Mounting iPhone or DSLR camera inside car for videoing!

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I did this to a HD camcorder in my 90. I cut a bracket out of aluminium and bent it then screwed it into my dash. Then I found a cctv camera mount that was the perfect size and had the bolt you need to screw into the camera. It works perfectly. It does involve damaging the bottom of your dash though. I'll have to take a pic soon and show you how I did it. I'm thinking of making some sort of shade for it because when it's very sunny you get a reflection from the windscreen.
 
Just took the boy to school and went off to the builders yard, took the camera on its little mount to see the result, not bad, but shakes like fook on the road, i imagine off road it'll make ya sea sick watching it :D
 
Kai, my lad, made up a little box and moulded it so that it fitted over the lip on my disco's dash...
The cam is simply held by a bolt through the moulding.

He has also been creating some mounts that fix to the roof rack or other parts of the car (practising his welding)

Make something up for yourself... much cheaper than buying something that you could fabricate yourself for a couple of quid
 
Just found some footage from his mount.

See if this is what you are after...

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QNclw06jTg"]YouTube- whaddonoctober09 Kai[/nomedia]
 
I wouldn't use your DSLR on a rigid(ish) mount. It may cause one of the glass elements in your lens to shift or rattle loose... effectively chuffing your lens up.

G
 
Ryder said:
Just found some footage from his mount.

See if this is what you are after...

YouTube- whaddonoctober09 Kai
Click to expand...

that looks fantastic! I was hoping to not have to bolt into my dashboard, but it looks like it might be my only option.

I ordered the grab-handle mount despite not having a grab handle in the hope that i could find something else to clamp it to, but the only thing in the right place is the hood over the dials, and that's certainly not sturdy enough to take even my iPhone on a mount, let alone a DSLR!

I still need to try the tripod on the back seat & floor behind the front seats, tied across to all 4 headrests, but that's one hell of a lot of effort every time I want to take it in or out!

As for making something myself, I have neither the skills or the tools, sadly...
 
fishsponge said:
that looks fantastic! I was hoping to not have to bolt into my dashboard, but it looks like it might be my only option.

I ordered the grab-handle mount despite not having a grab handle in the hope that i could find something else to clamp it to, but the only thing in the right place is the hood over the dials, and that's certainly not sturdy enough to take even my iPhone on a mount, let alone a DSLR!

I still need to try the tripod on the back seat & floor behind the front seats, tied across to all 4 headrests, but that's one hell of a lot of effort every time I want to take it in or out!

As for making something myself, I have neither the skills or the tools, sadly...
Click to expand...

It wouldn't be necessary to chop the dash about. With our we were careful to shape the bottom so that it lipped over the dash... it was intended as a mount for a couple of clocks... the CB and the tracking system and camera. A simple hole in the top of the pod and the standard m10 bolt that screws into the bottom of most cameras was enough to finish it off. Self adhesive velcro does the rest.

For outside the car he welds a couple of 3" x 2" pipeces of steel together, then attaches a short piece of steel tube to act as a mount. This is then bolted to the roofrack or the bumper depending on the terrain. The camera itself is a really cheap 9Mb stills camera (about £40.00) but the video results are pretty good.

He is making up mounts to go on the car that look back at the driver through the windscreen; attach to the wing mirror for downward views... he's got one that he puts in the ground for drive-by shots and so on.

They are all really simple to make, but it is a way for him to improve his welding skills and gets a kick out of it...(Literally when he forgets to clear the workshop up afterwards! :D)
 
Thiking about it there is one other option. Get rid of the OS handle... that leaves a couple of nice little threaded bolt holes to use for something else... like, err a camera mount. Using one of these you could even incorporate some sort of rubber bush to cushion vibration even more.
 
So this dashboard mount you speak of is basically some sheet metal with a downward-facing lip along one edge. This lip then goes between the dashboard and the windscreen and the bottom of covered in velcro. Onto this platform you can then bolt whatever you like of course - camera tripod thread, etc, etc...

is that right?
 
fishsponge said:
So this dashboard mount you speak of is basically some sheet metal with a downward-facing lip along one edge. This lip then goes between the dashboard and the windscreen and the bottom of covered in velcro. Onto this platform you can then bolt whatever you like of course - camera tripod thread, etc, etc...

is that right?
Click to expand...

That's right... though the original one was made from ply and painted rather than metal
 
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