Panavise 809 Camera Window Suction-Cup Mount

Due to the low price and generally good reviews, I bought this item. The suction grip is very strong; there seems to be no risk that this will fall off a window even with a small camcorder attached. Mine did not come with the extension arm, so my camcorder had to be mounted upside down on the windshield. The image can easily be rotated 180 degrees within Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 editing software, so being upside down is not a problem for me. Furthermore, having an extension arm might likely result in less stability, so it's probably best to use the shortest/sturdiest mount possible. (I haven't tested that claim so it might not be true.) My camcorder, with optical image stabilization, zoomed all the way out for the widest view (also the least sensitive to vibration), and driving on a reasonably smooth paved road even as slow as 20mph exhibited very noticeable vibration. The vibration is too great to use the video. Much smoother video is obtained by hand holding a camcorder in a moving vehicle; your body and arms act as shock absorbers and dampen vibration preventing it from reaching the camera. With this mount, small vibrations from the moving vehicle are transmitted directly to the camcorder and it seems to be amplified by the time it gets there. Furthermore, my high-definition camcorder, with a CMOS image sensor (which uses a "rolling shutter"), exhibits noticeable skewing artifacts from frame to frame as a result of the vibration, so there are not just blurred frames and jittery motion, but distorted frames as well. Consequently, even using a motion stabilization algorithm during post production won't produce acceptable results.

This mount should be excellent for situations where there is no vibration and no need to pan or otherwise modify the camera settings or view during exposure, but seems useless from a moving vehicle unless it's moving very slowly on smooth pavement.

---------IMPORTANT UPDATE -----------

I just noticed a few recent reviews that mentioned they received a knock-off, rather than a genuine Panavise 809. After studying the Panavise picture on this page very closely, I see that my unit is not a genuine Panavise 809, either. (There is no manufacturer or product ID on my unit or on the packaging, so I have no idea who manufactured it or what its true model name is.) I purchased my unit from Vangoddy through amazon.com. Perhaps that explains why so many other reviews are so good (especially the video review left by Thomas which shows, though at slow speed, how good his unit works) and my results are so bad -and I mean BAAAD, truly unusable. There is no comparison between the results I obtained and those that Thomas showed in his video.

This clearly is designed to be a CCTV mount. As such, with most CCTV cameras having top mounted attachment, I have no doubt that it works flawlessly.It is very well constructed and does indeed have amazing suction power and solid construction without any "wriggles".

I bought it hoping that I could use it on the fairly steeply raked windshield of a late model Civic to film driving routes with my digital camera. Even though I have a low profile "ultracompact" digital camera, there was not enough room between the windshield and the mount to allow me to mount the camera unless I mounted it upside down, which I obviously could not do because of the inability to rotate the resulting movie.

FORTUNATELY I discovered that the Civic has a flat non-porous ( i.e. plastic ) top gauge cover, and was able to mount it on that. But the vast majority of cars have curved top gauge covers, so I don't think this will be suitable for any but a few car models for the purpose I'm using it for.

If Panavise could come up with the same assembly and a U shaped holder for mounting a camera with a standard tripod screw thread from the bottom, BELOW the mount now that would be far more useful.

Buy Panavise 809 Camera Window Suction-Cup Mount Now

The product is really awesome.

The only thing you need to be careful is the extension arm.

If you have an oversized camera or a camcorder, you'll definetely

need an extension arm which originally doesn't come with the product.

Please see my user photos after January 8th, 2010.

The user photos showing the extension arm are a little confusing.

I bought a geniune one directly from the Amazon, and it doesn't have

the extesion arm which I later got directly from PanaVise. The guys

over there are terrific, and extremely helpful. They said the model

with the extension arm should be called as 809-X.

The video was recorded with Xacti 1010

I passed over two railroad crossings (at 1:44 and 3:33), the road

was terrible. The vibration and shaking is acceptable.

Read Best Reviews of Panavise 809 Camera Window Suction-Cup Mount Here

When I first got into highway videography, I purchased a small Aiptek camera Aiptek IS-DV2.4Blue MPEG-4 Digital Camcorder with Video Stabilization (Blue) and I was looking for a windshield mounting option. I purchased this unit but the angle of the mounting arm made it unusuable with my truck windshield. So I sent it back to Amazon and opted for a Sunpak Clik n Stick mount Flexpod Click N' Stick Suction-cup Monopod. I recently upgraded to a Panasonic SDR-H40 videocam Panasonic SDR-H40 40GB Hard Drive Camcorder with 42x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and needed something a little more substantial to hold the bigger, heavier camera. I originally thought that this unit, attached to one of those GPS friction mount pads that can be placed on the dashboard, would be perfect, but then I found out that Panvise now includes a mounting arm extension with this unit. (See the customer photo that shows the extension arm and a camcorder mounted in a car). So I bought another one. This appears to be just the solution for mounting a video camcorder in a vehicle. If you order one and the extension arm isn't included, just contact Panavise directly and they will send you the extension arm for free. No instructions for installing the mounting arm extension were included, but it's pretty easy to figure out how to install it. This unit holds tightly and seems to be pretty stout and secure. The mounting arm extension Panavise now includes makes all the difference in the world. I think the company realized that there is now a market for sturdy vehicle camcorder mounts. I recommend this highly! Can't wait to try out this setup and see how it works!

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Purpose brought: Used to make mounted vehicular videocam.

Pros: When set properly, this device sticks like glue!

Cons: Small swing arm limits mounting positions.

The suction seal is very strong and after two weeks I still can't physically remove it unless I use the pressure release lever.

The small arm limits the placement and use of a camera (ie: camera is inverted when mounting on a windshield), but it is perfect for holding small camcorders and digital cameras on a smooth, non-porous upright surface.

If you already have a small handheld videocam and wish to use it as a vehicle cam, Use this and a 90mm mounting pad mounted on top of the dashboard as a cheap alternative to buying a dedicated vehicle camera.

Great product but only 4 stars due to the small swing arm.

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