Last Saturday (Blog 9) I wrote that it would be good to be able to film under the water, instead of hovering precariously with my camera millimetres from the surface. Having had this thought, I rubbed my hands together thinking I’d found a justification to invest in a new bit of tech that would keep me occupied for hours and potentially produce great footage.
John (husband) then pointed out that I could use his old GoPro camera which is unobtrusive and has a waterproof casing. I had to admit that it made sense to try this out before indulging in my online shopping hobby. So on Sunday I tried it, placing the GoPro in the bottom of the pond. I do have a mini tripod but I had obviously put it somewhere safe, so I used heavy locking pliers attached to the camera’s ball mount (John’s sensible suggestion again). So far so good.
Not good. The GoPro was easy to use and took colour video as expected, complete with the sound of me shoving the pliers around in the gravel to stabilise the camera. The problem was that the lens was a standard fitting, ideally suited to its original purpose as a helmet’s-eye view of John’s motorcycling trips. The results were blurred and murky.
The GoPro I tried was a HERO 2 and, since that was released, there have been many more HEROs; up to 11 apparently. Looking at the specifications of GoPros and competitors, I could see that I could have both waterproof and macro if I was willing to spend a few hundred pounds. Or I could buy a macro attachment; but sadly I couldn’t find one that would fit the HERO 2. I also realised that most of the cameras advertised were more suited to scuba diving or David Attenborough-quality filming. Given that the pond is no bigger than a bath tub, this could be serious overkill.
I gave up. But then I had another idea. I bought a waterproof case for my Samsung for £20, a much more cautious outlay, and it arrived on Monday. I would love to show you wonderful video of the results but, sadly, the results were underwhelming as well as underwater. Every time my phone managed to focus on something, a tadpole or a flake of food would waft by and confuse things. Back to the drawing board…
FROG BLOG 