Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Friday, 29 June 2012

GoPro Hero 2 HD cameras

Well we have gone ahead and bought a new video camera.  We needed something that would be fully waterproof; shockproof and easily attached to a variety of things like bikes, vespas, canoes and boats!! It had to be good for snorkelling and diving too. A tall order but eventually we plumed for the Gopro Hero2. We could only afford it because of some birthday money from my sisters (thanks girls xxxx); and the permission of 'she wot must be obeyed'.


And it was a tough decision. However a number of factors won it in the end:

·         It’s wearable and mountable

·         An  ultra-wide 170 degree video at 1080p with 11mp higher resolution stills, fast time lapse and burst shooting at 10fps

·         A huge array of mountings, fixings and accessories

·         Waterproof down to 60m



·         A slow motion 120fps mode at 848x480 that will slow the action by four times.

·         Both HDMI and external microphone ports.

·         A Wifi  remote-control using a smartphone

·         A robust build with high durability

·         Minimal engineering with only two buttons, a clear interface and a protective housing

·         Clear icons  like "1080 - 30" with "W" at the top meaning the camera's set to 1080p video at 30fps with the Wide field-of-vision;  easy to understand, simple to navigate and logically organized icon driven menus

·         2.5 hr battery life easily recharged in 1 hr

The Gopro people boast that this camera is all about capturing the action from the inside of the adventure!!

We are awaiting its arrival and will give first impressions sometime next week. In the meantime here are some video clip tests


and a sailing one.........................enjoy the music........teenagers eh? whatever happened to Led Zepp?



Nice to see my old stomping ground again - The Mumbles!
Steve

6 comments:

Joel Bergen said...

Now I've got serious camera envy!

steve said...

Really? well I'm glad someone is because at the moment..........

I'm living in fear that 1) it doesn't live up to expectations in which case number one son and I die a slow death at the hands of the missus 2) said son doesn't end up using it as much as he said he would....in which I die a slow arduous death at the hands of the missus 3) said son and i die anyway when she finds out how much it cost because we accessorized it and got slightly carried away

any chance we had of persuading her that getting tickets to the next welsh international at millennium stadium would be a good family day out just evaporated!!

On the other hand.........
Dad and I will have fun filming ourselves in Arwen and film clips will be a nice 75th momento for him;
and i'll get enormous pleasure insisting the missus straps it to her head when she learns to wake board and water ski in greece in a few months time.......so there are some chinks of blue sky somewhere!!!

I'll post reviews over next few weeks when son and I have played....who says you can't be a big kid at 50!!

Steve

Anonymous said...

Steve:

I think it will serve you quite well. Maria and I bought the HD Hero (one step down from yours) and it is fantastic for filming on the boat. So far, I have used the "roll-bar" mount for mounting it to the mizzen mast and a "suction-cup" mount backed up by a piece of rope to secure it to the deck. I would NOT trust the suction cup with no backup line.
It is quite strange to see the camera getting wet and know that it doesn't matter. Can't wait to see footage taken from and of Arwen with the new toy!
God bless!
Wayne

steve said...

Thanks for that Wayne. We are looking forward to using it. The roll bar mount is a good idea too.

How is your knee shaping up?

Anonymous said...

Steve:

The knee is improving. Now I mainly need to ease back into activity and learn how to walk normally again (a month of gimping takes a bit of work to un-learn). I am hoping to be back on the water within the next month or so.

God bless!
Wayne

steve said...

nasty and frustrating - you take care now; it will be good to see you and maria and family back out on the water

take care
steve