Car camera rigs?

[mnewxcv]

Has anyone ever made a rig for a car to film either in front of/behind the vehicle, or the occupants/interior? I am planning to build some sort of rig that attaches to my vehicle to work with a gimbal to film vehicles in motion. If anyone has ever done anything like this, please post of some photos!

[Grimor]

I found a second hand Camtree G51 for 80 euros and really happy with it.

Not professional, but good enought for a dslr

[BTM_Pix]

We had a thread about this that didn't get much action but I put a link in it to a UK company that does a large array of affordable mounts for car shoots.

 

[mnewxcv]

1 hour ago, Grimor said:

I found a second hand Camtree G51 for 80 euros and really happy with it.

Not professional, but good enought for a dslr

I do like the camtree g51. I will keep an eye out on ebay for one.

1 hour ago, BTM_Pix said:

We had a thread about this that didn't get much action but I put a link in it to a UK company that does a large array of affordable mounts for car shoots.

 

Not much action indeed. At least for me, I am looking to do something to track 'high speed' action, at least road speed. I am unsure as of now how my gimbal will keep up with the vibrations and shocks, but here is a basic design I came up with. It involves a simple bike carrier which holds the gimbal in place, and some off the shelf hardware to mount it to the front as well.

 

[BTM_Pix]

1 hour ago, mnewxcv said:

I do like the camtree g51. I will keep an eye out on ebay for one.

Not much action indeed. At least for me, I am looking to do something to track 'high speed' action, at least road speed. I am unsure as of now how my gimbal will keep up with the vibrations and shocks, but here is a basic design I came up with. It involves a simple bike carrier which holds the gimbal in place, and some off the shelf hardware to mount it to the front as well.

 

You are a braver man than me !

It's not really my area but with regard to the vibration reduction, the Rigwheels Cloud Mount seems to be one isolation solution that is well regarded.

ProAim make something for a lot less money that appears to have been, erm, "inspired" by the original.

https://www.proaim.com/proaim-grip-master-vibration-isolator-magnetic-car-mount.html

This video shows a self built version of a similar concept.

 

[IronFilm]

I have worked on heaps and heaps of car rigs over the years, although from the sound department perspective! But I reckon you'll still find them worthwhile watching:
 

 

 

 

[leslie]

16 hours ago, mnewxcv said:

i have no idea where you plan on using this but i imagine there is a whole lot of legalities involved especially if you plan on using it on the road and if you are using car mounted camera gear on the road. It is probably the one area where you'd want to buy something that's certified and fit for purpose. Welding something up in the back yard is just asking for trouble, you need to cover yourself legally and for insurance purposes. not sure where you are or how the road rules are enforced, but the cops here in australia would have a field day if they find you out on the road with a front mount camera like that. the only place you could use it without issues or a permit probably is private property, a race track or drag strip, or closed road but even then on a closed road  and if they  came along the cops would probably want to see some permits or something. they take road safety very seriously and rightly so

[tupp]

On 3/20/2019 at 6:16 PM, mnewxcv said:

Has anyone ever made a rig for a car to film either in front of/behind the vehicle, or the occupants/interior? I am planning to build some sort of rig that attaches to my vehicle to work with a gimbal to film vehicles in motion. If anyone has ever done anything like this, please post of some photos!

I've done one or two car rigs.  Which camera are you using?

 

You probably don't wan't to use a gimbal if you are mounting the camera on the picture car -- the car will bounce and turn while the gimbal will have a tendency to remain still.

 

There was a thread about car rigging last year.

 

Hood mounting can be easy, using just a board with some padding/thick fabric underneath and a motorcycle strap or ratchet strap.  You can use a bracket mounted to the board that receives a tripod head or use some sort of tilting/panning mechanism with 1/4"-20 threads.  Don't forget to "safety" the camera with a separate tag line/strap.

 

If you want to mount a camera on the side of the car there is a special bracket called a "hostess tray" -- a term derived from the American drive-in diner food trays that the skating hostesses would hook to the customer's car door.  Don't forget to "safety" the camera with a separate tag line/strap.

 

Suction cups can wobble and should always be used with an additional safety strap (which can also help stabilize the suction cup rig).

 

There are a few tricks to keep reflections off of the windows.

 

If you are shooting a car in which an actor is actually driving, avoid busy streets!  An actor is constantly trying to be the character, which can significantly distract him/her from noticing other cars, pedestrians and road hazards.  Having a "spotter" car ahead of the picture car can provide extra safety and can govern the speed.  Slow speeds often look faster in the footage.

[mnewxcv]

using a samsung nx1 with the 16-50s lens. As for shooting in public, I would be very cautious and mainly shoot on roads without much traffic. Mostly looking for cinematic shots of vehicle passing other vehicles, coming around sweeping turns, etc. Back road stuff. I know if plenty of roads that are safe for this. The main reason I want to go gimbal is to be able to add a little motion to the shot with pan and tilt. I've also considered shooting 15fps and converting to 24 to make things appear faster.