Mounting GoPro on hood of car?

3 years 4 months ago #704590 by Greg Friedman
I need some way to quickly attach my GoPro to the hood of my car.  I want something low profile, I have one of their suction cups, but it's too tall.  Is there any other options that are lower profile and don't hang out to far?  


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3 years 4 months ago #704658 by Kayla Deis
Greg, why not just remove all the other clamps and bolt directly to the suction cup?


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3 years 4 months ago #704817 by CharleyL
How about using one of these.

www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200328225_200328225

Of course, if I was putting it on a nice car, I would put some pvc packing tape on the bottom of the magnet to protect the paint on the car. You will likely need a 1/4-20 X 1/2" bolt and a rubber fender washer between the magnet and the camera to keep the camera from vibrating loose. The whole assembly, when the camera is bolted to the magnet and attached to the car should only raise the camera about 3/8" above the car. I would also attach some sort of safety cord, like maybe a long shoe lace, to the camera and the other end to some very secure piece of the car to act as a safety in the event that the magnet should somehow release. It might keep you from losing your camera.

Charley


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3 years 4 months ago #704863 by Happy Snapper
I'm sorry, what do you want the mount shorter?  I have the GoPro suction cup mount and it isn't that tall and works very well.  

Gripped Nikon D810 --- Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 --- Sigma 10-20mm f/4 --- Nikon 50mm f/1.4 --- SB600
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3 years 4 months ago #705118 by EOS Man
You need to check out this thing:  snapmounts.com/

A friend just forwarded to me, I don't know squat about the company but it looks pretty darn promising!  

5D Mark II | 50mm f/1.4 EX | 24-70mm f/2.8L | 70-200mm f/2.8L | 430EX
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3 years 4 months ago #705137 by Fess Walker

EOS Man wrote: You need to check out this thing:  snapmounts.com/

A friend just forwarded to me, I don't know squat about the company but it looks pretty darn promising!  


I wonder what speeds you can drive with that in use.  


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3 years 4 months ago #705187 by Overread
So I'll give my 2 cents on this thing.  Thought and engineering - this looks pretty awesome.  I love the versatility of it.  My only concern is just how strong the magnets are for the car mount.  Also, how strong are they for shock testing?  Meaning, if you jump or the surface that it's stuck to, bounces, will the magnets break free or move OR hold ground?  


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3 years 4 months ago #705232 by Eric A
:agree:   I was thinking the same thing

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3 years 4 months ago #705235 by KENT MELTON
Magnets would need to be large in order to keep strong hold.  


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3 years 4 months ago - 3 years 4 months ago #705288 by CharleyL
The link that I posted above was for a magnet rated at 95 lb pull. Of course, that's a straight pull, and under ideal conditions. Stronger magnets are available from other sources, but you may have trouble pulling them off the car when you have finished with the photo/video shoot. 

Although these are for woodworking, they are available as just the magnetic unit for other purposes. These have a knob on them that allows turning the magnet on and off, so are easy to place and remove. 
 


A similar magnetic base with on-off knob intended for machinists and tool makers. 
littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1237

These are available from many sources. Grainger and other Industrial Suppliers have the second one readily available. Even Harbor Freight sells them. They are more expensive than the Northern Tool magnet, but do have the on-off switch feature. Again, I recommend using some PVC packing tape on their bottoms to prevent scratching the cars. It's thin, so as to not affect the magnetic holding strength much, but should be safe to prevent paint scratching the car finish.

You could use several of these on some kind of fabricated stand to hold the camera if one didn't seem strong enough, but I think just one of any of these would be good for a GoPro.

Charley


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3 years 4 months ago #705320 by Carter Gledhill
I saw someone post this in my Facebook feed a couple days ago, interesting, however I had the same concerns regarding the magnets strength.  


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3 years 4 months ago #705568 by Miss Polly
My husband would likely use this thing.  He has a few GoPros and has been mounting them on his truck and ATVs.   


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3 years 4 months ago #705617 by Ian Stone
Where's the bike mount?  :toetap:


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3 years 4 months ago #705647 by Vahrenkamp

EOS Man wrote: You need to check out this thing:  snapmounts.com/

A friend just forwarded to me, I don't know squat about the company but it looks pretty darn promising!  



Have you tried this out yet?  


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3 years 4 months ago #705743 by Carlos
Isn't there a magnet system already out there for GoPros?

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