GoPro Surf HERO - digicam

[da.bell]

Now that looks good. How much did that camera cost? The videos were funny.. No boat sounds but you can definitely hear the water hitting the bottom of the board with the microphone.

[Surfdad]

Weren't the videos great fun?! I love the board going under water and the blub, blub, blub sounds.

The camera itself was about $150, but you absolutely have to get a 2 gig card and then NiMH batteries. The cold water and bouncing wipes out standard AAA's.

[G-MONEY]

Now that's what I'm talking about.........nice job!!!

[Domsz06]

those pics ROCK!!!!

[Moki]

Nice job on the pics and video!

[Timmy!]

Awesome! Glad someone got one of these!!!! Thanks for sharing the pics!

[Timmy!]

Just watched the videos, those are sweeeet!!!!!

[dogbert]

That is so cool! Thanks for sharing.

[Surfdad]

I have to be honest on the use of the device, I make James do it! It's like those child resistant medicine bottles, I always get a 10 year old to open them.

Here is my understanding of how it works. It has an on/off button and then a shutter button. The on/off also controls the mode, so you press it on. Press it again and it's set for continuous stills mode, press it a third time and it's in video mode. Then if you press and hold it for about 10 seconds it shuts off. The shutter button starts and stops either of the video or continuous stills modes or allows you to take single pictures.

I just handed it to James and said - make it work and then took it out in the water.

I would think folks with even a rudimentary understanding of digital cameras wouldn't have a problem.

I have no photo editing skils save for resizing so what you are looking at is straight from the camera, other than a reduction is size.

The Surf Hero edition came with two mounts, a glue on disk and then an FCS plug adaptor. FCS is a removable fin system vendor, so that would require drilling a few holes in the board, or gluing on a piece of foam with the plugs in it. Both mounting systems allow the camera to be pointed at 0 degrees and 180 degrees. It would take a second mount to get the camera at 90 and 270 degrees.

I was really impressed with the quality of the photos, I was expected them to all be blurred, but only maybe 5 out of 100 or so were blurry. The housing stayed water tight and it was pretty easy to remove and switch around.

I think that it would be easy to get scratches in the housing, so that is a longevity issue. Other than that, it seems like a great product. The change in orientation really makes the pictures and video fresh.

[ImaPigDog]

...
I would think folks with even a rudimentary understanding of digital cameras wouldn't have a problem.

I have no photo editing skils save for resizing so what you are looking at is straight from the camera, other than a reduction is size.
...
I was really impressed with the quality of the photos, I was expected them to all be blurred, but only maybe 5 out of 100 or so were blurry. The housing stayed water tight and it was pretty easy to remove and switch around.

Of the shots you posted, I have a hard time deciding which one(s) I like best. I thought the quality looked pretty darn good (especially for the price) and was guessing that the images/vids were straight out of the camera with no other processing. That is good news. I was hoping that you'd say that. I like the simplicity of it too.

Thanks for sharing and can't wait to see some more.

[Surfdad]

I found a picture of the mount that I had posted on WW.

[KonaKing]

That just makes me sick watching. Like the Blair witch project

[Surfdad]

I installed an FCS plg so that the camera could face to the right when James does his aerials. I was hoping that I'd get a picture of the boat with James in mid air, but the likelihood of that timing isn't good. We did get some video and I took a frame grab using Windows movie maker.

[formandfunction]

You should mount one close to your swimdeck and blend all the different cameras into one video.