Got my Nikko submarine out of hibernation and did a quick test run in the fountain. Turns out a pair of ducks are now claiming it as their personal pool. That didn't deter my sub captain from a stealth reconnaissance lap underneath them. Figured you might get a kick out of it. I sure did. Once the sub approached, they took off.
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Succumbing to peer pressure I finally had a chance to make a longer version. Here are two minutes of it until the boat gets caught by the deadly sea weed. Nah, was easily retrieved, but did wrap itself around the vertical prop, which prevented any further dives until I had all the bits and pieces removed.
The technical issues I had originally were due to a different format of the cube camera compared to the gopro. My video editor software got all confused. Once I made all the footage the same resolution, it was smooth sailing putting it together.
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I know. Actually run into a bit of a technical glitch: The two cameras use slightly different formats (same resolution but different number of frames and compression) and then my computer puked. It could be fixed but I'm running out of time as I got other things to do. It's not a show stopper, I know how to fix it, just not enough time right now.
It's also interesting from a sound perspective: The outside Hero camera recorded barely any sound whereas the onboard camera did. So that sound could be used, slightly lowered in volume.
Anyhow this was merely a test to see whether this worked and it did. What I really envision to do with this sub is take it to a subfest event and shoot UW videos of the other submarines. I bet that'd look awesome.Leave a comment:
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Here is a brief video that shows some of the footage from the fountain, onboard camera as well as exterior view:
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Just back from the local fountain. That was not just great fun but real success: After some initial adjustment the camera was spot on shooting nice UW video. The Seawolf behaved nicely although I do need to add a bit of forward weight to trim out the camera housing. But still managed to nicely dive and move swiftly around the narrow fountain. The Seawolf steers on a dime, which helps. Until I hit the area of seaweed where some got into its downward propeller. That stopped the diving action. First I thought it was dying batteries but it was just some seaweed. Lesson learned: Next time bring some pliers to get that stuff out. Nonetheless here a still image from the movie. I also had a UW Hero on a tripod so now I have the pleasure of editing some UW mini film together.
At any rate the Seawolf and cube camera are a perfect combo for little money.
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Did another tank dive. This time I set the trim balance just right: She dives now perfectly on command and with no input resurfaces being positively buoyant. More importantly I also wanted to see what the night vision capabilities of the camera are: So I turned off all my usual lights illuminating the tank. If I take a Gopro Hero picture at this point, you'd see nothing but darkness. Instead the camera switched automatically to its IR illuminators and came up with this grainy but visible picture. This goes a long way to take footage in a swamp. Again, this is only a freeze frame from the HD movie it captured. Needless to say I'm really pleased with this dirt cheap camera. Highly recommend it.
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