Just for fun...BumperCam!

Well, after leaving Santana Row yesterday I was supposed to do my taxes. I got half done and then got bored with them and had to go play with the F355. I decided to go drive Hicks Rd. on the back side of Almaden Quicksilver Park in south San Jose. I also decided to go try out "BumperCam", a Flip mino HD camcorder mounted to the front bumper of the car. The lens ends up just over a foot from the road surface. Still learning the car and its been a while since I've driven Hicks, so not a quick as it could be but still fun. Gotta watch out for the turkeys and the cattle guards (ouch!). It is ten minutes (the limit for YouTube and covers the run from the south end of Hicks almost to the other end. It was shjot in 720p HD, so if you've got the bandwidth click the HD button on the clip.

Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Ep8mPQVIY

 

My buddy Mike went along for the ride. Here's a couple photos he took showing the camera and a nice motion blurred shot from the drive.
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Yep, that darned cattle guard. Ouch! I saw it coming and didn't slow down fast enough. We actually stopped to make sure the camera was still attached, although I mostly edited that out. I need to go look under the car and make sure I didn't hit anything there.

 

The camera comes with a standard 1/4-20 tripod mount on it. I used a little folding/collapsible tripod (called an "ultra-pod") that came with a velcro strap to hold it onto the grille. There is a new product from Delkin called a "Fat Gecko" camera mount that uses two suction cups to hold it onto a smooth surface. I am going to get one of these once they are available (supposed to be later this month) to try to get some different angles. Check it out at http://www.delkin.com/products/accessories/fat-gecko.html. That would probably be a good solution if you didn't have anywhere you could strap a camera mount to.

 

The Delkin Fat Gecko finally was available to order yesterday, so hopefully I will have it to try out next weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Well, as twilight was getting darker I took a few laps around the block with a Flip camera mounted on the engine lid pointing forward, in the scoop on the driver's door looking forward, and at the top of the windshield looking back.

The clip is posted here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqT93prNWKA.

There is still some vibration, although I think it could be reduced by adjusting the mount to get the camera closer to the car instead of sticking up/out so far with the longer lever arm that goes along with that. I'll keep playing and trying out different angles and positions looking for that great shot and the least vibration. I'm kinda liking the shot from the door, watching the front left tire in the frame.

 

Now that I know it won't fall off I need to get it out on a more interesting road!

 

I'm going to be trying some other locations for the camera as well. Inside the car as well as somewhere on the rear bumper to get a different view as well we getting better engine/exhaust sounds. Then I will likely end up with 2-3 cameras on the car and edit the footage together, using whatever good audio track I can get for everything.