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DIY - Home made in-car camera mount

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Mark0:
Maybe this can come handy for someone...
The story: 1 day before a trip in the Dolomiti mountains, I tought it would be a nice thing to make one of those time lapse - accelerated video, with a digicam shooting a photo every second or so.
But I didn't have any suitable camera mount for the car, so this is what I come up with:

DIY - Home made in-car camera mount DIY - Home made in-car camera mount DIY - Home made in-car camera mount

Basically it's just two plastic tubes, hold together with two screws, that get closed around the headrest support.
Two neoprene strips make for a better fit and suppress some vibrations.
On the tubes then any suitable support can be attached: I just used a flexible Gorillapod that I bought some time ago.
Considering the quick & KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach, I have to say it worked quite well: at least, the camera didn't fall to the floor! :)
As for the digicam, I used a simple Canon A570is, with the CHDK firmware and an intervalometer Lua script.

Here's the resulting video:
YouTube - 3 mountain passes in 3 minutes
(next time I'll remember to double the shoots x sec.; too much sharp turns on the mountains roads!)

And a log of the trip (with stats, altimetric profiles, some geo tagged photos) courtesy of EveryTrail (a great web service, IMHO):
EveryTrail - Raduno Montano Hybrid Synergy Forum    - Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy

And a photo (of another friend) that sum it up:

DIY - Home made in-car camera mount

And the 1 month old camera car:
DIY - Home made in-car camera mount

Bye!

tomos:

Oh Mark0, great idea, quality images, but I feel a bit car sick...
yes, maybe double the photos next time!

Mark0:
Definitely. I had planned to do 1 shot every seconds, but I left the refocus on every time, so it ended up doing one every about 3 seconds. The LCD display also staid on insted of going off, but luckily the batteries lasted just enough! :)

Cloq:
Very creative!

Aside from a bit of motion sickness.. I quite enjoyed the virtual ride!  :Thmbsup:

4wd:
Excellent idea!  I'll give it a go next time I go 4wding, usually I just drive along with one hand, holding the video camera in the other :)

That's one thing I love about the Canon cameras, (I have a A720is), the ability to expand their functions using the CHDK firmware.

I have a complete journey from the top of Hong Kong's Victoria Peak to the Star ferry terminal by double-decker bus, (32min), that I really should get around to doing something with one day.

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