Does any body know where I could get a camera mount for a vid cam for track days. It seems like watching the video could be a pretty good tool to learn the tracks and where I made mistakes.

 

http://www.ufmotorsport.com/minicooper.htm

 

That looks like a nice mount. Does it bounce very much?

Here's the mount I'm using.

http://cinemasupplies.stores.yahoo.n...psuccupca.html

If you decide to go with a suction cup mount, I would highly recommend this one because you can actually "pump it up" in between runs. It even has a little red line that will visually show you when it's time to pump it up again. In my experience, once you pump it up, it will hold pressure for about 2 hours and it's rated for 70 lbs. (I only use about 5 lbs with my setup)

 

No not much at all!

 

That looks good but does it get in the way of the instructor? I saw one at the last DE that was a triangle that mounted to the dash by suction cups.

 

I use the cruise-cam and it's only ~$50

http://cinemasupplies.stores.yahoo.net/cruisecam.html

http://www.soloperformance.com/Defau...&productID=742

 

Just in case my previous post wasn't clear..... I used to use a standard suction cup mount (similar to the cruise cam), but I was always having to push on it to get the suction to work again. (This was especially unnerving when it was mounted to the trunk of our Miata) I really like our new mount because of the "security" you get by being able to just look at it and instantly tell if it has lost suction. True, it costs $50 more than the cruise cam setup, but it's cheap insurance in my opinion.

 

I made my own out of solid square half inch aluminium. It mounts similar to the way the first one on here does but it goes between both rear headreast. that way i can see the speedo in the videos. works well it stays in all the time. no need to take it out.

 

The CruiseCam mount doesn't involve any suction cups, mitchman; it clamps to the headrest. I've got the same suction cup mount you've got, but I don't think I'd trust it in a crash. The CruiseCam mount has supposedly been tested to federal crash standards (although they cleverly don't specify it it passed or not...) and I'm comfortable that it won't be going anywhere. Hopefully the folks doing tech at the DEs won't have an issue with it... I probably will use the suction cup for mounting a camera on the outside, however, a la the VacuCam if I can pick up one of those little bullet cams.

 

I used one this weekend worked pretty well, have to be careful how you mount the cam or you get the rearview mirror. BMWCCA had no problem with it in the car.

 

Cruise Cam headrest mount. Used it our last two Dragon event, no problems w/ or w/o passenger mounted.

 

+1 more for cruise cam.

 

Sorry I should have said "Vacucam" when I was refering to a suction cup mount.

Good to know that both the mount I'm using now and the Cruise cam mount would be legal for track days. Thanks!

I must say, I've been dissapointed in the suction cup mount I've been using becase the camera doesn't have a wide enough lens. I can see where the CruiseCam would sit the camera back farther to give a wider view. I'd give it a try, but I'm waiting for ChaseCam to come out with their camera bar. I think it will be an even better solution compared to the CruiseCam.

 

For in-car video, a wide angle lens adapter thing helps a lot. Your local Best Buy / Circuit City / etc will have them, and they aren't that expensive. For web video, you don't need high quality lens adapters, just get the cheap stuff.

 

+1 for the cruise cam, its steady and adjustable so if you want to use it in another car you can (not all headrests are the same). For DE schools I've been hooking mine up on rear seat headrest (keeps it out of the way of the instructor). You can either zoom in to get the out of widnsheild view or pan it back a bit and catch all your missed shifts :p .

 

Ditto here, except I made mine to just attach to one headrest...didn't have any shaking problems. As a bonus, if you drill a couple more holes and are using a cheap video camera, you can mount it to your front tow hook for some really great footage.

 

http://web.mac.com/emmaroach/iWeb/Si...t%20Movie.html

This is a link to the video from last weekend, too long too much rearview mirror, I'm going to move the camera mount to the rear head rest.

 

Hiya roach,

I was just taking a look at your video, to see what you mean about have to much rear view mirror. And yeah man, you can barely see anything of what you are doing. Are you sure your video camera was on it's widest setting? If so, as someone else here mentioned, Best Buy/Circuit City will have screw on Wide Angle converters for mist video cameras, and they are usually pretty inexpensive.

Here is a video I took using my cruise cam, with my camera set on full wide angle:

SD AutoX

 

Or, use the back seat head rest.

 

If you put the camera on the back seat headrests, the auto exposure of the camera will probably get confused. Much of the frame will be the car's interior, which is dark. The view out the windows will likely be "washed out" because it's so much brighter outside the car, and the camera is thinking about what's going on inside the car.

At least, that's what happened to me when I tried it.

 

I wonder if the vacuum mount would work well on the roof? Attach a safety cord to the camera just in case. Imagine the shot from just above the windshield!

 

I'm planning on getting a bullet cam to use with my suction cup mount. It'll actually cost just about half as much as my video camera, but should be more durable. So I hope to get some nice behind-wheel shots from the door, maybe on the back window, roof, that kind of thing.

 

I use an aluminum bar attached to the driver's headrest supports with a 360 degree mount. Works fine but, like Snid said, you need to focus outside the car (or catch just the edge of the windshield so the viewer has a frame of reference). I also remove the interior rear view mirror . . . Got great video of The Ice Dragon up in Labrador in mid-Febuary - http://www.oxfordmotorsports.com/mainpages/labrador.php

 

I used a StickyPod with excellent results at a Wicks Driving School.

I mounted the StickyPod on the inside of the car, upside down on the rear sunroof and righted the camera using a standard flat bar. So, cars without that option would have to try the rear side windows (inside on the hatch won't work - the defroster elements break the seal). Alternately, you can prop mount one betwen the dash and the windshield (depending on what type of dash you have in the car).

I wanted to go outside but the request was to grab video of the driver's hand inputs.

That noted, I've taken a StickyPod to ~100mph on my MINI (no - not on the street so don't ban the post mmmmkay...) without any real side effects (obviously need to damp the mic). Pretty easy to do, but I wouldn't put the camera up too high or use a knuckle unless absolutely necessary. The more connections you make, the easier the rig will vibrate loose (regardless of what type you use).

For track use during a real racing event I'd be more apt to use a bar mount, like the one from SV Tech or similar device that is essentially a hard mount to the roll cage. Pretty much mandatory because the rigors of running a real event vs. a driving school are far more demanding - higher speeds and lateral forces.

I used a Sharp VL-NZ105U digital Viewcam for my car shooting shooting - it's light, durable and inexpensive (juuuuust in case the mount gave way). The StickyPod will take a camera as big as a Canon GL2 OR Panasonic AG-DVX100B without much hassle provided your pockets don't sweat at the notion of loosing that much $$$.

Almost forgot... I've never used one but the Goldstar mounts look nice.

 

I shot this with a Chasecam window mount on the hatch glass. I think being all the way in the back it gets tossed around a little harder and with a midsized cam on the end of it the image stabilization can't quite keep up. I think it'd do better on the windshield.

I usually do auto-x so I hate to block vision by having it up high.

I'll be trying a cruisecam mount next time with a wide angle on the passenger side headrest.

I'll save the Chasecam for the inevitable bullet cam.