Quote:
Originally Posted by gos
You actually don't want to isolate the camera from shock, otherwise your picture will bounce around if taken from in-car. You want the camera to move with the bumps, that way all the static parts of the interior stay still in-frame while the car is moving.
This essentially means bolting the camera to something inside. A "real" mount would be to the roof or something, a swingarm from the headrests would vibe too much IMO.
Getting the dash + looking out the front in one shot is very hard if you're trying to use a camcorder or something similar. You may be better off with two cameras, then use post-processing to put the instrument panel in a PIP on the view out the front of the car.
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Thanks for the good response..
Re: the last paragraph I guess I'll just have to get in my car and try it out to see how it works. My digital camera takes decent videos, and is very lightweight. So I was hoping to use that coupled with a very large capacity data stick.
Re: the isolation. I have thought about that a lot. I would want a really stiff mount so that it is coupled to the car. On most tracks or roads I would be using this on I shouldn't be hitting any large potholes. But in the instance I did, I would think a good damper would do a nice job of absorbing some of the shock, so that it is not all transfered into the camera chassis and optic assembly. I'll do some calculations, but I definitely think I want some dampening in the system (just in case). Also I'll try to take note when driving today to see how much road vibration goes up through the seats. I don't want all of that energy going into the camera..
I think a cantilever system coming off the passenger side headrests could be stiff enough. I'll do some deflection calculations for some of the materials and roughly the cross section I was thinking, but the camera's mass is very small, and this location would be an easy place logistically speaking. I could reach up and start it and stop it no problem. The view from here might not be wide enough for what I want though.. Since it is going on the passenger seat, I could always slide that seat further back when I want to use this system, or recess it back. Or I could attach to both driver and passenger headrest posts. A lot of options..