Fishing Forum

So you may recall that I made this camera mount a while ago:

http://www.bigfishtackle.com/forum/Float...nt;#444592

Pic of Gen I:



Since then, I wanted something better, stronger, faster... We can rebuild it, we have the technology.

Behold camera mount Gen III! (er, Gen II was a hole drilled in an oar spade for a tripod head mount for better distance to camera, but that wasn't the answer for a number of reasons)

BTW, if you want to see Gen II, here's a quickie:



In short,Gen III is a swing arm, vertical pivoting, multi-axis, quick release, remote trigger, all-singing, all-dancing improvement. It leaves the oars to rowing, is easy to use and adjust, and the mounting shoe for the tripod head can be left attached to the camera but the camera can quickly be detached for point and shoot shots, but replaced for self-shots without having to be re-aimed.

I was tired of having to remove the camera for rowing (Gen II) and the ball gimbal mount adjustment wasn't ideal (Gen I), and I had to unscrew the camera to remove it and re-aim once re-attached (Gen I). Also, I didn't like having the camera "out there" at the end of my pontoon when not actually taking pictures. The 10 second timer shutter release worked, but the depth of focus couldn't accurately be set since the pre-focus happened with the camera pointing in the wrong direction.

If you look in this pic you'll see the whole contraption mounted to the left frame of my boat (sorry for the poor quality but I think you can figure out how it's mounted).:



Here's a pic of it off of the boat in "Stow/Setup" mode:



and in "Shoot" mode:



In Stow/Setup mode, the camera faces away, making access to the menus and buttons of the camera easy. You do the fine adjustment of the aim here, and lock it all down via the knobs on the tripod head (more on this later).

Then, you tilt the whole thing vertical, swing the camera straight up, and lay it back down in Shoot mode.

The bottom of the tee fitting rests on the pontoon to take the weight of the camera. My camera's a pig so this is important. For light point and shoot types, maybe not so much. Also, the reason why I go vertical, swing, horizontal, is to reduce torque on the pivot mount. Probably robust enough to take the twist of the camera on the end of the pipe, but why risk the camera over the water. I'll be safe thanks!

Now it's ready to fire!

Here's a sample:



As you can see, I'm holding the remote trigger with one hand, the fish with the other. Of course this isn't as "cool" as if I didn't have the trigger, and I couldn't do this pose with a truly monster fish, so for these pics I use the 10 second self-timer.

Here's the sequence:

1: Catch fish, put in net
2: Camera in Stow/Setup mode - Remove splash bag, power on, select 10 second timer
3: Swing camera to Shoot mode
4: Press shutter release button
5: Within 10 seconds, pick fish out of net and pose with cheesy grin
6: If fish is too wiggly to control in 10 seconds, repeat 2 - 5 (I hate that the camera defaults back to instant shutter mode after the single timed shot)
7: Release fish and put camera back into Stow/Setup mode and put splash bag on camera

Pretty cool, huh?

So, for those who would like to make one, here are some details:

The pivot mount at the pontoon frame is a tee fitting with just under half of the side cut out. This snaps pretty firmly on the tubing of my 'toon (aluminum frame is somewhat larger diameter than "normal" frames - not sure if there's a standard PVC tee that fits steel frames better or not). (NOTE: All PVC in this mount is 1". If the mount at your frame has to be another size, you can adapter fitting up or down to 1" after that piece) Once snapped, it pivots freely but is essentially locked solid (can't come off) in Stow/Setup or Shoot mode. Could POSSIBLY come off in vertical transitional mode, but unlikely. Besides, in this mode I have a firm grasp of the whole thing so there's little chance of camera tragedy.

Pic:



From here, a simple lenght of PVC to the lower pivot fitting. This is a tee fitting with the "arms" of the tee cut off flush with the OD of the stem. The arm through hole is then reamed out with a file or sanding drum to be a snuggy fit to the "axle" stub which the pivoting arm of the mount rotates about.

The pivot joint fitting is a cross fitting cut flush to the OD of the pipe, similar to the lower pivot. The through bore once again is reamed out, but this time not so snuggy, so that the swing arm can swing with enough resistance to not flop around, but not enough to bind or lock up.

Jam fit or cement a length of PVC into the lower pivot, slip the pivot joint fitting over this axle pipe. Cut the stub above the pivot joint fitting and jam fit or cement a cap fitting to the top.

Pics:




Next, cut the second swing arm so that when completed, the camera mount end lands just forward of the pivot mount at the pontoon frame. You'll see how this helps in a bit.

The end part is an unmodified tee fitting. Cut pieces of pipe and jam/cement into the arms of the tee such that the cut pieces of pipe are 1/8" or so and 1/2" or so recessed into the ends of the tee - the 1/8" up, the 1/2" below (Again, you'll see why in a bit...).

Now for the mounting head. I took an Ebay special tripod and simply hacksawed the head off above the aluminum shaft. I then CAREFULLY drilled a 1/4" hole through the center of it. Use a drill press so as not to go off axis. Next, get a couple of 1/4" hole fender washers and place them inside the top and bottom of the tee. I'm using 1" PVC so these should just fit inside the bore of the tee, but not through the cut off pieces glued inside. Next get a 1/4"-20 bolt long enough to thread through the tripod head, through the two washers in the ends of the tee, and protrude with enough threads to catch a nut - nylock nut preferably. Put the head of the bolt at the bottom, nut on top. Cut off any extra threaded section after fitting it all together if you want to be tidy about things. One thing I noticed at first was that the head would slip on the washer making the lock on the panning adjustment useless. I used an o-ring but you could use some rubber/neoprene/glue to lock down the camera head spindle to the washer/tee so it doesn't spin on ya.

Finally, using a drum sander or whatever, grind/sand/cut a crescent profile in the bottom arm of the tee, parallel to the arm from the pivot to the mount.

Now here's a cool feature. Without the head mount and tee on the end of the second swing arm, if you overlapped the two arms, the pipes would be parallel, but since the head mount has a tee on the end, the bottom of the tee hits the stationary arm when you try to overlap them. BUT, since the PVC does flex somewhat as does the joint (VERY slightly here), you can boost the tee onto the stationary arm, and the crescent cutout snaps the two arms together for a secure home position at Stow/Setup. The extra recess for the bolt head allows the clearance required for the crescent to work without the head contacting the stationary arm.

Pics:





You can see the crescent detail in the top pic.

Finally, I bought a wired remote for my camera to finish things off. The wire was only 3 feet long so I (shocker) customized it. You could order a longer one and not have to do this, but I like the clean install. Anyway, I opened up the trigger handset and cut the factory wires, leaving enough inside to solder new ones to. Then I drilled a hole in the end of the tee, fed the cut end of the long section (from where the handle used to be to the jack plug) through that and out another hole at near the center pivot. Then down a hole in the cap up top, and through a hole in the pivot axle (oops, drill this one BEFORE you cement it to the lower pivot fitting!) through the stationary arm and out the top before the 'toon frame pivot mount. Oh yeah, hidden inside the stationary arm pipe is the solder joint between the factory wire and a curly phone wire which is what pops out of the hole near the 'toon frame pivot mount.

WHEW! Done. Get it all? Go ahead, re-read it. I know I had to...

Anyway, for extra peace of mind, I'm conjuring up a more positive locking scheme for the 'toon frame pivot mount, but I think it works fine as is.

Enjoy!

_SHig
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Great job, _SHig. That's a keeper for the archives.

Now... I need to go back and examine it more carefully to really understand all you did.

z~
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