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).
My recent trip to Whistler was filled with good times including getting to be on hand for the 2010 FIBT World Cup bobsleigh and skeleton events at the Whistler Sliding Centre.
I never had a chance to visit the Sliding Centre during the Olympics (I couldn’t be everywhere at once!) so it was especially cool to have media access to the start and finish lines.
As you might imagine, the Sliding Centre really brought back Olympic memories for me…the whole event had an Olympic feel to it and many spectators were wearing their red mittens.
As someone pointed out – look at the feet in this shot (they aren’t touching the ground!):
Definitely a highlight was getting to see Jon Montgomery win the World Cup for Men’s Skeleton right in front of me in the same place he won the Gold Medal for Canada just nine months ago:
Being up close for the events really brought home just how insanely fast this sport is.
Prepping the sleds for competition:
I was told that starting early next year, the public will be able to actually ride in a bobsleigh and there will be a school where people can learn to bobsleigh and skeleton. I’m hoping to get to check those out myself!
Last weekend, I finally got a chance to check out Ziptrek Eco Tours in Whistler. I’ve been meaning to take a tour since I first got to experience them during the Winter Olympics.
As you can see from the above photo, Whistler was a full on winter wonderland the day I went on the ‘Bear‘ tour and the views were simply stunning.
Situated over and around Fitzsimmons Creek on Whistler Mountain, the ziplines criss cross the creek and are connected to many wooden platforms in the trees, high above the creek bed. It’s like a wintery Ewok Village!
Our helpful and knowledgable guides walked us through the basics of riding ziplines down in Whistler Village, just off to the side of the main lifts on a small zipline. Then we headed up the mountain and begun a multihour tour of the treetops where we rode 5 different ziplines of varying lengths and speeds.
Of course, I brought some cameras along for the ride and was extremely pleased with the results of my GoPro HD camera that I mounted to my helmet:
The views alone make it worth the trip not to mention the fun of zipping along above the canyon.
We even had some fun with snowballs while riding around:
Between runs, we would walk/hike between the different towers while the guides explained the history of the area, the way the towers and lines were constructed and other nuggets of information related to the tour.
Our final run was meant to be ‘freestyle’ where we were shown some different kinds of things you can do while riding, including hanging completely upside down:
I opted to switch up my camera and instead of hanging upside down, did a hand held GoPro shot:
I can’t wait to try the other tours Ziptrek offers…the Eagle tour is supposed to have even longer runs and I’m also looking forward to coming back up during the summer time to really feel like an Ewok while wearing shorts and zipping around.
My thanks to everyone at Ziptrek for having me along for the ride…it was a great experience that I look forward to doing again.
It’s been like Christmas lately with a whole bunch of new camera gear coming across my desk. Here’s a quick overview of some of the new stuff I’ve been playing with.
D7000
Earlier this week I received the much awaited Nikon D7000 camera body that I had preordered awhile ago:
It’s a significant update to my D90 that I’m still digging into…I’ll try to get a proper first look post in a few weeks after putting it through it’s paces a little more. I’m still debating on selling my D90 versus having a second camera body – something that would have come in handy a few times this year, especially during the Olympics.
Flip UltraHD
Flip Canada just unveiled their latest batch of HD cameras with some interesting upgrades including image stablization and a new expansion port (FlipPort) that promises to give a ton of new options for shooting video with.
They gave me a Flip UltraHD to play with and I’m currently working on a comparison review with my Kodak HD camera.
Olympus EPL-1
On Friday I received a Olympus PEN E-PL1 from Olympus:
This micro four thirds camera has been getting a lot of buzz lately with my photographer friends so I’m anxious to spend some time with it and see how it performs as a point and shoot with a lot of the abilities of a DSLR.
Post your questions about any of these cameras in the comments and I’ll try to answer them.
After pining away for one for ages, I finally bought a GoPro HD HERO camera:
It’s a tiny little HD camera with an amazing wide angle lens (170 degrees @ 720p!) that comes with a myriad of attachment options.
One of the first things I shot with it was the Thrill the World event and was blown away by the results:
A few days later, I was fortunate enough to be on a tour of the Thompson Okanagan and got to witness the Adam’s River Salmon run near Chase, BC.
Using a camera extension, I was able to get a unique view of the fish in the river:
I’ve been messing around with it and mostly just getting used to all the options it has:
I haven’t shot anything worth posting yet but another great feature of the GoPro is that it can shoot 5 megapixel stills and timelapse photos. The intervals can go down to one shot every 2 seconds and the test results have been better than I imagined. I’ll hopefully have some footage to post soon.
My only issues so far with it is that it doesn’t do well in low light at all and the battery life. My battery actually died about 45 seconds after I started shooting the salmon and I didn’t have an extra one with me (totally poor planning on my part – I’ve since picked up a second battery).
To give you an idea of the potential of this camera, here’s a little video from the GoPro homepage that showcases some of the more extreme uses for it:
There are lots of places to get a GoPro…I bought mine in person from Launch Helmet Cams in North Vancouver. I bought the GoPro HD Hero Naked and added a bunch of accessories. For my purposes, it was cheaper than buying one of the kits that are for more specific uses like Helmet or Motorcycle purposes.
Update (Dec 2010): Here’s a zipline video from my recent trip to Whistler:
Today, online movie streaming site, Netflix announced that it is coming to Canada this fall.
I had a chance to talk about what this means to Canadians with Lisa Christiansen on CBC Radio One’s On the Coast this afternoon (thanks for capturing it Dave!):
Canadian pricing and library availability wasn’t given in their press release but you can visit their site and sign up to be notified of when more details are announced.
Interestingly, Netflix.com, as well as their iPad app (pictured above), when visited from Canada both redirect users to Netflix.ca and the signup form.
I just got back from a Hawaiian vacation. Before I left, I waffled on what camera gear to bring. I had previously purchased a waterproof ‘bag’ that would fit my Kodak Zx1 camera but wasn’t too jazzed about using it since the back of the bag was blue rather than clear so while I’d be able to use it, I wouldn’t be able to see the screen while shooting.
The day before I left, I decided that I’d buy Kodak’s latest HD camera in the Zx line, the PlaySport (aka Zx3) which has a lot of the same features of the Zx1, except that it’s waterproof (to 3m/10ft), shoots in 1080p (@30fps) and has electronic image stabilization.
I had read some reviews and everyone seemed to agree it was perfect for snorkelling and similar water sports. I was impressed with a few videos I came across so decided to pull the trigger and bought one just before we left.
I am SO glad I did. Take a look at these clips…ideally in 720p HD, which is how I shot them (at 60fps) to see why:
I’m still blown away by the quality of this ~$150 HD camera…especially since it’s waterproof…many point & shoot camera manufacturers sell waterproof housings for their cameras for that price (plus the camera cost).
I was also impressed by the quality of the 5 megapixel still images the camera took:
Considering it was always around my neck while I was in the water, I was able to get still shots I wouldn’t normally get to take with my regular cameras without some kind of expensive protection.
My only gripes with the camera are:
weird underwater audio – obviously, there isn’t much to record underwater, but there is a lot of strange digital noise mixed in with the recorded audio of my Darth Vader breathing and ocean gurgling
the ‘H2O’ mode doesn’t stick when set – this seems to improve the underwater audio quality but unless you leave the camera on the whole time, I had to manually set it to this mode every time I powered on the camera. Definitely not ideal.
battery life – didn’t seem to last as long as the AA’s in my Zx1 do. As it uses the KLIC-7004 Li-Ion battery pack, it wasn’t as convenient to swap batteries like the Zx1 – unless I bought a second battery
wrist strap – seems like it would have been better to include a neck strap for in water use – I just clipped the included wriststrap to a lanyard I had to accomplish the same thing
Despite the issues above, I still think it’s a great camera. Hopefully a firmware update can address the H2O mode audio issue.
I wish I had went with my original plan to just use this camera and my Nikon P6000 point and shoot camera on my trip…the one day that I decided to not ‘get wet’ and take my DSLR out for photo ops, I managed to slip on a rock on the shoreline and while trying to save my DSLR which was in my hand, my camera bag containing my 35mm and 10.5mm fisheye lenses went for a quick dip in the ocean…the 35mm is electronically dead and the fisheye will probably seize up soon. Also two batteries for the P6000 (also in the bag) got nuked in the salt water. Then, moments later, while I was assessing the damage done, a ‘rogue’ wave soaked me (I was still on the shoreline) and completely killed my iPhone 3GS.
Yeah, it was an expensive and depressing day. Next beach vacation, it’s the PlaySport only for me.
Update: Here’s another video (with clips from the above ones) with about 99% footage shot with the PlaySport (the turtle in the sand clip was shot with my P6000):
During the Gold Medal Sledge Hockey game between Japan and USA, I shot just over 2200 still photos. I posted a number of them on Flickr but thought stringed together, they all made a pretty neat video:
To make this video, I used a very similar process to how I make my still photo based timelapse movies although instead of my point and shoot, I was using a Nikon D3. I simply exported all the photos in the appropriate size and imported them as an image sequence in Quicktime. I think the resulting video pretty turned out pretty cool.
This weekend I had the chance to check out the Flying Canucks…they aren’t hockey players, but they are amazing athletes who use trampolines to entertain people.
The team is comprised of former Olympic athletes and Cirque De Soleil performers, it is a high energy show that even has a DJ.
As you’ll see in the video, Olivier Lemieux actually took my little Kodak Zx1 on the trampoline with him for a few tricks:
Consider yourself warned as it may make some people a little queasy seeing the kind of moves his body goes through. There is also a brief picture in picture clip to give you an idea of what tricks are being performed from two perspectives. It’s not perfectly in sync but pretty close considering I only had one video camera at the event.
A big thanks to the Flying Canucks for having me out and for putting on a great show. They are performing March 5-7, 2010 at Metrotown Mall in Burnaby and then taking a break and will tour again this summer.
camera body that I had preordered awhile ago:
from Olympus:
camera:
which has a lot of the same features of the Zx1, except that it’s waterproof (to 3m/10ft), shoots in 1080p (@30fps) and has electronic image stabilization.
