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PostPosted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 6:02 pm 
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Location: Aussie living in San Diego, CA
Gringo wrote:
I feel I keep getting sucked in to spending more and more money trying to get these GoPro things to work, and it continues to be a disappointment. The fogging issue is severe. The image quality is sub standard.


Hi Gringo - I have a GoPro Hero2 and I get severe fogging too but I have found two solutions that work for me. One is the anti-fog inserts sold by GoPro - you didn't say whether you had used them or not so if not give them a try - they are not too expensive. In fact right now GoPro have them on sale at half price. http://gopro.com/camera-accessories/anti-fog-inserts
The other solution that works quite well is uncooked rice. The same solution that many people use in a salt shaker to stop the salt clogging. I sprinkle about a teaspoon of rice into the sides making sure no grains get stuck in the housing seal.

Barry

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 11:28 am 
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If it works, white rice is cheap and easy to find, in gringos neck of the woods.

Desiccant packs are pretty expensive and tricky to find, but you can make your own.

Silica gel crystals can sometimes be bought "in bulk" from craft stores, where they are sold for drying flowers. It's supposed to absorb 30% of its weight in moisture.

You could put it in thin sacks of muslin, or roll it into small doobies, using gauze or tape. Leave the ends open, and don't get silly and breath it!! Bad for the lungs. :wink:


Last edited by NOHUHU on Mon Mar 11, 2013 10:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:44 pm 
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Hey Nohuhu, could you please post a bigger version of that picture as I couldn't see the details :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

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PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 5:21 am 
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Thanks, and I have been playing with dessicants. I started out buying the little paper dessicant strips GoPro sells. I loaded up on those on one of our trips to the US. Those gained us a few minutes of recording time before the case started fogging up. I bought a bunch of other types of dessicant packs from Amazon. I have lots of it now. The reusable stuff you heat in the oven when it changes color.

Then on a recent trip I bopped by the GoPro setup at a Best Buy and I saw the extended battery piggyback option, and I grabbed one of those. Not so much for the extra battery pack but for the extended housing cover to fit over it.

I cut a piece of plastic spacer the size of the battery but hollow, so I could fit four or five of the dessicant packs in. These are little packs of beads, not the paper strips GoPro sells.

And I get about 40 minutes with the camera on before the lens starts to fog up.

There are some photos of the little extended case and the spacer thing I made on my blog if anyone is interested. That post is at:
http://2gringos.blogspot.com/2013/01/happy-new-year-2013.html

Just scroll past all the beach stuff and there are several photos of the GoPro and the dessicants I'm using now near the end of it.

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PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 7:52 am 
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and for you guys who think I am not being fair to GoPro, let me assure you that I am making every effort I can think of to make these work. Got a few bucks invested in them, and I really do want to get some fun footage. For example, you might have seen that I did a cam mount for our dog's life jacket.

This week I wanted to get some footage ashore, and it's ridiculous for him to wear a life jacket everywhere, so I made up another one. Used the strap from a dive mask for the chest.

Image

If I can't figure out how to get good stuff from the GoPros....I am not totally ruling out trying another make of camera entirely. One of the little cylindrical POV cameras might make more sense. I think the interior volume of the GoPro case is what's screwing me up. And it obviously wasn't designed by divers or boaters.

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PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 3:56 pm 
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Location: Kailua 96734
Gringo, have you tried the cold air trick?

Store your open case and camera in the crisper of your fridge (or chill it down in the freezer), open the door and quickly seal the housing.

That's supposed to be one way to trap dry air inside. Together with gel packs and anti fog spray (rainx, etc) it should help.

I suspect controlling the temp of the housing is the key though (with a reflective cover and occasional dooley-dips).

The waterproof snap cams we use will also develop water in the LCD and lens after leaving them exposed to harsh direct sun like you and I get. When you're sitting in one place for some time (lunching or exploring) try putting the camera away or cover it with a white sock, even a wet one.

If any of this works, let us know.


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 1:15 pm 
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G'Day Gringo, I also have been having problems with GoPro's fogging up :cry: . I'm using up to 3 at a time and only one of them fogs all the time and another occasionally.
Does anyone know if the Lithium-ion batteries can emit anything when they get hot?
I have come to the conclusion the culprit is probably the door seal. Next time out I'm putting some silicon grease on the seal as well as the desiccant sachets. On another line of thought, back in my home colour film processing days I had a bottle of Nitrogen which I used to purge the storage bottles to stop the chemicals reacting with oxygen in the air. I've contemplated doing a similar trick on the GoPros to elimate moisture laden air. I will keep you posted on the results.

Cheers, Peter

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:24 am 
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I've got two of the GoPros now, so it's a bit of an investment, but I'm seriously looking at some of the other options. The bulk of the GoPros is up so far from the mounting plate location that it's mass becomes an issue in some scenarios. The little cylindrical cameras are starting to look interesting and giving me some ideas.

The Bullet HD Pro2 and the JVC both look interesting. The low light capabilities of the Bullet HD got my attention. Also, I like being able to carry two batteries and easily swap them out. Some of the "POV" cameras have embedded batteries that make that not so simple.

We tried out my latest Dooley Cam mount recently. I got some bizarre images, as he ran up and down the beach. Check this out:

Image

Notice the shadow of Dooley and the camera on the sand are normal. Everything else in the image is distorted.

I stuck a few more of those on the blog. New art.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:53 am 
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THat must be because you live in the Devil Traingle :twisted: LOL
Gringo wrote:
I've got two of the GoPros now, so it's a bit of an investment, but I'm seriously looking at some of the other options. The bulk of the GoPros is up so far from the mounting plate location that it's mass becomes an issue in some scenarios. The little cylindrical cameras are starting to look interesting and giving me some ideas.

The Bullet HD Pro2 and the JVC both look interesting. The low light capabilities of the Bullet HD got my attention. Also, I like being able to carry two batteries and easily swap them out. Some of the "POV" cameras have embedded batteries that make that not so simple.

We tried out my latest Dooley Cam mount recently. I got some bizarre images, as he ran up and down the beach. Check this out:

Image

Notice the shadow of Dooley and the camera on the sand are normal. Everything else in the image is distorted.

I stuck a few more of those on the blog. New art.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:02 pm 
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Location: Kailua 96734
Sony's new action cam is getting great reviews... it has a great deep water case and real-time video monitoring and control via wifi.

Image

The only issue is the lack of a plethora of mounting options, at this moment.


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:12 am 
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I was about to agree about the mess of mounts GoPro has come up with. Then I started thinking about it a little bit more.

All those plastic mounts are for one reason, really. Because of the way they designed the mounting flanges on the case. And they did that, I suspect, because it is easier and cheaper to mold those ears with the case than to put in a standard 1/4-20 threaded insert.

In most cases where I have used the GoPro's, I have ended up using one of their pieces to get to something else that I have to fabricate to mount to the Go Pro mount. Now that I think back obver the various dog cams, mast cams, land rover cams, etc. I cannot think of a single time when I would NOT have much rather had a camera with the standard threaded insert. I can always bend a piece of metal or cut some PVC and drill a hole for a quarter twenty bolt.

Clever marketing on GoPro's behalf. The camera is mediocre, but hey LOOK!! at all these cool mounts for it!
Which do get brittle and break.
If someone really wanted the GoPro mounts..it's not that difficult to get from a standard threaded camera to a bent piece of aluminum that will fit them.


Interesting that Sony has gotten into the game. Sony is one of those companies that I have always had outstanding products from. I've owned several of their cameras. They're up there with Nikon and Canon as far as the optics, and better with the packaging and electronics, typically.

a good company. Like Hobie.

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 11:56 am 
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I would second the advise from NOHUHU to try the cold air trick. I put my GoPro, with the case open, in the freezer for about 30 mins before I leave the house. Close it up while it's still in the ice box and don't open it until you're done filming. It seems to work for me, although it probably doesn't get as bright/hot hear, so it the problem might just be amplified for you... It's definitely worth a try though :) the cost is right!

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 4:26 pm 
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Throw a couple beer mugs in there too. But, I'm guessing you already know that trick. :twisted:


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PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2013 4:15 am 
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Have you guys seen the stuff we've been getting with the GoPro from a kite? Video is pretty useless, so I set up for time lapse, every five seconds. Got some usable shots, but the resolution is terrible and I don't know what the heck is going on with the exposure.

This is above Pine Cay, here in Turks and Caicos,l that I haven't put on the blog yet:

Image

I've decided that trying to use a camera intended for video to take digital stills is not the way to go. I know GoPro says these are 5mp, but the quality looks more like about 2 mp. I've been looking hard at other POV cameras, and none of them really are set up very well for good quality stills, even the JVC and Sony. I've got one of the new Pentax waterproof point and shoots ordered and on the way. I am hoping it will be a good choice for the kites and mast top type photos. 16 mp as compared to 5. A real optical zoom as compared to no zoom. And much, much better glass.
What happened was that this publisher in Europe contacted me and said they were interested in the blog and suggested that with a little more effort on my part it might be something commercially attractive as content for a book, etc. So we've started putting a little more effort into it, lately.

There are more aerials on it if y'all are interested. And in another week or so the quality of those should improve when I get the Pentax. Not a lot of choices out there for a.) waterproof, b.) lightweight, and c.) have an interval timer function. The built in GPS is interesting because it also includes altitude info. WiFi would have been nice, but I couldn't find one of those. Not sure the limited range would work very well trying to control a kite cam with an iPad on the ground, anyhow.

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