We need a new camera mounting system

Here’s something to file under “Why, oh why?”: Machine vision cameras need to be mounted on a plate of some kind. To make this possible the manufacturers usually provide a number of small threaded holes – typically M3 – to which a bigger plate can be fitted. But the bigger camera mounting plate typically has a single ¼-20, or possibly M6, screw thread.

This makes no sense to me. Securing a camera with a single screw means it’s going to move. It’s just not a robust, industrial, mounting. So why not put two holes on a 1” or 25mm spacing? Wouldn’t that make for a more depending mounting?

And while we’re at it, let’s go further. Would it be possible to tie down the relationship between sensor mount, the M3 threads in the camera body, and the ¼-20/M6 threads in the mounting plate?

What I’m asking for is that when I engineer a mount I can bolt the camera in to place and know with some certainty that it’s pointing in the right direction. I don’t want to nudge it left and right while watching a monitor until it’s pointing the right way. You know what happens then: I clamp it down and it moves, so I have to repeat the exercise. Can’t cameras be engineered to just bolt right in?

Is this too much to ask?