I was in search of a camera mount that i could stick on to the outside of my car and not break the bank. after some searching the best one i could find was here Sticky Pod - Camera Mounts but i didn't want to spend $80 on it, so i did what i usually do with everything and built one. It's certainly not beautiful, but it works. I've got to add some places to tie it to the inside of the car then it will be finished. Video will come probably next week.



my cousin has already commented on the fact that audio is REALLY important while you're driving at 80 mph

 

oh snaps!

can't wait to see some footage!

what were you planning on filming?

 

Nice Jason, cant wait for the video. you should bring to the meeting this sunday.

 

there's gonna be a track day next month that i'm going to video, and probably just some canyon runs.

fo sho, i'll bring it to the meet, i'll slam in your light too.

 

Sweet!! cant wait to see both, and thanks for the lights.

 

That big mic doesn't pick up too much wind noise? That'd be my only concern.

 

i was too lazy to take the mic off. the wind guard on it will do nothing if i'm driving fast enough. I'm probably just gonna cut out the sound from the camera and put it to music.

 

just got a chance finally to do a short drive around town... nothin special just showing the angle. YouTube - camera mount

 

phatt! now u gotta get some day shots. =] I wanna see a sick ass hood shot.

 

Great craftsmanship the jroisgo!

Reminds me of door hanging pod I built for FULL SIZE VHS CAMERA about 13 years ago for my friend! It worked so good since I built in some flex to it (no image stabilizer back then!) and he was able to pivot it from front wheel shots 180* back to the rear wheel shots.
Final result: my friend got a full scholarship to USC film school in part to that mount!

One thing that makes me nervous is the fact that your suction cups are not clamp down style! Piss on Sticky Pod source! You can do it under $5!
I just built couple of mounts for my digital picture camera Canon SD630. Camera is capable of taking 640x480 at 30fps even in darkens!
Go to Harbor Freight Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices
and pick up their clamp down style mounts. I got 4" ($2) and dual 4"(5$) and drilled some holes for camera ball mount. I can move the camera from both driver and passenger side facing both forward and backward, hood, roof, tailgate, bumper,...... I am planing on motorizing it for full articulation from inside the car. Got to be ready for spring time cruise meets! LOL!
How good those clamp down mounts are? One 4" cup is rated at 15 lbs while dual 4" at 200 lbs! It was so good that Audi Driving Event instructors allowed me to mount it inside the R8 for in car shots! I let them try to rip it off by hand and they were shocked. We did not take a chance on the outside since damaging $100k+ car is outside my budget even though chances were non-existent.
I'll take some pics of it on the car and post it up.
Ivan
different locations for mounting versatility:
Picasa Web Albums - Ivan - camera mount

 

omg, those handled ones... they are giving me an idea....

/me wants two, and someway to attach a bar in the middle...

I think I can mount a video camera on that if I have 2 of those across the top of the roof, it would add a sort of suspension for the camera too, as the bar would most likely flex with the rubber mounts.

This looks awesome... but I'm scared of losing the camera due to some gravity... the braking power of the Fit should not be understimated.

 

haha, thats a bitchin' idea!
I have added a tether made of steel cable, which is attached to the inside of the car, so just in case the mount did come off I wouldn't lose my camera.

I'll take some pics of it tomorrow, i've been up for 24 hours now, and i've gotta be at work in 2 hours .

 

I knew you would like it! LOL!
Dual 4" with a handle is the way to go for sure with any kind of VIDEO camera. I do not have it so my under a pound photo camera is OK with a single mount.

Here is where it gets tricky. Dual handle mount is made for flat glass and suction cups are made to seal on flat surface. Hoods, roofs, doors and all other car exteriors are never flat!
Solution: handle is hollow, so cutting the handle itself off, sliding an aluminum tube in and bolting through it with allowance for pivoting would be perfect!
Anthony, you are talking about two dual suction set up. I am working on that with two electric motors and/or servos on an articulating platform above them. Load capacity of two dual mounts is 400 lbs! No tether needed (I run tether on my single set up, but I did not attach it for pictures.)! There needs to be an aerodynamic cover over the camera for flying rocks that will be hemispherical, but right in front of the lens needs to be optically clear glass. Slot for square circular polarizer filter would increase image quality dramatically since it would cut glare as well as white wash and huge contrasts between sunny and shaded areas during filming. If camera has remote control that would add more possibilities, too. There is a wave of new, much smaller cameras that record on flash memory in HD! That is 720P or 1080i resolution guys! They are feather weight!
I smell awesome video footage during our spring hill climbing meets! California wide meet will get killer coverage! Can't wait!

 

Wow, freaking cool ideas guys. I want to try this now!! Seems pretty fun for sure

 

I finally found a place to host my Canon SD630 test video without compressing it to a point of loosing quality:

Canon SD630 video test on Vimeo

BTW, courtesy of my father-in-law, I will be getting a high def video camera. I started doing research and came out quite disappointed.
All new cameras that store on HDD or memory cards loose quality big time since they compress images to store them. Software for conversions is lacking big time and still looses video quality. Identical cameras from the same manufacturer one storing on HDD and other on DV tapes can be miles apart on final video quality because of conversions and compression.
HDD and solid memory cameras are small and light, but lack features, mic & headphone inputs, hot&cold shoes, ....... and video quality suffers. They import video data fast, but conversion takes time and as stated earlier looses video quality. Because they are latest rage they are the most expensive! They should really be the cheapest since it takes less parts to make them then mini DV! Just like DVD players are actually cheaper to make than VCR's!
Turns out good old mini DV cameras with high deff is the way to go. It takes 30 minutes to upload 30 minutes of video, but quality is not lost at all! Format is "standard" and any video software can be used for editing!
Further research conclusions:
Sony is great but memory sticks are 30% more expensive than SD memory. You pay for Sony cameras through your nose since it is SONY!
JVC suffers from lack of good image stabilization! It is there, but many say as if it is not!
Samsung is great, but not on par with others.
Hitachi is the only with Blu-Ray DV, but costs bucks and plays only on Blu-Ray players.
Panasonic has 3 CCD sensors for more realistic color saturation, Leica lenses, but shifted to HDD and solid memory and looses image quality in conversion!
Canon seems to be wining. They have inferior CMOS type sensor to 3CCD, but they use their own DIGIC II sensor that beat NIKON on still camera front. That chips is good enough to match if not beat 3CCD!
Two models, DV20(mini DV) and HG10 (HDD), are identical but DV20 wins because there is no loss to image quality!
You see there is so much pixalation and image loss during conversion that you may as well save some money and buy standard definition camera! Not with mini DV high deff cameras!
Beware of some manufacturers saying high deff. Not all cameras shoot in true 1920x1080 resolution! Some are 1440x1080! Make sure you are getting your money's worth!
Also, not many have true 24p film camera like feature that actualy works!
To all of you looking into connecting surveillance mini cameras to the camcorder, it appears that new HDD and solid state memory cameras dropped A/V input/output hook up! Mini DV's still have them!
Some of you will ask what am I talking about. My best man mounted small quality lipstick surveillance camera on his ZX-14 bike and connected it through A/V port to his mini DV camera that he places inside magnetic tank bag! Killer videos! This set up makes it possible to mount that small lipstick camera ANYWHERE on the car without heavy mounts and fears your $1000+ camera will hit the pavement if your mount fails!

Canon DV20 is dropping in price daily because of everybody jumping into buying HDD and solid memory cameras. B&H photo/video price is down to $680! 42 St. camera is even lower! Both places are very reputable, charge NO TAX for out of state sales and even have free shipping from time to time. Christmas Shopping craze is over and prices will now come down even more.
Tape still rules in camcorder world! Aspiring independent filmakers stick to it for quality! As well as amateur filmakers!
Happy shopping!
p.s. this is my personal opinion. As devoted Sony/Samsung fan, Canon is still my best friend on still and moving picture camera front!

Expect some killer Fit videos from me in a very near future! Good camera, creative mounting options and love of canyons will bring the best.
Get creative and share!
Let me know if you find some free good video hosting sites. Many have size limitations and compress video's to much at the expense of quality.
you tube and google video suck!
I like Vimeo so far the best.

 

use Stage6.divx.com for video sharing, they don't compress the video (not much)...

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH!
This site is sick! Even HD quality videos!
Creativity and quality of some videos is unbelievable.
With new camera Fit will look amazing in HD!
Ivan

 

You guys and your home grown ideas. I'm impressed every time I visit this site. Nice camera mounts.

 

loving the home built mounts... i want an hd camcorder now!!!