Converseahorse

Hey there folks,

Just thought I'd drop a line and see what you thought about this. I make the odd film for personal entertainment and thought I'd combine my two fave hobbies. I came up with this as an interesting point of view. Has anyone attempted a similar project? (see attachments)

I'm a bit sceptical about taking this rig off road due to the excessive vibes that might occur. There is a good bit of flex in the mounting arm but under moderate testing the camera will do an unprompted full zoom and then return to normal. I think this is just sensor 'confusion' but I wonder if it's the camera telling me it hurts?

Has anyone any better ideas to mount for this point of view...one where the camera didn't disintergrate?!

I intend also to get some 'on bike' footage mounted to my arm and possibly a helmet mount. Though I feel the 'tire in view', suspension compressing shots would be the piece de resistance! especially in a pack.

BTW I know the camera is inverted but I intend to correct this in editing afterwards. Of coarse I will also water proof and I plan to use buble wrap to provide protection from a fall or flying debris.

Madness or wha?
Advice welcome
Thanks

MKRG

https://www.digave.com/videos/

moet

What a great idea; I was thinking about trying the exact same thing last night!
You're bound to get some vibration with the mount off road so eventually the part of the camera I'd be most worried about would be the lens/optics/light receiver alignment. The electronics are quite robust and should be OK.
I think mounting the camera beside the rear wheel out to the side might give some interesting angles showing you pedalling, the front wheel etc.
I'd be interested to see how you get on with this. Good luck.

Converseahorse

Cheers moet,

I had contemplated a seatstay or chainstay mount but if I was to come off, and given Murphys law I would, the camera would probably emerge in a pretty bad state. Also I ride a hardtail so the vibrations would be far more direct in this area. The advantage of where it is at the moment is that in the event of a wipeout the camera, in theory, shouldn't actually come in contact with the ground.

I haven't commited to doing this just yet, I spent about two month's pay on that cam! My only cam . Let me know if you take the plunge. Thanks for the encouragement, I'll keep you posted.

Converseahorse

MKRG,

That site makes me wish I had broadband, some nice thumbnails there. I'm thinking the helmet mount is probably the safe(r) bet. Thanks

Hmmm come on people encourage me to be reckless

KleinMp99

www.viosport.com

MadMan2k

Ultrapod

- I have one of these, it can mount to my bike in several places using the velcro strap. It vibrates more than I'd like, I'll have to try and fix that sometime.

supcom

It looks like you have a lot of lever arm between the handlebar mount and the camera. Riding offroad will put a lot of stress on the camera mount as well as shake the camera like crazy. Even if the mount and camera survive, you may have pretty jumpy pictures as a result.

It also looks like you have pivots secured only by the pivot bolt torque. With a significant weight on the end of the lever arm, these will almost certainly loosen and slip. If you stick with this, you need some way to lock the angles in place, especially the one near the handlebars..

Perhaps you can rig up a padded frame that sits above the bars and holds the camera up close. If you want to try this concept, I would replace the camera with a block of wood or a weighted box and go for a test ride or two. Better than busting up your camera!

geebee

If you leave it there, might I suggest a mud guard, otherwise the camera will eat everything that the wheel throws up.
Love the idea, I was tossing up the idea of helmet mounting to provide some vibration isolation.
Good luck.

Converseahorse

Thanks for all the feedback people.

I might just point out that this mount has cost me about €2 in total! This means I can afford not to give a damn about the mount! Unless there is a specific product designed with this particular activity in mind I don't think I will be spending any significant money on this project...unless I get sponcership

I was considereing a more direct handlebar mount (above bars) but this won't allow me the angle to get both the wheel and the road ahead into the shot. Also I thought that the leverage afforded by the mount was an advantage in that its better to have the camera shake than having it take direct hits through the bike. This may prove problematic with the footage...only a field test will reveal.

To address the pivot loosening and sliping I have a compression strap in place attached to the handle bar and will possibly apply some superglue to secure bolts. I had played around with using a third section to 'triangulate' the middle pivot but again I don't want to make things too rigid.

The mud guard thing is also difficult in that a) my shocks don't have a mounting hole and b) I think any clip on affair won't have the clearance for the camera. As I say there will be extensive use of bubble wrap on the camera, but I think I will attach something flat, light and rigid to the fork as a homemade subsitutue to a mud guard. Good stuff

Thanks again everyone

cryptid01

Sorry to see you've got a cold, and are keeping the Kleenex close to your computer.

operator

Don't worry i'll enjoy them for you

That drag race movie is awesome! Looks to be breaking about 500 traffic laws in the process, even pass by cop cars lol...!

It's amazing how he can keep the camera so steady.

khuon

I kinda like what this guy did to mount his digital camera. With some modification, I imagine the same could be done for yours. Or how about modifying a small hnadlebar bag to house the camera? It should place it in a position to give you a similar camera angle/perspective.

Converseahorse

Well folks I've done the field test. A short journey down to the local shop. The news isn't good. Unfortunatly that zoom problem proved to be more of a problem than I had first thought. There were also other image problems. Out of about 4mins footage about 2 were useable. Given that this was a short journey on tarmac I will have to shelve this idea for the time being.

I have to say though that what footage was useable was fantastic. It's just an excellent point of view, very dramatic even though I only reached about 20mph on the test. If you can get to work it's well worth it.

Still though the show must go on but I will have to use more conventional techniques which will probably consist of many a head cam shot.

I appreciate the HB bag idea but I don' think I could get it low enough for this particular shot. The camera was only about 3" above the tyre and even then the tyre only came into about 3-4% of the shot. This in itself would have caused trouble anyway as I have 4" travel on my Dukes. It's not worth the cost of the bag for something which might only work. Thanks anyhow.

By the way I downloaded two of those films...only took about half the day that drag race is pretty impressive!

Thanks for the get well!

Thanks everyone

operator

Only the drag race is worth downloading, hehe... You get to see most of New York and some crazy ass cycling. Some of those squeezes looked pretty tight. Nice music to go along with it too.



P.S Converseahorse can you put up some of your footage?