Camcorder Mount Recommendations?

[desperado]

We've seen some nice in-the-car videos from various members, and I wanted to duplicate it. I'm curious what others have found to be good mount setups.

I put my small HD Camcorder (Canon HF10, about 14oz) on a RAM suction cup mount on the inside of the rear window. The video was good at slower speed (city streets), but at freeway speeds the slight camera shake is annoying.

I am familiar with lightweight (non-hi-def) bullet cams, in fact I have a setup from xtremerecall.com, but I'd really like to use my HiDef camcorder...

If anyone has successfully mounted their camcorder in the R8, I'd like to know what has worked for you. (mt?)

[MotherTucker]

Yes, I did cobble together a camera mount.

That piece of trim just under the rear window there pulls right off (pull straight towards the front of the car). Underneath it is some foam sound insulation, and under that is a frame member - very strong. That's what I connected my camera mount to and also my racing harnesses. For the camera, I used a large L bracket normally used for mounting a bookshelf. It's just plain steel, about an inch wide and 1/8 in thick. I cut it so one leg of it was about 3 inches long (if I remember right) and the other one about 6 inches long since it had to be deep enough so the camera wouldn't bump into the window. For the camera mount, I didn't drill all the way thru the rectangular frame member, I drilled a hole in only the front wall of it and used a large self tapping metal screw to hold the bracket on. I trimmed the foam as needed, and cut a hole in the carpet/board stuff just under the edge of the trim that was temporarily removed. Being a certified black leather junkie, I covered the exposed portion of the bracket in black leather (using contact cement), and screwed on a camera mount on the end.







By the way, don't use a camcorder that has a hard drive in it, the vibrations make it not work (even if you turn the shock sensor off). Go with tape or a memory stick type of camera.

mt

[desperado]

Thanks mt! You are a very creative guy, "cobble together" is too modest . Using a quick release tripod head is brilliant.
Fortunately the one I have is a flash card camera, not hard drive. Thanks for the warning.

Very nice of you to post such a detailed reply, it's very much appreciated.

[MotherTucker]

I added a new picture, of the other end of the camera mount bracket since I had the trim off for some other pictures I was taking. New picture above in my earlier post.

mt

[desperado]

Inspired by mt but unwilling to make permanent modifications to the car, I made a quick release camera mounting plate. It slips under the rear window trim and fastens to the cargo shelf using the existing mounting studs for the cargo net. It turned out even sturdier than I hoped.

The camera mounting angle is bent from .090" aluminum, drilled and tapped to hold the camera mounts. It's riveted to the large plate which is made from .080" aluminum (because that's the maximum grip length of the existing Tenax fasteners.) I removed two from the storage net and installed them into holes drilled in the lower plate.

The completed mount in place. (The camera flash made the carpet look very light; in reality the black paint almost disappears against the black carpet.)


Two views of the completed unit out of the car. My ChaseCam is mounted off center so it is out of sight behind the passenger seat. There's plenty of room to mount further electronics such as a data logger.


Here are details showing the TENAX fastener in the plate, and the existing stud in the car.


Sliding the unit under the window trim.


The unit fastened down to the parcel shelf. Notice the HD camcorder is also mounted in this view.

[MotherTucker]

Wow, very cool! Tons of room for all sorts of cameras and data acquistion equipment, and it's removable. Great job, using the existing cargo net tiedowns. Serious track guys will really go for this. You win the creativity prize this month!

mt