In-car video camera mount

[Equinox]

What's a good way to mount a video camera inside an S13? I don't have a roll cage and do not plan on installing one. Thanks for your help.

[kapowered]

Tie that terd to the passenger seat head rest. It'll stay in place it you get it in there tight.

[DSC]

there are mounts you can buy that attach to the headwrest.
I wouldn't trust just tieing it in...

[elevator]

On the passenger seat headrest it won't show you driving. Have some brave soul sit in the back seat and be your camera crew.

[tnord]

headrest mount is the way to go. i think they cost like $100, i'll probably be getting one this summer.

other than that i have seen people take 2x4's, and drill holes the size of the headrest stems for both passenger and driver seats.......then take the top of a tripod and bolt that lil fugger to the 2x4, then just snap the camera on top of that.

[96SEChick]

If you have a tripod, you can also mount it in the back seat. Put one post--you'll have to retract it quite a bit--in the back seat. Put another post in the driver's side rear floorboard, & the other one in the passenger's side rear floorboard. Buy 2 ratchet straps (the ones that have gears & you can click to tighten by moving a metal bracket back and forth) and fasten one to the driver's side front seat mount & the other on the passenger's side. Wind the strap around the respective tripod poles a bit (the straps will probably be too long) & fasten on the mount again--then tighten. Then, mount your camera--if you're doing auto-x, move the rear-view mirror as much as you can to make sure it isn't in the view of the camera. If you're track racing, just try to adjust the height of the camera/tripod so the mirror isn't in the way.

My bf mounts his tripod this way in his TA and it works great--no shaking video & great view.

[elevator]

Originally posted by 96SEChick
If you have a tripod, you can also mount it in the back seat. Put one post--you'll have to retract it quite a bit--in the back seat. Put another post in the driver's side rear floorboard, & the other one in the passenger's side rear floorboard. ....

Great idea!

[DSC]

Just an FYI for anybody else watching, nothing mentioned so far is acceptable for a NASA HPDE. The headrest mount and the tripod mount are both frowned apon and you will be asked to remove them before an instructor will get in your car.
If you don't do nasa HPDE, then the above mentioned options should be fine.

Hopefully I'll get a front bumper mounted camera sometime this summer

[adey]

Bumper mounted camera!? ... I trust that was a joke...?
As for head rest cameras-- it'd be hard if you decided to take a passenger, though huh! I can see the tripod idea working, although I can't say it sounds particularly secure...
For a couple hundred, you could probably get a roll bar welded/bolted in and then pick up a "proper" camera mounting bracket...

[projectsilvia1]

unbolt your rear view miror and make a custom braket and then mount the camera to that.
Mike

[s14slide]

I found a mount on a Honda forum, can't remember which one, but the guy used two pieces of square aluminum stock which you can get at lowes or home depot. He bolted the two pieces together then drilled a hole directly between them which is where the passenger headreast posts would go. Then he used some rubber tubing at the headrest mounts to kinda dampen the mount and keep it from sliding up and down. Oh, and mind you that one of the peices of stock were longer than the other which he bolted the camera mount to so it sat directly in the middle of the car. I'll try and post the link once I find it. Hope I didn't word this to weird so as to confuse you. Hope this helps.

[96SEChick]

Originally posted by gladhatter
Great idea!

Thanks!! It works great and is very stable when you strap it in w/ the ratchet straps.

I forgot to add that the tripod pole that sets on the back seat should be fastened w/ the rear seat belts. You can wind them around and lock them in.

[s14slide]

Found it, not the exact one that I saw before but the same concept. Not hard at all. Gonna make one for myself once I get a camera.

http://www.madstatic.com/2k1civic/diy/cameramount/

[96SEChick]

Originally posted by DSC
Just an FYI for anybody else watching, nothing mentioned so far is acceptable for a NASA HPDE. The headrest mount and the tripod mount are both frowned apon and you will be asked to remove them before an instructor will get in your car.
If you don't do nasa HPDE, then the above mentioned options should be fine.

Hopefully I'll get a front bumper mounted camera sometime this summer

What kind of camera mount is approved for HPDE? Do you know why other mounting types are frowned upon, even if they're fastened in & there's no way they can come loose? Is it because of the possibility of distracting the driver while racing?

Thanks

[DSC]

this is what i was talking about, wasn't joking...

Pretty much, anything not mounted to a cage that is in the cockpit is frowned upon with nasa HPDE. If your in advanced, running solo, they don't really care much tho, but with an instructor they are pretty pickey.
It would be up to the instructor you get to decide what he/she would or would not allow.

[96SEChick]

That doesn't look too bad--rather small & somewhat indiscreet. I have a friend that has a small cam (it looks almost like a webcam that mounts on the computer monitor) that he mounts on his t-bar on his TA--you can barely see it sticking out. Unfortunately, doesn't seem like you'd get any sound from the car It's understandable why they won't accept in-car-mounted cameras for the distraction and risk of injury if it came loose.

One thing I've noticed about the in-car cameras that I like is the fact that when watching the video, it's easier to see your mistakes (if you make any--and believe me, I make plenty).

[elevator]

Originally posted by DSC
It would be up to the instructor you get to decide what he/she would or would not allow.

I was done with drivers training a long time ago.

I'll mount in my car what I darned well please!

[elevator]

Originally posted by s14slide
Found it, not the exact one that I saw before but the same concept. Not hard at all. Gonna make one for myself once I get a camera.

http://www.madstatic.com/2k1civic/diy/cameramount/

This is great! Thanks!

[240 2NR]

I have a temporary harness bar that I made using weldable barstock that spans across the rear hatch, mounting at the rear seatbelt anchors (seatbelts removed). My guess is this would be easy enough to fabricate for a camera bar and then a mount could either be made or adapted from some type of clamp rather easily (potentially the real kind used on a harness bar with a roll cage). My big cincern with s seatback mount, besides the potential passenger conflict is the shaky vidoe from being mounted to a non rigid part of the car.

[deltrr]

yeah i definatly need to figure out this whole mounting idea .. whenever i have a passenger record when i drive, he always freaks out when something good happens and drops the camera.. or he just doesnt keep the cam still because of too many lateral G's..


right now im working on a setup with my webcam .. i hook it up to my laptop, and mount the cam whereever - im thinking about getting a USB extender and fabricating a plexi-shield to go over the webcam so it cam be mounted outside my car (perhabs hidden in my bumper?) h4h4h4h

[adey]

wow, I've heard of all those bumber-mounted cameras, but I thought they were for show use, generally, and other non-race applications. I imagine those things must be pretty expensive, not to mention the likelihood that most of us don't have small cameras like that but may have a larger camera that wouldn't mount well on a front bumber.
For those of us who go road racing, there is also frequently debris (rocks pebbles sand bugs etc) on the track, which probably is not too good for the wellbeing of the camera. Not that I wouldn't buy one... for a dollar, but it seems like a more expensive substitute...
That said, I think it's pretty cool looking and more discreet than an onboard camera... but as sechick pointed out, I think I'd learn more seeing my own steering and footwork as well as what the car's doing. Just MHO!

[gfisch]

At the last auto-x i was at, a guy had this suction cup mount that attached to the inside of the rear window.
Seemed to work great.
He told me where he bought it, but I forgot. Sorry.

[HippoSleek]

Now maybe I'm being forgetful, but doesn't the s13 seat LACK head rests with which to mount a bar stock camera mount?

The only other way I know of is it use seat belt anchors. Cut a bar to the proper length, add some end brackets w/ a 90 degree bend to attach to the mounting point and add a camera mount in about the middle. I've seen this in autox a many times for cars w/o headrests (I don't recall seeing it at a track).

Dave is right - cameras in novice cars are frowned upon, but when you get into the higher levels they don't really care. I'm not sure if this is b/c most of those cars will have roll-over protection or just the effect of a cameral. I've heard speculation that it isn't so much that they are afraid of what the camera will do as they are that the driver will focus on it too much.

I dunno about those lipstick cameras - One good off and they are done. I know they are cheap (something like $100), but I guarantee my last off would have jacked that thing while a regular camera would have been fine.

[AKADriver]

'91-'93 SE and LE models have adjustable headrests, but yeah, most S13s just have the POS "monoform" buckets with the token harness slot that's too small for harnesses... but now I'm just ranting...

[Fourgig]

This is what I use at autox's and track days. Works GREAT with smallish camcorders (I have a Canon 20MC). I mounted it in the morning and it stayed up the whole day at Thunderhill with no problems.

Doesn't work too well with larger or heavy camcorders though as the suction cup will eventually lose suction and the camera goes tumbling. Had that happen at Willow Springs with an older hi-8 camera.

http://www.ioportracing.com/Merchant...tegory_Code=CM