mounting a hd camera for track days

[aceofspades]

i have a hd camera - canon hf100, link below.
it's got image stabilisation, pretty ok optics and so on, and works great as a hand held.

one of the purposes i had in mind though, was getting in-car track day footage so i could see the effect of different lines.

so i also have a fat gecko suction cup mount, which cost me a bit, link also below.

but it's not working out. the vibration is killing the video quality. i've tried mounting it both on the rear window and the front windscreen and it makes no difference. the camera does not seem to be shaking unduly while driving, so i have to assume there is vibration being transmitted across the glass both front and back.

i don't have a harness bar, the car is an s2 exige.

here is an example, i've seen better results from a pocket camera attached to the visor with a crocodile clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abkaiAtyH1Y

any suggestions ?

camera - http://www.amazon.com/Canon-HF100-Definition-Camco...
mount - http://www.fpoint.co.uk/ViewProdDetails.asp?prod_c...

[srob]

aceofspades said:

i have a hd camera - canon hf100, link below.
it's got image stabilisation, pretty ok optics and so on, and works great as a hand held.

one of the purposes i had in mind though, was getting in-car track day footage so i could see the effect of different lines.

so i also have a fat gecko suction cup mount, which cost me a bit, link also below.

but it's not working out. the vibration is killing the video quality. i've tried mounting it both on the rear window and the front windscreen and it makes no difference. the camera does not seem to be shaking unduly while driving, so i have to assume there is vibration being transmitted across the glass both front and back.

i don't have a harness bar, the car is an s2 exige.

here is an example, i've seen better results from a pocket camera attached to the visor with a crocodile clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abkaiAtyH1Y

any suggestions ?

camera - http://www.amazon.com/Canon-HF100-Definition-Camco...
mount - http://www.fpoint.co.uk/ViewProdDetails.asp?prod_c...

I don't have any suggestions I'm afraid, but make sure you declare that you're filming when you sign on. When I worked as a trackday marshall we were told to black-flag anyone that hadn't declared. It's something to do with copyrights. It was free to declare, you just have to sign something. That's assuming it's still the same as this was a few years back now...

[aceofspades]

over here, the only condition is to have the camera securely mounted.

they always cover it at drivers briefings.

[dmax]

aceofspades said:

i have a hd camera - canon hf100, link below.
it's got image stabilisation, pretty ok optics and so on, and works great as a hand held.

one of the purposes i had in mind though, was getting in-car track day footage so i could see the effect of different lines.

so i also have a fat gecko suction cup mount, which cost me a bit, link also below.

but it's not working out. the vibration is killing the video quality. i've tried mounting it both on the rear window and the front windscreen and it makes no difference. the camera does not seem to be shaking unduly while driving, so i have to assume there is vibration being transmitted across the glass both front and back.

i don't have a harness bar, the car is an s2 exige.

here is an example, i've seen better results from a pocket camera attached to the visor with a crocodile clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abkaiAtyH1Y

any suggestions ?

camera - http://www.amazon.com/Canon-HF100-Definition-Camco...
mount - http://www.fpoint.co.uk/ViewProdDetails.asp?prod_c...

Hello, watching at the video, i think the main problem is not vibration, but focus.

U see that when the car in front is near, the image gets better, but it gets very blurry when she is more far.
You probably left the focusing on automatic, and the camera badly focus on...the windscreen.
If u select another focus mode in the camera (infinite, lanscape, something like that) it will fix the problem.

[aceofspades]

actually, i hadn't thought of that. i'll try setting to a manual focus and see what happens.

thanks.

[andyspiers]

The focus tip is a good idea. Also, have you tried turning the image stablisation off?

If you have a harness bar, that's probably the best place to mount a camera. That's where I have mine (Honda Elise).

Get the beefiest mount you can. I got mine from dogcamsport.co.uk

[chazpardew]

I found that trial and error is the way... do a lap and then check your footage and adjust to suit?
Chaz