Camera placement for AutoX
 

Hey guys, I'm gonna be doing my 2nd autocross this weekend and plan on actually remembering my GoPro this time. Just out of curiosity, where is your favorite place to position your camera for track day recording? My goal with the videos is to review them to establish where/how I can improve.

Camera is a Hero3 Black Edition btw. I have several adhesive mounts, suction cup, and chest/head rig (obviously don't expect to use those).

My favorite is on top of the car (roof). Basically above the rear view mirror. This gives a good perspective on where the car is an what it is doing. Another good one is on the rear window looking towards you. That will yell you about your inputs but much less about car placement.

Multiple cameras are best. One on the front bumper/tow hook mount, on on the drivers side rear window aimed at the cockpit so you can see yourself, one on the top of the windshield, roof, one on the rear bumper aimed under the car so you can see your suspension.

In a perfect world...

In a perfect world I'd also have a KGC10 GT-R ;)

I find the left outside quarter window helpful. More cameras would be nice, though. Here is my example.
http://youtu.be/juKytYb6dWA?list=UU3...YtSbqjd8p-4kgg

I like to rotate the camera to different positions throughout the day. The three spots I use the most are upper left corner of the windshield, a headrest mount on the passenger seat (places the camera in the center of the interior), and a helmet mount, which helps show me how much I am (or am not) looking ahead. Plan to pick up a 2nd cam soon, and want to start putting it on the front fender pointed at the tire to see how close I'm getting to the cones.

Agreed, left quarter is very helpful for finding mistakes and seeing where improvements can be made. You can see the course, driver inputs, and distance from cones. Here's my example:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fBntn1v_RM&list=UUsxdlgxBUcYbNtCP9NqC1bA"]Toledo Pro Solo 2014 - 63 CS, Mike C. (Left Side) - YouTube[/ame]

i home built a rig to mount the camera in the center of the car at eye level


personally i find this the best compromise. It's far enough to see the hand inputs, tachometer, and also speed, but not far enough that you see useless things... like the back of your head, or worse yet, the seats.

And close enough to not have the camera go crazy setting exposure or distort the forward vision


cameras mounted on the side can offer insight into how close you get to cones, but they tend to distort the vision and it makes it hard to judge whether the driver made the correct line choice relative to the whole course


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaRKCawnkEw"]2014 PITL Autocross #4 - YouTube[/ame]

I did a lot of searching and was able to pick up 3 cameras for less than the cost of the top dog GoPro. Plus I'm not forced to use the proprietary GoPro mounts.


Now all I need to do is get @7thgear to make me one of his custom mid-level mounts and I'll be golden! :)


See examples of how I use the cameras in my build thread below.

Any pics of your setup? I'd be very interested to see how you have it set up.

The helmet mount to help monitor looking ahead is a great point. Looking ahead was definitely my biggest issue in my first autox.

I've been too lazy to make a DIY


but in a nutshell... I have a broom handle that goes through the center of the car and is attached using suction cups to the light-dome and rear window


and then the camera hangs down from the broom at the location of my choice


there are some other mcgyvery type things involved


maybe next week... keep bugging me about it :)

Haha that's pretty clever! I may try to put together a similar rig using pvc pipe for my next autox. Too much going on before this weekend's to put anything together.

ideally I'd cut holes in my roof liner and JB weld metal pickup points in a triangle right to the roof


then I'd have an inverted mini tripod for camera use


but... I dunno, maybe next year.