an incredible selection of camera mounts for internal and external use. I work for a production company and we are putting together a 30 min show and have used the suction mount quit a bit. on another note we rigged a small bullet cam to an audio boom pole and are able to get shot under the car while it is going down the road. we've got some very cool shots of some extremely cool vettes. Don

 

Did a road test yesterday afternoon and shot about 3 minutes of video into an Archos AV-700 100GB portable digital recorder. The test route was inside my tract at speeds below 35 mph. The PDR was used as a secondary test, becasue I can fit way more video in a 100GB drive than I couold on a 60 minute DV tape.

The video is now on my computer and I will edit (and post?) it tonight to show those interested what the end product looks like. So far, so good. The video on my 7" screen looks really good and has very little vibration.

 

Nice job man! You really made it look sharp. Also, I don't think you'll have any probs with those suction cups.

 

Thanks. Camera - 10 lbs, suction cups - 400 lbs total. Should be ok.

 

It looks great, but aren't you afraid it will mark the paint on your rear deck? Paint looks very nice in the pics. I screwed mine up with my convertible hardtop.

 

I agree, the u-bolts look awful close to the paint, but i'm sure thats just the angle, you would know how much space. Just make sure there is enough if someone was to push down on the camera itself or when hitting an unexpected bump that the weight of the camera didn't compress the suction cups to where the ubolts hit the lid.
Nice job

 

Man, there's no getting anythng past you guys. Good eye! The pics above were taken during a fit test, long before I considered taking the car out for its first run. The u-bolts were a little too long for my liking at about an 1/8th inch gap (too close to the paint as PRNDL & 68 NJ Conv 454 suggest). I cut the u-bolts about .25 inch on each side and it now fits perfectly. And just to be on the safe side, I'm using plastic covers over the u-bolt ends.

Tried to load about two minutes of video on the web tonight, but no success. I could only get the file size (Quicktime movie) down to a little over 500MB - yes, that's MB. I'll try another method tomorrow night. It looked pretty good except for the compression artifacts.

Please keep the great ideas coming.

 

Nice setup. Another very simple method for a coupe is to just use a appropriate length 1/4-20 bolt up thru the front T-Top mount/hole. Of course use a couple rubber (or something soft) washers to cushion/protect the chrome/paint along w/a jam nut to allow the proper alignment/tightening of the camera.

Simple, but effective. FWIW.