Easy and Cheap Top Mount Overhead Camera Setup

Top down DSLR camera mount DIY

Overhead camera setup

I changed the layout of the room and needed to make a new way to mount my camera above my desk. I used to have the camera mount to the bottom of my loft bed, but now my desk is across the room from the bed.


I have shelving above my desk, so I screwed a short board to my shelf.


I also added support screws to the bottom of the shelf.


This is the camera mount I am using. This is from an old security camera. It works fine for most camera types and uses the same tripod mount.


Just a few screws and its attached to the board.


I use the top of this shelf to hold my camera lens caps and the camera strap.

The camera mounts under, and faces the desk. The way I have the camera the images need to be flipped after transferring them.


I also have a USB cable that goes to my computer, so I can preview the image on my 32″ TV, and control the camera from my computer!

As you can see in the image, I have a huge dark spot on the left.


I added a lamp and some packing foam to diffuse the light.


Watch me take a photo of myself taking a photo of this photo….

The lighting is now even!


I also added a small 7″ LCD screen to the wood shelf, just in case I wanted to use that as a preview.


The only issue is that it has composite input, and the camera is mini HDMI output. I have a HDMI to VGA converter connected to another converter to make it composite out. This requires 5V to run the converters, and 12v to run the LCD screen…

Maybe I will finish this… or maybe the screen will be used for something else. I did make this a 7″ USB Touch screen