Introduction: Zi6 Camera Head Mount (or Any Other Pocket Camera)

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“A picture is worth a thousand words” and a fishing story is only as good as the poorly lit grainy cell phone picture of you posing with your catch. Since the GoPro HD Hero is not in my gadget budget I thought I would make a head mount for my little HD camera and record my fishing adventures because a video has to be worth at least a million words.

I looked around the shop for the things I could use to make the camera mount. I would be adapting the GoPro’s design. I gathered up a few tools and some other odds and ends.

1. Dremel
2. Cordless Drill
3. Sharp Blade
4. 1/16” drill bit
5. 1/4” drill bit
6. 420 Cutting Wheel
7. Coarse Grinding Wheel
8. 1/4 - 20 1" bolt (what i had but a 1/2 inch length is ideal)
9. Sharpie
10. Bracket
11. Nylon Strap
12. 1/4” washer
13. Wood Clamp
14. Safety Glasses

Step 1: Adjust Bolt and Bracket

I started off by cutting off the bolt down to ½ inch and then I clamped down the bracket and bored out the existing centered hole. I mounted the camera and marked the bracket where I could see the screen so I could review the video without unmounting the camera from the head mount I also marked down two lines down the side where I would make two slits for the nylon strap.

Step 2: Cut Off Bracket and Make Slits

I then cut off the excess with the cut off wheel and drilled holes where the ends of the slits would be and cut the slits with the cut off wheel. I then took the grinding stone and cleaned up the burrs and rounded everything off.

Step 3: Nylon Strap, Mounting, and Finishing

I cut off the ends of the nylon strap carefully and kept the buckle used to shorten and lengthen it. I passed  the nylon strap through the mount and back through the buckle. Can’t get simpler than that! Gave it a test run and the angle was off, so I clamped the bracket down again insterted an extra bolt I had and used it to adjust the angle. Gave it another run and it works great!

Step 4: Errors and Improvements

Errors made: Safety is number one. I tried to take a short cut and ended up with a 1/4" drill bit in my thumb.

Improvements: This being my first instructable and this design is extremely simplistic leaves tons of room for improvements. Simple access to controls and a battery mod to ensure I can record for as long as my memory card allows is in the works.