Lo-budget Vanity Camera Mount
[img width=500]http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/80_23_04_09_1_15_52.jpeg[/img]
Wicked Dan (msgdan) at Kayak Fishing Stuff.com made a nifty self-portrait camera mount and I said I was going to cobb together one of these in PVC. Well, I finally found one of those round tuits. Mine is made to fit in the Hobie mast hole, but it could easily be adapted to any rod mount.
The first one I made out of short lengths of 1" pvc, two couplers, an elbow and a tee. The idea was to make it stowable.
[img width=500]http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/80_23_04_09_1_14_05.jpeg[/img]
[img width=500]http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/80_23_04_09_1_12_16.jpeg[/img]
[img width=500]http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/80_23_04_09_1_09_38.jpeg[/img]
I added a 1/4" bolt to one of the end caps to mount the camera, then decided to screw the camera mount from a cheap mini tripod to the cap (made it waay more adjustable) It worked ok, but it had too many parts.
[img width=500]http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/80_23_04_09_1_09_02.jpeg[/img]
Then, in a momentary lapse into brilliance, it occurred to me to string them together with a bungee. That keeps all the parts together and makes it practically self assembling. So I did, it worked.
[img width=500]http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/80_23_04_09_1_05_14.jpeg[/img]
http://www.youtube.com/v/TOUKMUEn1ow&hl=en&fs=1"
I built another one in 1.25" pvc to make it a bit stiffer and I used the thinner pvc (sch 30?) to minimize weight. I found a small spider tripod and decided to leave it intact. Instead of screwing it to the cap I just shoved into the end of the pipe . Simpler and I can use it elsewhere. $8 PVC and fittings+$8 mini tripod Total <$20 Add a wire and an SMA connector and you'd have a cheap dipole to extend your handheld vhf's range too! ;D ok, maybe not.
I'll post some better pics in the forum as soon as I get out and catch some more fish. ;)
[b][size=10pt]FishesFromTupperware[/size][/b]
Discussion about this at: http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,2784.0.html