in car camera mount (race car)

Those nice to know things about your DSLR will be found here. How to do this, and why you probably should not do that.

Moderators: Greg B, Nnnnsic, Geoff, Glen, gstark, Moderators

Forum rules
Please ensure that you have a meaningful location included in your profile. Please refer to the FAQ for details of what "meaningful" is. Please also check the portal page for more information on this.

in car camera mount (race car)

Postby Oz_Beachside on Sat Jan 20, 2007 8:33 pm

Wondering if anyone has set up cameras in race cars before (or moving cars).

I am looking to set us a D70s in a club spints race car, and looking for tips if anyone in here can share learnings? The intension is to take 1. driver portraits, and 2. second setup, from the drivers view.

I have a manfrotto superclamp which I intend to use to mount the camera bracket to the rollbar inside the vehicle. Connect it to a wireless trigger to fire the camera (not sure how to do this yet on a D70s or D200), using Bowens Pulsar Triggers.

I picture the camera will be vibrating madely, so shutters speeds will most likely need to be up around 1/1000ths. At this, ambient light inside a car may be very low, so will meter to set up.

The racing is not competition, but the driver must be focused on safety, and I think flash would be a danger. Your thoughts?

I plan to use a prime, to avoid loss of focus from zoom creep, perhaps a 50mm/1.8.
User avatar
Oz_Beachside
Senior Member
 
Posts: 2227
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 11:31 pm
Location: Black Rock, Victoria. D200

Postby Oz_Beachside on Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:31 pm

Looks like the nikon product MC-22 may be one step closer to connecting my bowens pulsar radio triggers, to the D200, to trigger the shutter.

is there a D70 solution?
User avatar
Oz_Beachside
Senior Member
 
Posts: 2227
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 11:31 pm
Location: Black Rock, Victoria. D200

Postby Kyle on Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:47 pm

I did this once with my benro c297f and ballhead http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/8936 ... 6dx4bv.jpg

Strapped down a little inside.

Sure it's bulky, but it didnt move one bit.

Does the car have a rollcage at all mate? :)
User avatar
Kyle
Senior Member
 
Posts: 1148
Joined: Wed May 10, 2006 10:28 pm
Location: Penrith, nsw

Postby !~DeViNe~DaRkNeSs~! on Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:36 pm

a roll cage really helps! i had a vid camera mounted once. used pipe clamps and "L' braceing steel to make a box like frame to mount the vid cam in. worked a treat. i found that padding the camera was worse, if solidly mounted the camera bounced around at the same rate as everything else in the car thus appearing stable, when viewing outside the car the vibrations looked minimal. if u dont have a cage i have no idea what u could do. i tried tying down a tripod on the backseat once as well but that was shit and it just wobbled around then came loose :(
Canon EOS 40D
Canon EOS 400D
50mm 1.8 EF
User avatar
!~DeViNe~DaRkNeSs~!
Member
 
Posts: 437
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:19 am
Location: Essendon - MELBOURNE

Postby Oz_Beachside on Sun Jan 21, 2007 12:39 am

Kyle wrote:I did this once with my benro c297f and ballhead http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/8936 ... 6dx4bv.jpg

Strapped down a little inside.

Sure it's bulky, but it didnt move one bit.

Does the car have a rollcage at all mate? :)


thanks. I have the mounting hardware, to clamp onto a roll cage, passenger side, to get shots of driver. What my main problem is, how to connect a radio slave (I have the bowens ones), to trigger the shutter (as I will be trackside, with the transmitter in hand).

The bowens has a Synch-output socket, but I need to get this to the D70s shutter... wondering throgh some electronics???

D200 I think I know to use a cable, but the D70s has a different connection... :?
User avatar
Oz_Beachside
Senior Member
 
Posts: 2227
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 11:31 pm
Location: Black Rock, Victoria. D200

Postby Oz_Beachside on Sun Jan 21, 2007 5:26 pm

Guess somehting like this will plug into the D200 from the Bowens Pulsar, but is there one for D70s?
http://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Wizard-Nikon-Motor-804-503/dp/B00009XVMX/sr=1-3/qid=1169360606/ref=sr_1_3/105-9075064-5986830?ie=UTF8&s=electronics
I'll keep hunting...
User avatar
Oz_Beachside
Senior Member
 
Posts: 2227
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 11:31 pm
Location: Black Rock, Victoria. D200

Postby Oz_Beachside on Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:23 pm

guess I can get somehting like these, or cut the end of a MC-DC1?

Has anyone opened an MC-DC1? Wondering if inside is a simple mechanical multiple position switch?

http://michaelbass.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

If I could find the name of the plug on the MC-DC1, I could perhaps just buy a budget cable, and solder on a miniphone to synch to the bowens pulsar trigger...

getting closer.
User avatar
Oz_Beachside
Senior Member
 
Posts: 2227
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 11:31 pm
Location: Black Rock, Victoria. D200

Postby redline on Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:05 am

I've done it in racing car with a d100 and pocket wizard.

Image
Life's pretty straight without drifting
http://www.puredrift.com
redline
Senior Member
 
Posts: 1370
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2004 9:36 pm
Location: Melbourne

Postby Oz_Beachside on Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:18 am

redline wrote:I've done it in racing car with a d100 and pocket wizard.

Image


ah, found you :D I remembered your thread, but couldnt find it.

Any tips on this? Exposure? What did you use between the PW and D100? (did you make a custom cable, or find one?)

In this shot, what was the full EXIF?

thanks heaps, and hope you can help
cheers
Oz
User avatar
Oz_Beachside
Senior Member
 
Posts: 2227
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 11:31 pm
Location: Black Rock, Victoria. D200

Postby !~DeViNe~DaRkNeSs~! on Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:29 am

looks like a good track day out for us melb ppl :D :wink: :twisted:
Canon EOS 40D
Canon EOS 400D
50mm 1.8 EF
User avatar
!~DeViNe~DaRkNeSs~!
Member
 
Posts: 437
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:19 am
Location: Essendon - MELBOURNE

Postby redline on Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:03 pm

Oz_Beachside wrote:
redline wrote:I've done it in racing car with a d100 and pocket wizard.

Image


ah, found you :D I remembered your thread, but couldnt find it.

Any tips on this? Exposure? What did you use between the PW and D100? (did you make a custom cable, or find one?)

In this shot, what was the full EXIF?

thanks heaps, and hope you can help
cheers
Oz


kit lenses
manual focus
manfrotto suction mount with 3d head
exposure: about f/8 (shutter speed = enough to give bg blur varies on how fast casr is going)
PW---PW Cable(you can find it at bhphoto)--D100

can't remember the full exif ,
just go out to your car and practice some shots :)
Life's pretty straight without drifting
http://www.puredrift.com
redline
Senior Member
 
Posts: 1370
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2004 9:36 pm
Location: Melbourne


Return to Tips and tricks