paddling with a camera

How to activate the shutter on a camera mounted on your head or front of kayak? It is one of the frequent questions I am getting after posting recent movies made with Pentax Optio WP and W10.

There is really no problem when the camera is mounted as a helmet cam. The shutter button is not covered by a foam and I can easily reach it with my hand. It requires some practice to be sure that you fully pressed the button and started video recording. During my first tests on inline skates I missed a couple of runs because I didn't activate the shutter.

I don't use any remote control when the camera is mounted out of range of my arm, e.g., far on a front deck, bow or stern, or when I am leaving the camera on a shore. No magic here. I just set up the camera, activate the shutter, jump into the kayak and paddle until I stop to deactivate recording or until the memory card is full. Obviously, my approach wouldn't be very practical in the middle of ocean.

This kind of shooting can be used in different modes:

1. Video recording. The Pentax Optio WP/WPi/W10 cameras start video recording when the shutter button is pressed and continue until the shutter is pressed again or memory card is full. I can record 15 minute video in the 2 Gb SD card in my Pentax Optio W10 with the high quality video settings (640x480 pixel resolution, 30 fps). In my old Canon PowerShot camera I was able to record only short 15 second movie clips.

2. Interval shooting. This is a new mode offered in Optio W10. You can program the camera to start shooting with a prescribed delay and time interval from 10 seconds to one hour. This is not so flexible option as a programmable timer, TC-80N3, used in my Canon SLR camera for Solo paddler, solo photographer sessions, but I will explore this feature further.

3. Self timer. You have typically ten seconds. If you are fast ...

If you really need to control your camera remotely on the bow of your kayak I would suggest to search the web for kite photography. These folks manufacture and use different electro-mechanical devices to press a shutter in the camera flying high suspended under a kite.

Related posts:

• What to buy together with your new camera? ... 6 Tips from a Paddler Perspective
• Pentax Optio W10 as a Helmet Cam - Inline Skating along the Poudre
• 12 seconds of paddling upstream the Poudre - 640x480 video from Pentax Optio W10
• Shooting movies with Pentax Optio WP and W10 and Sisson Nucleus 100 kayak
• 10 Tips on Shooting Pictures without Viewfinder