Millers Run Video

Setting off at Millers Point Credits: www.surfski.info

I recently bought one of the new HD GoPro Hero cameras...  It’s been a learning curve but I’m finally getting the hang of it.

The HD GoPro

These little beauties, used with a 16GB card will film about two hours of paddling in glorious high definition video.

Helmet Hero HD Video Camera

But, they are tricky to use.  Here’s my checklist, developed through bitter experience over the last few weeks.  Some of these are obvious – but I fell foul of them nonetheless.

1. Top the battery up the night before.
2. Make sure the memory card is wiped clean of files.
3. Use RainX or similar on the inside of the casing lens.
4. Important: Store desiccant sachets in the casing.
5. Important: Store the camera in an airtight container with lots of desiccant sachets (you can get these at pharmancies).  This will prevent the casing from fogging up in mid-paddle.
6. When you’re at the paddling venue, put the camera into the casing quickly and with dry hands.  Use the GoPro anti-fogging strips on the inside of the casing.
7. Switch the thing on.
8. Start filming and make sure the camera is running!
9. During the paddle, frequently splash water onto the casing to get rid of the spray droplets...
10. After the paddle take care not to let the casing come into contact with concrete - the bulging wide-angle lens scratches very easily.

Millers Run in HD

As I switched on the camera I noticed that a file was still on the camera and I made a mental note to delete it...

As we rounded Bakoven Rock I paused to set my GPS...  The others took off and it took me a good 20 minutes to catch them up.  And then we had fun – we were setting up shot after shot and I had the skis lined up, beautifully lit by the afternoon sun.

In one shot all three of us were on a run together and I had both the other two on my right hand side, both close and beautifully in frame...

But when we got to the end of the run, the camera was flashing an ominous FUL message.  Yep, the memory had filled and the camera had stopped filming about 25min into the paddle, just as we were starting to set up the shots...

This video clip is what I recovered – not much!  (To view the clip in HD, move your mouse over the video and click the "HD" button.  Beware though that some (older) computers may not display it correctly - on my Windows XP machine it plays jerkily; on my newer Win7 machine it plays correctly.)

But it does show the potential.  With another cam mounted on the deck pointing backwards; a good 30kt blow and some decent waves and we’ll be making movies...  Stay tuned!

Millers Run from Rob Mousley on Vimeo.