mounted cameras on the roof of the boat

[Jer]

MikeFisher posted this question in the "Malue Marlin Dream came true, by Mike" thread and I thought it was worth it's own thread:

who of you guys has experience with fix mounted cameras on the roof of the boat, we are testing and todays result been 8hrs 1/2 film material, all i see are the butts and feet of the crew, they went out of angle.
any hint how you mount your cams?, the idea is to let the cams run on video the whole day and afterwards take out the good sceenes as images. the memory i use is big enough to save 15hrs of filming in a row.
i appreciate any help/hint/experience on that, it's all new stuff for us.
hopefully i can report Fabio's next catch tomorrow afternoon, just in case we use a normal digicam to get it right.
tight lines
Mike

[dirtyj]

The best way to do it is to mount the lense as high as you can and then use a wide angle or "fish eye." Don't know what kind of boat you have, but we mounted a remote lense on the front and rear of the hard top that had a switch so you could change lenses. The lense over the rear was approx 16 ft above the cockpit which gave a good view from about an angler's head in teh chair out to the horizon. fixing it to the boat also eliminates shaking, vibrations and sudden jerks. The downside is not being able to see anything up the gunwales.

[langs15]

Well, I couldn't help you out on this. But, it is a really cool idea! Think about how many moments you have on the boat you wish you coul\d save for a life time and now you can!

[Tuna Taxi]

I bought a camera mount from Melton's a couple years back, it is in their catalog. It is the heat. It mounts to any rail/tube, and has a pistol grip that the camera mounts on. You can take very nice non-shaking video using the grip to point the camera. Let go of the lever, and the camera stays exactly where you you left it. Great if someone is going to man the camera.

I'm sure it would also work great as a fixed mount since you could use the adjustability to aim whatever camera you put up there, and even adjust it periodically if needed. All you need is somethig to attach it to.

I mount mine on the rocket launcher rail at the aft end of the flybridge, between 2 rod holders, and leave the camera there, then just shoot when I need to. Works great, but a bit pricey. Worth it if you want good video.

[MakoMike]

I've had some guest on board do something similar. They mounted the camera to a rod butt and then stuck the assembly in the rocket launcher on the back of the tower. Worked like a charm.

[Dave Sikorski]

Fly me down and you'll have the best damn Polish camera holder you can imagine!!

-D

[jbones11]

Fly me down and you'll have the best damn Polish camera holder you can imagine!!

-D

don't forget to take off the lense cap and remember to turn it on.

[Sterling]

Capt Steve on the FreeSpirit has a system like this and it seems to work great.

I've been thinking of one but haven't pulled the trigger. The problem I was having is that I wanted to record to a DVR, and I was having difficulty finding a portable one. Any suggestions there?

Good luck, it does sound like different lenses could be the answer. If you have a Raymarine E series you can also connect to that to display video there.

[matey8941]

yeo sterling i saw ur boat for the first time on sunday and may i say its a really nice boat...its really wide