Just thought I would start a thread on what us chasers (those few that there is) use and generally chatter, or at least I will keep you updated on what im up too.
Almost have finished putting my dash camera in place, at first I had in it the middle of the dash but the vibration there was bad so have now got in positioned in between the steering wheel and the pillar (refer photos) Drove round the block and went alot better. At the moment it is only glued down, will secure it properly with bracketa and screws tomorrow.
Wont be driving with LCD screen open
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Yes good stuff Steve I wonder if American storm chasers have come up with that technique?.
Ha lol some pple might think it's a speed camera in your car Steve lol.
Cheers
NOW FOR SOMETHING TO CHASE
JASON TIPPET
I would only observe and Film weather from a Vehicle as a last resort.
Most important thing is to get your self into a good viewing position and I think stay there and hope for some good luck.
Great setup, Steve. I've used my camcorder on a weighted tripod on the floor in front of the passenger seat. With the wide angle adapter it sees most of what I see while driving and the image is fairly stable.
And yes, Jase, you get some strange/worried looks from other drivers
I agree the ideal is to be outside a vehicle but with the distances we've covered this season chasing down here, you can miss quite a lot just getting to a good observing position
I see the camera mounted inside the vehicle as a safety issue as well as keeping the camera out of the rain. But the camera needs to be able to be aimed out of an open passenger window as the windscreen view can easily be obscured by rain.
I went shopping for a small tripod yesterday, one that can be set up on the front seat, and the camera aimed out of an open window. I havn't made a purchase yet but saw a couple I like the look of.
The setup that steven has gone for is similar to what is done in the USA.
But as spwill says, setting up outside is a good option, so long as the storm is not in close proximity.
the front window view is standard for this type of set up, The side window wouldnt work well, If it rains the window has nothing to whip it clear I just cant see that working, and typically your heading into a storm so looking in front of you would be logical.
The reason I have this is so when driving along I can hopefully get lightning with out filming and driving at the same time, also going to buy an inverter to run the camera off so battery power wont be an issue only tapes will lol This will also mean a second car battery will be installed, this will also run my other setup I have in the pipeline
I tried to photograph Lightning from my Car on Friday Morning . I set the tripod up on the front passenger seat with the side window open but had the problem of very heavy rain comming into the car.
Below is a photo I took last week from a moving car with my Camera sitting on the Dash.
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A couple of guys in a car club I used to be part of, made up a tripod mount that slipped into the seat headrest mounting holes - it worked really good for in car video filming at the drags and could be moved from car to car very quickly. I'll see if I can dig up a picture of it...
I used my camera on the dash on the company car while driving the back road between Clinton and Mataura as a storm approached, earlier this year.
Great picture but of course as the road wound it's way, obviously i never always saw the storm front. Also as the rain hit two problems occurred... 1) the window wipers were real annoying on the footage and, 2) as the rain got extremely heavy, the camera wanted to focus on the water on the windscreen, not out in the storm.
Too dangerous to be trying to fix the focus while driving.
Buy a product called RainX. You can get it from Repco. If you are travelling more than about 50-60kph you shouldn't need to use your window wipers unless the rain is torrential. Just a hint
There is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes.
Well its in now, was orignaily going to screw it down with brackets on each leg, but in the end got frustrated and just screwed the tripod to the dash, works like a charm
Had a look at some footage from Steve (03Storm) driving around in his car the other day and I must say it does look nice and stable, not moving all over the place.
I just got a new video camera to record storms so hopefully I'll get some good ones with it , Panasonic GS400:
Got to make a windsock now and get a lense hood. I'll probably wait till next season to go and get a better tripod and wide angle. I've actually got a wide angle that I use with my Nikon 5700 so I'm gona have a play around with that to see how well it does, so I may not need to get another wide angle.
, Panasonic GS400:
