Trackday friendly camera mount?

[havoc]

Tried searching on here and Prime, not come up with anything unless I want to install a harness bar (I don't). Also had a good nose-around inside the car and there's nowhere I can see to attach a bracket to.

It's mainly for the session at Spa next month (where I think a suction-mount will be banned), so I don't want to spend a fortune on the mount. Rest of the time I can use a suction-mount on the windscreen...

So...for those of you that do trackdays, what mounts have you used (& for what cameras)? Only suggestions which don't involve drilling holes, please... ;)

Thanks,

Martin.

[Mistercorn]

I use a mount which attaches to the 'screen using double sided tape, the GoPro case I have then clips in to this when required. I put it near the rear view mirror and have it pointing out of the front of the car. When not in use it is pretty unobtrusive. I haven't got a video from an NSX (because I haven't got one yet!), but here is one of mine from Cadwell Park.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14DkMrTy4ys

I'm afraid I don't know where the mounts came from, we just had them at work for doing this sort of thing, but pretty much everywhere sells GoPro accessories if that is what you have.

MC

[havoc]

Christ that Pork's got some poke...good location for the camera though!

Need to get a (small) camera, but can't really stretch to GoPro money and wouldn't get enough use to justify, either...not for a couple of years, anyway. Currently debating between "mini-camcorder" shape (Sony AR15 / Contour / SVC200) and GoPro shape (Drift HD / SJ4000).

[Mistercorn]

One thing I would say with the mounts is to make sure that the distance from the lens to the mount point is as small as possible, most HD cameras suffer from the 'jelly wobble' due to the rolling shutters, the more solidly the camera is mounted to the car the less you will see this effect. It will also be less noticeable if you have less of the car in the shot. Bullet cameras which are mounted at the back of the camera are about as bad as you can get for this.

Another video here from a different car and track, same setup with the mount and camera. The nice thing with this is that you can have a mount base in each car and just swap the camera between them. The GoPro cameras are very expensive for what they are IMO, but they have done a half decent job with the available mounts.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKrF_96x5A8

MC

[NSXGB]

Martin, you can borrow my GoPro camera for your track session if you like. That will save you buying one that you don't really want. I have a suction mount and a load of other mounts but not sure if I have one that will do the job well enough to please the stewards, so you'd have to get a mount.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi, Martin.

On the race cars, used to install torpedo style CCD camera with custom made housing for aerodynamics reason but not practical for the production car usage.

My friends in Japan are using Sony’s lens style camera QX10 (QX100 is too heavy for the purpose) with all sorts of interesting installation method.
Some of them just used the aftermarket wide rear view mirror and clamped the QX10 base mount on it.
Others used Joby’s gorillapod wrapped around the rear view mirror, removed passenger sun visor temporarily and used fixing screw holes to install aftermarket flex stand, etc.
QX10 is very light that with your imagination, you can install it in many ways.

One thing to be aware.
The regulation may have already changed but at the time QX10 was developed, there was higher duty/tax applied on the video recorder against the digital camera when imported into EU.
One of the condition to be classified as a video recorder is the capability of recording the video continuously for 30min or more with certain frame rate and pixcel spec.
For this reason, most of the reasonably priced digital cameras (including QX10) developed by Japanese manufactures were limited in their recording capability to max 29min or less.
I think QX10’s limit was about 25min continuous recording.
You can start another recording immediately afterwards and the overall recording capacity would be just over 60min.

Good luck with the track session. I’ve done it many times at Spa (not in NSX) and for production cars, uphill section is not much of problem.
It’s the latter part of the track with downhill especially when there are still some wet patches around the zebra section.
When it was foggy in the morning, just take it easy even after the fog has cleared up.
Not sure from where you are going to enter the track entrance but if you have to go through the tunnel with the traffic light at the side, be careful with your front nose if your car is lowered aggressively.
Wishing you and everyone having a wonderful time.

Kaz

[WhyOne?]

A good variety of GoPro mounts in evidence on Mark Webber's car here (11 that I can count!!!)

12135

[havoc]

Simon - really appreciate the offer, may well take you up on that...means I can get more of an "accident camera" for the road-trip section.

MC / Kaz - good info as always, thanks. Car is virtually standard, so ground clearance not an issue, but point taken re: downhill braking.

Will do some digging and let you know what I opt for...

[NSXGB]

I have a Gorilla pod too but guess this will rattle too much and cause camera shake?

I'm liking Kaz's suggestion of screwing something into the sunvisor mounting holes.

I may have a pack of self adhesive pads with the mount for the GoPro somewhere, I'll check.