Could hiding a dahcam in a custom made roof mounted encosure work safely?

[country_hick]

I found this roof mounted console picture online.

If you cut out some smaller sized holes in the front, back, and sides you could hide mini-cams like the mobius inside. As this would be custom made you could easily cut some circles or ovals in the sides. That way it would look like custom scroll work. Having several extra holes would allow for air circulation. You could also hide the camera lenses behind one or more of those holes.

Maybe a 12 volt fan for air circulation would be necessary to avoid cam overheating?




With some simple photoshopping we have holes to hide the cams and more holes for air circulation. I used circles as they are the easiest shape to make.

Would anyone guess you have a cam aimed out your side window and another cam aimed at the back window?

 

[wozzzzza]

mine works fine, click below link to see what I did.
Where did you mount the camera? Post your pictures

 

[Street Guardian USA]

The INNOVV C3 (Capacitor Edition) with remote lens would be ideal for this. You can keep the main unit seperate via the mini-HDMI extension cord. You can also choose between 90 or 120 degree. You can use a miniHDMI extension cable if needed past 60 inches as well.

 

[niko]

I found this roof mounted console picture online.

If you cut out some smaller sized holes in the front, back, and sides you could hide mini-cams like the mobius inside. As this would be custom made you could easily cut some circles or ovals in the sides. That way it would look like custom scroll work. Having several extra holes would allow for air circulation. You could also hide the camera lenses behind one or more of those holes.

Maybe a 12 volt fan for air circulation would be necessary to avoid cam overheating?




With some simple photoshopping we have holes to hide the cams and more holes for air circulation. I used circles as they are the easiest shape to make.

Would anyone guess you have a cam aimed out your side window and another cam aimed at the back window?

Having cameras inside centre of the car like and example on photo, is not good idea.
First of all the field of view will be much limited. Second: auto-exposure will be wrong. If you want side and rear cameras, then best to move them as close as possible to the windows ( side- and rear ). One of 4-channel set-up ideas I have made in my car HERE.

 

[country_hick]

Having cameras inside centre of the car like and example on photo, is not good idea.
First of all the field of view will be much limited. Second: auto-exposure will be wrong. If you want side and rear cameras, then best to move them as close as possible to the windows ( side- and rear ). One of 4-channel set-up ideas I have made in my car HERE.

The field of view could be limited by the cars sheet metal. I can see that possibly being a problem.
On the other hand with the cams being further away from the window opening a larger area might be in view of the camera because of set back.

How would or could this affect auto-exposure?.

 

[niko]

The field of view could be limited by the cars sheet metal. I can see that possibly being a problem.
On the other hand with the cams being further away from the window opening a larger area might be in view of the camera because of set back.

How would or could this affect auto-exposure?.

Best to experiment is if you take your existing dashcam, or camera-phone and make few videos, or photos from the place you plan to mount "hidden cameras" ( from the centre of inside vehicle just below car ceiling ) and then make videos / photos from being close to windows. Then compare on PC and you see how much field of view you will have if dashcam is mounted inside car ( centre ) and how much if its mounted close to windshield. Yes, overall FOV will be the same, its just if cameras mounted inside vehicle ( centre ceiling ) there will be a lot of obstructions: door, headrests, door-pillars, passengers heads / bodies etc ). Also you will see how autoexposure changes ( depending on the daylight ).

 

[kamkar]

it will have to be a big car, meaning plenty of headroom for my 6 feet 3 inches.

I think it will only be useable to capture ppl in the car, or ppl quite close to the windows, it appear to sit about as high as the top of the windows, so any cameras will have to be anglen down some what, witch in turn will make the field of view shorter.

I think it might allso affect auto exposure as most dashcams use the winde angle lenses, so the bright openings ( windows ) might be a lesser part of what is in the footage, and so the camera will set itself to work with that.
There is nothing to do but try it out holding a camera up near the sealing and see on the footage what settings it have used, and then compare that to the settings used with the camera up against the windows like most dashcams are.

I assume in this config daytime might actually be the hardest to handle as the car is dark at night and so the camera should set itself to most optimal settings for night recording.
daytime might be problematic with A-pillars - part of roof and ppl in the seats in the footage, so the bright outside witch can be seen by the camera past those things might be overexposed.