A LOOK AT THE XS SCUBA GOPRO MASK

I have a GoPro camera that I use on board BIANKA and when chartering on other boats. Though my homemade floating handle requires I use one hand to hold it when taking videos or stills. While I was looking around for a new dive mask this summer I came upon the XS SCUBA GoPro MASK . This mask has a metal bracket where one mounts the underwater housing of a GoPro camera when snorkeling or diving.
Seemed like a good item to have on board. Though my local waters are rather nutrient rich and visibilty is limited. I do get to spend a lot of time in waters of the Caribbean and elsewhere around the world where visibility is much clearer and the mask would be more useful. So I bought it and here is a quick look and test on how it works:


I'm pleased with the mask and will get to try it out in clearer warmer waters soon. If you know someone who has a GoPro or similar camera like the Swann Freestyle Waterproof Video Camera  it would make a great gift too!

A CAPT. MIKE TIP OF THE HAT: Swann Communications & their Freestyle HD Camera

I've got several video cameras that I use on board BIANKA. From GoPro, Canon Powershot to the one built into my Blackberry phone. They all come in useful for various purposes.  But, one I've been using a lot has been the  Swann Freestyle 1080p HD Waterproof Sports Video Camera. It  is small like the GoPro but, comes with a lot of accessories that that GoPro charges extra for. Things like a remote start and LCD screen are included with the base unit. I also like that it has separate buttons to either shoot video or stills. Unlike the GoPro which requires pushing several buttons to change how you want to shoot. On a recent trip to the Spanish Virgins my Swann stopped working. It seems one of the battery connectors broke. Not sure when it happened but, it was not something I could fix. Since the Swann warranty was for a year I contacted them  for a repair. After getting receiving the shipping information I sent it off. Then the other day I got the package back from Swann USA. It was not the camera I sent to be repaired my camera  but, they had sent a brand new camera with all the accessories. All I can say is WOW that's great customer service. So that's why Swann and their  Swann Freestyle Sports Video Camera get a tip of the hat from Capt. Mike.

Here's some of the video I've taken with the camera. The first is from a recent trip to Vieques:



and here is a timelapse of Dawn arriving on Hook Mountain as BIANKA sat at anchor:

FIXING MY GOPRO CAMERA MOUNT

 I bought a GoPro HD camera a few months ago and really like it. But, it is so small and light one could easily lose it. Especially if there are sinister Seagulls around:



I have not yet lost the camera but, I did lose one of the  Acorn Cap Nuts

 that holds the camera to a home made GoPro mount I made.

If it happens once it can happen again. So I decided to make it more secure. First I had to find a replacement Acorn Cap nut. It is 5 mm in size.  Look for something that reads M5-.8 on the package. They are also available on  AMAZON

So when I got the replacement nut I secured it with a little super glue:

This should make it pretty secure so it does not come loose again:

REPAIRING A CANON SD600 DIGITAL CAMERA

"I have discovered photography. Now I can kill myself. I have nothing else to learn." - Pablo Picasso

Not so fast Pablo! I find having a small digital camera on board to be very useful. Not only for the usual personal photos, blogging or capturing those strange moments on the water that some will never believe without some kind of proof. But, I also found a camera useful for repairs and maintenance which I'll get into on a future post. While these new digital cameras are great pieces of technology they can also fail. Since I just recently found my Canon Powershot camera (after much searching) on board where it was hiding from me. I thought I would post about two of the repairs I have made to the said camera which others my find helpful in case the camera goes on the fritz somewhere in your journeys.

LCD REPLACEMENT
One day during the conversion to electric power. I was squeezing through one of the cockpit hatches and heard something crack. The SD600 that I had in my shirt pocket now had a cracked LCD screen and was useless. Not wanting to just throw it away I did a search on the Internet and found a site that explains how to replace the LCD screen on the SD600 and other Canon cameras. Of course you could also send it back to Canon and they will fix it for $. But, if you are handy, careful and have a set of small precision screwdrivers you can replace it yourself for about 40 bucks. You can see the steps with excellent photos by clicking here. NOTE: That there are two types of screens available make sure which one you have before ordering the part from Canon. It is explained on the site how to identify which screen your camera has. The second problem I had was:

THE CAMERA WILL NOT TURN ON
A few month's after replacing the screen I dropped the camera rather hard. All of a sudden it would no longer turn on. I thought that's it. I was trying to decide whether to send it back to Canon for repair ($100) or get a new camera. In the end I bought another camera. But, in my spare time I decided to take another look and see if I could not fix the turn on problem. I did. The problem was on the inside of the Memory Card Slot/Battery Cover.

There is a little plastic protrusion that contacts a tiny little switch that tells the circuitry in the camera that the battery door is closed.

Apparently part of the plastic tip broke off and so it was not contacting the switch and letting the camera turn on.

All of these parts are delicate. So how do I fix this? I needed some thing to put a little pressure on the switch but, not too much or I would end up breaking the switch too. I found just what I needed by using a medium sized rubber band. I cut a small piece of the rubber band and laid it across the switch. When I closed the battery door the camera came to life. The rubber band allows the remaining tip on the battery door to provide enough pressure to close the switch.
I hope the above information helps when you have a digital camera failure if not remember this:

"There will be times when you will be in the field without a camera. And, you will see the most glorious sunset or the most beautiful scene that you have ever witnessed. Don't be bitter because you can't record it. Sit down, drink it in, and enjoy it for what it is!" ~DeGriff

LOST AND FOUND

Most of the photos on this blog were taken with a Canon SD600 digital camera. I've had it for several years. I usually carry it around in a shirt pocket where ever I go. You never know when it will come in handy. A few weeks ago I lost it. I went to look for it at home and could not find it. Then I remembered I had changed into my boat work clothes and thought I must have left it in the shirt pocket on board. When I got back on board I searched all around but, could not find it. I kept searching several times I looked on board and around the house. Could not find it anywhere. It's not that the camera was so expensive. Indeed newer digital cameras have new more advanced features and more mega pixels. It was that I had a lot of photos on the memory card that I wanted to use here in blog posts. Well, today when I went back on board to start winterizing the water system I finally found it. But, not before looking all over the boat once again. It was actually in a location I had looked at several times but, because it's silver case blended in with the heavy duty crimper it was lying under I never noticed it. It is amazing how something can get lost so easily within the limited confines of a boat. Now that it is found I can once again start posting about some of the projects and repairs that I have been doing on BIANKA.

"To find what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle"
-George Orwell