thinking about a goPro

hey nice video! love to see all those dunes

Very nice video!

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Any Hobby can be fun if you enjoy doing them. Would I consider building a ship in a bottle fun ? No .. but there are countless spending more than countless hours doing it.

I'll tell you my story - I grew up with a camera in my hand (be it still or movie) as my father worked in the production side of the motion picture industry. I've always loved photography and feel I have a knack for it. When the first digital video camera came out using the MiniDV tapes (Sony DCR-PC1) I immediately bought one .. along with an underwater housing and lighting system as I had seriously gotten into Scuba diving at the time. All told, it was about $4,000 by the time I had the video capture card for my PC and editing software but times were good $$$ wise during the Dot.Com haydays in the late 90's

Over the course of the next 4 or 5 years I proceeded to wear out that video camera and another lugging them all over the world on Scuba trips shooting hundreds of hours of video ... As well as hours and hours of Car show / Drag Racing for my national car club every year. I'd lug more camera gear than Scuba gear on most trips ... I also did Wedding video's for my friends as we each got married - besides the pro's they had hired.

I'd come home from an event and spend even more time editing than I did shooting - nite after nite after nite transferring the material from tape to the PC (A step now tremendously shortened) then even more time reviewing the raw footage and culling from them the short clips that seperated the mundane from the exciting things that POP. Then meshing them all together with a theme .. and music .. and effects (which takes even more time rendering). I produced a 3-dvd set for my car club that sold over 400 copies. Many times I'd have a finished Wedding DVD for a friend ready and done for them by the time they got on the plane to go on their honeymoon.

Eventually I got burned out with it all. I'd still shoot video but began to lose interest once I'd viewed it. I'd post video's on websites like people do here, and get little response if any (like here) even though you can see that people watched them. Thats why I almost always thank people for posting video's here - I know what kind of effort it takes.

Now, obsolescense has taken over. My Camera no longer works .. I've got a library of hundreds of tapes I cant even play and even if I did its hours upon hours of coral reefs for a 5 second shot of a shark or cool colored fishie swimming by .. and its all low-res 480p. The software I used to use is out of date and on a PC i took out of service 7 years ago.

... But i too keep looking at the new GoPro etc. and will rise to it again. Soon, but not now. For now I use my high-end Still camera for video .. but not nearly as often as I used to.

My advice would be to get a decent waterproof camera that also shoots video - you shouldn't have to spend more than $100-$150. As others have said, 780p is fine. Use that for a season and whatever free or included software your PC has and play a little .. but always remember - the minute you purchase a camera the clock starts ticking until when it will be obsolete .. editing software too if you buy the better packages. Just like buying a PC or other tech device.

Having come from a background where "MovieMaking" involved shooting real film, having it developed .. having a work print made .. editing the work print .. negative matching the reels and reels of raw negative to the workprint by edge numbers .. splicing it together .. having an answer print made .. etc etc etc, it is simply amazing what technology has brought to the masses - that is the ability to express your creativity without the need for a post production house or more aptly, having the post-production house in your PC on your desktop or laptop. THAT is the amazement called YouTube

... whether it is a hobby for you to enjoy spending your free time is not for us to decide

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Alan W.

Papaya AI2 to replace my well worn V1
TheTwins - His/Hers 2007 Papaya Hobie Adventure Island's (v1.00.01)
.. and a Hobie Outback SUV

Wow! Great words of wisdom. Spot on.

As I've gotten into this video business a little bit, it is clear I need another life to accomplish much--don't think I'm going to be granted that, however. So, I'll do what I do. I have found that video, any quality almost, is very useful for getting a single picture (frame) of some high speed action that you could not capture with a still camera. For certain, we will all take hours of video, just to get a few minutes of something that a few might find interesting.

In order to get a powerful zoom on a video camera, without spending an arm & a leg for a waterproof system, I've gone with a Canon Vixia. Now, I have to be careful to keep it dry. Nevertheless, short of a full sailing vessel, the AI/TI is, as usual, an inexpensive way to get on-the-water pictures & video.

Hobbies come and go, throughout your life, if you are lucky.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

Getting a GoPro revived my interest in video.
Like Alan I was very interested in video/editing in the late 90's. Started with a VHS-C and a Matrox video card in an old Pentium2 PC. Progressed to a Sony Mini DV (about $2500) and an iMac DV2000 with iMovie which simplified editing. When Apple had limited support for DVD burning I went back to PC's.
With the introduction of HD video I lost interest as all my equipment became obsolete.
Then I discovered Hobie's. Bought an early GoPro HD which I imported from the US and got interested all over again in video/editing. Had to upgrade the PC to handle HD editing (720P is fine).
Funny, but I'm thinking of going back to Macs as it looks like editing can be done on the iPad Air. Being able to edit on a tablet is a game changer.
What can be achieved these days with cheap cameras (a GoPro cost much less than the waterproof case I had for my old Sony DV) is amazing and that clip using the drone just highlights how far we have come. Brilliant!
The future of videoing is looking very bright!

I love videos like this, but I hardly look at them more than once. If you do interesting things you sure might like doing the video editing. But if you do the same thing over and over again the video editing wont seem very fun. Making a slide show is much easier. You can have some music playing during the slide show. So I think it is time for someone to produce a nice Hobie Island slide show, preferably with the help of a quadrocopter. I am not in the position to do it right now.

Come on rusty. You're giving in too early, suggesting our activity is boring and mundane. With the right software and editing, even us Hobieites can transform into secret agents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfm37bU ... r_embedded

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Don't take life too seriously................it ain't permanent.

nice story, sad to hear you have lost interest in your hobby though. i used to ride mountain bikes a lot and snowboard a lot, but have now replaced all that jazz with occasionally taking out my TI on nice weekends guess we need to find a new hobby, i think that is what my current quest is all about, and the goPro just seemed to be near the top of the list. i actually just re-enrolled back in school and am going for a second bachelors degree now and will start classes next semester. maybe this will kill the obsession for another hobby for a little while.

nice video ^ ^ ^,, that guy on the moped looked like he was pretty extreme.

yes i too like watching the videos you guys put up. i know we have youTube but i think we should have a repository strictly for the TI... after 2-3 TI videos on youTube i somehow always find myself back to some dancing asian girls in about another 2-3 videos... i find youTube very distracting. i can't be the only one

Well, for the connoisseur, there's always vimeo,..

I seem to think YouTube have picked up there act a bit with a few more options to match Vimeo.

Just to reiterate comments about video equipment costs, 90% of the Hobie videos I do is on this gear.



$70 for the Panasonic Lumix FT1 on ebay ( 2nd hand ), and $10 for the housing from a local hardware store. The camera is waterproof which really means spray proof, and will handle all the above water splashes that are thrown at it. If I need to do any underwater clips, I stick it in the housing for double safety.

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Don't take life too seriously................it ain't permanent.