Sunday, August 31, 2008

Flip Ultra

While reading through the Eco-Friendly Bicycling Photographer blog I came upon the author's review of the Flip Ultra camcorder. This thing is super simple and takes 60 minutes of video. I ordered one ($124.99 at Newegg) and went about figuring out the best way to mount it to my Wald basket. Flip sells their "Action Mount", but that would be too easy, besides the helmet mount looks kind of silly.
























I bought two electrical covers, about $1.50 each from Home Depot and screwed them together on the outside front of the basket. They came with thin foam pads which turned out to pretty useful. I cut a 8mm video case in half and taped it up with electrical tape for a little extra strength and support. The case holds the camcorder. I taped Velcro to the case and the cover plates and then attached the case to the cover plate. I wrapped a Velcro strap around the case for extra security and placed a piece of foam at the bottom of the case for a little shock resistance.
























































This setup didn't work so well. The vibration and camera shake was terrible, so I removed and reversed the elecrical cover so that the Velcro was on the inside of the basket. Yes, I placed a couple of straws inside the case to support the sides of the camera and provide some cushion, it looks cheesy but it works.





































Here's a very short test video. There's still a fair amount of camera shake and wind noise but it looks much better that my first attempt.



I'm going to try to have this perfected before the Cowtown Classic this weekend. If anybody's got any ideas as far as mounting or vibration dampening I'd like to hear them.

1 comment:

  1. May I suggest the Beanpod - the tripod that's full of beans?! www.Beanpods.co.uk, GBP 9.99 with free delivery in the UK. Shipping worldwide.

    ReplyDelete