OpenStreetMap
I was challenged to find a way to mount my Garmin VIRB in such a way that it avoids the glare from the windshield, and that no part of the car is captured. After thinking hard about how to do it, I started looking for material to make it. Unfortunately the plastic and rubber I thought I needed was only sold in 10 square meter pieces, too expensive to be a reasonable solution, so I started looking at alternatives.
So I found a plastic and rubber tool for tile laying, and made a few cuts, so I could clamp it on the front of the hood, glued the VIRB socket mount to the plate, and drilled a few holes so that I could tie some strings to it.
I have done a small driving test (without securing strings, and without charging cable), and are satisfied with the result, and noted in lessons learned, that the securing string is necessary. The mount slowly slid out due to vibrations and gave my VIRB a flying test, luckily no traffic at the spot and I was able to stop immediately. No damages to VIRB or mount.
Total price for the Mount: 15 BRL (~5USD)
Discussion
Comment from Warin61 on 20 July 2016 at 21:25
People have been fined for mounting small cameras on the outside of their car in Australia. Reason being given is that they pose a hazard for any pedestrian that may get hit. I take it you have no problem with the fighting kites? Take care.
Comment from Skippern on 20 July 2016 at 21:31
Warin61: We’ll see, if I get any comments from law enforcement I’ll remove it in seconds, besides I havn’t heard about examples where it have happened here in Brazil as of yet. Not common with dash-cams or other car mounted cams yet.
Comment from BushmanK on 20 July 2016 at 22:47
I have a friend, who worked for car review magazine for more than five years. Now, they have fancy factory-made mounts, but before that, they successfully used removable suction cup handles made for carrying sheet materials such as glass, metal and plastics. This handle has two large suction cups, operated by two latches. Standard bicycle mount can be used to attach camera to handle itself. Suction cups have certain flexibility, so it’s easy to mount it onto any close-to-flat surface, such as hood or roof. If surface and cups are clean, no damage to paint will occur. Two independent mounting points decreasing possibility of accidental mount disengagement.
Comment from Skippern on 20 July 2016 at 22:52
The cost would be significantly higher, and it would require long delivery time since I most likely would have to order suction cup handles from abroad or specialist retailers. That kind of stuff isn’t shelf-ware where I live.
Comment from BushmanK on 21 July 2016 at 00:16
My Portugese is not that good, but “ventosa dupla transporte vidro” keywords gave me some links, including one to www.mercadolivre.com.br, which says, it’s widely available in Brazil. Price starts from 30 BRL not including delivery, but since it’s so widely available online, it should be in regular hardware stores too. (There are cheaper ones, but they are small and single, not double).
For sure, I’m not forcing you to do anything - it’s completely up to you, but your camera costs way more than that, as well as car body work in case if it will bump into hood or fender at pretty high speed and leave a dent.
Comment from Skippern on 21 July 2016 at 00:23
30BRL is more than double what I paid for my home-brew, and that would require I buy a bicycle mount as well, might do for the future, or I might acquire when I visit Europe. I’ll work with my home-brew for now. Besides it was kind of fun thinking out and solving it as well, can’t throw that away for something ready from a store ;)
Comment from smaprs on 30 July 2016 at 12:45
Hi Skippern. Fine, feel you’re catching in a good sense the brazilian way of doing (jeitinho). Only one thing I see that perhaps could help (as I felt in my own attempts to get better pics) is to place the camera, if possible, in the top of the car, so that it can avoid obstacles like the bush garden above to show more details around, pics from higher level (perhaps can double the level). Also can prevent the case of easy damaging the camera.
Comment from Skippern on 30 July 2016 at 13:04
smaprs: That is definitely something to think about when I get a vehicle where I can have the rig permanently mounted. Currently I depend on being able to remove and mount the rig quickly between vehicles. Depending on what will be my permanent vehicle (I am looking into investing in an Nissan Frontier 4x4), different ideas might be more realistic. The long term goal would be to have the rigg a little higher, and maybe all the way to the left-hand side of the hood.