Anyone ever mounted a large camera in their chase vehicle?

[Charles Ryan Mauk]

So I upgraded my video gear significantly and got a large format Sony that weighs roughly 10 pounds. For the last few years my main camera has been a Sony A7Sii but I learned the hard way that 8- bit cameras don’t handle the fine nuances in the shades of gray while shooting LOG within the clouds we like to see. This should handle that much better. Can’t wait to get it out in the field! The problem: mounting it in my dash. I have a Gripper XL 116 That works fine for a DSLR but it won’t fit this camera, and the cameras probably too heavy anyways. I have toyed around with some ideas with rigging a mount off of my RAM laptop mount with some added risers and then finally a manfroto video head, but before I invest a bunch of money I wanted to reach out to everyone else to see if anybody had any better ideas. I usually chase alone, so a dash mount is kind of a necessary item. How I had it working before is I had a quick release plate system on both the in-car Mount and on my tripod so I could quickly take the camera out of the car and put it on a tripod when and if I get out of the vehicle. I have attached a photo of the camera and roughly where I want it in the dash/windshield area. Thanks in advance!

 

[Dan Robinson]

I built a mount for my Sony VX2100 in my first Ford Ranger. It was two aluminum box beams from Home Depot connected into an L shape. One end of the horizontal bar was bolted on the dash and extended back overtop of the center console between the seats, the vertical bar wedged between the seat and the center console. I put a tripod head on the horizonal bar using a 1/4" bolt. I had several mounting holes drilled into the horizontal bar so I could move the mount up or back. I added a diagonal cross brace for lateral stability that attached near the top of the horizontal bar with the other end at the passenger door.

The big prosumer cams are really hard to mount in a car as you'd expect. Maybe a Filmtools mount would work better? I built mine for about $30 total, but it took up a lot of space and rendered the passenger seat unusable - it worked, though..

 

[TJKLECKNER]

grab about three Filmtools mounts, arrange them in a spaced out triangle, with three bars meeting at a central point. At this point is the 1/4" nut/bolt for the camera. Should divide the weight and add stability. It all works in my imagination, but good luck getting it on paper

 

[Charles Ryan Mauk]

I need to see out the window though haha

 

[Charles Ryan Mauk]

I built a mount for my Sony VX2100 in my first Ford Ranger. It was two aluminum box beams from Home Depot connected into an L shape. One end of the horizontal bar was bolted on the dash and extended back overtop of the center console between the seats, the vertical bar wedged between the seat and the center console. I put a tripod head on the horizonal bar using a 1/4" bolt. I had several mounting holes drilled into the horizontal bar so I could move the mount up or back. I added a diagonal cross brace for lateral stability that attached near the top of the horizontal bar with the other end at the passenger door.

The big prosumer cams are really hard to mount in a car as you'd expect. Maybe a Filmtools mount would work better? I built mine for about $30 total, but it took up a lot of space and rendered the passenger seat unusable - it worked, though..

I have a Filmtools gripper 116 XL Mount but it’s not going to cut it.

weight wise and space

 

[Charles Ryan Mauk]

Here’s the previous setup

 

[Charles Ryan Mauk]

Update: I think I found a solution. I may need to weld a support arm off of the vertical pole into the floorboard for extra support...maybe.

 

[Jeff Wright]

Doug Trumbull of Star Trek: The Motion Picture game has a truck full of high end cameras he used for his interest in UFOs—ufologists something. Somebody needs to contact him on using that for weather.

I remember reading about a ufo believer that wound up making a computer program for a camera that would only record non-aircraft lights.

The result was a sprite detector.

 

[bjewett]

I've mounted a tripod in my FWD Mazda 3, with two legs placed in each front floor (connected to floor mat grommet), and 3rd leg higher back to center console. I then secured it with wires to either side of front center console base, and back to drilled screws in rear seat area behind center console. It is very steady and stable. I've mounted a full-sized Panasonic AG-CX350 camcorder on top pointed out the front windshield.

Whatever is mounted up front needs to have a good chance of not moving in an accident. I saw an EMT post that anything not truly solidly mounted will fly about in an accident, and it isn't worth that happening. That rules out all the suction-cup-mounts of anything, for me.