Cheap n' easy DIY rear video camera mount:

[vixen_w202]

I found out by accident a super easy and ridiculously inexpensive way to convert something already in our cars into a removable/detachable camera mount for filming in-car driving shots. Lately I've been doing a lot of canyon runs/driving through some pretty involving driver's roads locally and I wanted to have a way to film me and the road without having to drag a 2nd person along and coordinate it. This way I can just mount the camera in a fixed and safe position, and it's vibration free (mostly). And the great part about it? You'll never even know it's there thanks to an already existing flap in the interior that conceals it when removed

I'm still working on it as we speak, but once I've got all the bugs worked out I'll post a little tutorial of what stuff you gotta buy to do it, what modifications you need to make to the part I'm using in the car and what exactly it is I made

This post was just a little teaser of what I'm doing. I promise I'll reveal the finished product once finished!

[wichipong]

mounted inside the car or outside?

[hvmercy]

The headrest post works just as good.

[vixen_w202]

Well, some might love me for finding an inexpensive way to securely mount a camera....

or....

some will hate me....


but.......


The modification was a success, although we had to go a different direction than planned.


My intention was to use this:




It's the tray that goes under the first aid flap on the rear speaker shelf. For some reason it was super easy to pull it out with little effort, but putting it back in was a huge pain. I had another local car buddy help me, and we gave up on going with the removable mount idea I had originally planned.

Okay, what I used for this project:

1.) fairly long 1/4" threaded carriage bolt
2.) multiple flat washers
3.) 1 lock nut and one regular nut

Everything came from Lowe's, and it cost me less than 3 dollars.

Okay, so if you're willing to hack into some things, this is how me and my buddy did the mount:

we took out the first aid tray and underneath there is some sheetmetal which you can drill a 1/4" hole for the thread. Drill it a little wider than 1/4" so it's easy to remove and you can mess around with enough slack to get it mounted properly. Insert at the base of the carriage bolt a large flat washer to give the base some stability.

This is where I got a little squeemish, but in the end the level that doing this bothered me was a 2. For the shaft of the thread to sit nice and flush, we drilled a hole just barely large enough for the thread to go through on the first aid speaker shelf flap. Position the thread so it lines up with the flap and insert it through and close the flap. Once it is shut, a flat washer goes at the base of the thread. Tighten it so it secures the flap and thread into place so it won't move or come loose. Then take a lock nut and start to thread it onto the shaft until you have enough threads for the camera to screw into and sit flush. Take a couple large flat washers and put them on top of the lock nut. When the camera is not being used, throw a regular nut on the top and hand tighten it down so the washers don't get lost when not using the camera.

Unfortunately I had to abandon my removable/concealed idea for the mount, but to me IMO the shaft sticking out is so barely noticeable that it doesn't bother me.

For how little I spent to do this for the amount of fun I'm going to have with it....this was an inexpensive mod that was worth it thanks to some creativity on my part.

Here's the finished result when you have a camera mounted. I did a baseline test recording me just driving around town normally for about 20 minutes in differing road conditions and while there is some shaking, for 3 dollars I have a nice camera mount that is firmly attached to the chasis and will get some nice footage when needed.

[hvmercy]

creative but it looks ghetto.
I'm sure you'll find a way to make it look nice.

[vixen_w202]

creative but it looks ghetto.
I'm sure you'll find a way to make it look nice.

Don't worry, if I had to....the shank just comes unbolted and aside from the hole in the flap, it would look as if it never was there.

I agree, but it was a simple way I could think of to mount a camera and do some solo drives without dragging someone along that didn't break the bank. I have a really nice camera already so buying a GoPro just seemed pointless.

[vixen_w202]

Decided to take a sample of the footage I took testing out the mount and threw it up on YouTube on my personal account. It's 100 percent raw and uncut so you can judge it. IMO, it does its job quite well even though it does occasionally shake. But realistically, I can't expect a whole lot from a 3 dollar setup and some creative engineering. It is what it is, and for how it was engineered it works.

It's still rendering, but probably by the time people see this post....it will be live.

http://youtu.be/6qADMtka0qs

[wichipong]

u can use the headrest post to hook one up... i have a design idea running in my mind now...

[hvmercy]

yup, you can use the post and be creative with it. I actually saw one in a W210 E55 at Alameda (The old Navy airbase) doing some mile run.

u can use the headrest post to hook one up... i have a design idea running in my mind now...

[jc1kz]

Your cam corder is okay but it looks like it will rattle and shake in that position, plus it seems that if your doing runs and want to record them that you would place the cam in fromt of the car to get all the turns and angles of the car as it makes them. I have two of these mini car cams that are permanently in place (due to stupid UN-insured people) one in the front windsheild and the other on the rear (but you could place one on the front facing the front of the car and another on the A pilar facing the driver....and then edit the recordings to keep what you need.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/150908927591...84.m1439.l2649

You can get two or three (since they are cheap) and place them around the car to get the angles you need for shooting the runs you're making.

[vixen_w202]

jc I agree with you....but the kind of footage I am going from is based on watching a lot of other YouTube videos of people doing runs. To me, the most enjoyable vids to watch are the ones where the camera is in the back seat, you can see a clear view of the road and you get to watch the driver control and react to the changing curves and bends. That's the kind of film I want, and this seemed like an easy although temporary solution for doing this.

The only thing I feel a little iffy about because of posting it on the net, is some people have a 2nd smaller lower quality cam mounted in front of the gauge clustsr showing the revvs and speed. it's usually displayed in a smaller mini-box on the film using editing software. Now I do brisk runs, but it's all within legal laws and limits, I'm not worried about documenting me speeding....because I don't. even if I do post a cluster cam, it's more of the fact I don't want people trolling my public vids giving me crap about not going fast enough or being at the right rev.

[wichipong]

you could have done this without making any holes into any interior parts...



just a couple of u bolts, a crossbar, and nut and a camera mount...

and with the right camera lens that would have been money there...

[vixen_w202]

Interesting......

I honestly never would have thought of this. Lately I've been kind of asking for a lot of advice on here, and for once I wanted to see if I could figure out a solution on my own. Don't want to come off as needy on here.

Can you give me a materials list if I went to Lowe's or wherever?

EDIT: Don't worry about the hole I made. Literally like I said, the only holes I made was a small one in the speaker shelf sheetmetal inside the trunk (which unless you get IN the trunk and look up inside, nobody but me will know it exists) and a small one on the flap. They're only big enough to accommodate the carriage bolt. I took out the first aid tray, so no damage there. And if I threw a little patch piece of fabric over it with some interior/craft glue lightly, you'd never know it was there.

[wichipong]

i think all you need is 3-4 u bolts (for the headrest posts), a square or round bar (to connect the two together) then that bolt that holds your camera up... viola! a car mount for maybe under 20 bucks...

[kameraguy]

Here is an alternative for the same shot without drilling. It is a RAM suction mount with 1" ball to camera adapter. It's rock solid. You just flip the image in post. What is nice is the suction cup lets you mount pretty much anywhere there is a flat surface. I have used it hanging from the sunroof with an extension rod as another example. It's not too expensive at $30-ish on Amazon:



RAM Mounting Systems RAM-B-166-237U: http://amzn.com/B001RUOG52

[vixen_w202]

Sorry guys, I never got around to uploading the *test* video of me using my Canon Vixia RF300 on the mount. I think I need to find a way to isolate some of the direct vibration the mount is soaking up on bumps.

Here is the test vid I shot just going around my neighborhood for a couple minutes: