How-to: Mounting a 360 camera on a car

We’ve published a simple how-to guide for mounting a 360 camera on a car. It includes our recommended equipment and the steps needed. Please take a look and we are looking forward to your comments.

:tokyo_tower: Apparently, size matters. :face_with_hand_over_mouth: Just watch out, in some wealthy residential neighborhoods you are going to get arrested for this. :laughing:

Anyway, aside the giggle factor; in some countries you have to be extra careful because mountable objects and cargo protruding more than 1 m out the vehicle must have lights or a ribbon attached. :wink: Otherwise, have fun!

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Good call - we’re recommending a 0.7m stick which together with the suction cup mount and camera should be just about 1 meter :slight_smile:

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Thanks @boris. Another precaution you may also want to add to the guide is a reminder to go easy on the accelerator, brakes, and when turning because although the camera on the stick may be quite lightweight when stopped, the forces exerted on it increase exponentially with distance to most vehicle’s low center of gravity (the camera, like everything else in a vehicle, rotates around the vehicle’s center of gravity, not its own). Better be safe than sorry.

OMG.

I’m already afraid while driving with the camera directly installed on the tripod. Indeed, I was able to drive up to 110 km/h. Incidently, I recently saw some king of sport car with a tripod installed on the rear window with 1 m extender (but no cam on it). So, it should be safe. I will make some tests but not with such an extension. :sweat_smile:

I still have “camera falling off stress disorder” (CFOSD) from when my camera fell off my car even with a small mount at low speeds on the highway, so I would never NOT recommend having a backup safety rope attached to the mount just in case if it fails (because it might).

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Indeed, I was able to drive up to 110 km/h.

Usually, it is not the speed that is going to kill your camera in such a setup but acceleration and deceleration forces, unless you try going :racing_car: like 300 km/h.

I have not found any information on what mass the stick is rated for, only its own mass of 107 grams. The suction cup mount is rated for up to 5 kg, that is assuming you have not made the slightest mistake putting it on the body of the vehicle. The GoPro Max is 163 grams, so it would need to become about 30× more massive in an event to overcome the mount’s rating. 5 kg sounds enough, even for emergency breaking but may not be enough in an accident. :worried: But, I would be more worried about the stick holding up as well. The stick’s extending distance does not work in favor of the mount. So, I do not know. Better be careful before your camera goes flying off to hit a pedestrian.

Oh, and watch your added height or you will end up like

:rofl:

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Great tips all! I added “As a precautionary measure, we recommend avoiding rapid acceleration/braking and sharp turns during your drive.” to the guide. In general having the 3 suction cups should give much more security, but this feels like good common sense advice for driving in general :slight_smile:.

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For some time I use magnets to mount my gopro MAX. They are cheap and can be really strong.
For now I have produced three different mounts. Designed and 3D printed specially for different magnet types. I use them on sometimes very bumpy roads:

or sometimes it get hit by the low hanging branches :slight_smile:

Im driving 90kph on standard basis. Never had any problems with loosing the camera.
Great thing is it just takes few seconds to mount/dismount it in on the roof. And you dont need to worry about dirt on the roof or scratched paint that will kill suction cups.
Probably could design some kind of safety wire. Maybe not so safe in city where someone just could grab it when standing on a street light.

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Wow, very cool @masterofnoroad!

If others want to try it out, are you open to sharing your 3D print models and maybe a link to the magnets you have used?

@boris Now that the guide is done, I would be interested in reading about your experiences with your setup. Could you share some of your imagery here, please? I would be particularly interested in seeing how well does the GoPro Max hold up quality wise and how much of the image is covered by the car.

Can you also test the PANOX V2 with your mount?

Hi @GITNE - I don’t unfortunately myself use this setup frequently because I don’t own a car. However, this is the setup we’ve been recommending and sending to folks as part of the camera grant program. For example, here are some captures with this type of setup. You can see the quality and car coverage.

We have been using the GoPro MAX quite a bit and its held up quite well. I think the PANOX V2 will also work very well. It is also very light weight (200g vs 150g for the GoPro) and won’t require the tripod adapter.

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Below you can see details of my magnet setup. They are rather crude and fast designs but they work well for now. I make new and adapt each time I get my hands on new good magnet. Its not one type that I could put link here. Some of them are magnets used in wind turbine tower to mount cables and stuff as it is forbidden to drill any holes in the tower. But I also use whiteboard pin magnets :slight_smile: Just it needs to be strong enough. If its not strong I multiply them :slight_smile: but sometimes one is enough :slight_smile:



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Super cool! Thank you for sharing and the photos @masterofnoroad !