And a bottle of wine later

[Broskie]

So with an upcoming trip to Cozumel I felt like building a setup for my Gopro Hero 2. After looking at the price of some units I decided I would just build one. I was able to get a rear LCD off my buddy for $40 that was basically new. Purchased the Oculus 127 degree lens with red filter of eBay for $26 and rummage up a bunch of spare parts in my garage.
First and foremost don't let anyone tell you your a hoarder if it will create something some day . So I spent some time looking at the more expensive models and what they offered and what they were made of. I was going to build a simple PVC unit as yes I have some of that lying around but thought let me look longer and maybe I can come up with something really great. Well after a bottle of wine and couple hours I created this, a fully adjustable unit that I can expand with over time. Best part it cost me nothing other then time and a $14 bottle of wine.

List of parts found
Red Powder coated piece of aluminum from some other project
Rubbermaid thick plastic rubber topped handle of an old push broom/mop
Extra GoPro mount
GoPro Suction mount cannibalized for most all parts excluding suction cup
4 stainless steel washers
stainless steel ball mount and powder coated stainless steel part from who knows where

The entire unit seems to weigh just under 1 lbs comparing hand in hand with a lbs weight but I could be off a little.
Well on to the pics, any good advice for a light source that won't break the bank and keep me on budget at cheap but decent?

 

[RJP]

Rube Goldberg would be proud! (What's it supposed to do?)

I had a chance to try a pair of Mako's 110deg dive lights on a recent 10-day trip to Truk Lagoon...

Underwater Photo/Video Light | MAKO Spearguns

A pair of these for under $150 shipped represents a pretty good bang for the buck. Here's crappy video (unedited) of my first dive with them:

[video=youtube;JdIjKgP90sU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdIjKgP90sU[/video]

 

[Broskie]

Rube Goldberg would be proud! (What's it supposed to do?)

It's my take on a GoPro tray without having to spend a dime

 

[KeithG]

Looks great! One thing to think about is making the tray wider (handles further apart...) or making it way heavy.

A common operator failure is to pan the camera too fast. Physics helps here. A narrow tray is easier to "yaw" or "roll" the camera. this motion results in bad video and sick viewers.

A wider tray helps to reduce yaw (left & right motion) and roll (rotation from level). A heavier (more mass) rig has more inertia which tends to keep the camera steady. In the old days, my amphibico rig weighed about 15 lbs and was rock steady in the water as it took a lot of muscle to change its direction. Mass was my friend.

On our recent dive trip one of the divers had a gopro mounted on his head. He swam like a squirrel. I claim that anyone watching his video would get an instant case of motion sickness.