Camera Mounts?

[Fishcop]

Hi Guys

I'd like to begin filming a few of my track days and have a roll-cage... who makes camera mounts, or does anyone have some photos of one I could copy?

Cheers

[emcon5]

I don't have a picture of mine, so please excuse the sloppy drawing. The only thing not shown is we use a torn off piece of red shop rag between the camera and the mount to try and keep the vibrations down, So far it has worked really well. I think the total cost was about $8, including paint.



I'll try to get a picture later, if you want it.

Hope this helps,

Tom

[Plavan]

Try I/O port racing in the states. Google them for their site.

[jtcmuga]

http://www.ioportracing.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?

I am thinking about taking video of my HPDEs too. I bought a pretty expensive camera and, intstead of mounting the camera to the rollbar/cage, people have suggested to fabricate a padded box to put the camera in (bolt to vehicle) and have a feed from a lipstick/bullet camera that is mounted virtually anywhere in your car (they are very small and light)... This way, if you experience impact, your expensive camera will be well padded and secure, and not turn into a softball sized projectile. The downside to using a bullet/lipstick camera is that they typically can't acheive the resolution of the video camera. They usually run ~180 bucks for a color capable one.

Cheers...

Jojo

[emcon5]

When I wrote my reply this morning (while the board was AFU) I didn't have pictures. I went and took some this afternoon. They are a little blurry, but you can see what I am talking about.






IO Port's mount is very nice, but it is also $110. You can see it here:
http://www.ioportracing.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=IPRS&Category_Code=CM

Mine certainly isn't as pretty as the I/O port mount, but it works well, and I can make about 13 of mine for the cost of the pretty one.

On Edit: Forgot to mention, the camera is held in not only by the mount screw, but it is secured to the cage with a nylon web strap. NASA and SCCA both require this.

Tom

[cvfncrew]

Thinking out side of the box.
www.stickypod.com.

[Jack Olsen]

I don't think most groups are going to allow anything held on to the outside of the car with suction cups. I use a lipstick camera mounted to the rear wing on my car. It feeds into a MiniDV camcorder in a padded case.



I bought a 50-cent plastic box at the drugstore, then put the camera in it, wrapped in saran wrap. Then I used that expanding-foam stuff you use to fix leaks in the house, and let it custom fit around the shape of the camera.



The wing location gives in-car footage an interesting look. You can see the front wheels turning during slides, and also see the driver's hands on the steering wheel in the same shot.

Click here for an example of an off-track excursion, and how you can see the way the car breaks loose a little better from this perspective. (File is 5.4 megs and Quicktime.)

I used to mount the camera itself to the roll bar, but my car shook the thing so much that I had to take it in to get repaired twice.

I recently decided to add a second camera, and I'm taking an all-digital, no-moving-parts approach. I got a $69 Sony lipstick camera and a $160 digital recorder that puts Mpeg4 footage directly onto SD or CF memory cards. The downside is that the image quality won't be quite as good as the stuff I shoot with the DV camera. But the bottom line is that I never watch this stuff on a television. I'm almost always compressing it down for use on the computer, or posting it to the web -- so the low-cost new system will give me everything I need, and not have any moving parts to break.



I've added a mount in one of my front cooling openings (where fog lights usually go).



Here's an 11-meg Quicktime Clip, with about 2 minutes of footage from the front-valence-mounted camera.

[84porsche]

Jack - can you tell me more about feeding the lipstick cam to the miniDV camera. I would love to experiment with something like this especially on the P-car runs. Last time I had a camera running, I had to slow down because the camera kept moving around and it was a big distraction. (Fishcop, please forgive the small hijack.)

[Jack Olsen]

Many (but not all) modern camcorders have an 1/8-inch female port which allows analog video to go in (like from a VCR or lipstick camera) or out (like to a VCR or TV). The lipstick cameras usually have an RCA plug which attaches to an adapter cable that came with the camera.

[Fishcop]

Thanks for the info Lads... I have a very similar camera to Jack's and had not thought of the lipstick camera idea. Feel free to hijack

[mskala]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jtcmuga
The downside to using a bullet/lipstick camera is that they typically can't acheive the resolution of the video camera.[QUOTE]

There are plenty of bullet cams that do full-resolution same as
NTSC camcorder. The lower-res are of course a bit cheaper
price. I really like having the camcorder mounted somewhere
safe and accessible (got to use it for family stuff too, you know).
And the bullet cams, if you mount them fairly rigidly, don't give
me a problem with jerky picture.

[thabaer]

Jack,

Where are you finding color sony all-weather lipsticks for ~$70 (or are they not all-weather ?)

Nice setup and results though, good recorder package find!

[obrut]

john,

the targa tas/classic adel regs also show what they consider acceptable for a camera mount - doesn't hurt to plan for the future...

i've also made a very low budget, 12v power source for mine (cheaper than a sony battery) which also allows you to reset the camera remotely if it times out on standby between stages etc.

[Jack Olsen]

I found it here.

The basics on it:
Weather Proof
Signal System: NTSC
Image Sensor: 1/4” SONY Super HAD CCD
Effective Pixels: 510 x 492
Horizontal Resolution: 420TV lines
Lens: 3.6mm
S/N Ratio: > 48dB
Min. Illumination: 1Lux/F1.2
Shutter Speed: 1/50(1/60)-1/100,000 sec
Video Output: 1.0Vp-p 75 Ohm
Power Consumption: 12VDC, 111mA
Dimensions: 23mm x 61mm

I liked it so much, I just ordered a second one.

10/2005 EDIT BY JACK OLSEN: I DON'T RECOMMEND THIS CAMERA FOR IN-CAR VIDEO USE. IT IS TOO LIGHT SENSITIVE, AND 'BLEACHES OUT' IN BRIGHT SUNLIGHT.

[thabaer]

Originally posted by JackOlsen
I liked it so much, I just ordered a second one.

Absolutely -- I was looking at $89 w/ a 1/3" imager and this specs out the same for $20 less apiece!

Thanks

[jtcmuga]

Jack,

How many minutes of footage can you capture? For say a 1GB CF card?

Jojo

[MuffinMan]

Jack, what brand is the digital recorder you chose? It's an excellent idea, and simplifies the process.

This is what I came up with for a camera mount:

[jtcmuga]

That's awesome, Rob! I want one! Where'd you get it?!

Jojo

[jtcmuga]

Rob,

I just ordered the camera and the recorder...

http://www.usbgear.com/USBG-VCR.html

Jojo

[goat]

Originally posted by jtcmuga
Jack,

How many minutes of footage can you capture? For say a 1GB CF card?

Jojo

With importing video you can count on 32 megs per minute on the average.
At least going from a mini DV tape into a computer. So I would imagine its the same recording onto a CF Card.