Archive for the 'Gear' Category

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Battle of the Action Cams

Published on March 7, 2013 in Gear and Review by taro. Closed

Having used both the Sony and GoPro over our Hokkaido trip, I now have some more thoughts on these two cameras and how they stack up against each other. GoPro feature set wise wins. Their WiFi remote is very useful, much more than linking up a smartphone. How often in -10C with winds blasting enough to almost knock you over and snow swirling in your face are you going to dig out your smartphone, take off your gloves in order to use the phone, wait for the app to sync, then browse through it to change settings or start the camera. The GoPro allows full access to all functions while in the waterproof case, although in use the only setting I changed in the field was the inverted setting. The Sony once it was in case only has the start/stop button, which ended up being fine. And it’s a nice big button that makes it glove friendly.

But the Sony has only one tiny impossible to see record indicator LED on the back, I could never see it in the field. The start tone is too soft, again impossible to hear through layers of neckwarmer, helmet ear muff, blasting snow and wind.

Continue reading ‘Battle of the Action Cams’

Camera On A Stick

Published on February 18, 2013 in Gear by taro. Closed

Got a Leki carbon trekking pole with the photo adapter. Figure can use it for multiple purpose of hiking pole and a pole mount for the action cams. Trying out the provided 1/4″ tripod mount adapter with a Giotto mini ball head worked, but it seems a little tenuous. It’s really designed for compact still cameras.

So this is what I came up with. A 3/8″ inner diameter by 1 1/2″ long steel spacer made from rolled sheet, a 3/8″ bolt and wingnut, a hose clamp, thumbscrew, and the mentioned Giotto ball head. The ball head actually has a 3/8×16 threaded hole in it’s base with an adapter to the more common 1/4×20 tripod hole.

Continue reading ‘Camera On A Stick’

GoPro – Pro means you can replace equipment all the time?

Published on February 16, 2013 in Gear and rant by taro. Closed

Alright, who at GoPro decided to “upgrade” the HD Hero 3’s outer case lens? Who decided to put a glass lens on an extreme action camera? Granted it’s a fairly significant 1/8″ thick, but it’s still glass. I kinda wondered about this when I first got it, I noticed the lens had an optical coating. Not something you saw on the older generation lenses.

I guess this has superior optical clarity, but all the anti-glare coating in the world doesn’t help when you get this!

 

Yes, I put it in a bad place, that was intentional. In retrospect it was a pretty extreme location as the polycarbonate case has a lot of dings now, but still I’m used to expecting these things to take a beating, that’s the whole point of these cameras, right?

Shake Rattle No

Published on February 4, 2013 in Gear by taro. Closed

The new Sony HDR-AS15 (and presumedly AS10) are nice little POV action video cameras. They produce video about as good as and in some respects better than GoPro’s closest priced competition. But it’s got its share of shortcomings and problems. Some of the shortcomings you would have figured they would have figured out ahead of time by looking at the competition.

There is one problem that has shown up and that is a rattle that is very loud in the on board audio. You can hear it when you shake the camera too. Continue reading ‘Shake Rattle No’

Soda C: Sony Action Cam vs GoPro HD3 Silver

Published on February 3, 2013 in Gear and Review by taro. Closed

So I’ve had these two long enough to play with them a bit and take some side by side footage. The Sony is their recent foray into the compact, self contained, HD POV video camera market dominated by GoPro. GoPro has such a strong hold that the name is becoming a verb among the action sports crowd, “Are you going to gopro that?” “I hope you were goproing that!” So it’s interesting to see what one of the big electronics names brings to the table.

I’m going focus on how it stacks up against the GoPro. Continue reading ‘Soda C: Sony Action Cam vs GoPro HD3 Silver’

Sony Dead Cat

Published on February 3, 2013 in Gear by taro. 1 Comment

So I bought the accessory door pack for the Sony Action Cam, $50 for the flat underwater door and the “enhanced” audio door, ouch. The audio door is what I wanted, it has two openings in the waterproof case door where the built in stereo mics are. But over the two holes is a membrane, it is most likely a GoreTex like membrane found in the LifeProof iPhone case. It allows air to pass, but not liquid water. So it should improve audio recording while maintaining waterproofness to a Sony claimed 10 meters. It still suffers from wind noise so I decided to do the Dead Cat treatment to it also. Continue reading ‘Sony Dead Cat’

I Like the Crakka

Published on January 23, 2013 in Gear and Review by taro. 1 Comment

A few posts ago I showed you the “Dead Cat” I made for my GoPro for a couple bucks. This weekend I did a Soda A, Soda B comparison test. You can watch it here:

My conclusions after the break. Continue reading ‘I Like the Crakka’

GoPro Dead Cat

Published on January 13, 2013 in Gear by taro. 3 Comments

Huh, what? Apparently “dead cat” is an industry term, much like Monkey Sh*t. It’s those furry microphone wind muff screens. I was browsing Amazon and came across one for the GoPro on sale. However $10 seemed a bit much so I decided to make one myself. The hardest part was sourcing the synthetic fur. The lady at Calico Cat in Kaimuki said she had some, but when  I went to look it was really short pile stuff. BTW, if you’re into knitting and fabric stuff, you should stop in there, she’s a really nice lady.  What to do? Continue reading ‘GoPro Dead Cat’

ITS Tactical Skeletonized Bottle Holder

Published on January 6, 2013 in Gear and Review by risu. Closed

This highly-adaptable bottle carrier designed by ITS Tactical and manufactured by Zulu Nylon Gear can fit almost any EDC water bottle currently on the market, even legacy GI 1-quart canteens.  Made from US-sourced materials in the USA, this MOLLE-compatible bottle holder uses a Velcro-adjustable perimeter nylon webbing band at its base and elastic shock-cord keeper at the top to retain bottles up to the size of a 1-liter Nalgene.   The MOLLE attachment is a traditional 1″ nylon webbing weave strap with a terminal snap.  It uses one channel in width and three high.  It can also be configured to fit a 2″ belt by passing the strap under the lowest two sections of weaving webbing.  The main body is made from a piece of 2″ nylon webbing folded over a LDPE stiffener.  The webbing perimeter band is sewn to the body and uses hook Velcro on one end and loop on the other for diameter adjustment.  The tail of the main body loops under the bottle and is captured in the adjustment of the perimeter band by hook and loop sections at its terminal tip to keep the bottle from just slipping out the bottom.  The elastic shock cord top retainer has a grippy tab for easy manipulation, and can be adjusted both in girth by tying it larger or smaller (the knot is inside the tab) and height by using one of two slots in the main body.  I got the MultiCam version that uses jacquard woven MultiCam webbing and pattern matched Velcro.  The snap is a blackened, Mil Spec non-magnetic brass component. Continue reading ‘ITS Tactical Skeletonized Bottle Holder’

Tier Zero

Published on January 1, 2013 in Culture, Gear, rant and SUAR by risu. 1 Comment

“What unit you with?”

“Huh?”

“What unit are you with?”

“I’m not with any unit: I’m just some guy.”

“No, really,”

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