I’ve been really enjoying the GoPro HD camera I bought a few months ago. But one thing that I’ve been waiting for and that has been lacking for it is the newly released, LCD BacPac which gives the GoPro a much needed rear LCD screen:
The GoPro by itself is tiny and great for all kinds of action photography and video but sometimes it would be really helpful to see what kind of framing you have, especially in tight spaces. The BacPac addresses that shortcoming very well, without adding much bulk and for a reasonable price.
The LCD comes with a speaker for playback and an additional button for navigation. It easily attaches to the GoPro by clipping it into place:
My GoPro required a firmware update to work with the LCD BacPac but was painless to upgrade.
The LCD BacPac has another interesting benefit: it makes the cryptic mode codes usually found on the front of the GoPro completely understandable by using the full descriptions of each mode:
There is also a new mode for playback that you access by holding the LCD button down for 2 seconds. It let’s you playback video and photos as well as adjust the brightness:
A nice bonus is that the BacPac comes with a box of alternate back plates for the various types of mounts, including waterproof and non-waterproof versions for the regular housing and the wrist mount:
I recently purchased the Wrist mount and used it with the LCD attached while surfing in Ucluelet:
The BacPac is a little hard to see in full sunlight but it’s good enough to be able to frame up your shot and do a quick review (with sound) in the shade when you’re done shooting. There is also a hit to your battery if you use it a lot but it can be turned off by simply pressing the LCD button anytime. To me, it’s definitely a must buy if you have a GoPro.
As of right now, it’s only available directly from GoPro.com but shipping was only a couple of days from California to Canada. I did have to pay HST on the $79.99 price when importing it from the USA.
The title of this post is a question I’ve been asked a lot lately…and yes, I do still have a day job. I’ve been fortunate enough lately to be able to take some vacation time off and do quite a bit of traveling with more to come. I thought I’d post an update on some of the things I’ve been getting up to.
A few weeks ago, my pal Rebecca asked if I could fill in for her on a tour of Vancouver Island as she was unable to attend do to some last minute passport & visa issues related to her then upcoming trip to Africa.
So before I knew it, I was on a plane to the Comox Valley for a 5 day media tour of Vancouver Island. I’ve lived in the Vancouver area for 25 years and never made it further than Duncan so it was all new to me. Probably an ideal way to explore it anyways.
I had a chance to really see some fantastic sights in my own province…it really made me think about all the trips I do outside the province and what I’m missing in my own backyard.
As soon as I got back from Vancouver Island, I literally had a few hours to do some laundry, sleep in my own bed for one night and then jump back on a plane and head to Whitehorse to cover Hockey Day in Canada. I had a chance to experience the Yukon for one day during the 2010 Winter Olympics as part of a media tour they had setup and when I found out Whitehorse was hosting the Hockey Day event, jumped at the chance to go back. Thanks to Travel Yukon, I got that chance.
So from surfing in Ucluelet one day to standing in the middle of town in Whitehorse the next.
Rebecca & her husband John were also supposed to go (and were unable to make the media trip during the Olympics), with Rebecca covering the event for Scotiabank, one of the event’s sponsors. Unfortunately, due to a last minute family emergency, they had to stay home so I offered to pick up the slack to help them out since I was already going. I was able to post a few things on a daily basis on Rebecca’s site (Gearing up, Gala Banquet and the big day) and tweet a lot of photos during the events over four days in Whitehorse.
I shot hundreds of photos during the event and got to meet and talk with so many hockey legends, frenzied fans and excited kids.
A little behind the scenes of the filming of Hockey Night in Canada:
The night I arrived in Whitehorse, I was given a ticket to the Stolen from a Hockey Card show at the Yukon Arts Centre. I really had no idea what to expect and it was a very special event that I’m still thinking about weeks later.
The format was a short film festival with live musical performances by Sarah Harmer, Kim Barlow, Buck 65, Geoff Berner, Dave Bidini, CR Avery, Mathias Kom and John K Samson in between the films – all with a hockey flavor. There was also some fun intros, stories and banter from various hockey celebs.
The highlight was definitely the music with six different acts performing new works, specifically written for or about hockey. I got introduced to a number of performers that I was unaware of and was happy to find out the one of my favorites from the evening is from East Vancouver, CR Avery who I got to chat with later on during the weekend:
CBC Radio 2 will be is streaming the concert on their Concerts on Demand sitevery soon now. If you’re a fan of hockey or great Canadian music, you’ll want to have a listen. They even used (with permission) a number of my photos from the event.
The true highlight of the trip though, had to be the flight home. Not because I was tired from all the travelling, but because I was fortunate enough to be seated on the plane home beside an icon in Vancouver broadcasting, Jim Robson:
Jim was such a treat to talk to and shared some great hockey stories with me on the way home.
It truly was a great way to end a fantastic, hockey lovers weekend away in Whitehorse.
So what’s next?
As regular readers of this site will know, I’ll be heading to Austin, Texas soon to attend the 2011 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference in mid-March. I’m not speaking this year (my panel wasn’t accepted) but it’s shaping up to be a fantastic event.
This year however, there is a little twist to my trip: I’m driving from Vancouver to Austin. Chevy is sponsoring 10 teams from around North America to drive to Austin from their home cities, while competing in challenges along the way against the other teams. We don’t even know the route we’ll be driving yet, as it’s a closely guarded secret. I’ve got a rockstar team assembled to help me with the driving and the challenges. We’ve named ourselves The Eh Team and plan on documenting our adventures along the way. You can follow along on our website that we’re just getting set up – expect a lot to happen on there once we’re on the road beginning March 7th. We’re going to be online in the vehicle as well so will be updating as we drive (and have 3G service).
I recently had a chance to check out some really cool technology used to create enormous, zoomable panoramic images called a Gigapans. This is the same technology used to make that huge image of US President Obama’s inauguration that you may have seen. I’ve been using a Gigapan EPIC 100 courtesy of Active Computer Services.
So what is it? Basically, it’s a robotic motion control system for still cameras. You mount the Gigapan onto a tripod and then mount your camera on the Gigapan:
There is a little actuator that will press the shutter button for almost any camera and there is an option to do a wired shutter release depending on the camera model.
Here it is on location with my Nikon D7000 & 70-300mm lens mounted:
Once all setup, you use the controls to create a panorama by moving the camera to the upper left position and then the lower right position. The unit then figures out how many shots it needs to take in order to blanket the entire field of view. In this case, it was 226 still photos (16.2 megapixels each) which ended up with a 2,227 megapixel final image (or 2.28 gigapixels). You can export the file to RAW or TIFF. This gigapan was a 6.2gb RAW file.
It took around 20 minutes to take the photos on location, followed by about 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour to stitch the resulting image together on my laptop.
Once you start it going, the unit will move the camera to the first position, press the shutter button and then move to the next position. It will repeat this process until it completes all the shots necessary.
This is my first attempt at making one (after a few failed attempts) – make sure you click and scroll around the image…you can get in pretty close so see if you can find the crew working on the freighter:
Here is the Gigapan in action with my Nikon P6000 mounted:
I’m still exploring the options on the EPIC 100 which also has a 360 degree panoramic setting as well as the Gigastitch software that it comes with to piece these images together which is compatible with MAC and PC.
This technology is pretty damn cool and I can’t wait to try it out in more locations. I ended up buying the EPIC 100 for my own use. Stay tuned for more gigapixel images!
Update: Here’s my second Gigapan, shot at the PoCo Trail near the Pitt River (fullscreen):
Update: Here’s my third gigapan taken in West Vancouver of downtown Vancouver
