I looked through the threads and searched but couldn't find anyone that was discussing the ability to use the rear camera on their phone while it was in the mount. I'm looking at the Torque app and the camera overlay that you can get for it. This would be a great replacement for a GoPro and also give me the telemetry that would make it really useful for autocross.

I have looked at the Cravenspeed and the Kuda, but I don't think that the Kuda will allow me to use the camera to record my runs, even though it is likely to be MUCH more stable. So the question is: with the cravenspeed can you set the phone in it so that it can view the front of the car? And if so, is it stable enough that watching the video won't make you totally ill?

 

It all depends on what type of phone you have and if the mount for it has a camera access hole. So until you have told us what type of phone it is we cant help you.

What I can tell you is that the Droid X Dash Cradle does have an access hole for the camera and I use the torque app daily. It is NO match for the quality of the GoPro camera I also use in/on my car. I also have had a lot of problems with torque app and its overlay of the data on the video. What it says is saves to the phone is not always what you get. Read up on the forums at Torque and you will find many people complaining of the lack of it working as they think it should.

It is a very nice idea but most phones do not have a good quality photo/video sensor and as such do a poor job of videoing at the speeds you will be traveling. I have seen some videos on youtube with the data showing but the video quality is not all that great.

As for the stability of the Craven Speed mount. It also is not really all that stable for video even with extra arms i find that mine still shakes a bit to much on bumpy roads as the whole steering column shakes. A good GoPro with the proper mounts give 10,000 better quailty video.

Also of note is that the phone has to be up fairly high to get a picture out the front window. I like my phone down low so it does not obstruct my view of the road. When i have the GoPro running I find a spot out of the way so that it is not in my field of view.

Now with all that said i am not recommending you not try out the phone with the Torque app but maybe that you should find a cheap window mount for your phone that you can return easily if you find it is not what you want. The reason I say this is that i spent over $100 in parts and am not happy, unfortunately I can not return any of it as I also spent many hours modifying it all to make it better and still it is not all that i was hoping for.

EDIT: also the torque app saves video in some offhand format and it has to be exported thru special software. See this page for more details. http://torque-bhp.com/wiki/Exporting_Video

 

This is a video that I took this weekend with a TomTom mount I picked up at Target for $35.

Here is the mount:

And here is the video it created. This is with YouTube trying to remove the shaky-ness.

 

I had to make a much longer arm for the Craven Speed to get phone up above the dash so that it could actually see out the front window and not be straight up in front of the steering wheel. Here is a picture of the extension.

I modified the Droid X mount to attach it to the end of the extension. And it does not bouce that much from what i remember. I have not take video with it since last June. I will try and take some this afternoon on my way home so that you can see what it is like. I have some other ideas but no time to work on them to make the mount much more stable.

I can see why that mount will not work well just because of the shape and how far it sticks out.

Was that video taken with Torque or just the video app on the phone?

 

I saw this image in another thread on here, prolly when you made it. I wonder if it's possible to stabilize it, short of attaching another arm to the screw that goes into the back of the tach?

That video was just taken with the internal video app. I have a Droid Incredible 2 (DINC2) right now, but if the company decides to stop paying for it, I'm going to get something like the Galaxy S 2 so I'm trying to stay hardware agnostic.

The arm on that mount is actually flexible and is semi-rigid. In the video I had it mounted to the windshield to the right of the mirror and it seemed pretty stable whenever I glanced in that direction (which was not often). The video of course shows a slightly different picture.

 

finally had time to take some video with my camera on the mount.

 

Doesn't appear to be much better than the TomTom mount I have already.

I just really would rather not get a GoPro, even though it does this perfectly and is quite awesome, I just don't want another thing laying about that is only used for one thing (autocross). If I could find other things that I want to use it to video, then maybe I'd pull the trigger on a GoPro.

 

No it is not really all that much better.

I am not sure what other activities you are into beside autocross but i use my GoPro on my mountain bike, kayak, skis, car, and i even attached it to my dog one day while hiking, he was not to happy about it but we got some great video. I have also used it at work to do some training videos. I think it was well worth the cost.

And by the way even the GoPro has a slight shake to it on really rough roads. but nothing like what my phone has in its mount.

I am downloading some video editing software that i was told does a great job of stabilization. When i get it downloaded and run thru that video i will post it again.

 

This was done using my GoPro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKERGUZ32w&feature=plcp

as was this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-6srHDN2jM&feature=plcp

The second one clearly shows a lot of shake, but much less than my phone mount would have. That was a seriously rough course to drive on.

 

The second video states it has copy write information in it and can not be viewed in the USA. What country are you in?

And here is aside by side comparison of Cyberlink Power Director with a stabilization setting of 90. It helps but still rather shaky. But that was a very bumpy road I was on.

 

That's hilarious. I'm in Texas, but I guess that's the Republic of Texas now?