FYI ALL;

Ok... here is what I did...

I went to Best Buy this Sat. and bought another Panasonic SDR-S26 to compare it to mine and it was NO different in any way. After spending several hours testing in my car I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS CAMERA FOR IN-CAR USE! The image stabilization is horrible for in-car use!

I also purchased a Canon FS200 to try out as well. IT COMPLETELY BLEW IT OUT OF THE WATER FOR IMAGE STABILIZATION! I will be keeping the Canon! I have also found it online for around $260-$275.

Brian

 

Bringing this thread back from the dead. I just bought a Canon HF200 HD video camera (it's teeny) with an external mic and dead cat.

My plan is mostly to make videos of my son.
The secondary gain is making exhaust and in-car videos.

I was thinking about purchasing one of the Modifry windshield (front window) suction cup mounts. What is the experience with those? The Canon has pretty good IS and it is VERY light so I don't anticipate lots of shaking with it.

Thanks!

 

I bought a Kodak Zi8, Sony ECM-DS70P mic and a Panavise 809 mount. This exact setup:



Have yet to get any in-car videos though, maybe soon. I was hoping I'd be able to mount it to the rear window somehow to get full view of dashboard and road but doesn't look like I can adjust the mount that way. Going to experiment with passenger side window mounting too.

 

I have the standard Modifry mount. You can tighten bolts underneath the camera mount to adjust the difficulty in removing the mount. I found that my camera jumped about a bit unless I tightened the crap out of the mount. Once I had it good and tight, the video didn't jump around at all. It makes it a bit difficult to remove the mount, but it isn't a big deal.