mounting videocamera on bike

I intend to use a small dv video camera. Has anyone here ever done it?

Is it possible to buy a specific bracket to attach to bike?

If not what would be the best method besides gaffa taping the thing
between tri bars?

Will the vibration be too much for a steady shot or do I need to
'dampen' the connection?
Regards Sean.

On 7 Apr 2004 07:18:54 -0700, (sean) may have
said:

I intend to use a small dv video camera. Has anyone here ever done it?

It's been tried. My advice: Don't do it with equipment that you
intend to keep using.

Is it possible to buy a specific bracket to attach to bike?

Not off-the-shelf for that purpose AFAIK.

If not what would be the best method besides gaffa taping the thing
between tri bars?

In my opinion, the best method would be to use the rider as the
damping system; either employ a shoulder mount, or a helmet mount if
it's *really* light.

Will the vibration be too much for a steady shot or do I need to
'dampen' the connection?

Even on what appears to be smooth, level pavement, you will probably
need heavy damping with considerable motion absorption range. This
isn't just due to image blurring, it's also in recognition of the fact
that mechanically, these units are designed around a typical operating
condition parameter set which your proposed usage isn't within. To
safely use a camera that was designed for the relatively low
accelerations of hand-held use, you have to stay within those limits.
On a full-suspension bike with little or no shock absorption, you
might get away with a mount on the bars as long as the ride was over
fairly smooth terrain, but I personally would still not try it. The
tripod mounting shoe of the typical videocam simply is not intended to
be subjected to much force; I've seen them torn out of the housing in
situations with less motion than a bike would produce in a reasonably
normal real-world ride. If you're talking about using one of the
low-mass pure-digitals with no tape drive, you might get away with
more vibration and shock forces without destroying the unit, but your
images will still be pretty much of a continuous series of jitters
unless you can provide good motion damping.

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I intend to use a small dv video camera. Has anyone here ever done it?

See the following:

http://www.petefagerlin.com/video_how_to.htm

--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

Werehatrack wrote in message . ..
On 7 Apr 2004 07:18:54 -0700, (sean) may have
said:

I intend to use a small dv video camera. Has anyone here ever done it?

It's been tried. My advice: Don't do it with equipment that you
intend to keep using.


Indeed. There was one rider on Chilly Hilly this year who started
with a video camera on a tripod secured to his rear rack, pointed
rearwards (lousy view to the front). When I saw him at the finish,
the tripos was still there, but the camera wasn't.

Another friend secured the camera to his handlebars and got some
fantastic footage on a fast descent. The camera never worked after
that- so many internal connections had broken that the camera was
junk.

Jeff

Terry Morse wrote in message ...
I intend to use a small dv video camera. Has anyone here ever done it?

See the following:

http://www.petefagerlin.com/video_how_to.htm

Thanks guys. Very helpfull.

I actually made an device (out of 6061 Aluminum) for this very purpose for
an engineering class. With panning/azimuth adjustment, elastomer damping,
and tripod-style quick release. Admittedly it was 70 hours' worth of
machining work so that could be a barrier, but it works pretty darn well. I
can even reposition the camera to point at my face on-the-fly to give mobile
commentaries.

For the interim, you could possibly emulate my "MkI" model, which was simply
a piece of plywood to which I screwed a 1/4 - 20 bolt for the camera mount.
I also screwed an old cateye headlamp clip [taken off one of their older
lights] to the piece of plywood, and used the corresponding cateye handlebar
bracket [so that it could be taken off the camera].

Link to the MkI image below:

http://www.stanford.edu/~weisong/cmtmki.jpg

Bike tour films made using the MkI (scroll down):

http://www.stanford.edu/~weisong/vidpg1.html

The biggest problems with this early version were vibration and lack of
adjustability, which were fixed in the Al version. Smooth roads definitely
required for useable footage. I didn't have access to power tools when I
made this, so you can easily make some improvements.

Next project: to integrate shutter buttons into the brake hoods so I don't
have to take my hands off at 35mph to film.

song