Bonus!

One of the accessories I bought for the Gopro was a wrist mount.  When I did the research, I did it on the camera itself, noting available accessories and focusing more upon the extended batteries than the mounting accessories.  It wasn't a terrible mistake, I knew enough to know that there are many options, especially with the readily available mounts that can be attached to nearly anything.  So when I went to buy the camera I saw the wrist mount and thought to myself "THAT could be pretty useful!".  Unfortunately, upon getting the camera home and trying the wrist mount out I discovered in short order it would be anything but useful in the context of what I intended to use it for.  Unless I want to walk around looking like I am pretending to hold an invisible shield in the ready position with the camera pointing outward, that wrist mount is not going to be of much practical value.

Also of limited value was the LCD screen.  Not only does it drain battery power, but an available app allows me to connect wirelessly via a smart phone, tablet or PC allowing me to observe what the camera sees so that I can set angles and whatnot.  If I am going to be doing action shots in an environment that could be potentially damaging to my tablet or camera, then the LCD screen would be of greater value.  Presently, I don't suspect that is the case.  Eventually I will probably go ahead and get one but now doesn't seem to be the time.

So, having purchased both of these accessories I took them back.  With the money that was returned to me, I bought an extra extended battery, a battery charger (so that I don't need to charge batteries solely via the camera) and the open frame mount.  The open frame mount will give me to access the ports in the camera that allow me to attach external equipment like microphones or power supplies.  This will be vital for filming testimonials and the like.  The limit is that I cannot attach both, which means that I will need to ascertain quickly while on the fly which will be more important and why.  The fortunate part is that because I am doing three mini-documentaries first, I'll be able to experiment with the process enough to learn what is the best for varied scenarios.

Essentially, I am even more excited now than I was two days ago.  I've been playing with the camera a little bit.  I downloaded and tried out the App that allows me to stream video to my tablet and that worked pretty well.  There is a lag but nothing that will be an issue.

There are two more pieces of equipment I think will be useful but I intend to fabricate them myself rather than purchase them.  One would be a mount on a long pole or extendable pole of some type.  This would allow me to get the camera high overhead and observe the surroundings from that angle.  The other is an over-the-shoulder, or what is generally referred to as a "3rd Person" camera mount.  It's likely that the pole mount will be more useful for my upcoming projects than the shoulder mount but essentially, I have the things I need to fabricate it and it may be useful so why not?  Buying them would be a bit ridiculous under the circumstances.  I can't fabricate a camera but given a bit of ingenuity I can fabricate both of those items very inexpensively.

From here on out I am going to be looking for methods to do this inexpensively.  I am, at times, going through sticker shock on the price of the camera and it's associated accessories, even though those accessories were not prohibitively expensive in comparison to other options.  I came very close to buying a Sony camera with interchangeable lenses, it would have worked well for these projects but it wasn't as versatile.  Out of the box, that camera was $600.  With all of the equipment I have presently I exceeded that.  To buy any accessories for that camera, I would have had to shell out much more than I did for the Gopro.

My only worry with the Gopro was actually removed today.  In order to get a wider field of view the Gopro utilizes a "Fisheye" lens.  In viewing, it appears a lot like the world is slightly distended which can be problematic for a documentary.  However, my fears were allayed when I looked on Gopro's website.  Lo and behold, the downloadable software has a way to remove the "Fisheye" effect and render the video as flat...bonus!

However much this blog is not intended to be an equipment review page, I am willing to express my excitement over things and so, here is my excitement!

Score!

I've been doing a lot of research over the last few weeks on what I wanted to do for a camera.  It is rather unfortunate that a good working professional camera is more or less out of reach in some ways and in other ways it is an enormous boon to me.  After all, people are filming documentaries now with camera phones because the technology has been miniaturized to the point that you can get really high quality video out of small devices.  However, as much as this is possible, I have a desire to make certain that the video quality of this documentary is very high.  Since having a professional camera is out of the question, I need to add an audio capture advice anyway which allows me to focus more upon video quality.

I looked at a lot of cameras and read a lot of reviews.  Even though I will likely buy a Digital SLR camera at some point, for the nonce I decided to get the GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition.  This camera is incredibly tiny and lightweight and comes with a waterproof case.  Because of it's size, it is not intimidating at all the way a larger camera might be which might make it easier for people to focus on me for interviews and forget the camera is even there.

I made one purchase with the camera that I may regret and that was a wrist mount.  It is literally a strap around your wrist that mounts the camera much like a watch face.  I somehow had it in my head that I would have more options on how to angle the camera, perhaps even sitting it up and facing my hand so I could point my hand in the direction I wanted the camera to go.  Not so.  This is $40 I may have wasted although I can take it back if I wish and I may. 

One of the things that I really like about the Gopro is that it is very adaptable to several situations.  I can buy a pole for it and get shots that are far above my head.  I can utilize a wireless connection to view the footage in real time so I can get my angles straight.  I can mount the camera to nearly anything.  There is a camera mount for it that is simply a strong plastic clip and the camera can be pointed at nearly any angle.

While I still want a DSLR camera at some point, if I never get one I can still film my documentaries without it.  If I can borrow the recording device I need (I have a couple of options there) then I can jack that into the camera and skip part of the workflow if I buy another mount that is an open face rather than the watertight case and do plenty just with that alone.  A DSLR is, by all accounts, far superior to a large professional video camera for filming all sorts of things because it is small enough to be manipulated more functionally.  If that is the case, then the Gopro should be far superior to even a DSLR.

Another advantage of the Gopro camera is that it is "Cheap".  They retail for $399.00 which is a bit of bread for me right now (thank you federal government for returning the extra money I gave you) but our tax return helped a lot.  The point is that next year, I could get another camera or I could even save up for a second camera over this year and then I would have multiple options for filming different angles.  That, however, is not necessary at this point, it is simply an option. The included remote will operate up to 50 Gopro cameras simultaneously.

Another great feature of this camera is that I can shoot in several different film qualities up to 60 frames per second allowing me to adjust for slow motion.  This might be a particularly fun option if I am filming ecstatic ritual where there is a lot of dancing or gyration.  It will be really cool for the drumming during Beltane at the Beach and the footrace as well.  It just seems to me like this is a phenomenal option.

I also dug out my old Flip camera which also takes hi-rez video.  I had stuck it away because it ceased working well but apparently time does heal all wounds because it seems to be working now...I'll take what I can get!

Between these two cameras, plus my canon point and shoot, I think I am set to begin.  Unfortunately, because of the setback I mentioned in the last post, I will be filming all three mini-docs in a 6 week time period which means a LOT of work on the editing deck.  The real question now will be if my software can handle the video quality I'll be working with and whether my computer will need an upgrade.  I think it should do alright but I'm still crossing my fingers.

The camera is now fully charged and I will begin playing with it tomorrow to learn the ins and outs.  I won't lie though, the investment in this camera means there is no turning back.  I cannot just invest this type of money (all the necessary accessories I bought cost money too) and then let it sit on my shelf like a toy or make cute films of my son playing and say "Good, that was useful!".

The good part is that if this works (and I believe it will as it has worked well for others) I have a top notch camera for this project and a way to make this documentary that will not kill me financially.  I still plan on doing some sort of crowd sourced funding but that will likely end up being more about covering travel expenses which makes the amount I will ask for more realistic a goal.  However, I do want to spend some time working the ins and outs of the camera over the next week or so to ensure that I have a reasonable idea of how well the software and hardware I have will handle the video quality because that will effect my bottom line.

I am understandably excited.  I've already begun listing some of my other things online in an effort to defray the cost...stuff I don't really need.