Has anyone mounted a DSLR on a race car?

S

sublimesnfu

Well-known member
Hello,

I'm going to be doing some shooting of a autoxcross/drifting event next week for a friend and we wanted to mount the T2i to some of the cars at the event. Possible angles on the car are forward facing, Driver POV, one from the front tires shooting back toward the rear tires and then maybe an in car POV of the driver. '

Has anyone tried to put their camera through this kind of shot yet? If so what problems/solutions did you encounter?

Thanks
 
Ran some tests today and it doesn't look like shooting out towards the track will work do to the rolling shutter though shooting the tires will work out.
 
Depending on how this shoot goes I may get a GoPro for sure. I am thinking for the outward facing view I will use a GS500.

Thank You for the feedback
 
First time I used the T2i

T2imounted.jpg


I worked great, but the main reason was because of low light. I think in car would be best for it, either forward facing or POV. Myself and friends have used the ContourHD with great results. Also use various Sanyo's that work good. A good solid mount is very important.
 
I used other CMOS-based imager on the track. It works but you have to be absolutely sure there is no vibration/play between camera fitting and the body. Otherwise you will get weird jello-effect around front pillars and such.

"outside" of the car was fine, with no visual artefacts. You will need wide lens to capture "feeling of speed", but wide-lensed camera mounted inside the car will also see the non-moving parts of the car (front shield, steering wheel etc.)

High-frequency vibrations of camera will make those things wobble with CMOS. My best bet is mounting camera on rear roll-bar (if such exists).

There are two schools:
1. rigid mount (works well with light cameras), bolted into structural part of car (roll.bar etc).
2. "fluid mount" (when camera and lens are heavy and you cannot really bolt them tight without something cracking loose or vibrating so you have to use some damping like rubber or such)

DSLR is somewhere in-between. If you use T2i with kit-lens on 18mm and bolt it real tight, it might work without A-pillar wobble. 5D with heavy prime will be a bit harder to secure. Also, keep in mind that shooting a light cruise and shooting inside race-car is two different things. Race cars have slicks and will produce over 1G of lateral acceleration and will rattle the hell out of mountings when going over curbs.
 
I will be giving this set up a try soon. Will try and remember to share the footage with you when I get around to doing a track day.

4631751683_7e78f479c6_b.jpg
 
This is great, we were thinking about using a custom made side window clamp to mount the camera on as my friend is also a Fabricator, has anyone used this type of mount? BTW The Ferrari is beautiful!
 
dust'n the callipygous said:
i'm thinking about picking up one of those Go Pro HD cameras. is that an f50?
Click to expand...

Yes, Ferrari F50. Here is a short video, first two clips was a 5DmkII, others were the T2i except for :37-:42 which was the ContourHD.

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Bumping this to show an update...

Mounted my T2i with the Sigma 10-20mm. 10mm, 60FPS and Auto ISO. RODE videomic set to -20. Once the car got going and the road/engine/exhaust noise was constant, auto gain lowered itself and turned out pretty good.

All in all the footage looks and sounds infinitely better than the GoPro. The shaking of the footage does not really bother me, almost adds to the effect of going fast. There is also significantly less "jello" than what you generally see in GoPro footage. Sessions are normally 15 minutes long for what I do so the record limit will hit a few minutes before each time.

This is the mount that I am using http://www.ioportracing.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=CM1-2&Category_Code=IOPP

 
Last edited:
Anyone have suggestions for suction cup car mounts for regular cars (not high speed)? I've seen a bunch of different ones out there. Delkin FAt gecko, Spider Pod, filmtools suction cup, etc.
 
asteele10 said:
Anyone have suggestions for suction cup car mounts for regular cars (not high speed)? I've seen a bunch of different ones out there. Delkin FAt gecko, Spider Pod, filmtools suction cup, etc.
Click to expand...

I have used the filmtools with good results. Only had a Manfroto 3D Jr head attached to it but it worked just fine.
 
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