c

ULB wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have been doing some wheelin in the desert trying to hand hold a
> camcorder while taking the trail. For obvious reasons I would like
> some form of a hands free mount.
>
> I think there was a gent called 4x4play or similar who had a mount on
> his dash. Does anyone have a plan for the mount or some ideas?
>
> At first I thought hey, why not use a head band like a miners light on
> the forehead, but in this case, mount it on the side of the head. I
> fear, that would be a real pain in the neck, literally.
>
> Sandbag with camera velcro'd to sandbag? Nah, sand bag, would bounce
> off dash in short time. What do you all suggest?
>
> Drill a hole through top dash, put in proper screw for bottom of
> camera?
>

I used this company's stuff for mounting my GPS and other things in my
boat. Maybe they have something you can use:

http://www.ram-mount.com/camera_mount/camera_mounts.htm

Chris

Jon

Well, if you're not working with "what you got", then why not try out
a "helmet" cam? They make units that are small enough to work with a
headband (even dedicated ones), and if you already have a digital
recorder, you're into the deal for a bill....

Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ARCHOS-Color-Vid...QQcmdZViewItem

or this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/All-in-One-Kit-H...QQcmdZViewItem

Can't quite recall the "adventure sports" market distributor at the
moment, but you get the picture. You can imagine the trade-offs here,
i.e. battery life, memory capacity/recording time, video/sound
quality.....but any cage-mounted video I've seen produced on a budget
left plenty to be desired as well....

Jon

Well, if you're not working with "what you got", then why not try out
a "helmet" cam? They make units that are small enough to work with a
headband (even dedicated ones), and if you already have a digital
recorder, you're into the deal for a bill....

Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ARCHOS-Color-Vid...QQcmdZViewItem

or this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/All-in-One-Kit-H...QQcmdZViewItem

Can't quite recall the "adventure sports" market distributor at the
moment, but you get the picture. You can imagine the trade-offs here,
i.e. battery life, memory capacity/recording time, video/sound
quality.....but any cage-mounted video I've seen produced on a budget
left plenty to be desired as well....

Jon

Well, if you're not working with "what you got", then why not try out
a "helmet" cam? They make units that are small enough to work with a
headband (even dedicated ones), and if you already have a digital
recorder, you're into the deal for a bill....

Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ARCHOS-Color-Vid...QQcmdZViewItem

or this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/All-in-One-Kit-H...QQcmdZViewItem

Can't quite recall the "adventure sports" market distributor at the
moment, but you get the picture. You can imagine the trade-offs here,
i.e. battery life, memory capacity/recording time, video/sound
quality.....but any cage-mounted video I've seen produced on a budget
left plenty to be desired as well....

Jon

Well, if you're not working with "what you got", then why not try out
a "helmet" cam? They make units that are small enough to work with a
headband (even dedicated ones), and if you already have a digital
recorder, you're into the deal for a bill....

Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ARCHOS-Color-Vid...QQcmdZViewItem

or this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/All-in-One-Kit-H...QQcmdZViewItem

Can't quite recall the "adventure sports" market distributor at the
moment, but you get the picture. You can imagine the trade-offs here,
i.e. battery life, memory capacity/recording time, video/sound
quality.....but any cage-mounted video I've seen produced on a budget
left plenty to be desired as well....

J. Clarke

ULB wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have been doing some wheelin in the desert trying to hand hold a
> camcorder while taking the trail. For obvious reasons I would like
> some form of a hands free mount.
>
> I think there was a gent called 4x4play or similar who had a mount
> on
> his dash. Does anyone have a plan for the mount or some ideas?
>
> At first I thought hey, why not use a head band like a miners light
> on
> the forehead, but in this case, mount it on the side of the head. I
> fear, that would be a real pain in the neck, literally.
>
> Sandbag with camera velcro'd to sandbag? Nah, sand bag, would
> bounce
> off dash in short time. What do you all suggest?
>
> Drill a hole through top dash, put in proper screw for bottom of
> camera?

First place to look for mounting just about anything electronic to
just about anything that moves is http://www.ram-mount.com/.

Another approach is
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...with_3025.html
or
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...c_Arm_Kit.html.
Note that this will clamp to a 2" tube but not to a 3".

Another
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Cup_with.html.

Manfrotto has suction cup feet for most of their tripods.

Instead of putting the camcorder on a headband, motorcyclists and
bicyclists often use helmet-cams--one example is
http://www.helmetcamera.com/ but if you google "helmet camera" you'll
find many others. If you're in New England, Eastern Mountain Sports
carries a decent one. Most of them are light enough that you can tape
one to the frame of a pair of sunglasses. You run the signal cable
from the helmet camera into the VCR input on your camcorder (if your
camcorder doesn't have a VCR input this approach won't work). To get
an idea of what they can do you might find it interesting to search
youtube on keywords "helmet camera".

There are gyro-stabilized mounts available but they cost $1600 and up
and are really overkill unless you're doing commercial video
production. There are plans online for inexpensive ones but they're
designed for model airplanes and won't hold a full-sized
camcorder--might be possible to trick one up to work with a helmet-cam
though, but if you're going that route you're pioneering--if you can
get one to work then you're going to be the expert.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

J. Clarke

ULB wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have been doing some wheelin in the desert trying to hand hold a
> camcorder while taking the trail. For obvious reasons I would like
> some form of a hands free mount.
>
> I think there was a gent called 4x4play or similar who had a mount
> on
> his dash. Does anyone have a plan for the mount or some ideas?
>
> At first I thought hey, why not use a head band like a miners light
> on
> the forehead, but in this case, mount it on the side of the head. I
> fear, that would be a real pain in the neck, literally.
>
> Sandbag with camera velcro'd to sandbag? Nah, sand bag, would
> bounce
> off dash in short time. What do you all suggest?
>
> Drill a hole through top dash, put in proper screw for bottom of
> camera?

First place to look for mounting just about anything electronic to
just about anything that moves is http://www.ram-mount.com/.

Another approach is
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...with_3025.html
or
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...c_Arm_Kit.html.
Note that this will clamp to a 2" tube but not to a 3".

Another
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Cup_with.html.

Manfrotto has suction cup feet for most of their tripods.

Instead of putting the camcorder on a headband, motorcyclists and
bicyclists often use helmet-cams--one example is
http://www.helmetcamera.com/ but if you google "helmet camera" you'll
find many others. If you're in New England, Eastern Mountain Sports
carries a decent one. Most of them are light enough that you can tape
one to the frame of a pair of sunglasses. You run the signal cable
from the helmet camera into the VCR input on your camcorder (if your
camcorder doesn't have a VCR input this approach won't work). To get
an idea of what they can do you might find it interesting to search
youtube on keywords "helmet camera".

There are gyro-stabilized mounts available but they cost $1600 and up
and are really overkill unless you're doing commercial video
production. There are plans online for inexpensive ones but they're
designed for model airplanes and won't hold a full-sized
camcorder--might be possible to trick one up to work with a helmet-cam
though, but if you're going that route you're pioneering--if you can
get one to work then you're going to be the expert.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

J. Clarke

ULB wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have been doing some wheelin in the desert trying to hand hold a
> camcorder while taking the trail. For obvious reasons I would like
> some form of a hands free mount.
>
> I think there was a gent called 4x4play or similar who had a mount
> on
> his dash. Does anyone have a plan for the mount or some ideas?
>
> At first I thought hey, why not use a head band like a miners light
> on
> the forehead, but in this case, mount it on the side of the head. I
> fear, that would be a real pain in the neck, literally.
>
> Sandbag with camera velcro'd to sandbag? Nah, sand bag, would
> bounce
> off dash in short time. What do you all suggest?
>
> Drill a hole through top dash, put in proper screw for bottom of
> camera?

First place to look for mounting just about anything electronic to
just about anything that moves is http://www.ram-mount.com/.

Another approach is
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...with_3025.html
or
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...c_Arm_Kit.html.
Note that this will clamp to a 2" tube but not to a 3".

Another
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Cup_with.html.

Manfrotto has suction cup feet for most of their tripods.

Instead of putting the camcorder on a headband, motorcyclists and
bicyclists often use helmet-cams--one example is
http://www.helmetcamera.com/ but if you google "helmet camera" you'll
find many others. If you're in New England, Eastern Mountain Sports
carries a decent one. Most of them are light enough that you can tape
one to the frame of a pair of sunglasses. You run the signal cable
from the helmet camera into the VCR input on your camcorder (if your
camcorder doesn't have a VCR input this approach won't work). To get
an idea of what they can do you might find it interesting to search
youtube on keywords "helmet camera".

There are gyro-stabilized mounts available but they cost $1600 and up
and are really overkill unless you're doing commercial video
production. There are plans online for inexpensive ones but they're
designed for model airplanes and won't hold a full-sized
camcorder--might be possible to trick one up to work with a helmet-cam
though, but if you're going that route you're pioneering--if you can
get one to work then you're going to be the expert.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

J. Clarke

ULB wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have been doing some wheelin in the desert trying to hand hold a
> camcorder while taking the trail. For obvious reasons I would like
> some form of a hands free mount.
>
> I think there was a gent called 4x4play or similar who had a mount
> on
> his dash. Does anyone have a plan for the mount or some ideas?
>
> At first I thought hey, why not use a head band like a miners light
> on
> the forehead, but in this case, mount it on the side of the head. I
> fear, that would be a real pain in the neck, literally.
>
> Sandbag with camera velcro'd to sandbag? Nah, sand bag, would
> bounce
> off dash in short time. What do you all suggest?
>
> Drill a hole through top dash, put in proper screw for bottom of
> camera?

First place to look for mounting just about anything electronic to
just about anything that moves is http://www.ram-mount.com/.

Another approach is
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...with_3025.html
or
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...c_Arm_Kit.html.
Note that this will clamp to a 2" tube but not to a 3".

Another
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Cup_with.html.

Manfrotto has suction cup feet for most of their tripods.

Instead of putting the camcorder on a headband, motorcyclists and
bicyclists often use helmet-cams--one example is
http://www.helmetcamera.com/ but if you google "helmet camera" you'll
find many others. If you're in New England, Eastern Mountain Sports
carries a decent one. Most of them are light enough that you can tape
one to the frame of a pair of sunglasses. You run the signal cable
from the helmet camera into the VCR input on your camcorder (if your
camcorder doesn't have a VCR input this approach won't work). To get
an idea of what they can do you might find it interesting to search
youtube on keywords "helmet camera".

There are gyro-stabilized mounts available but they cost $1600 and up
and are really overkill unless you're doing commercial video
production. There are plans online for inexpensive ones but they're
designed for model airplanes and won't hold a full-sized
camcorder--might be possible to trick one up to work with a helmet-cam
though, but if you're going that route you're pioneering--if you can
get one to work then you're going to be the expert.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)