Hey Guys,
I was playing around with KiteCam this am, thought I would share a few pix with you (I know there were a few issues with the set up, I'm still working on it!).

Pretty low tides lately have really exposed those rocks we all kind of know are there but havent really seen before! Not sure if it is good to see them or not


With the lack of forecast seabreezes, everyone kind of ends up here and it was pretty busy on the water today



And when the wind died in the ass, everyone walked back up the spit together



And then sat around waiting and hoping for the wind to change it's mind again.



Hope you enjoyed the pix!

Nic

yeah tides been super low for 3 days now... pretty ****ed up

Knickers said...

Hey Guys,
I was playing around with KiteCam this am, thought I would share a few pix with you (I know there were a few issues with the set up, I'm still working on it!).

the fifth line is annoying and detracts from the shot [}:)]

Hey Sir V how do you edit you vid footagei got a mate to lend me his professional power director which is really good but you end up with really big files !! how do you edit yours?? i will get my mate to send through his set up

Mate, lano does go off ! but you were very close to some even better spots

Hey Knickers, I got a little better resolution and focus at Melville Waters yesterday on what little wind there was.. eheh

If you are using the W60 try the "Deshaker" (2nd line of settings) instead of Sport. I got a couple of close ups that I am almost satisfied with. I guess the closer zoom you get the more stable the kite has to be to focus properly, zoom rules.

I am still working out the video but I'm with you on that one. Stabilizing is a s***t of a job. Tks for input.

Yesterday's...

Mode: Sports
Sensitivity: ISO 800 Auto
Metering: Multi Segment
Quality: *** (Best)
White Balance: Auto
Zoom: 1.5x

Ozone/FLX32 vs Rebel/Hammer

Awesome stuff. Have to admit though the angle of the kitecam pic is a bit weird.

You don't normally get a reference point... like the horizon etc(or maybe you can but it looks tricky to get just right)

It seems like you just end up with a whole bunch of photos of the same thing(the kiter)?

My helmet camera does exactly the opposite, i.e. it takes loads of footage of the kite and you don't get a perspective of the kiter.

Best bet i guess is for a photographer sitting in the water with a fancy smancy camera in a water proof case.... if only.

Slack said...


North Rebel 1 Ozone Sport 0

NOW thats a reference point!! putting my head back up my ar...hole!

Hey thanks for all suggestions!
More Questions for you .
I found the memory section and ticked zoom, but can you explain how to differentiate optical and digital zoom, and also you say 1-1.5x zoom which is very little? Do you zoom later using photoshop, because they are quite close up photos?

Also, I cant find metering options?

What focus and what pixel setting do you use?

I dont have photoshop etc. just using ACDSee that came with the W60; when you say you adjust levels, what do levels do you mean Airhead?

Also, Slack, how do you get the shots so far behind the 5th line on your rebel- a lot of my pics get the label 'knot head'!

Finally, Meercat, you can get horizon in the pix if you keep the kite really low, but it needs to be barely off the water (my best horizon shots are after I have crashed the kite!).

Nic

Knickers said...

Hey thanks for all suggestions!
More Questions for you .
I found the memory section and ticked zoom, but can you explain how to differentiate optical and digital zoom, and also you say 1-1.5x zoom which is very little? Do you zoom later using photoshop, because they are quite close up photos?

It is generally considered that optical zoom is far more superior to digital zoom.

See here for digital vs optical zoom en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_zoom

I find it easier to just use the best possible picture quality settings, no zoom and crop afterwards. Don't crop more than 30% as you lose quality and perspective.

Also, I cant find metering options?

"Menu" then "Rec. Mode" tab page. Item you are looking for is "AE Metering". Multi-segment is the first option of 3.

What focus and what pixel setting do you use?

Auto focus, 7 megapixel (W20)

I dont have photoshop etc. just using ACDSee that came with the W60; when you say you adjust levels, what do levels do you mean Airhead?

Ditch ACDSee it's a resource pig. Download Picasa (free software) from here picasa.google.com.au/

Use the Auto Contrast and Auto Colour options when editing a pic. Alternatively you can try the "I'm Feeling Lucky" option. These do not always work and manual adjustment is necessary. Use the "Tuning" options for manual override.

I checked the wiki site- does the W60 use optical zoom if you use the zoom button before you take the pic? I get that cropping/zooming in after taking the photo is a form of digital zoom, but not sure about pre-photo zoom.

W60 has 5x optical zoom (which is massive for a point-and-shoot camera) and additionally 5.7x digital zoom. It should use the 5x optical zoom first then go to digital. You should never need the digital zoom for kitecam pics. You can turn off digital zoom capability in the settings somewhere.

To give you an idea, I would imagine if you used the full 5x optical from the kite you would probably only end up with a picture of the water and nothing else 99% of the time. So use 1-2x zoom max. It's just judged by how far across the zoom scale you are when digital zoom has been disabled.

Do you mean by resource pig that ACDSee uses a lot of space on my computer, could this explain why the computer keeps telling me I have not enough virtual memory recently (this possibly cooincides with me loading ACDSee)?

I mean it uses a lot of memory and I find it really, really slow to load up. I also don't like the interface much.

Picasa is much quicker and has a Mac like interface. It also has Google like search features (as Google produce the software) which are blindingly quick!