The GoPro & Video Thread

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by rthompsona

I have a gopro 3 silver.
I want to use the camera to help me on a bridge crossing.
My experience is that it is very hard to determine if my sailboat will make it under a particular bridge.
While the chart indicates that my 43.5 ft mast will fit easily under a 45' bridge, the fact is that tides, and waves can make an easy transit into a demasting.
I plan to raise my gopro 3+ on the spare halyard and monitor the transit.

Does anyone have a similar experience to share?

One and a half feet clearance?

You are braver than me...

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

One and a half feet clearance?

You are braver than me...

I agree! I can't imagine how the camera swinging around on a halyard will tell me if I'm going to hit or not. The video of the dismasting will go viral on youtube, though!

[minaret]

Just go aloft and temporarily mount a go pro to the masthead with zip ties and tape, then take it back down after.

[ka4wja]

Dan,
I'll add my Youtube videos to the mix here....but, I think my "sailing videos" are best as an example of how NOT to video, and what to EDIT OUT of your videos...

I do not use any video editing software, I just use a Sony Hi-8 analog camcorder, and did manual analog editing myself into a DVD recorder for the finished product (and then loaded into my laptop and uploaded to Youtube)
I did my "radio videos" the same way....
Sorry, this is a rather OLD way of doing things, but I'm not much for photography / videography.....it's just that sometimes a picture or a few minutes of video, are worth more than 1000 words (sometimes a LOT more than 1000 words!!)

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

So how about it sailors? Share you YouTube links to your videos (GoPro or not) your techniques for getting good video. Some tips on what video editing software you use and so on.

Have a look....

Eastbound across the Atlantic (from S. Florida to Azores, to Gib)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-5P4QJlnoQ

Westbound across the Atlantic (from Gib to Lanzorte, Canary, to USVI)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3MlGBevrWM

And, if you wish to see indoor videos (at the Nav Station), have a look here at these 10 "radio videos"....
Icom M-802 Instr Videos(basic-adv) & LIVE DSC-Distress Call



I hope some find these interesting....


Fair winds...

John
s/v Annie Laurie

[Canibul]

I've got each of the first three generations of GoPros. I just bought another Hero 3+ black a month ago, in anticipation of using in on a UAV I have on order ("Pocket Drone") I've been using these, plus a Sony Steady Shot, and a couple of Pentax cameras with interval timers. I like to do time lapse stuff, slides, that kind of thing. One issue to watch out for is condensation in the waterproof GoPro housings. They fog up here after about 20 minutes of recording video. I've tried the GoPro dessicants, but they're useless. This problem is mainly when the camera is in the sun, in a sealed up case. The vented case back, no problem with fogging. But..it's also no longer waterproof. I did buy an extended battery pack ( which NEVER worked, even once, by the way) for the bigger rear case. And I put five bigger dessicants in there, and solved the fogging issue.

I made a mount for the tip of the mast of a Hobie Tandem Island sailing kayak, and got a sort of different time lapse of sailing the Hobie out to a deserted island and back. That's on:
2 Gringos in the Caribbean: Late Winter Ramblings
there's a google earth video of the path we took, on that one.

But the better time lapse from the Hobie mast is the Time Lapse Sailing video on:
2 Gringos in the Caribbean: Summer Sunday Sojourn

We've also been taking a lot of aerial photos using a GoPro on a rotating mount under a kite.

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

One and a half feet clearance?

You are braver than me...

Is it in an area where tides are significant enough so you can do it a couple feet from high tide?

[jtsailjt]

No video's to post yet, but I found this thread because my wife and I are planning to get a GoPro for Christmas, prior to our February BVI charter with the kids. BTW, I really enjoyed watching all the vids posted on this thread, they only confirm we NEED one of these! We're thinking of getting the $399 Hero4 Silver. Can control it remotely with a cellphone app and transfer video vs bluetooth when WIFI isn't available. The Hero4 Black goes up to 4K video but we're thinking that the Silvers 1K should be enough for our purposes.

Do any of you experienced GoPro folks have any advice before we buy? During this winter vacation we want to take a lot of snorkeling videos and of course some sailing videos, and then more sailing on our boat next summer. Do you think the 4Silver is a logical camera for us or should we go for the 4Black for an extra $100? What accessories should we get? How many extra batteries do you typically carry, etc?

[rthompsona]

Thank you to everyone for the advice. We are planning to go under the Shands/Green Cove bridge on the St John River on Thanksgiving.

This actually the 3rd of 3 bridges on St Johns that are listed as 45'. The first two were at the beginning of our trip. The water was running high (44'), but there was no minimal current or waves. I wish I could say it was bravery, but it is really just necessity. We are moving the boat to our new home.

This one is more troublesome because of the strong current, tide and the fact that the river is wide enough to get some waves.

We got a dive bag to hang off the end of the boom to heel the boat if it looks too tight.
I will post what I get.

[hoppy]

Here are a couple of GoPro videos from the last 2 seasons.

This one includes video from up the mast and underwater whilst sailing
https://vimeo.com/69810940

Timelapse video
https://vimeo.com/102624766

As well as taking GoPro's sailing, I strap them onto a quadcopter. I lost one gopro/copter in the Aegean last summer whilst filming myself sailing and then a few weeks ago I crashed my other quadcopter with my new Gopro Hero 4 onboard