Dash Mounted Camera

[canadiancow]

I'm looking to mount a camera to my car's dash, to record video in the same way you see in police chase videos.

I'm just not sure how to set it up properly.

I was thinking about using a laptop with several camera inputs (in case I want more cameras in the future), but I want it to record automatically, without me having to set it up every time I turn on my car.

Does anyone know of a better way to do this?

Thanks

 

[The_Other_One]

Google around, you can find some dashboard camera mounts. It really depends if you want to mod your dashboard too, how it's shaped, and the like. But it shouldn't be too difficult. Also, there's always the option of a backseat camera. I setup a tripod in my back seat once and it worked pretty well. At least until I took a curve a bit too sharp and it fell over! Some weights should fix that...

As for using a laptop, it really depends what type of camera you have. I wouldn't bother looking for one with analog (RCA) inputs. Perhaps simply get one with firewire. Though digital camcorders today are quite nice. My Jazz can record 2 hours of 720p video on a 4GB card.