Super classy gopro mount

[Nathan Doty]

I know I'm not the first, but its my first built piece of gear. I have a trip coming up and my cameras are... crap. So I picked up a gopro as a step up. And I wanted a little more steady of a shot so it's platform time. I made the rig mainly from maybe $3 of pvc fittings. The actual gopro platform though is made out of delrin, waaaaaaay overkill especially the thickness but I have some from building a cnc machine years ago so it was free and will never rot. I wouldn't suggest using it if you don't have it, according to some vendor calculators you can buy a platform for what that little piece costs. $50 for a 2"x3"x1" chunk. I don't recall what we paid for the big sheet but I don't recall it being priced out like gold. I haven't put it in the water yet so I'm not sure how buoyant it is. The pvc is sealed and should float but the delrin is really dense so we'll see.

And I made the spiral lanyard as well, so short of pouring my own plastic this is as diy as I can make it!

 

[diversteve]

The pink end caps take it from classy to "Super" Classy...

 

[kelemvor]

I made a pvc gopro mount a few years ago. I ended up drilling some holes in it. I had decided it would be easier to just allow water inside than to deal with the buoyancy of a hollow structure. I got some cheap (under $1) foam bicycle grips for handles.

 

[Joneill]

I know I'm not the first, but its my first built piece of gear. I have a trip coming up and my cameras are... crap. So I picked up a gopro as a step ip. And I wanted a little more steady of a shot so it's platform time. I made the rig mainly from maybe $3 of pvc fittings. The actual gopro platform though is made out of delrin, waaaaaaay overkill especially the thickness but I have some from building a cnc machine years ago so it was free and will never rot. I wouldn't suggest using it if you don't have it, according to some vendor calculators you can buy a platform for what that little piece costs I haven't put it in the water yet so I'm not sure how bouyent it is. The pv is sealed and should float but the delrin is really dense so we'll see.

And I made the spiral lanyard as well, so short of pouring my own plastic this is as diy as I can make it!

That looks like it might be hard to hold steady underwater: the "heavy" camera/delrin in the front versus the buoyant hollow tubes in the rear might make it tend to rotate the camera down in the front/handles up in the back? You don't want to be fighting that while tying to hold it steady. Give it a test run and see how it works. Worst case, drill some holes and let water in and add some strategically placed foam bits as needed if it is too heavy/unbalanced.

 

[yummylobster]

Thanks. gives me some ideas for making one

 

[Nathan Doty]

Have plastidip, will travel :laugh: I decided to use the red end caps for my fire buttons. I amused myself for quite a while pointing it at things and going 'pew pew pew' :laugh: My wife was not amused for some reason. Digging through my plasti collection I had black, grey and then blaze orange, red, blue and yellow. I might go tie-die before I take it out.

I'm going to stick it in the tub tonight and see how it balances out and adjust from there. My hot tub is saltwater, nowhere near ocean salinity but better than fresh. If it floats too much there I'll definitely drill some holes before I take it out. Being drug to the surface by my camera sounds like less than fun. But I figured a little positive would be a good thing in case it ever gets away from me. I'll adjust as I test it. The pics make it look like it spreads out further than it actually does. I don't *think* I'll have much of a leverage issue between the camera and the handles but I'll see.

 

[Nathan Doty]

Now that I read that. I'm going tie-die soon!

 

[JamesBon92007]

Nice job. I made my tray from 1/4" acrylic. My camera (not a real GoPro, but a SJ7000) came with some self-adhesive camera slide-in mounts that also have brass 1/4" machine screw inserts so it was very easy to drill the acrylic and secure them with a stainless steel screw. I positioned the lights so I can get to the on-off buttons. I also have a threaded hole in the center, rear so I can attach a selfie stick (standard tripod mount thread) but it may need some floats somewhere because the whole thing is a bit heavy (and slightly negative) and the selfie stick mount is adjustable for tilt. I've only used it once so far but it seems to be considerably more stable that just holding the tiny camera in hand so there is less camera movement while doing video. The two cheap LED video lights did a fine job of even illumination plus it was two extra lights for my night dive--never even used my flashlight. They will go about five hours on the low setting and over an hour on the high setting. I have a strap on the right that I made into a loop and slip over my wrist. I had another strap on the left which I was not using and it kept floating in front of the lens so it got removed shortly after the dive started.

 

[Joneill]

Have plastidip, will travel :laugh: I decided to use the red end caps for my fire buttons. I amused myself for quite a while pointing it at things and going 'pew pew pew' :laugh: My wife was not amused for some reason. Digging through my plasti collection I had black, grey and then blaze orange, red, blue and yellow. I might go tie-die before I take it out.

I'm going to stick it in the tub tonight and see how it balances out and adjust from there. My hot tub is saltwater, nowhere near ocean salinity but better than fresh. If it floats too much there I'll definitely drill some holes before I take it out. Being drug to the surface by my camera sounds like less than fun. But I figured a little positive would be a good thing in case it ever gets away from me.

Neutral is best - easy to handle and won't easily get away from you -up or down!

 

[Nathan Doty]

Yep too floaty sealed so it's now vented.

But, galactic tie dye. It won't be confused with someone else's high end mount