Nice alternative for peeps who aren't constantly tucking into long barrels. Your vids going to come out a lot nicer with a soloshot if your carving it up on waves without barrels.

I'm grabbing one of these next March for my birthday in time for the West Oz April swells. I'm lucky in that I feel safe in leaving it on a couple of my locals. But it could be a problem for some peeps surfing city surf spots.

It would be great to see a lot of these being used so peeps could look out for each other or have like 1 person watching out for a bunch of them & thats why I'm mentioning them. So if I go somewhere I'd like to film. With more of these things out there, theres a chance I could set up safe in numbers kinda thing.

Here's a vid about them

& here's a guy on a global surf trip who uses both a soloshot & a GoPro

He's using one in his Angola nude surfing vid lol

i'd like to see how it handles tighter shots - looks like a pretty good invention.
Might mean less beach time and more water time for me.

I can't even surf without having to stress that some ****wit cvnt is going to knock off my car, let alone steal a camera sitting there in high vis on the beach....

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Reflex Films said...
i'd like to see how it handles tighter shots - looks like a pretty good invention.
Might mean less beach time and more water time for me.

I've seen footage of some guys flying down the line then hooking into big winding cutties & it handled them no prob. I'm thinking the limitation might be long point breaks where the camera has to be elevated a significant height above the water level. You would have to have the camera zoomed out in order for the surfer to remain in frame, the surfer would be in the bottom of the frame at beginning, top of the frame at middle pan, then bottom again at the end. Coz it looks like it just pans left/right, not up/down & left/right.

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subasurf said...
I can't even surf without having to stress that some ****wit cvnt is going to knock off my car, let alone steal a camera sitting there in high vis on the beach....

Jeez thats harsh man...I havn't lived in Perth since about '94. I used to leave my windows down at triggs point to keep my car cool. I did have something stolen from Scarbrough carpark one summer in about '92, but it was the middle of summer, scarbrough & I had the back window of my falcon st wgn down. Can't remember what they stole, I think it was a Billabong tshirt lol

Dave has one of these and has done for years Its called a wife!!!!!

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Wavewidow said...
Dave has one of these and has done for years Its called a wife!!!!!

LOL thats awesome...my missus is very cool like that too. But this way she can kick back reading a book or go for a swim if she wants to : )

What about Contour ??

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McHenry said...
What about Contour ??

Hadn't heard of it until you mentioned it mate. At a glance it appears to be similar to the GoPro.

These guys do a comparison

The Contour is much more simple to use with a one button slide on off swich, the contour is a tougher unit, with the waterproof case is waterproof to 60m. The new plus2 model, has a gps which shows locations, speed, elevation, comes with waterproof case, hdmi cable, external mic and has the viewfinder so you can see what angle you will be shooting through your phone.

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McHenry said...
The Contour is much more simple to use with a one button slide on off swich, the contour is a tougher unit, with the waterproof case is waterproof to 60m. The new plus2 model, has a gps which shows locations, speed, elevation, comes with waterproof case, hdmi cable, external mic and has the viewfinder so you can see what angle you will be shooting through your phone.

Sounds like a great alternative to the GoPro then, the lack of an lcd screen & having to buy one as a separate purchase bugged me...but then I'm not in the market, I'm grabbing the soloshot : )

The solo shot isn't a camera! It's the tripod tracking base and target armband. You still need to add a camera to the tripod base.

Yep I'm mentioning it as a handy product for filming your surf sessions.

I have a Panasonic Lumix FZ150, Sanyo xacti ca100 & a Sony handycam.

I love the idea. Get some footage up when you get it.

Ok mate, will do...actually you've given me an idea for a new thread. I'll post some vids I've already made without the soloshot : )

Soloshot has a $50 discount till Monday (US time) coupon code "BLACKfriday".

I will mention that "pan" motion can be a jerky. They might have improved it, or might improve it in the future... A human can obviously control zoom, and pan rate/speed. But hats off to them. A great idea. But it's still only "amateur" home video stuff, as a general rule.


If you want a good camera to take surf "photos" with your mates, grab a cheapo with at least 10X Optical Zoom. 12 and 15 are even better.


Example;
I took the photo on this blog, listed as October 19 (scroll down). Camera cost me $150 (Canon, brand new), and trust me I was shooting from probably 250+ metres away. Bob's face is shaded because the sun is at his back, and he laying into a bottom turn... He has a peaked cap on, backwards.
http://www.mctavish.com.au/_blog/McTavish/page/2/

From another thread I posted in, thought it fitted in here;

Just about every production I've worked on have one or two GoPro - not that the camera-operators like using them.
I've found the pro-photogs are more interested in alternatives to GoPro, but GoPro were the easiest to come buy when the producer says they want a POV perspective at the last minute.

It's pretty hard to miss when GoPro are in shot - this is part of the reason they are not liked, so distinctive and difficult to hide/keep out of shot. Many companies don't want to plug or show branding. Especially the ABC.
Personally I find GoPro look to boxy and almost ugly, but attribute the distinctive look to why they have become so popular.

The alternate cameras that gain the most attention by production crews are/were POV.1.5 (and POV.HD) also Drift with it's rotating lens, lcd screen and waterproofing.
I suspect Sony and JVC is also of big interest now.

The downside to Sony Actioncam is how hot they run - causing fogging inside the housing and the bright yellow housing makes then noticeable.

Contour are pretty good and used to be in GoPro shoes as the #1 sold worldwide. But they lack a viewfinder. Photogs don't like to point and hope for the best! And Contour are pricey.

There's also ION and ReplayXD as considerations.

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Reflex Films said...
i'd like to see how it handles tighter shots - looks like a pretty good invention.
Might mean less beach time and more water time for me.

Not so good on tighter shots....it doesnt like anything that is less than about 25m away as it gets "confused" but it is brilliant in the 50 to 100 m side if you synch it correctly.

Here is my first effort...ok..the surfing is lousy (me) but the conditions were not great either and the board is/was a dog I was also testing (6'8" popout fish)... but you get the point

In this one...it was my first attempt and in hindsight should have done the synching from further away...at least 25m.....the little bit of extra time you take to setup makes the end result much better...so in a few shots you can see it almost disappear...that is down to poor synchronisation of the remote rather than the product..something I have since learned.




The beauty of this product is if you have a partner who likes to come to the beach but doesnt want to film you but just grab a tan etc...you can set it all up yourself and go surfing ...the only major issue is security of the camera and tripod so I recommend having someone you know nearby

Here is a windsurfing one which also shows how well it tracks..in comparison..halfway through I tried videoing my wife SUPing on a windsurfer using manual tracking...its like chalk and cheese

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beatlloydy said...

Reflex Films said...
i'd like to see how it handles tighter shots - looks like a pretty good invention.
Might mean less beach time and more water time for me.

Not so good on tighter shots....it doesnt like anything that is less than about 25m away as it gets "confused" but it is brilliant in the 50 to 100 m side if you synch it correctly.

Thats cool, even when it screwed up it was better than a lot of footage I've got from leaving a camera on the beach without anyone or anything to pan the camera. Interesting info on the syncing, thanks for sharing mate...let us know how it goes, I can't wait to get one next year & would apreciate any tips : )

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Snowbum said...
From another thread I posted in, thought it fitted in here;

Just about every production I've worked on have one or two GoPro - not that the camera-operators like using them.
I've found the pro-photogs are more interested in alternatives to GoPro, but GoPro were the easiest to come buy when the producer says they want a POV perspective at the last minute.

It's pretty hard to miss when GoPro are in shot - this is part of the reason they are not liked, so distinctive and difficult to hide/keep out of shot. Many companies don't want to plug or show branding. Especially the ABC.
Personally I find GoPro look to boxy and almost ugly, but attribute the distinctive look to why they have become so popular.

The alternate cameras that gain the most attention by production crews are/were POV.1.5 (and POV.HD) also Drift with it's rotating lens, lcd screen and waterproofing.
I suspect Sony and JVC is also of big interest now.

The downside to Sony Actioncam is how hot they run - causing fogging inside the housing and the bright yellow housing makes then noticeable.

Contour are pretty good and used to be in GoPro shoes as the #1 sold worldwide. But they lack a viewfinder. Photogs don't like to point and hope for the best! And Contour are pricey.

There's also ION and ReplayXD as considerations.

Cheers for the info mate : )