Just how bad of an idea is this?

I am heading to the Zoo and was considering taking along a GoPro just for grins. Shoot some dual video with the camera and the GoPro to play with.

Anyway, I came up with this, and was wondering if there is a downside I am missing.

The mount and camera is light, the connection to the camera is solid and I wouldn't want to chance damage to the hot shoe by doing anything strenuous, but for walking around?

For reference, the GoPro and mount is 9.5oz and my flash is 15.7oz

I guess I'm missing the need to have the video attached to the camera.

gonzogolf wrote in post #16755437
I guess I'm missing the need to have the video attached to the camera.

I was going to run the GoPro with its wide angle perspective, and with a longer lens, say my 70-200, get close-up video, then merge the two.

It is just for fun, two perspectives etc etc. I can get almost the same point of view by mounting it on camera.

Why the offset? If you bumped the top of the GoPro it might indeed put too much stress on the hot shoe because of the leverage.

I believe there is a dedicated hotshot mount for the GoPro available now... saw it on FroKnows.

The 580ex ii is easily heavier than the go pro, don't see a problem with it.

I've seen some of the papers photogs do this during FB season.

FarmerTed1971 wrote in post #16755460
Why the offset? If you bumped the top of the GoPro it might indeed put too much stress on the hot shoe because of the leverage.

I believe there is a dedicated hotshot mount for the GoPro available now... saw it on FroKnows.

Hmm... might have to look in to that. I was just working with what I have on hand, and I have made a lot of go-pro mounts.

NManuel01 wrote in post #16755476
The 580ex ii is easily heavier than the go pro, don't see a problem with it.

And the 580 extends farther forward, as long as it's not stored in a bag while attached to the hotshoe, with handling care I don't see it being an issue. Let it bounce around on your side all day or stuff it in a bag that then has a load shift on top of it while you're in route, and it could be an issue.

Anything I've seen commercially available goes straight up and has some minor articulation, like a less flexible speedlite to light stand adapter, so the leverage is just on a different plane.

And of course there's always the damage that running 2 cameras at once will do to the free space remaining on the hard drive graphic.

I wouldn't worry about it. Digital Rev does this on their videos all the time.

I have seen some street photogs do this when out shooting, but they are closer subjects. As far as damage, it wont cause an issue unless the go-pro gets knocked around but even then I image the weak point being its pivot on the mount.

Motor On wrote in post #16755522
And the 580 extends farther forward, as long as it's not stored in a bag while attached to the hotshoe, with handling care I don't see it being an issue. Let it bounce around on your side all day or stuff it in a bag that then has a load shift on top of it while you're in route, and it could be an issue.

Anything I've seen commercially available goes straight up and has some minor articulation, like a less flexible speedlite to light stand adapter, so the leverage is just on a different plane.

And of course there's always the damage that running 2 cameras at once will do to the free space remaining on the hard drive graphic.

I have the tripod mount and could mount it directly above the hotshoe, but with the wide angle of the GoPro and the 70-200 f4L length, you get the lens in the view. It also raises it up another 1 & 1/4" above bore which isn't a big deal, really, but I would like to keep it as close as I can.

I have a couple of off-body flash frames I could use, but they add weight and bulk...

Hmm... not going until Saturday, so I have time to experiment.

And just to prove that there is nothing new under the sun, a quick search turns up thousands of folks who thought of this before me.

I have done this before for automotive videos that I have made. Never had any issues, gives you an interesting way to grab wide and close up at the same time. Biggest thing to remember is that the gopro is wide as crap so just remember that when your framing your shots theres probably going to be all kinds of stuff you don't want around the edges of the screen.

if you wanted to reduce some sort of side load on the hot shoe because of the offset mount you could go with something like this

http://www.amazon.com …MH8&coliid=I2RG​0YRLKL1PO3

I wouldn't be bothered worrying about the mount. It may also help keep the lens/hood outta the frame if you go longer.

Duncan Davidson (the TED photographer and the other founder here at Luma), did the GoPro on the camera trick at TED last year, and I think he's setting up to do it again this year. Since he uses Pocket Wizards, he went for an adhesive mount on his 70-200 hood.

IIRC, he had some issues getting the balance right (that's a lot of doodad sticking off of an already heavy rig). I can't dig it up now, but he did a couple of videos where he gave a sort of behind the scenes tour of making some of the more impactful TED images by using the wide angle GoPro video to walk people through how he planned out and captured the shot. It was a neat bit of trickery and it worked well.