Yesterday evening, I took my first on the road Time Lapse footage. This is not the car I'll be using, but I was able to wedge the Pentax Optio S4i between the dash and windscreen on the RHS. It certainly worked as the footage shows reducing my 20 minute journey to 14 seconds:
However, I can see that the positioning of the camera is critical to what I capture. This image shows too much of the sky and on-coming traffic and everything seems so far away. The idea in my head is of a view that feels like I'm on top of the traffic ahead of me.
I note that my journey to and from Bundoora takes 40-60 minutes, so this would give me a footage time of about 45 seconds. I probably need to slow it down to 1/50 (90 sec) or 1/20 (270 sec) in order to extract footage of traffic jams.
After this, I took photos from my car with the camera held in the various positions from which it might be possible to attach the camera to some part of the car:
Dash in front of driver:
From head rest on passenger side:
From in front of rear view mirror:
From dashboard close to window on the right hand side:
Centre of Dashboard:
I think it's quite clear that the "Dash in front of driver" is the best position although it still feels like the car in front is so far away, but I think that's the best I can do for this exercise in the time frame.
Next, I tried various methods of fixing: packing/gaffer tape, blutac, rubber bands and double-sided Velcro. Rubber bands (cable ties or velcro ties) would work for the rearview mirror, but not for the dash. Blutac wasn't sticky enough and tape didn't hold the camera steady or prevent from tipping over! from this low weight camera, the Velcro seems the best option, holding it in exactly the right place. If I find out why the time lapse on the heavy and bulky Pentax 20kd isn't working, this method would be unlikely to work.
It has also occurred to me that I could also tape the little camera to the rearview mirror or even the wingmirror for completely different footage...?
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