In preparation for the Centralia trip next weekend, I made a very simple mount for my camera. I made the flat piece of aluminum bent to fit the pocket above the radio and attached the head from a cheap tripod. More pics can be found at http://www.tombarcia.net/CamMount

 

Sweet!!!

 

i want this:

http://www.stickypod.com/products.htm

 

thats awsome. ive been trying to do somthing like that too and u just gave me a ton of ides...
im just couris to see 1. how much it shakes and 2. if it slides in that groove

 

Is that heavy duty enough to hold much of a camera?!
Me too! But..

Tom, Sk0t has a very valid point w/ the camera shake. Hard mounting it w/ very little dampening like that will easily result in some pretty violent shaking in video. You'd be surprised at how much of a steadying factor a person holding a camera results in..

For still shots it'd be probably be okay, but how will you trigger the shutter? Just reach up and press? Or do you have a remote trigger rigged up somehow? That could work well. Say mount it up and then have a corded remote taped to the dash somewhere handy!

When I drove down to PA to meet up w/ you folks last October I mounted my camera on a tripod behind me in the extended cab. It worked really well! I have a feature on my camera called 'Intervalometer'. Basically it lets me set the camera up to take a photo every x minutes. I had it set to take a photo every 2 minutes. I simply periodically made sure the thing still had enough battery charge but let it be otherwise. Later I stitched the images together into a very slow motion video. The camera was pointed out the window but parts of the dash are visible too. It is interesting to see the landscape change as I drive. At one point all you see is a concrete parking lot.. that's where I stopped at a booger king for dinner! I should post the finished video sometime.. (Any voluteers to host?!)

I packed some of the crap I was brining w/ me between, under and around the legs of the tripod. I think this helped keep it steady to some degree. However as it got darker the exposure time obviously got longer, thus vibrations were a bigger and bigger problem. Very few of the shots taken after dark are very clear, but then that wasn't the point. In the final video you hardly care that they are fuzzy.

At any rate, I look forward to seeing what kind of results you get from this.

 

bubba, i would be glad to host the video for ya. i have PLENTY of bandwidth to use :-)

email me blckout@bellsouth.net

 

I remember tlaking with Skot and working on a mount for my rear view... the camera was very heavy (camcorder) and I did get a lot of shaking and evenutally it just fell off.

I wonder if I should try mounting something where my OHC mounts so that it's firm in the roof.

Tom you also have an ext cab where you can put the tripod... and maybe bungee it down... have you tried that before?

 

anyone have a recording device?

i have a small blackand white camera but i need something to record with, any ideas?

 

Actually, that mount is for a still camera and as long as it's bright enough outside, I don't thing the shake would be a problem. It's not going to move in the pocket because it's a tight fit as the aluminum acts like a spring and puts pressure on the top and bottom of the pocket. I'll end up reaching over to trigger it but it's still easier than trying to hold the camera, aim, and shoot all while driving.

 

For those interested, I posted my video here.