Here's an idea I'd like to see: a long(ish) exposure of the speedo and tach as you accelerate from a stop to, say, 70mph. I don't have the equipment to do this myself. I really like the (probably overdone, by now) shot people take of the tach needle swinging up toward redline, and tonight I was thinking it'd be cool to see the same kind of thing done with the speedo. You'd have to find a way to securely anchor the camera on a tripod behind the front seats, and vibration would be the kicker.

Just a thought. I'll give it a try myself, once I get a capable camera... Hrm... new wheels or a new camera rig? Decisions, decisions.

 

Would never work if you'd actually drive it. You could do it with the test program thing that moves the dials and flashes the lights, but you'd have to post-process the lights and stuff out of the photo, take two shots, one with no lights on and one with the test mode.

 

You mean like my sig?

I have tried doing the speedo too, but I just don't have the necessary mounts..

 

fj0

Can you tell me more about the test program???

 

cant you use a dyno???

 

BRAVO!! I was wundering if anyone was going to say this....it would have to be an AWD dyno...with the rollers conected so that all 4 rollers would roll....I'll try it next time I am at the dyno if I remember.....hmmm we might have to turn off some lights too

 

I tried this a few months ago, when the months photo contest topic was "driving"

I used a custom camera mount that mounts to the headrest. It still vibrates, so none of the pictures turned out clear. Here's a few from the shoot. The last one shows the needle movements the most. Like the others said in the thread already, it's hard to get an exposure long enough to get up to speed with keeping the photo sharp. It can be done, but i think on a dyno would be easier.

 

I've seen a bit of these on Flickr.


You're right about needing a tripod or some sort of rig. Most of the time, whatever mount you use should suffice.

My thinking is . . . the vibrations might synchronize with the instrument panel. From what I've seen done before, this appears to be the case.
Anyone from here tried this? Dave? Mark? Scoob?

I'd like to give it a try if I can. Just need a driver.

 

Hmmm......interesting!

 

Yeah, hyobum, yours is one of the best I've seen! :-)

Dj_Konky, that's the idea. The last one's what I'm shooting (ha! get it? "shooting"? more coffee. right.) for, but with more and multiple sweeps of the tach when shifting and a faster speed. The vibration's a killer, tho. I'm surprised there's so much just going from 10 to 20mph!

When I posted this idea, I was thinking of somehow securing the tripod in place with the back seats down, maybe with an overly complex system of bungie cords or something. Would a lens with an image stabilization system work for something like this, if the tripod was secure enough?

 

I haven't tried this but, since it's winter and I live in a place where the roads get icy... attach the camera as rigidly as possible and take off with lots of wheel spin on a smooth, icy surface. Both the tach and speedo will move nicely and you shouldn't have much vibration aside from what's caused by the engine. With a sufficiently long exposure, you should be able to get some scenery blur through the windshield too despite the very low speed.

Mark

 

I think one thing you need to think about is the 0-60 of the car (who thought that would ever be said in the photo section ). I think having the needle up to 60 would be a very decent amount of "sweep" and would certainly move the tach needle around. But at that point (0-60) you are talking 8 seconds of exposure (10 if you own a cooper) for everything else in the pic. I think a lot of this will come out over exposed. You would have to be driving in a very dark envinronment and then it might be possible that things wouldnt be overexposed.

 

There are filters to solve that, the problem is getting it sharp, the suspension in a MINI is pretty hard.

About the test thing, It's somewhere on MINI2, in the FAQ I believe, search for menu or something.

 

I'll go try it again... i think i can get it.

 

Is the speedomoter connected to the front or rear wheels on the MINI? My idea won't work if it's the rears. My MINI is hibernating for the winter so I can't try it.

Mark

 

I'd guess the speedo pickup is in the tranny...

 

for the lazy

http://www.mini2.com/forum/faq.php?s...l&titlesonly=0

 

And here are pics showing what it does.

 

That's sweet..

 

I tried this a while ago, freehand, and the result is similar to Hyobum's sig.

Not tried rigging inside mainly coz i have only got a suction clamp and tinted windows - both dont really go together :impatient

But this hand held attempt aint tooooo bad

 

went out again tonight, my roads are too bumpy here...

 

 

How did you change your interior lights to pink!!?!

 

You need to think out of the box a little. Instead of 0-60, go 60-0. You can certainly do that a lot faster, and no gear shift-just constant brake pressure-means you can do it more smoothly as well. And MCs have the advantage on that one.