Car Rig for the GH1

Cory Braun

Cory Braun

Well-known member
Hey guys,

I'm looking for a car rig that will SAFELY attach my GH1 to a car. I saw this one: http://www.filmtools.com/filmtools-gripper-3025-3-8-right-angle-3025-ra.html but the price is making me worry that there is something wrong with it.

Has anyone used this one before with their GH1 (or another camera of similar weight) and had any problems with it? Does anyone have car rigs that they can recommend?

Also does anyone know how well this works on cutting down the vibrations? http://www.filmtools.com/grtiedokit.html actually help

I know absolutely nothing about car rigs, so any help is appreciated.
 
Last edited:
First of all: NO rig will ever totally safely attach your camera to the outside of the car. No matter what rig you end up with you must use a secondary security attachment such as a steel wire with very little slack in case the main mount suffers failure for whatever reason. Even a small object like a GH1 can become a serious hazard if falling off a car at full speed. Do no underestimate the forces at play here. A rig with two points of contact like Joe links too is much preferable than the one at Filmtools.

Secondly: if you have no experience in this kind of rigging and shooting with cars you really will do yourself a favour if you can find somebody who does have experience to show you the ropes. If you can't do that you must make sure to have a good driver with a true sense of the cars boundaries including the rig if you are driving on public roads. Slamming your rig into a another car can cause a serious accident if the other driver reacts with panic. And god forbid the outbound rig hit a unprotected person on foot, bicycle or motorbike. I've heard of some very close calls when security wasn't considered properly with car rigs. And one totally funny one when they clipped a traffic pole with the rig while driving out on the street from the place where they had been rigging up - camera fubared of course.

For hood mounting something like a CineSaddle is often the best way to cut out vibrations.
 
I too have used the Hague double suction mount on the hood of a car. It definitely needs additional safety attachments as a precaution. We used rachet straps that hooked under the wheel wells. Vibration is a definite issue. Maybe on a wide angle lens (or the kit lens at 14mm) it may be less, but zoomed in the vibration really creates the notorious jello effect. I'd bet a small Cinesaddle, properly rigged, might absorb more vibration and work better. I may try that next time.
 
Yeah you want to be as wide as possible to avoid jello. I remember we did a shoot with the HVX and a car mount and used some kind of four suction cup plate with a screw for mounting...actually worked pretty well. It had a safety strap: which I think is important to consider.

I think something attaching to the hood is a better bet than the side due to risks of collision, and also make sure if it doesn't come with some kind of safety strap that you add something like that; with a camera as light as the GH1 a length of nylon looped around a windshield wiper (all the way at the base) should be enough.
 
Yeah, we had a safety strap attached to the windshield. Forgot to mention that.

On another occasion, I rigged the GH1 to the side of a Live Truck (I work in the Promo Dept. of a news station) and did a time lapse night driving shot. It was well-rigged, very secure, no vibration, but boy was I nervous about the camera hitting cars in the other lane! I was driving the truck and my boss was following in a car behind me and I thought he was going to have a heart attack. The shot worked, looked great, but since the GH1 is my personal camera, I won't risk it for my job again. That honor will belong to my own short films!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top