Filming while Sailing

I saw a couple videos of the camera atop the mast looking down on the tramp that were kinda cool, then It switched to the front of one hull looking back at the sailors and then it ended with a helmet cam but ya just gotta remember to keep your head kinda still while shooting. So I guess the answer is yes all of the above.... Good videomaking is good camera angles and learning how to get into the action without being in the way. Good luck man... looking forward to seeing your new youtube videos... peace

Pete

I hear ya on no head cam...but that angle is a pretty good one. I wonder if you could use the trap wire?...maybe you could use some kind of clip/clamp that would allow you to swap from one side to the other easily as you tac and gybe.

Get the 3D one then do an awesome pitchpole peterpan.

I was thinking of attaching it to the wing seats... if you look at the Rick White training videos he has a rig that mounts center rear of the sterns. That's a cool angle but looks like a pain to rig up.

The GoPro cameras are pretty no frills if you look at the specs but they are really good at one thing, taking action videos. They don't have any zoom and are only 5-10 MP but they have a really wide angle and large depth of view. Not to mention they are super indestructible, waterproof and buoyant! A couple of buddies of mine who fly helicopters use them for all sorts of things! (those guys tend to go extreme skiing and paragliding and things like that!)

you can mount that camera just about anywhere but the best footage comes from an extension of spin pole just forward of tack.......other good locations are as far forward on the boom as you can get (facing aft in upside down mode).........and on the tiller crossbar facing forward just off center so tiller extension does not wipe out camera when tacking and jybing
your gunna get some great pictures ......have fun

Hey I think "popeyez" on this forum has mounted several Go Pros and may be able to give you some good feedback. I think these are really slick.

We make extensive use of the Go-Pro. I teach downhill skiing part time, & for client feedback using video, the GP is pretty good, & affordable. For about $100 extra you can get them in Hi Def.
Battery life is not great, though we use them in cold climates, I would think battery life would be more than double in a warm enviroment.
It takes a bit of concentration, but if you can "train" your head to move smoothly, & not jerk around, it will improve the video quality greatly. The trick is to sweep your eyes from side to side, while keeping your head pointed at the target, when the natural reaction is to keep the head moving.
They are a pretty wide angle, which has pros & cons. The main pro is it is easy to frame what you want. We often video from right behind a skier, as it shows many technical elements well, incorrect fore/aft balance shows up as tail skid. I once had a buddy follow me down a pitch that was steep enough that standing would have been very difficult, & if you fell you were not stopping. I was surprised at how well he could keep my lower body framed, a function of the wide angle.
The units are quite tough. One of the park rats expoxied a mount to the tip of his ski, then proceeded to huck some of the bigger features in the park. It was revealing to see how much the ski slapped around during landings, so much that the mount broke, the camera survived. We tried helmet mounts, strapped to a knee, & mounted on a boot. You could break a mount a day, but the camera itself proved pretty robust.
The con is that unless things are fairly close, you lose all perspective with regards to speed & size. If you think you will get a TSN like view of your Cat blasting through the waves, you will be dissapointed. Even large mountains show up as anthills if they are any distance. I can't remember the file format, but several of my budget travel netbooks will not play an emailed file.

Thanks guys! The camera itself is pretty inexpensive considering the use. I've seen lots of video using helmet cams, mostly from the mountain bike world, and much prefer the stationary mount! I also have a few other uses in mind! My wife does dog agility with our 3 samoyeds I'm thinking of strapping the camera to our 2 year old dog and seeing what happens. 🙂 Regardless I'm pretty sure it will be better than my old Canon and safer than using my $900 Sony.

Can't wait to get a chance to play with it!

D.

~~ GO PROS ROCK~~ I have 7 of them... 4 normal & 3 wide angle.... The 4 I got off of E-Bay (150 bucks) The wides I got from Go pro store.... The 960 you can re-program it to shoot upside down, but your picts or movies will come right side up....... so saying, the only way ya can mount it is upside down... I bought all the mounts, roll cage mt, handle bar mt, tri-pod mt, extendable mt. also a ?? I think it called a quik mount... it extends to 3-4'---that was from Amazon, I should look for it and put the URL up here http://www.amazon.com/Quik-Pod-QP-EHHT-Handheld-Convertible/dp/B000NPCI9I/ref=sr_1_35?ie=UTF8&qid=1313249401&sr=8-35 ...... I also bought from Go pro some of the other acessy. angle mounts, 2 head mounts came with my orders.... I do trust the mounts that come with them, but I also use Gorilla tape just to be sure. This old man ain't kiddin ya, they do make Gorilla tape-- better than Duct tape.. GoPro just came out with "floaters" so if yer cam falls off,,, well thats why its called "floaters"
I have some stuff on Youtube that I took with Gopro cams... I have like 27 movies up there. I don't have enough footage yet for any sailin movies, but I'am workin on it (S%*T happens)... heres 3 of the movies with the Gopro cams, also when yer up there click on my name and the rest will show up...
http://youtu.be/TG9AI5ICw3g
http://youtu.be/GzROFLPRFT0 ~~ starts out with some picts
http://youtu.be/_tIEBPekmx0 ~~ starts out with some picts

I used to be a photographer so I have about 20 camers total... used to roll my own film, a darkroom where I would make up to 11x14 prints and all that other stuff... I just bought a new one from Sony, DSC-HX100V, look it up on Amazon. So far one of the best cams I have.. it also has GPS in it..... I just might have to buy Photoshop next ??? LOL
Well no wind today....... so no action shots

Hah, I actually have a DSC-HX5V (predecessor to the DSC-HX9V), not as fancy but it takes the best photo's of any camera I've owned. I use it to do GPS captured construction site photos for my real job and also use it with a cloud dome to take macro shots for my jewelry hobby. That Exmor sensor is unbelievable and the 10x optical zoom is nice too.

D.

I saw this method done at the Tybee 500, basically just stuck to a flat spot on the bow with really sticky tape. I don't think they lost any cameras, made me nervous though.

http://www.amazon.com/GoPro-HD-Surf-HERO-Camera/dp/B002VA59DK/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1313270755&sr=1-10

the codec used by gopro cameras is H.264 MPEG4 which produces hd images of fantastic quality which with an auto white line adjustment capable of filtering direct extreme sunlight AND a lense that self clears water with the motion of the cat ..............this thing is the bomb for cat sailors
the video files are huge.....20mins of film =about 4.5gb so you are not going to email them as captured but will need to reduce the file size
also you can play the videos as captured but editing (on most pc's) atm will require a video converter.............i use xilisoft converter in conjunction with windows live movie maker
as for mounting try as many different positions as you can and shift it about on the same day to have different camera angles for your movie
like i said have fun

I have a Contour HD1080 with the waterproof case and its alright. One thing i don't really like is that it uses microSD.

I'd probably buy the contour gps if i had another go at it.

I also have a Contour HD1080 with the waterproof case and have used it for skiing a lot. You should mount the camera to something that won't bounce a lot for better footage. I heard something that the Countour GPS can't use the waterproof case, I may be wrong but check it out.

basically just stuck to a flat spot on the bow with really sticky tape. I don't think they lost any cameras,

I guess the pounding on a boat is nowhere near the intensity of landing big air,or skiing bumps(moguls for old guys) . The ski tips would flex several feet, then slam down again, ziiinnngggg, camera gone.

You should mount the camera to something that won't bounce a lot for better footage.

Very correct there. Good skiing involves a quiet upper body, so a helemt mount works. We found deep powder on a heli ski trip was not giving the sense of speed that was occurring, so one fool though mounting on his boot would show the steep, deep & fast, better.
See the large area below this line? That's what his movie looked like!!

xxx I think the chase boat is the better mount, but my wife won't chase the Cat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcYdEYkw-NQ

MN3 wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcYdEYkw-NQ

That's hot! and the video is pretty good too. 😀

rainex will stop that fogging and give clear video from start to finish

Ha Ha, the crew is multi talented, demonstrated at 3:50...but why didn't she crack you one?

thats not me, nor my crew. I put my camera on a friends cat so he would stop bugging me to film him 🙂