Turbine Run DFW, Wish I had a better cam setup though. Options

[Spider77]

Currently I am importing/editing the video I made of the "Toms Turbine Run" here in north Texas. Loved the run! Only problem I had was 1.) Bad angle for the camera, and 2.) Camera ran out of juice. But I'll post what I got, and I promise next time a better video.
This is the run:

Vids up as soon as I get them up and running!
All in all total driving time 5hrs 07min (thats there and back with a few small stops)
Total mileage 246 (used a little over 1/2 tank)

And here is the vid

Im planning on getting (or making) some sort of rig to hold the camera up higher, so its not mostly half dash shots. Anyone that has experience shooting video while driving alone, please let me know how you do it, so that way my next video is better.

This post has been edited by Spider77: Jan 25, 2010 - 3:58 PM

[yarik83]

Most cameras come with a thing at the bottom to mount to a tripod. Most cameras have the same thing. Usually its an opening which allows you to put one of those butterfly bolts that come with tripods. Most camera mounts for cars come in 3 varieties.
1-suction cup thing. usually there are 3-5 arms with suction cups so you can mount camera on outside
2-bolts between 2 headrests by means of taking off your headrest and putting the camera mount on your head rest sticks. Some camera mounts just need to be expanded like a telescope so you dont need to remove headrests.
3-some camera mounts look like suction cup and or tripod looking thing that can get attached pretty much anywhere.

I have adapted my scuba camera to my scuba camera's bike mount and attached that to the headrest.

Now since camera mounts cost anywhere between 50-5000 dollars most people make their own mounts. Easiest thing to do would be to take a piece of relatively stiff metal, poke 3 holes in it, 1 for camera bolt and 2 for headrests and screw in a bolt at the bottom to hold the camera.

There are 3 things that you need to worry about.
#1 you must be aware at all times that your camera is indeed working so if you have a flip screen camera take advantage of it. Position screen so you can see it every now and then (ie in rear view mirror)
#2 car vibrates so ideally you need 2 points of contact or cusioned 1 point of contact against a thing that is relatively stiff and vibrates with the car instead of by itself.
#3 Test test test test test test your camera many times over before the meet. Make sure that angle you are mounting from is perfect. You obviously dont want to see just the sky and you dont want to see just your hood. Ideally you want to see things that are between tip of the hood and whatever is in front of you.

also if you have a digital camera turn off your auto focus as well as turn all lcd etc settings to low. have a spare battery handy. My Bonica Snapper 1080 camera shoots 45min-1hr easy every time i go scuba diving. Also if you have settings to do so.. running 60fps instead of 30 is a better choice because you can slow it down and it would still look good.

[Spider77]

Thanks....this is really the first time Ive shot anything on video. I'll be looking into mounts, but which do you think would a good mounting point? Dash or headrest? And I plan on getting this down to where it looks good, this was pretty much a test run for the camera and the road.