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My $6 DIY Headrest In-Car Camera Mount

73K views 36 replies 19 participants last post by  mailman 
#1 ·
After the thread was started for posting everyone's videos, I decided to buy an HD camcorder. I haven't used it a whole lot and was planning to make an in-car mount for it. Then I found the CruiseCam and decided it was worth it and bought one.. after I ordered it online I find out these things have been on backorder since April. I made some calls, and even after offering me 10% discount to keep waiting, I just cancelled my order and made a trip to Lowe's.

I have seen various styles around the web for these mounts so I went into the hardware store with an open mind. I browsed around and had a few different ways of making it in my head. When the time came to choose a method, I decided I would try the cheapest and easiest one. I came up with a mount that only costs $6 and only requires drilling 5 holes through some plastic. Took me about 10 minutes to make.

(I also decided to add rubber pads on both ends for safety reasons, so call the "safe edition" the $9 mount.. :M5thumbs:)

Essentially this is a 3/4" PVC conduit pipe with two U-bolts with wingnuts, and a 1/4"-20 bolt for the camera mount.
- Other DIY mounts have used metal pipe. I find that excessive. The PVC is plenty sturdy and much lighter.
- Since its plastic I also think it would be safer in a crash and makes the drilling easy enough for a beginner.
- I wrapped the U-bolts with electrical tape to avoid metal-on-metal contact on the headrest posts and add grip

*Only issue currently is that I forgot to take in account the slant in the headrest posts, so the camera mount is angled up (see pictures). I am going to add a ball-joint camera swivel mount anyway so that is not a problem. But if you are going to make this and plan to mount it directly, make sure to angle the hole for your camera mount bolt*

And the good stuff:






 
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#3 ·
Ha thanks. Next step might be giving it a paint job. Something stealth. Maybe matte black..
 
#5 ·
Nice! Gotta give you points for creativity. :thumbsup: The matte black will dress it up a little.
 
#7 ·
It feels plenty rigid. At least as much so as CruiseCam would be. I will take it for a ride tomorrow and see how it does.
 
#11 · (Edited)
OK OK! Here is the footage from today. My first opinion was that it was shaky.. but after looking at other in-car setup footage it looks about the same. I may experiment with a metal rod and even a mount that is higher up closer to the roof.

Both available in HD if you click on the video and open on YouTube

This one is without any lenses


This one uses a fisheye lens
 
#13 ·
To increase stability I have added a mount closer to the headrest instead of near the end of the pipe. I also have lowered the headrest so that it puts a little pressure on it to stabilize as well. Unfortunately I think a lot of the vibration is from the seat. I have enough pipe left to make one that attaches to both headrest so when I have free time I may make that one and see if it has any less vibration in the footage.
 
#15 ·
Ill try the other headrest tomorrow. 2nd song is Banquet by Bloc Party
 
#16 ·
hmm, yeah it was pretty shaky, but you built it for 6 bucks, so thats pretty good. A while back I did a music video and most of it was filmed from inside a car, looking over the driver's shoulder and out the front windshield, I basically used a heavy tripod ontop of some sand bags, and some bungee cords to hold it in place, and the camera was a big one, so it made it more stable the whole back seat was use, but it was rock solid. it came out very smooth. I was filming with a very old volvo.

But I don't think you are looking into getting all that just for fun video recording your drives. What I can recommend, is maybe trying to fill the rod with sand or some material to absorb the car movement. Maybe even looking to get a gimbal to wear you screw in the camera so, the movement of the rod will not effect the camera.

good luck.
 
#19 ·
Stock suspension

I was just messing around a couple weeks ago and raised the headrest on the passenger chair, wrapped the camera in a towel, and lowered the headrest back down until the camera was held in place. I need to adjust the chair to get a better view but it worked pretty well for free and was definitely held in place.
That's an interesting idea. I may do that today too to compare. Do you think it would stay in place on a track? I don't want to crush my new camcorder.. :(
 
#18 · (Edited)
I was just messing around a couple weeks ago and raised the headrest on the passenger chair, wrapped the camera in a towel, and lowered the headrest back down until the camera was held in place. I need to adjust the chair to get a better view but it worked pretty well for free and was definitely held in place.




Edit: razahyde it's Bloc Party
 
#20 ·
First video ended right before you would have been at my office.
 
#23 · (Edited)
That's my typical route to work. Hit that 200k miles on the SC yet? Don't forget to update it in your signature..

Attached to driver's seat. Slow driving


Still on driver's seat. Acceleration and fast driving.


I think ill try it under the passenger seat headrest to test whether the vibration is from the seat or my mount.
 
#21 ·
The most secure way to do this sort of mount is actually if you bridge between the seats. You'll have to set the pass seat in the same position as the driver's (like that matters) but it will give you much more stability.
 
#25 ·
I bought this lucite camera mount that was made specifically for the E39. It is basically the same design, but more rigid than PVC. I used it at a few track days and it was very stable and worked really well. It has a Bogen Manfrotto head for the camera mount and is a quality piece. I sold my M5 this past summer so I no longer need this camera mount. I will post it for sale in the "For Sale or Wanted" forum if anyone has an interest.



 
#26 ·
for 9 bucks and no wait list, that is amazing. Gotta love the Kings of Leon also. I think I'm going to have to make one myself. Does anyone have the cruise cam? can they point out a flaw or anything? Good job man!
 
#29 ·
lol what is the extra $3 going towards?
 
#33 · (Edited)
If you've got a problem keep it to yourself. I can promise you no one wants to hear about it. If there was a nice mount available I probably would have bought one but there was nothing on the market.. so I made my own. Not to mention it saves money to spend on actual performance increasing mods.

Since this thread was started I have acquired a GoPro so I don't use the headrest mount anymore. Love this little camera!

Good luck on the search for an AW beast.
 
#36 ·
Why not just get a Contour GPS?

Why not just spring for a ContourGPS and the auto mount? Works great, now has GPS coordinates so you can follow your lines on track days, and mounts easily. Not the least expensive option, but a great option nonetheless for an M5. Check it out. <http://contour.com/camera/contour_gps> A buddy of mine has used it at Laguna Seca with his Evo <http://contour.com/stories/2011-3-16-evo-8-laguna-seca--10> This was prior to a firmware upgrade that fixed some GPS issues he had that day. Loves it.
 
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