I've made up a simple camera mount so I can take movies as I drive. It's rigid enough (doesn't move when you wiggle it) but the results are very jittery. Some of that is the car, fair enough, but has anybody got any ideas for cushioning the mount to take the worst vibrations out?

Details and samples below:

a) the mount

Lufbra by night

c) xenon dipped beams (whilst stationary)

d) Philips +30% main beams (whilst stationary)

Bryan,

It's the seat movement being enhanced over distance. I had a similar issue when I was testing a in car cam idea. I found it was slightly better when over the seat, i.e. between the head rest and seat, but this of course is not always practical.

By far the best solution is a dash / screen mount.

Now I have somewhere an expensive mount (circa 70 quid) and that's solid, untill you hit pot holes, then the camera just looses the will to film.

You might be able to reduce the seat vibration by linking both up, that is tot he back of your seat, it should not be moving that much.

Give it a whirl...or look at suction mounts with a thread then a simple camera mount from manfrotto etc...

What dials are you using?

If I was guessing; I'd say that was a 7" screen...

What dials are you using?

If I was guessing; I'd say that was a 7" screen...

It's the Dynamics display of a Pioneer Avic (7"). In this case, acceleration, speed and lateral acceleration.

I have a peice of bent tin with t holes that sits over the head rest holes. I started with a peice about 18" long folded it at 90 degrees half way down so it rests onto the seat, with the camera sitting where the passenger's neck would be.

Works well with very little vibration.

Here is an example: http://www.philgooch.com/video/race1.avi the noise you can here is the plastic "lump" on the camera srtap rattling against the mount.

The main problem i'd suggest you have is that as rigid as the mount is, what its attached to isn't, seats aren't the most vibration free items, give it a rock and you'll see where the slightest movement is multiplied by the camera lense, you could try using the image stabiliser (if your camera has one) but also i'd say the metal arm with the camera attachment on the end is too long, again the slightest movement will be mutiplied by the lense.

As suggested, a dash or screen mount would provide the best solution short of one of those ridiculously expensive vibration absorbing arms!!

The less parts you have in your mount and the shorter the arms are the less chance you'll have of picking up vibration.

try also to remake the mount with some fom padding on the parts that contact the car. Our local market has a guy that sells dense stuff for putting in seat cushions etc. This would be ideal.

try also to remake the mount with some fom padding on the parts that contact the car. Our local market has a guy that sells dense stuff for putting in seat cushions etc. This would be ideal.

Good idea, could also try dynamat or such like just incase you have any little bits of off cuts lying around, (i'm sure most people dont but I have from my boy racerish days).

You could try a bath spounge but that may not be dense enough. You could possibly use the thick spounge from a floor mop type thing.

*I should have been a Blue Peter presenter*

I've got one of these...

I have a very old video camera (about 10 years) and it does vibrate a little, but I reckon its due to its weight for it.

I've also done some testing and can confirm that the closer the camera is to the headrest, the less movement you'll find.

Thanks for all the help guys. The Mk 2 is much more stable, and incorporates:

position over the seat (Colin)

headrest pillar location (Goochie) and

the shortest possible arm (johnjohnhealy)

oh, and bits of an Ikea footstool.

Looks good