Pi HQ cam with arducam m12 adapter and lens.
Mounting bracket removed. Tensioner grinded off. I cut away the board corners to reduce the size (no measureable weight savings).
Im sure printed parts to replace the Aluminium lens mount would yield the biggest savings. Could swap out the mounting screws for plastic I suppose…
Poor little camera! 
Joking aside. As you might know I like trimming hardware to minimal size. Could you please include pictures of the backside of the PCB to better make out where you placed the cuts? Just if it is not too much work.
Unfortunately its installed in my nano goblin and enclosed in foam. I hope I never have to take it out 
Here is a pic frim the internet I marked up. Just dont go outside the copper mounting area. I did this at all 4 corners
Great! Thanks!
So you just trimmed of the corners but not the edges.
Yep just cut the corners of the circuit board. On lens holder/mount I cut off the tension ring (part with a tension screw in it)
If I had a lathe, you could really remove alot of material from the lens mount.
or
I think a simple 3d printed ring/mount could be printed without threads for the arducam m12 adapter… then just glue the arducam m12 adapter to the new printed ring/mount. Just drill and tap threads for the screws that go through the board into the printed ring/mount.
If you find some time someday we can trim down your lens adapter on my lathe. ;-). It should be about 30-40km from your location (given you are in cologne). If we screw up the part we can just print a new one with the 3D-printer next door! 
Cool, thanks for the offer! Just give me some lat lon coordinates and ill have a drone drop it off 
I hope not to have to remove the cam from the plane- foam glued and shaped around cam to reduce form drag… But now that I have said that I will probably have to remove it before I even maiden it haha
Are you going to attempt the same with your cam?
Not sure yet… I basically just experiment with it on the bench at the moment. It is a nice camera for sure but it doesn’t yet blow me away. For sure better than the other genuine Pi Cams. But still inferior to what VEYE has to offer. But to answer your question: I am deterred by the big, heavy and bulky lens adapter… it must be replaced with something lighter and less bulky in footprint
