SLR to be used as an in-car camera???

i mounted a tripod on the rear seat of my car to record some racing
ill prolly be using the 7d tomorrow for in-car video of me autox racing.
is there anything i should worry about?
like shock and bumpiness?

I would worry about excessive vibration. I had a lens cease to function after a long ride safely packed on a motorcycle. It was NOT in use, but in a case with tons of padding around it.

I have used my 7D in the car/truck on a mount with a lot of safety rules and a CHEAP LENS mounted up.

Make sure the tripod is safely anchored, and I mean SAFELY.

Make sure the camera is SECURED to the tripod and TETHERED to the tripod.

Should you be involved in an " incident " you do not want them becoming MISSILES inside the car.

For what you are doing, I honestly would invest in another means to record. There are so many other smaller, lighter, SAFER systems out there to be put in a race car.

And not to mention, probably less expensive.

My friend uses a Flip video camera and just uses gaffers tape to secure it to his car. He has some videos of him doing rollovers.

tripod is secure
i will secure the camera to the tripod when its mounted
itll be a 7d with a tokina 12-24

its nothing serious..just autocross
probably several 3 minute runs

the next thing i have that records video is my blackberry
and tho it could record forever...im tired of the quality and tying a bungee cord around my passenger seat and fitting my phone between the bands to record
hahah

get a go-pro HD. much easier, and comes with mounts.

I would be distressed if the safety steward allowed you to have a lose tripod in your car while driving.

You will also need to find a way to use the camera strap to secure the actually camera itself to something besides the tripod, assuming the safety guys let you do it that way.

I was going to attach my 5d2 and 17-40 inside my car for track days, but have decided the gopro route for simplicity. Even though my equipment is insured, I really dont want to go through the hassle. Each run session for me is 15-20 mins.

40dbaby wrote in post #10849510
I was going to attach my 5d2 and 17-40 inside my car for track days, but have decided the gopro route for simplicity. Even though my equipment is insured, I really dont want to go through the hassle. Each run session for me is 15-20 mins.

GoPro Hero HD is great! I'm using it for on-car cycling videos: http://www.wagenvoort.​net/tv/

The image quality from this small sensor is simply stunning.

Get the suction cup mount to fix the camera to anything flat (car window, roof etc).

harcosparky wrote in post #10848470
I would worry about excessive vibration. I had a lens cease to function after a long ride safely packed on a motorcycle. It was NOT in use, but in a case with tons of padding around it.

What kind of motorcycle? I carry my cameras in the trunk and saddlebags of my 1982 Goldwing all the time and I've never had any issues. I can't help thinking that lens would have failed anyway and the vibration wasn't the proximate cause of the failure.

I second the advice to get one of the small HD video cameras. An SLR is big and heavy, it may not like the jolts and vibrations, plus it could be a problem mounting it securely so it doesn't come loose and become a hazardous flying object inside the car.

I made a mount that goes under the passenger headrest. All the parts were purchased at home depot. The thread size for the bolt to fit in the camera is 1 1/4 inch.

It'll handle the vibrations but it will get jostled a bunch

so the 7d survived

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=i_LMznpAJ7U

wow, that course made me cringe... I guess it's because we have had a mustang total itself out on a light pole at one of our events, even though we have at least 50 feet between poles and the course...

yea this was a non-scca event
someone actually went off course on that first turn after that first straight
..but he want being very smart by not using the brakes and yanking his handbrake...while the course was wet BTW
i locked my brakes right before that turn too on my previous run...scared the crap out of me
after that happend..i kinda eased off and hit the brakes a little early