IPhone mounts for Track Day Video
 

Hey all,

Looking for some help here.

I am making preparations for going out to the Utah Motorsports Park on 9/10-9/11 and I purchased a Ram suction mount and a Tackform ball clip based on readings here and on other forums to facilitate mounting my phone on the windshield for video. I plan to use RaceChono Pro with my OBDLink for data overlay.

My problem is I mounted the Ram mount high on the windshield, just behind my rearview mirror, and the suction system has just enough flex that the video is horribly jittery and unusable. The car has RS engine mounts for the transmission, 987 engine mount, headers, high flow cats, and a Beluga race exhaust but doesn't really feel like it vibrates bad. I don't really notice it.

Where do you all mount your suction style mounts and is it possible I have mine in a bad position, the mount has an issue, or maybe my phone camera is jacked? Normal video and picture taking is fine on the phone. It is an iPhone 8 Plus.

Lower is better for stabilizing and make sure it's not bumping mirror as that would exacerbate the issue. I have mine usually middle of windshield about 1/2 up or occasionally (just for data & not vid) vertical near driver A-pillar.

Also check the s/w for a image stabilization / auto focus feature.

I use Porsche's Track Precision App (as my car is capable) and video is always smooth... once I found those features within.

Good luck and have fun :)

Your mounting appears solid. The trick is always to get the camera as close to the suction mount as possible. Some phones have better image stabilizing than others. Make sure it's turned on :rolleyes:
Often it's better to use a small action camera mounted directly to the windshield. You can match up the video with the data in post. I've used the SJCam M20 super cheap 4K cameras with great success!

James, thanks for the comments. I don't see in any of the ios menus to set any specific video stabilization.

StevedOx reached out and said that the recent era phones have built in stabilizer functions that don't work so well for track type driving. Crazy that such expensive phones take crap video.

Here is an example on Youtube with newer phones compared to older ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzKZA2xhazg

Seems the consensus is to use a cheap mounted camera and ditch the phone video.

can't go wrong with gopro and like others have said, you can add the data in post processing. Adobe is pretty cheap as a monthly subscription and you can cancel it during the off season then pick it up again later.

Many tracks and clubs do not allow suction cup mounts for the track

One thing I found with the iPhone is if you use the camera in the “Selfie” mode, that is, the one on the screen side, you get more stable videos in the car. Apparently this side of the phone has less or no stabilization software to screw things up. This is on my iPhone 8 Plus. You need to do a little trial and error though to get the right camera angle/screen view this way though.

I mount this on my BK rollbar extension and use the selfie cam.
This position has view of the track, where I’m looking (via rear view mirror), and steering inputs.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B079Z1CH9B?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I loop a zip tie around the ‘neck’ of the mount then a couple more from the loop to the roll bar for extra security.