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Global BC Morning News: Shaw Tech Report with Lindsay Smith

Lindsay Smith shows off the Hitcase Pro and SuckR Mount plus some other cool iPhone gagets on the Shaw Tech Report. Watch the full news segment here!

Download the GoPro App Now

The GoPro App is now available at the Apple App Store and Google Play.

NOTE: HD HERO2 cameras and Wi-Fi BacPacs require a software update before using the GoPro App. Visit gopro.com/update for a free software update. The GoPro App is not compatible with the original HD HERO camera.

You will need a Wi-Fi BacPa or Wi-Fi Combo Kit to use the App with your GoPro HERO2 camera.
The GoPro App is not compatible with the original HD HERO cameras.

Demo video may showcase features to be released with future versions of the app.

Upcoming features in future GoPro App releases:

• Access all content on your camera’s SD card for preview, browsing, and file management
• Multi-camera control

The GoPro app will be compatible with most smartphones and tablets:

• iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S (iOS 4.3 & 5)
• Basic compatibility with the iPhone 5 and iOS 6.  Full compatibility will be available soon
• iPod Touch 4 (iOS 4.3 & 5)
• iPad 1, 2 & 3 (iOS 4.3 & 5)
• HTC Thunderbolt or other Android 2.2 devices, coming soon
• Motorola Droid X or other Android 2.2 devices, coming soon
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4G or other Android 4.0 devices, coming soon
• Samsung Galaxy Tablet or other Android 3.1 devices, coming soon

You will need a Wi-Fi BacPa or Wi-Fi Combo Kit to use the App with your GoPro HERO2 camera.
The GoPro App is not compatible with the original HD HERO cameras.

We are excited to announce a new ruggedized, waterproof, and mountable solution for iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S/4 called HITCASE. HITCASE PRO featuring a wide angle lens is also available to give you an even better POV experience with your iPhone.

With HITCASE, there is no need to carry around a separate POV camera, using the highly responsive 1080p camera in your iPhone, HITCASE allows you to shoot like a pro, edit and upload all from a single device. Plus you can still take a call or send a text whether your shredding the mountain or chasing fish under the sea.

Shipping mid-October, HITCASE and HITCASE PRO for iPhone 4S/4 will revolutionize the way you use your iPhone and shoot POV footage. Coming mid-December, HITCASE for iPhone 5 will be available in time for the holidays and still in time for snow season! Hit It!™

Plus get instant savings on pre-orders until October 1, 2012!
$20 OFF Hitcase
$30 OFF Hitcase Pro
+ Free Shipping Worldwide!

• Vidometer information: http://www.hitcase.com/Vidometer
• Vidometer on Facebook: http://facebook.com/Vidometer
• Vidometer on the Apple App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vidometer/id552124663

Vidometer MTB on the North Shore mountains - Vancouver BC:

“Honu” or Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle was shot in the waters of the Big Island of Hawaii. It was shot entirely using a GoPro HD HERO2 with a flat lens mod and GoPole Grenade Grip. Special thanks to a local Hawaiian named Camille and her family who’s respect and reverence for the Honu was the inspiration for the making of this video.

The music used is entitled “Jacques Cousteau” by Erasure from The Boy EP and acts as an ‘homage to my childhood fantasy of joining the crew of the “Calypso” and Jacques Cousteau. Feel free to share with your friends and take the time to educate yourself about the Honu (Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle) and the health of our oceans. Enjoy!

The Wi-Fi Combo Kit enables remote control, live preview and playback on smartphones and tablets*, live streaming* to the web, and more. The WiFi Combo Kit is compatible with HD HERO2 and Original HD HERO cameras.

Wi-Fi Remote

• Control up to 50 cameras at a time, 600’ / 180m range
• Full camera control: On/Off, Mode, Shutter and Settings
• Wearable and waterproof to 10’ / 3m

Learn More »

GoPro App + Smartphone or Tablet (Coming Soon)

• Control your GoPro(s) with your smartphone or tablet
• Live preview and playback video and photos from your GoPro(s)
• Wi-Fi transfer* footage from your GoPro to your smartphone or tablet and share with friends
• Live stream using your smartphone as a hotspot

Learn More »

Live Streaming + Sharing Directly From Your GoPro (Coming Soon)

Live stream video or share photos and videos directly to the web from your GoPro, wherever you have a network connection*.

NOTES:
* A product update is REQUIRED before using your Wi-Fi BacPac or Remote. Visit gopro.com/update for a free update download. The original HD HERO is only compatible with the Wi-Fi Remote. The original HD HERO does not support the GoPro App, video + photo preview/playback, or live streaming.

* Live video streaming to the web is available for the HD HERO2 with a free future downloadable product update at gopro.com/update. Wireless internet connection required; additional fees may apply. The Wi-Fi Remote does not require a Wi-Fi network as it creates its own Wi-Fi network. ** Supports iOS 4 and Android OS 2.2 and newer devices. For a full list of compatible devices, visit gopro.com/support. Specifications are subject to change without notice.

Episode 1: Chatter Creek

MSP’s film crew discovers abundant early season snowfall during a trip to Chatter Creek, BC with Mark Abma, James Heim, and newcomer Leo Ahrens. Plenty of epic skiing was had during a nine-day period that Heimer referred to as ‘the deepest trip of my life’. All three skiers got their share of shredding in, not to be outdone by the resident lodge-dog who was quick to join in for some laps.

Music Artist: Phreewill
Title: Tetractysted

Episode 2: Japan

The MSP film crew along with athletes Sean Pettit, Richard Permin, and Riley Leboe take you to the island of Hokkaido, Japan. “We didn’t see the sun very much” says Permin after spending 14 days in a blizzard. The crew hit up surrounding resorts and backcountry shredding some of the deepest and lightest snow Japan has to offer.

Music Artist: Niels Nielson
Title: We Are Youth (Instrumental)

Episode 3: Haines, AK

Mountain Hardwear athletes James Heim and Sam Anthamatten tee off in the big mountains of Haines, Alaska. The crew soaked up the great snow conditions and rare windows of sunshine during a two week trip in late February. For Anthamatten, the MSP rookie, the first-time experience in AK was one that he won’t soon forget. Check out some of the deep pow, big hucks, and even bigger avalanches from Haines in this new episode!

Episode 4: Alaska

MSP takes you deep into the Chugach Range outside of Girdwood, AK along with Ingrid Backstrom, Richard Permin, Mark Abma, Cody Townsend, and heli support from our friends at Chugach Powder Guides.

Music Artist: Another Cynthia
Title: Push Back (Instrumental)

Episode 5: Whistler, BC

James Heim, Michelle Parker, and a few other friends posted up in Whistler, BC during early April after a different trip was cancelled due to extreme avalanche danger. As evidenced by the material here in Episode 5, they made the right call! Watch Michelle shred and watch Heimer spin in this latest episode!

Music Artist: Adam Lastiwka
Title: Of Gods and Men

Episode 6: Japan, Part 2

In this episode, we take another look at MSP’s trip to Japan to explore the lighter side of making ski movies. Sean Pettit, Riley Leboe, and Richard Permin demonstrate the right way to party during a two week pow mission to Niseko. Follow the boys on their quest for good turns and good times!

Episode 7: Tordrillo Mountains

MSP takes us back to Alaska - this time to the largely unexplored North Tordrillo Mountains. Here in episode 7 we get a firsthand look at the monstrous AK terrain through the eyes of Mark Abma, Richard Permin, and Cody Townsend. After arriving first by floatplane to the remote Winterlake Lodge, the heli-enabled crew besieged the massive peaks and pioneered several new lines throughout the range. The action that ensued speaks for itself!

Episode 8: Whistler Jump

This is it, folks… the last episode of the year from MSP and Contour. Here in episode 8 you’ll get to witness some of the madness from Whistler/Blackcomb on one of the sickest jumps of the year. Russ Henshaw and Jacob Wester teamed up with PK Hunder, Aidan Sheahan, and Richard Permin for a bunch of spinny-flippy action above epic backdrops and an outstanding sunset (you might even catch a glimpse of Russ going upside down three times).

Contour has introduced five, sport-specific Mount Kits for Snow, Bike, Moto, Outdoor, and Helmets. These kits will make it much easier for shoppers to purchase the right accessories for their preferred activity and offer the optimum mounting combinations in one easy package.

These kits are inspired by Contour’s athletes and sports and feature these benefits:

• Easy to Buy by Sport: Each Contour Mount Kit contains mounts designed with your chosen sport in mind, ensuring a great experience no matter what your activity.
• Easy to Use: Contour mounts are versatile, reliable, and easy to use. Whether your sport involves mud, dirt, snow, freezing temperatures, high speeds, heavy gloves, a helmet or all of the above, Contour Mount Kits will perform to your sport’s demand.
• Includes a Carry Bag:Each kit includes a Weatherproof Carry Bag to help keep all of your gear organized. The bag is compact and fits easily into a small backpack or camera bag.
• Cost Effective: Each mount kit offers a 30% saving compared to buying each mount individually.

Snow Mounts

Bike Mounts

Moto Mounts

Outdoor Mounts

Helmet Mounts

At first glance the updates on the new GoPro HD HERO2 may look subtle, but they really are revolutionary rather than evolutionary. The camera almost looks exactly the same on the outside as earlier Gopro HD Heros but there are major differences inside the case. There are numerous exciting new features including HDMI out and mic input. In fact other than the enclosure the HD Hero2 is a completely new camera.

Here are the big improvements in the HD HERO2:

HERO2 Unboxing

What’s Included?

There are 3 packages available for the HD HERO2: Motorsports, Outdoor, and Surf editions. All of them come with the following:

Each package comes with it’s own set of mounts, all of which are fully compatible with each of the cameras (which are exactly the same).

What’s New?

New HERO2 features

On the Outside

Upon initial inspection of the camera, it might not look much different, then you start to notice subtle changes. The first thing I noticed was that there are LEDs on 4 sides of the camera, making it much easier to see if the camera is recording. No longer will you hear the oh-so-common phrase, "Is the red light flashing?"; of course this doesn’t help much when it’s helmet mounted, but that’s what friends are for! After further inspection you’ll probably notice the difference in ports; the component port is gone and in its place is a HDMI port for watching that sweet sweet creamy HD goodness directly on your 60" plasma, oh yeah! The component cables that came with the HD HERO would allow you to watch videos directly on a HDTV, but most TVs don’t accept 1080p via component, so you were stuck at 720p. Also HDMI cables carry audio through them as well, so there’s no need to plug in 5 different cables anymore. You’ll also find a handy, little 3.5mm microphone jack! GoPro fanatics have been requesting that one for a while now, good work GoPro! The possibilities are endless: Wire a microphone in to your helmet for voice notations, down by the engine of your motorcycle to cut out wind noise and increase engine noise, or even just route it somewhere protected to reduce wind noise and increase audio clarity.

The biggest change for me is the new menu interface. Gone are the days of cryptic codes and numbers! The LCD resolution has been increased and now the menu system features full length words that let you know what you’re doing. I got pretty familiar with the interface on the original HD HERO, but it took me a long time, and the learning curve was fairly steep. The new interface makes changing settings drastically easier!

 
Close up of the new menu

Video

Moving on to the internal functions of the HERO2 reveals a ton of new features! The new sensor has a new faster f/2.4 lens to match, and boy does it make a difference! Though the resolution hasn’t technically increased, the videos are much sharper, all 1080p is definitely not equal. Colors are more natural to boot! The most noticeable change in the video quality department is the low light footage, it is absolutely astounding. Without a doubt a huge difference from the HD HERO, noise is reduced drastically, colors are more natural, and the image is just plain sharper. No comparison in that regard. Another change that is going to make users very happy is the ability to change the field of view, regardless of resolution. Whereas in the past the GoPro’s field of view was 170° at 960p and 720p, and 127° at 1080p, the HERO2 allows you to select between 170°, 127°, and 90° in 720p and 1080p! This opens up endless possibilities, it’s like having 3 lenses in one! There are also 2 new framerates available. In 960p you now have the option of recording at 48fps, and if you want super high motion resolution but don’t care as much about video quality, you can shoot 120fps in WVGA mode (848x480), a cool feature for sure.

HD HERO and HD HERO2 video comparison

Still Images

The upgraded image sensor on the HERO2 now produces 11MP photos, as opposed to 5MP on the original HD HERO. The difference isn’t obvious when first viewing an picture, but as soon as you zoom in on a photo it’s pretty clear. A picture can be cropped much more tightly and still retain sharpness.

Using the HD HERO2

If you were familiar with the original HD HERO, then you won’t find using the HERO2 much different. You still power it on and cycle through menu options using the front button, the top button selects menu options and of course starts and stops recording, as is tradition. As mentioned above, navigating the menu is now much easier, due to the English language menu.The camera still uses the same incredibly durable housing as the last generation, so all parts are compatible there.

Mounting

The HERO2 uses the exact same mount system as the HD HERO so all your old mounts will still work just fine with the HERO2. No other point-of-view camera system has as many mounts available, there are very few limitations as to where you can mount this puppy!

Battery Life

The HERO2 uses the same battery as the previous generation, and battery life is the same as well. You can generally record 2.5 hours of footage on one battery charge, though it can vary depending on the temperature. Very cold temperatures can negatively affect battery life. Of course you can always use the Battery BacPac to double your battery life!

Viewing

You can view your recorded footage directly on a HDTV via an HDMI cable, or on a SDTV via the included composite cables. Of course you can always pop the memory card in your computer, or plug it in via the USB cable. And of course there is the ever popular LCD BacPac, which allows to review footage in the field, at the expense of battery life. A new addition to the line of BacPacs is the upcoming WiFi BacPac (more on that below) which will allow you to view videos on a wifi equipped smartphone, tablet, or computer.

 
The Battery and LCD BacPacs

WiFi BacPac?

The WiFi BacPac is an upcoming (April 2012) attachment for the HERO2, with limited compatibility with the original HD HERO. This is going to be a truly revolutionary item in the field of wearable video. There are two main functions, the first is the wifi function, this will allow you to wirelessly broadcast video at a claimed 250ft, you’ll be able to pick up the video on a wifi equipped smartphone, tablet, or PC. This means remote monitoring, the holy grail of point-of-view video. The potential uses are endless! You’ll be able to broadcast live video for others to watch, or set up your smartphone as wireless viewfinder, I’m sure the GoPro community will come up with some awesome uses for this feature. The second function is the remote control, it will allow you to control a bevy of functions on the camera, from a great distance. The remote has a small LCD that will let you see the recording mode, and allow you to see what setting you’re changing. What’s more? You’ll be able to use the remote to control up to 50 WiFi BacPac equipped HERO2s with a single remote, for some awesome Matrix bullet time-esque footage! We’ll have more coverage of the WiFi BacPac after its release.

The upcoming WiFi BacPac and remote control. 

Conclusion

The GoPro HD HERO2 is, without a doubt, a worthy successor to the original HD HERO. The many upgrades result in an incredibly powerful camera; and at it’s low price point will make it a tool accessible by professionals and hobbyists alike. The video quality is incredible, and in my opinion the low-light footage is worth the upgrade alone! Having a selectable field of view is also one of the HERO2’s strongest points. Throw in the increase in framerate, 11MP sensor, HDMI and microphone ports, easily readable menu, and GoPro’s stellar reliability and durability record, and you have one very well rounded helmet camera. There are few negatives however: The buttons are still the same size and in the same position, so it can be difficult to tell if you’ve pressed the record button when wearing gloves. In addition, the recording confirmation beep is still pretty inaudible if you’re in a loud environment. The fact that the same housing and size was kept can be construed as a negative, it is still pretty boxy; however some might argue the other way as it retains cross compatibility with many parts of the original HD HERO. The biggest complaint from me is that GoPro still has no first-party solution to the underwater focus issue (though rumor has it that one is in the works); and some existing aftermarket flat lenses have an isssue with contacting and applying pressure to the camera’s new internal lens at depth. These are really minor complaints, as far as I’m concerned.

Bottom Line: The GoPro HD HERO2 is a fantastic successor to the HD HERO and I have zero qualms with recommending it to anybody that is looking for a point-of-view camera for pretty much any activity, even existing GoPro HD HERO owners.

A really cool perspective looking “inside” an old delivery van:

Last week I talked about the amazing macro lens included with the Olloclip, today I’m going to talk about the fisheye lens. The fisheye is the largest of the three lenses included, and has an incredible field-of-view; it is seriously wide, I kept having to ask my assistant (AKA Dad) to move back as he was in the frame even though he almost behind me! Fisheye gives a very distinct look, I’d say this is the first lens to try of the three, as it gives the most initial ‘wow’ factor. Some people aren’t fans of the distortion it causes, personally I really like the curved lines and huge field of view it gives you, not for every photo of course, but it is a cool effect to have once in a while. Having such a wide field of view can be very helpful; if you need to capture a whole room shot for example, a normal wide angle lens would just not cut it, but the fisheye would allow you to capture 3 corners, roof and ceiling of a small room. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

Fisheye view of canyon:

I took the Olloclip on a recent hike and got some great photos. There is a really cool trail near my house that I like to hike on occasionally, it starts at the top of a large dam and basically follows the top edge of a deep canyon for a couple miles. The coolest part is the “car graveyard” as we call it, in the forested section of the trail. In the ‘30s and ‘40s the area was logged, so people would just drive up to the steep incline above the cliff and push their cars, wheels, washing machines etc. down the edge of the incline. Fast forward 60 years and the forest has reclaimed the area. It makes for a very eerie setting, great fodder for the camera, especially with a fisheye lens! You’ll be walking through the forest, and all of the sudden you’ll come upon an old delivery truck with a tree going through it, or even find an old studebaker on a cliff’s edge. It’s a very unique area, perfect for testing out new camera gear!

Cool perspective on an old car in the woods:

Below are some images that I took with the fisheye lens. One thing that I don’t like about fisheye lenses is that their image circle doesn’t fill up the whole sensor so you’re left with a circular image in the middle with black borders around it, this of course comes with the territory and is necessary to display that wide of a view. On a few of the photos below I’ve provided examples of images that have the image circle issue corrected, via lens correction, cloning and a little cropping. Thanks for tuning in!

An old car before correction in photoshop:



Use the lens correction filter in photoshop, perhaps clone in some areas in the corner, add a little crop and voila!:



My dog Dexter after applying the same treatment to the image above: