Dashboard mounted gimble or other stabilization.

[johnny5c]

Our local Sheriff and his partner do a weekly live stream using a iPhone facing out the front of their patrol car.  They're currently using a basic phone mount with window suction cups and the footage gets a little choppy especially during high speed chases.  A group of us local business owners are chipping in to upgrade their phone and at the same time I'm trying to find a better mounting solution like a powered gimble or other shock suppressing mount.  Thanks in advance for any help.

[Bombastinator]

Got a link to the problem footage? Direction of problems may help with a better solution.  
 

 

I haven’t done camera work in 30 years so I’m way way out of the loop myself.  All I’ve got is old.
So going old:

The cheapest cheapest stedycam is the very first one.  It’s a bit legendary.  Some dudes shooting a horror movie attached a camera to the center of the longest wooden board they could buy and each grabbed an end and ran through the woods with it.  They created these wild “flying” shots that made the movie famous.  I forget which one it was.  Some B grade supernatural slasher thing.  Someone will know. It was famous.  They hoped to reduce the camera tipping from side to side but the board wasn’t perfectly stiff and the result was it absorbed up and down movement too.  The result was a weird supernatural stability.  Car dashes aren’t 15’ wide but they’re not small either.  What I got for you (I’m hoping someone else comes up with better) would be a strip of wood just above (but not touching) the dash and just flexible enough to take the wiggle out.  Let’s hope modern tech kicks butt on 1980’s wood and duct tape.

[johnny5c]

28 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Got a link to the problem footage? Direction of problems may help with a better solution.  
 

 

I haven’t done camera work in 30 years so I’m way way out of the loop myself.  All I’ve got is old.
So going old:

The cheapest cheapest stedycam is the very first one.  It’s a bit legendary.  Some dudes shooting a horror movie attached a camera to the center of the longest wooden board they could buy and each grabbed an end and ran through the woods with it.  They created these wild “flying” shots that made the movie famous.  I forget which one it was.  Some B grade supernatural slasher thing.  Someone will know. It was famous.  They hoped to reduce the camera tipping from side to side but the board wasn’t perfectly stiff and the result was it absorbed up and down movement too.  The result was a weird supernatural stability.  Car dashes aren’t 15’ wide but they’re not small either.  What I got for you (I’m hoping someone else comes up with better) would be a strip of wood just above (but not touching) the dash and just flexible enough to take the wiggle out.  Let’s hope modern tech kicks butt on 1980’s wood and duct tape.

Here's a clip from the other weekend,

 

I've used the board method with a Hi8 camera back in college and it does work but it wouldn't be practical in this case because it's a county SUV and has a lot of other equipment on the dash.  The new iPhone is supposed to have better stabilization so hopefully that will help a little.

[Bombastinator]

21 minutes ago, johnny5c said:

Here's a clip from the other weekend,

 

I've used the board method with a Hi8 camera back in college and it does work but it wouldn't be practical in this case because it's a county SUV and has a lot of other equipment on the dash.  

Up and down doesn’t seem to be a big problem which is the really hard bit and what I was most worried about with a bumpy car.  I’m not who you need.  Most new stuff is gimbal stuff which deals mostly with tilting and vibration.  Doesn’t seem to bad to me which I suspect says more about my lack of eye.  You could see the hood going up and down so there’s something going on.  Could be in camera image stabilization. It’s 1:30am where I am so this might not be seen by the subset of people that would be able to help. Stuff tends to fall off the bottom of the page after about a half hour tops.  When it gets busy it’s more like every fifteen minutes. It may need to be reposted come morning.  Gah. I read first post on that.  You know all of this already

Edited October 19, 2020 by Bombastinator

[LstpersonalOF]

hey man really the only is this 

 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/610980-REG/Delkin_Devices_DDMOUNT_SUCTION_Fat_Gecko_Dual_Suction_Camera.html and a  mobile gimbal like dji osmo https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1497924-REG/dji_cp_os_00000022_01_osmo_mobile_3_smartphone.html they can be controled without the app and can be controlled with the joystick i have not use it by myself but you should try it first if it suits your needs.