Newbie: Advice sought re best place to mount a camera in this car

[GrahamS]

Hello all

Been reading the forums for a while and finally decided I would like a B40/A118 camera. Thought I would double check the car to ensure I could fit it stealthily behind the mirror and, well, this is the situation.

The large plastic housing behind the mirror is a Ford fitted forward facing camera that reads speed limits and other technical dull stuff so no chance of mounting it behind the mirror. Sadly it doesn't have dash cam like facilities

So am now considering other cameras but not sure if it's feasible to mount it stealthily

Directly below the existing camera housing is too low down the windscreen so wouldn't be stealthy and would block my field of view.

I was thinking maybe of putting something in the area I've marked in red but I have a few concerns about that.

• The dash cam might be too close to the edge of the plastic camera housing, which would then appear in all my videos. Not sure if that's a valid concern?
• It would be fairly easy to see from the outside as it doesn't have the mirror behind it to obscure the shape
• Wire dangling a long way down the windscreen

Second option seemed to be to get one of those cameras with an offset mount such as a Blackvue or Mini 805/806 and mount it where I've coloured blue so that the mount is stuck on the sun screen dots and the lens overhangs onto the clear part of the wind shield. Would still have to have a longish exposed wire leading up to it but not as bad as the first option

Didn't really want a Blackvue or Mini series but I'm struggling to think of a decent alternative that I could realistically mount, given all the hardware on my windshield

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

PS The car is right hand drive so picture was taken from passenger seat

 

[GJHS]

Forgive my short answer, I don't have time to find it for you. Check here, there was someone with a similar setup as yours https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/mobius-mounting-solutions.2654/

 

[benje302]

Look at this thread. It is a dedicated thread for installing/mounting the A118/B40.

https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/b40-a118-ae-cc30-mounted-in-your-car-photos.5909/

 

[GrahamS]

Thanks both. I'll check out those threads. Hopefully they'll provide the inspiration I need

 

[Nigel]

I suspect a mini 0806 mounted against the very bottom of the plastic housing would work well but it might depend on how tall the driver is, if they have to look up at the mirror then the camera would be visible, the mini 0806 has a 15 second screen off timer though so it might not be an issue anyway. Being down there it might suffer less from dash reflections which might be bad given the apparent low angle of that glass.

Alternatively it would work with it's mount in the red box pushed as close as possible to the plastic and the power cable running up the plastic, or inside the plastic if possible. I wouldn't move it out to the blue box, the video starts to look odd if you go too far off centre as you are not traveling in the direction you are pointing, although if it is just for accident footage then that's not important.

 

[GrahamS]

Thank you Nigel, you've given me lots of food for thought there.

Yes you're correct about the rake of the wind screen, it's a Mk3 Focus ST, hadn't considered about glare

I was initially against mounting a camera below the existing plastic housing but I guess something in the style of an 806 with it's low profile might just look like an extension of the existing Ford camera.

I had a look and the housing is sufficiently loose that wires could be tucked inside it

And if I mounted an 806 in the red area then it would have its lens sufficiently far away from the housing for it not to appear in the footage.

Hmmm. I will still check out the earlier mentioned threads and see what ideas have been utilised in the past but I'm liking your suggestions

 

[Nigel]

And if I mounted an 806 in the red area then it would have its lens sufficiently far away from the housing for it not to appear in the footage.

If you put the mount against the housing then you know that the mount doesn't appear in the image so I don't think the housing can either, although you may need to move it a little further down than the red box. The 0806 is better for this than the other minis as it has a lower profile mount and is closer to the glass which makes a big difference by the time you get to the edges of the image, it can also be mounted with the mount on the right, the others want the mount on the left.

 

[GrahamS]

Having checked out the threads suggested I've come to the conclusion that something like the 806 is going to provide me with the necessary stealth and placement options.

So thanks for all the input, I've ordered an 806 today.

 

[GJHS]

Having checked out the threads suggested I've come to the conclusion that something like the 806 is going to provide me with the necessary stealth and placement options.

So thanks for all the input, I've ordered an 806 today.

Make sure because the 0806 is not that stealth in that location and may be in direct sun. The mount is not really made to put on and off a lot and being a battery cam, you will have to remove it when parked in summer heat and when very cold. I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm trying to help you not have to exchange it or be unhappy later.