The weather held out today – sunny skies and a little wind instead of the forecast which was cloudy. So, with iPhone in hand I headed of to borough market for a coffee and then Greenwich for a little exercise up and down the park. On the way back I captured the following 360° image using Photosynth on the iPhone.

Taken with photosynth and edited by using camera plus on the iPhone 4S

The project allows you to navigate google street maps as normal but has the added benefit of showing the stereographic image too.  Although not immediately useful and more of a technical demonstration, it’s quite a cool way to view your local area or some of the more interesting sites of the world.

Below are a couple of examples from around London.

1. Fill lower bowl with pre-heated water
2. Insert upper vessel containing measured amount of coffee
3. Apply heat source to lower vessel – the water will rise and mix with the coffee in the upper vessel.
4. Once all the water has migrated to the upper vessel (there will be a little residual water) leave heat on for approximately 1 minute
5. Remove heat and watch the wonder of gravity and pressure differentials (the vacuum) draw the coffee back down
6. Remove upper vessel and enjoy your coffee

http://vimeo.com/34564139

However, there’s yet another entrant to the market place which was announced on the Christmas edition of the Gadget Show is the BubbleScope.

The examples on the website are pretty much the same as you’d get from the GoPano Micro and Dot 360, although the static image is a feature you don’t get with the other two!

Priced at £50 plus another £15 for the case it will be in the same price range of the two existing solutions.

For recreational diving where the majority of divers observe the 30m limit, so the design challenges aren’t too great and surprise, surprise there’s a kickstarter.com project to come to the rescue.  The as yet unnamed product is a custom underwater housing rated down to 100′ in salt water for the iPhone 4 & 4s.

While there are a couple of impressive videos of great white sharks (reminds me of a trip to Gansbaai years ago) but it’s missing out on the details of how the camera is operated.  There is a mechanical button which I’m guessing activates the volume up button to start and stop recording, but no information on whether or not you have access to the touch screen.

One of the most important features of an underwater camera is the ability to set the white balance manually.  Although apps such as Filmic Pro have a white balance feature, it will require access to the touch screen.  The iPhone 4s’ fixed aperture and low light performance may make it suitable for the shallower dives (18m etc) but will inevitably need additional lights when you go deeper – adding to the cost.

In summary, if you’ve spent your money on an iPhone and are willing to risk it while you go diving (I’ve seen so many cameras lost while diving and being a technical diver, found a couple!) then the additional outlay of £260 (kick-starter prices only) then it might be a good solution.

A Good camera bag

I’ve seen people shoving their expensive camera, lenses and filters into handbags, ruck sacks and even plastic bags.  Nothing beats having a good padded camera bag with the compartments for all your accessories. The National Geographic Midi Shoulder Bag is a perfect solution to carry your gear around.  Unlike most of the “camera” bags on the market which look a little too geeky and attract unwanted attention, the National Geographic bag is unassuming and functional.

Filters, Filters and more Filters

You can never understimate the importance of having the right filters with you.  From the basic UV Filter to the enhancing effects of the neutral density filters such as the Hoya 58mm HMC NDX4 Filter and on to the fantastic polarising filters such as the Hoya 58mm Circular PL Filter, you should invest as much money as you can as some of the cheap brands suffer from poor optical quality.  While not strictly a filter, you should also invest in a White Balance Lens Cap.  Trusting the camera to correctly calculate the white balance is something that you do not need to do.

A better view

Something big, very big!

One of my most prized and often used possessions is the Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L Zoomlens.  Not only does it look the business, it delivers on every level.  If you like shooting people then this lens lets you get in very close without upsetting the subject.  If you like mother nature, then this will let you capture both wildlife and astronomical events with ease.

I’ve built a custom slider using the same components from Igus for my Canon 7D but the mobislyder looks a little more portable (given it’s only 35cm long).  Stylish and compact, mobislyder adds controlled flowing movements to your production, letting you create a variety of shots in an effortless and elegantly simple way. mobislyder comes with 5 different mounts so there are numerous ways to attach it to your device.

Camera+ is by far the best app for the iPhone for taking pictures, editing and adding effects.  The features which make Camera+ stand out the most are the independent focus and exposure locks, which is sadly missing in the native camera and video app.

Browsing the extensive video app section in the App Store reveals a number of contenders, namely FiLMiC Pro and Almost DSLR.  While sharing the key features of independent exposure and focus lock, FiLMic Pro stands out as it supports the native HD resolution of the iPhone 4s where as Almost DSLR only supports 720p (perhaps an enhancement is on the way).

Whilst the FiLMiC Pro app gives you that added control over exposure and focus, don’t forget to use your glif and tripod to capture those steady images. The other features provided by the app are:

• Variable Frame Rates (1-25 and 30fps) including both the US (24p) and European (25p) film production standards.
• Selectable Resolutions
• Framing Guide Overlays (4:3, 16:9, & 2:35.1).
• Thirds Guide for help with compositions.
• Audio Metering.
• Color Bars for Post Production.
• Film Production Style Slate for adding info to your clips, syncing dual system audio, and organizing your clips.

So, what are the options to transfer the data?  The most common way is to use the camera connection kit. It’s the simplest of all the methods requiring only the CCK and a USB lead but is quite slow.  A new way is to use one of the new iPad to CF card readers – popularised by the great people over at Photojojo.

Given that I’m a fan of the Camera+ application, I was more than happy to find out that they’ve re-introduced the “Volume Plus” option to activate the shutter in the same way that apple introduced it with iOS 5 for the native camera app.

However, there’s another way to activate the shutter using the soon to be released Belkin LiveAction remote control. The remote control allows you to activate the camera shutter from up to 30 feet away—completely wirelessly. Two button controls let you instantly switch between photo and video functions without ever touching the iPhone. If you haven’t taken you Glif or Joby tripod with you, you can also use the detachable camera stand to prop up your device and then slide it back onto the remote to create the ultimate pocket-sized camera kit.

Specifications of the Lomokino

• Film type : 35mm
• Exposure area : 24mm x 8.5mm
• Frames per. roll (36 exp.) : 144 frames
• Frame rate : Approximately 3-5 frames per second
• Taking Lens : 25mm
• Angle of view : 54 degrees
• Aperture : f/5.6, f/8, f/11 (Continuous aperture)
• Shutter speed : 1/100
• Film Advancing : Manual
• Film Counting : Volume display
• Focusing : (Normal) 1m~infinity, (Press button for) 0.6m close-up
• View finding : Inverse-Galileo foldable viewfinder
• Flash sync : x-sync (hot-shoe)
• Tripod mount : Standard 1/4″ tripod screw

After giving the lens a walkabout in borough market, I headed north of the river into the famous Spitalfields E1 market equipped with my iPhone 4s and GoPano micro. With its eclectic collection of stalls, restaurants and bars; Spitalfields is a great destination on a sunday.  Watch the video below and remember it’s interactive so you can move around the movie with your mouse or screen (iPhone users will need the GoPano app from the app store)

Interactive 360 video

Although the movie was shot using the iPhone 4s and GoPano micro, I had to trim, edit and join several movies together on my mac.  Unfortunately, iMovie on the iPhone doesn’t know how to handle the odd dimensions of the GoPano movie output.

The app itself is very easy to use – simply choose to shoot in either landscape or portrait mode and slowly move your iPhone around you (they recommend at arms length) and the app will automatically take the overlapping shots.

Once you captured the scene (a complete 360 or even a partial scene) you can share it via the photosynth.net site, facebook or email a flat version of the image.

As noted in one of my previous posts, you can also save the image to the cameras photo roll and then play with it in any of the photo effect apps you may have.

Limehouse basin captured using photosynth

The new Photo app in iOS 5 has image cropping, it lacks any effective filters and image correction capabilities.  This is why I use camera+ – it’s editing features are better than most – with several scene modes including Backlit, Sunset, Night and 1-touch effects such as Lomographic, lo-fi and many many more.

Sharing is also a breeze, with the images saved to the campl.us website, camera roll and the usual social sites – twitter, facebook etc.

Obviously, if you also have an iPad (first or second generation) you can connect your iPhone using the camera connection kit

Firstly, what’s changed?

The old 5-megapixel camera on the iPhone 4 has been upgraded to 8-megapixels. It also has a bigger aperture of f/2.4 thus allowing in a lot more light which should improve the low light shooting.  Also, with iOS 5 you can use the volume buttons to activate the shutter a great bonus!  When it comes to video, the camera will be able to shoot in 1080p as opposed to 720p at 30fps.  Good for quality, bad for the need for storage. I’ll be interested in seeing how the old iPad will deal with playing back the new format.

So what are the best camera apps?

Broadly speaking there are two categories – the almost professional camera apps and the social effects apps.  In the first category I’d recommend Camera+ as it has a number of key features.  The ability to independently control focus and exposure brings the capabilities of iPhone closer to the DSLR world.  The self timer and burst mode add another layer of creativity, especially if you have a Glif and tripod available.

Here’s a sample image taken on the iPhone 4 and Camera+

In the second category, the excellent Instagram stands out from the crowd(read about the latest contest here).  The filters that are included are excellent (the Lomo and X-Pro II) and with a simple method to share across the usual channels such as twitter, facebook and various third party sites such as instagrid.

Update – iOS 5 Beta 2

The latest release from Apple not only brings the Wi-Fi syncing feature but has also improved the rendering and playback of the Canon MOV files. With Beta 2 the thumbnails of the movies are now rendered and playback is full screen.

The restriction with iMovie remains – it can’t deal with non iPhone/iPad shot video.

Another great free app is the Abobe Photoshop express which include a number of free features along with the opportunity to purchase in-app filters and features.The user experience with the Photoshop express app is a little different (lack of sliders etc) but it can generate some nice results – and I’m sure that some of the premium filters will be quite good (but it’s going to take me a while to get bored with the Instagram Lomo-fi filter)

Plastic Bullet is something you’ll have to buy – and was one of the first photo manipulation apps on the scene.  It doesn’t have the usual filter selection list but “randomly” applies effects in groups of four.  If you like one, save it, otherwise keep going until you find one that you like.  This is a great little app for sitting in coffee shop going through your photos and generating some random effects – whereas Instagram does what it says on the tin!

So, why not leave a comment and let me know what your favourite app is?

The project has already met it’s funding requirement so will be in production very soon. Probably a good thing given Apples iOS 5 announcement whereby you can now use the volume up button as a shutter release.

So, how hard would be to mod the Sony Bloggies lens on to the iPhone 4?  Not hard at all as shown below. All you need to get it working is little blue tack and a GLIF (second image)

iPhone next to the Sony Bloggie 360° lens

iPhone, Sony Bloggie 360° lens and the GLIF

The footage is recorded as a doughnut within the confines of the iPhone’s 720 mode.  Given the spherical dimensions, the final output will be similar to the forthcoming GoPano Micro (The GoPano micro will cost around $88 and you can also use the iPhone’s screen to frame the shot unlike the blind shooting of the dot360).

iPhone recording with Sony Bloggie Lens attached (upside down!)

Kogeto will be launching an iOS app that will then transform the captured doughnut into the appropriate immersive experience in the future.  To get around this, I’ve transformed the video using the Pan-Pro Video Publisher and put it below for you to have a look.

The iPhone footage being processed in Pano Pro Video Publisher

Quality is no where as good as the Inon Lens (just look at the price difference!) but it does add another creative tool to your box for very little cost or weight.  Sample images with the standard Kodak image (no lens) and then the wide followed by the fisheye.  The video (on Vimeo) shows the camera shooting 1080p with firstly with the fisheye and then without.

So, you’ve seen panoramas rendered with the usual flash (not on this page), sliverlight (photosynth) and html5 solutions.  The problem most solution providers have is compatibility – looking at the market it’s pretty much flash/silverlight across most desktop patforms including OSX and Windows and to that extent the mobile platforms of iOS and Android suffer. The ability to capture a 360° image and share it across most platforms still alludes us!

The options for the iPhone

I love Photosynth for it’s simplicity and ease of use but 360° from floaty provides a truly quick and easy panorama without the need to capture sequential photos and the time it normally takes.  On the other hand Panoramatic does provide the best quality of panorama.  When you compare the samples provided below please consider leaving a comment if you like any of the images or applications listed below.

Photosynth

Here’s one of the latest entries to the immersive image market – and surprisingly it’s from Microsoft. Photosynth has been around for sometime now but had been dependent on you shooting enough images to create the 360 using a normal camera and then using the Silverlight software to stitch them together once you get home. However, with the introduction of the iPhone app, Microsoft have made a very successful and easy to use application to capture, render and share immersive images.

Although the Photosynth app has a number of positives, it’s implementation is classic Microsoft (fortunately sans the blue screen). Once you’ve captured a panorama, you’ll more than likely want to share it – ouch. This is where the app will get a little confused authenticating with Bing, Facebook or Photosynth.net. Once it does crash, you’ll have to relaunch it several times in order for it to finish what ever it was trying to do. You’ll notice the internet activity icon spinning away – just let it finish before you try to access any of it’s features.

Panoramatic

Although it’s not as interactive as Photosynth, panoramatic generates a better quality image than both Photosynth and 360°. The downside is the time it takes to slowly pan around and aligning each subsequent image.  Rendering on the iPhone can take anywhere between 2 to 7 minutes (a bit longer if you’ve chosen the 360 VR option)

Floaty 360

The app from floaty, 360, is still the quickest way to capture a relatively good 360° image. The one shown below was captured in only 15.7 seconds and uploaded to yFrog (Twitpic was having a bit of a problem during at the time)

Luckily, most of the photo editing software on the market has an warp feature which can sort the image out. I’m going to use Photoshop CS5, but I’m sure there similar functionality available within something like GIMP. The Warp command lets you drag control points to manipulate the shape of images, shapes, or paths, and so on. The default setting is for a Custom warp – this is the one to stick with as the others will just mess up the image even more.  To the manipulate the shape, drag the control points, a segment of the bounding box or mesh, or an area within the mesh. Shown below is the image mid transform

So, by simply playing around with the control points and more often than not the areas within the mesh you will end up with the following:

Delay : The amount of time before the remote starts to control the cameras shutter.
Long : The length of time the shutter will stay open when using BULB mode on the camera.  It has no function in the other mode such as Av/ Tv etc.
Interval : The time between shots – this is quite important, see below.
N: the number of shots the remote will take – anything between 1 to 399 or “-” which means keep going until the batteries give in!

Firstly, the delay feature is the best way to avoid any camera shake when starting a long exposure at night. Set it for 10 or 20 seconds and set the remote off – that way, by the time the first shot is taken the camera, lens and tripod should all be stationary.  Secondly, the interval between shots should be considered with respect to how long the shutter will be open.  If, for example you’re shooting at night with a long exposure it would be pointless to set an interval less than it takes the camera to process and save the shot to the memory card.  Thirdly, how many shots are you going to take, do you have enough space and will your batteries last the duration of your time lapse? The answer is to calculate the desired number of shots (see my other post on creating a time lapse) and put the camera on external power.

Here’s a quick demonstration on how to set the timer – the functions are navigated using the up/down and left/ right controls with functions confirmed by pressing the set button.

1) Stationary tripod

Most of the time I use the Glif with a small tripod – either one of the free small ones you get with most compact camera kits or the Joby GorillaPod.  Both are light and easy to fit in most small bags.  I’ve got the DSLR GorillaPod so use the Glif to attach the iPhone (remember, if you’re shooting video you’ll want it in landscape mode otherwise you’ll have the black bands when played back on a TV or computer).  If you don’t already have a GorillaPod then you could by the one designed for the iPhone 4.  The only drawback of the GorillaPod over the Glif is that you can only connect the iPhone to the GorillaPod stand as it’s a bespoke attachment where as the Glif uses a standard 1/4″-20 thread that fits any standard tripod.  It also allows you to use your bigger tripods…

2) Moving tripod

For a slightly more mobile solution you could try to use something like the Konig Neck Tripod – check out the link for a picture of someone using it with a video camera.  I’ve used this with both the iPhone and Canon 7D instead of carrying a heavy tripod up mountains and it actually works quite well.  I’ve found that the best results are when you’re standing still and try not to breath too heavily!

3) Software

SteadyCam Pro say that they use advanced signal processing algorithms and a little bit of magic to stabilize your video and correct for rolling shutter in real time.  It’s a free to try app and $2.99 to buy.  I’ve tried it while both standing still and then moving and have yet to obtain results as good as they say (and show in their demo video).  The app introduces a delay while trying to start recording and then stutters every now and then.  This is one to watch but not buy at the moment.

—— iPhone Camera Specifications ——-

Horizontal Resolution:    72 dpi
Vertical Resolution:    72 dpi
Exposure Time:    1/1257 sec
F-Number:    f/2.8
ISO Speed Rating:    80
Lens Aperture:    f/2.8
Focal Length:    3.85 mm

Step 1 – Setup the tripod and attach the Giottos MH621 Sliding Quick Release Adapter Plate to the Giotto – 4 Section Pro Carbon Fibre Tripod With Two-Way Column

Step 2 – Attach the WK10-80 system to the tripod – here’s the underside view of the rail.

Step 3 – Attach the Giottos MH7000-652 Series 1 Ball Head With Quick Release to the rail slide

Step 4 – Slide the carriage on to the rail gently so that you don’t damage the polymer bearings and attach the camera.  If the carriage is a bit sticky then loosen off the bolts holding the bearings but don’t forget to tighten them up!

And here’s the video

Read my post regarding the forthcoming iOS 5 as it appears that Apple have introduced support to playback the Canon MOV files.

I’ve been playing with various file formats to see what works on the iPad for (1) playback and (2) for editing within the recently updated iMovie.  To view the Canon 7Ds video on the iPad you have to jail break the device, use the camera connection kit and use something like iFile.  However, even though you can play back the 1080 and 720 footage using iFile, iMovie will not recognise it for editing purposes.  This is hardly surprising given that iMovie also transcodes the Canon files at import on the Mac to the AIC (Apple intermediate Codec).

A quick test to export the Canon 7D file using the Quicktime on the Mac yields partial success. I say partial, because I’m using my Mac as an intermediary.  Not much use when you’re in the field – as you’d be better just using a MacBook Pro(or other laptop of your choice!).

If you’ve access to a very fast wifi and accompanying network connection to you base workstation, you could automate the process to download from your Compact Flash card using the camera connection kit to DropBox, and have your workstation monitor a specific DropBox folder to do the appropriate transcoding.  Depending on how much footage we’re talking about, that may take some time.

So, I think at this point it safe to say that iMovie on the iPad 2 will not support the Canon 7D h.264 format (which everybody accepts is a delivery format and not one best suited for editing). I could just imagine starting up iMovie on the iPad and waiting it to transcode your files into AIC. I guess Apple just want you to use the built in cameras to record footage.  You never know, the secret project between Apple and Canon may not just be Thunderbolt but a collaboration on the Codecs used within the Canon product suite and Apples editing programs – i.e. iMovie and the eagerly awaited update to Final Cut Pro.

Well, you can still use video shot on your iPhone though – I’ve started using PhotoSync to move files to and from the iPad/iPhone with Bluetooth  – negating the need for wifi and the cloud.

Canon 7D files don't render

Well, from the looks of it, not a lot.  Working with a non jail broken iPad, there’s very little you can do.  iOS 4.3 hasn’t fixed the issue with playback of the video files from the Canon 7D or Kodak Zi8.  Again, it’s all rather stupid given that you can play back the files through GoodReader and the VideoPlayer apps – although you have to jailbreak your iPad to be able to get to the files.  As you can see from the images above and below, on the import screen the thumbnails are rendered correctly, but when you go to the photos page the imported movies thumbnails are not rendered – just a grey box with “mov” in the middle.

Oddly enough, the iPad was able to playback the 720p files from the Sony Bloggie from within the iPhoto App but iMovie was unable to recognise the file and display it in the video selection window.

So, as there’s no camera on the first gen it’s down to the iPhone’s camera.  There’s no easy way of transferring the video files from an iPhone to the iPad without using iTunes to synchronise the files via your laptop/ desktop.  So, as Microsoft would say, it’s off to the cloud!

Into the Cloud

From the iPhone it’s easy to add the video files to your DropBox from the iPhones Camera Roll.  Over to the iPad – unfortunately DropBox doesn’t let you add photos or videos to the Camera Roll. Neither does another of my other favourite apps – GoodReader or even FileBrowser.  So, thanks to Sn0wbreeze (pwnagetool didn’t work for 4.3) and iBooty I can use the all powerfull iFile.

Firstly, I had to use GoodReader to download the file from DropBox then it’s over to iFile.  In iFile navigate to the GoodReader document folder and open up the file attribute window of the movie you want to add to the camera roll – and click on “Add to Camera Roll”

iMovie on the iPad

Once you’ve added the movie to the camera roll, you can then fire up iMovie and start a new project to play with. The interface is pretty much the same as the iPhone – just much bigger.  The jury is still out on the whether or not the new iPad 2 will be able to render the HD files from the Canon 7D or just with files captured from either the iPhone and iPads camera.

iPhone file in iMovie

If the new iPad 2 doesn’t gain the capability to be able to play nicely with the Canon 7D, an upgrade looks less and less attractive.

Canon 7D set up for time-lapse outside the Bank of England

Shooting time-lapse is a relatively straight forward affair.  The equipment you need varies depending on the duration and or quality of the time-lapse you’re trying to capture.  At the basic end of the scale, all you need is a camera.  With just a camera, it all about you! All you have to do it take photos in series at a specific interval using the shutter release.  Obviously, if you’re doing it manually the end result may not be the most professional – but it will be a time-lapse non the less.

Time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than that which will be used to play the sequence back.

Equipment

So, to improve the quality of the time-lapse you’ll need two things (three if you include the time it takes to capture!). The first is an appropriate tripod based on the camera you’ll be using and the location at which you’ll be taking the photos.  For the less intrusive camera positions (or more creative)  I always use my trusty Joby Gorillapod. For safe, wide open spaces where people aren’t an issue, I use my Giottos Carbon Fibre Tripod.

The second depends on your camera – the intervalometer.  Some cameras come with the feature built in to the software (or if you’re using an iPhone and suitable app), some cameras can be hacked to provide the feature and the rest will need an appropriate piece of equipment.

Canon 7D set up for time-lapse at the Tower of London

As a quick side note, the CHDK firmware enhancement for compatible cameras is great.  I’ve used it with my old Canon A620 to capture lightning during storms and sunsets with great success. But, as it says on the tin, it’s for compatible Canon cameras only.  Unfortunately that does not include the Canon 7D or Canon G series!

So, for shooting time-lapse with the Canon 7D you’ll either need to buy the Canon TC 80N3 or a more reasonable third party model. Both have the same features, it just depends whether you have to have the Canon badge on it or not!

So, you’ve got your camera positioned and intervalometer set up.  Next, what mode to shoot in, what resolution and what interval between shots?  As a general rule, I always shoot in AV mode with manual focus at a resolution of 4.5M (2592*1728) which resolves most issues with exposure metering and card space! The interval depends on a number of factors including the subject matter to be recorded and the desired duration of the resulting time-lapse movie.  With regards to the subject matter you’ll need to vary the shutter speed to capture the effect you want – i.e. long exposures at night to (a) gather enough light and (b) generate  suitable motion in the image.  Fast shutter speeds tend to result in a choppy time-lapse movie, so it’s good to get a little blur in the image to soften it down.  When considering the duration of the final time-lapse  movie, you’ll need to calculate the number of shots you need to take in order to generate the desired film duration at your chosen FPS (24 or 30 FPS is the norm).  So, for a 5 minute 24 FPS movie with shots taken every second you’ll need to capture 5 * 60 * 24 = 7200 individual frames.  If you don’t want to capture so many frames, then you can mess around with the frame rate as anything from 8 FPS can result in a pleasing movie.

Once you’ve worked out the number of images you’ll need, you can then estimate the size of the memory card you need and the likely hood of your batteries running out before you’ve captured all the images!

Software

So, you’ve captured the images and now it’s time to put them all together!  Now, if you’re on a Mac things couldn’t be easier – well, quite easy.  Firstly, you should resize all you images to your desired movie render – i.e. 1080 or 720 – but if you’ve got a fast mac and want incredibly ultra high definition movie then leave them as they are.  Once you’ve settled on the size, place all the files in a folder and make sure they’re sequentially named.  Then using Quicktime 7 (not Quicktime X) open the files using the “open image sequence” and select the appropriate frame rate. That’s it!  Just save your new movie and off you go. Further adjustments can be done using the usual programs such as Final Cut Pro/iMovie etc.

If you’re on a PC then there’s a couple of choices that I’ve seen around.  Microsoft Movie Maker has a similar image sequence import but is restricted to 8 FPS.  MakeAVI is a freeware app that will also resize your images while it generates the AVI file.

Example time-lapse shot at various locations around London

Having a look around on the market highlights some of the more popular but expensive video monitors – aka the Marshall line which start around £700. Not wanting to spend that much, a number of blogs point towards Lilliput. Lilliput are a manufacturer more commonly associated with the automotive industry – in providing headrest mounted monitors for people who want to add a little bling to their “ride”.

The model I went for was the Lilliput 669GL-70NP/C – 7″ HDMI monitor (bought of eBay with a spare battery, hot flash adapter and cable). It’s a nice package which can either be attached to the cameras hot shoe or, if space and equipment allow, on another tripod. Small enough to fit in my camera bag and with the extra battery it easily lasts the day.

As you can see from the first image, it’s great for when you’re zooming in on subjects with manual focus. Below is an image where I’m using it for macro. Shooting video using the monitor is a breeze – and if you don’t need to see the shooting info then you can utilise the full 16:9 ratio that the camera pumps out. Oh, it also comes with a hood shade – which projects out an inch.  Not that much use but given that it pops off easily, that’s not too much of a problem.

The only issue you’re likely to encounter with the lilliput monitor is the battery compartment.  To open the compartment you’ll need a philips screw driver to remove the cover.  A bit of a pain but not the end of the world.

As a side note, I’ve also powered the monitor using my Tekkeon MyPower MP3750 Rechargeable Lithium Polymer battery for a long long time.  When plugged into the monitor it also charges the lilliput’s internal battery.

Tekkeon MyPower charging Lilliput Monitor

Canon Battery Pack LP-E6
Hoya 58mm HMC NDX4 Filter
Hoya 58mm Circular PL Filter
Ex-Pro 58mm White Balance Lens Cap.
Canon PowerShot G10
HDMI to Mini HDMI Cable
Air Duster
LCDVF LCD View finder
Giottos MH621 Sliding Quick Release Adapter Plate
Canon TC 80N3 – Camera Remote Control – Cable

And the two things that go over my shoulder are

Giotto – 4 Section Pro Carbon Fibre Tripod With Two-Way Column
Giottos MH5001

Following what looks like most people, through the underpass full of tiny shops offering knickers, wigs, jewelry and pies (didn’t buy any pies) i pop up in what looks like a ticket hall but who knows. While sweating with my camera gear round my neck I use the good old 5 fingers in the air- apparently that’s the metro card minimum. And hey presto, a piece of cardboard is thrust my way with a host of verbal instruction(could have been abuse but the Russian facial expressionis are hard to decipher)

Now metro lines are coloured but unfortunately the red line has faded a little and looks a lot like the orange – and a key part of the journey is to change from the orange line to the red line. Down the escalators, which remind me of st johns wood tube station, and onto the platform and a decision to take the train on the left or right! 50/50 odds – unfortunately it’s the wrong choice!  A quick change and off in the right direction.  A positive so far is that the platforms and trains are excellent in comparison to the ticket halls.  A quick change and catch the train the right way and I’m at the kremlin – now where’s the hotel!

On arrival at the hotel, I head out in search of food and possibly a drink.  The restaurants in and around the tourist centres are mostly western except for a few where the popular dish is pelemki – which is served with almost anything including bear meat.Bars are either in the hotels (nice shiny and expensive) or down in cellar bars – hardly inviting but a necessity due to the generally bad winters. The beer is awfull – most bars offer all the usual European largers including newcastle brown ale.

The women all tend to be very very girly – high heels, short skirts and lots of make up. Not exactly sophisticated but it works in mockba. The younger generation appear to be anorexic compared to uk standards- not a bad thing if you’re in advertising (or a Russian speaking single bloke)

Toilets are odd too – while walking around you’ll spot 3 or 4 portaloos randomly placed. Yet some enterprising babushka will have set up home in one of the end ones and charges 20 r for the pleasure of using one. Not sure if she cleans them or not but going by the smell probably not.

One of the worst tourist things I have ever done is to search out the first McDonalds to open in Moscow!  I suppose it has a little bit of capitalist history attached to it, but the food is still awful.

Time to leave Mockba, so it’s a quick car to Yaroslasky station – and I mean quick. The driver thinks he’s protecting some UK government official (me!) so it’s extreeme acceleration, breaking, cornering and use of the horn! A quick tumble roll out of the car and he’s off again.

Now it’s Friday night at a station in a capital city! How bad could the station be? Believe me, bad. I’m standing surrounded by people having fun(drunk and in need of a shower) staring at a bank of train departures all in cyrilic – and none of the departure times match mine! 30 mins later I work out where the “harry potter” platform is next to 1a and 3 but unlabelled – times match though. Time to blend in – need to get a can of beer and some random snack…

I stumbled across this post the other day, Modding the bloggie panoramic lens, about hacking the bloggie to enable it to record 360° movies in 1080p and not the standard 720.

The initial problem the leaves you with (apart from a hacked bloggie) is how to transform your polar movie to an equirectangular format.  The software that ships with the bloggie will only recognise the 720 footage. So, I’ve attached so test to show the difference between the Pano Pro video publisher and the open framework processing script.

Test footage from the Sony Bloggie using Sony PMB software (don’t forget to switch to 720p HD!).

The same footage from the Sony Bloggie processed using the Pano Pro video publisher (don’t forget to switch to 720p HD!). (unprocessed footage here)

Here’s the 1080p footage from the Sony Bloggie processed using the Pano Pro video publisher. As you can see, the quality is greatly improved and you only loose around 6% of the viewable image (due to the distance from the lens to the 360° attachment)

And finally, here’s the Canon 7D footage processed with the Pano Pro video publisher.

Finally, here’s the output from the unmodified processing script (need to play around with the OPTICAL_CENTER_X params etc)

And finally – really, here’s the Sony Bloggie’s 1080p output passed through the BloggieVideoUnwarp processing file with modified params.

If you just want to playback the output straight from the camera, just follow the instructions here from Ryubin’s website!

Once I’d passed my advanced open water course I bought an underwater housing for my Canon A620.  As a beginners camera (7.1 MP & 4x optical zoom) it performed pretty well as it had the all important “custom white balance” mode. For all those divers out there who’ve completed the PADI underwater – white balance is the most important feature when looking for a good camera.

Canon G10 Case

A natural upgrade was to the Canon G10 (now superseded by the G12 which is in many ways not as good).  As the G10 introduced a SD video mode, I began to experiment with shooting video.  Early tests were relatively successful – Canon G10 Sample Video.  The image quality on the G10 is excellent.  Out of water, the 28mm lens is great but underwater it’s just not wide enough.  Most of the wide lens manufacturers do not support the G10 – only the FIX Big Fish Eye.  Most reviews say that with the FIX Fish Eye vignetting becomes a big problem.  If you watched the video above, you’d have noticed that my buddy (Cath Bates) and I are approaching 55m on a technical dive.

The task loading of tech diving associated with the many buttons, white balance settings and exposure/aperture settings of the camera is too much when at depth (especially on deep air dives).  Add to this the recommended allowable depth for the underwater housing (40m for the Canon housings) and things become not just difficult but impossible as the buttons become unresponsive due to the pressure being exerted on the case.  In fact, the only problem I’ve had with the G10 (which remains my backup camera on all my trips – near and far) is that the button caved in (You have to use the afore mentioned button to change the aperture settings when underwater as you don’t have access to the scroll wheel – another pain in the ass as far as the case design goes).

So, with technical diving foremost in my mind I decided to look at the many new compact HD video cameras on the market.  The most popular camera at the time was the Flip HD – but with a little more research I stumbled on the Kodak Zi8.  Encouraged by the reviews and most importantly by the cost of both the camera and Ikelite Housing (60m rated) Amazon made a little more money.  What the Kodak lacks in features (most notably a custom white balance) it makes up for in low light quality and usability.

With just a stop/start button it doesn’t get much more simpler.  The only problem you’re left with is the depth at which you can use it.  Ikelite rate their case to 60m.  I’ve used it down to 80m but the buttons become slightly un-responsive – no surprise there. So, make sure you start it rolling before you pass 60m!  On the upside the battery life is amazing (the Canon G10 would normally last 1 and 1/2 dives – pain in the ass when it goes) but the Kodak will run continually for over 100 mins – Here’s a video to show you what the Kodak can do (110 min dive edited down to 20mins)

Would I still buy the Kodak?  Maybe not, but things have moved on and hindsight is a powerful tool (only after the event though!).  The Kodak is great, especially with the Inon UWL 100 Lens.  It’s light, easy to use, quick to charge and fits in your pocket when you’re out and about.  The key point here is light.  When you start to consider the cost, weight and logistics required to transport a DSLR underwater housing along with your dive gear (mine is in excess of 35Kgs already) it becomes silly.  Consider the cheaper Ikelite housing for the 7D.  The case will set you back (I’ll use Cameras Underwater in the UK for sterling and B&H in the US for Dollars) £1,279 ($1,499), dome port £454 ($524), peli case to transport £150 ($200) the camera and lens £1,500 ($1,500) and then the excess luggage fee and insurance.  I’ll not go into the cost of transport as it varies wildly between airlines.  The same issues exist for the fans of the more conventional video camera. For a quality HD camera and housing that will go to depth, your still looking at shelling out a small fortune and increasing you bag allowance.

So, what’s the alternatives on the market these days? Canon have updated the Powershot and Ixus range with varying HD modes with the all important white balance feature.  The Go Pro HD has popped up in a number of reviews but the image quality suffers (due to the current design of the housing).  A potentially interesting introduction to the market are the micro four thirds cameras.  Given their size and image quality (Philip Bloom highly rates the GH2) they may take over from the DSLRs – but only when the housing manufacturers start to produce the goods!

In summary, I’m going to stick with the Kodak for the time being but keep an eye on Go Pros – they’re just to small and good to be ignored (especially if they sort out the housing!)

Over the years I’ve collected a number of gadgets to simplify and/or automate the acquisition of large panoramic and 360 degree photos – to varying degrees of success!  They range from the cheap to the silly…. and we start with the iPhone 4.  Excluding the cost of the iPhone – the 360 apps (£0.59 – £1.19) are by far the cheapest way to capture reasonable panoramas.

The two apps that I use are 360 Panorama – Occipitaland Panoramatic 360 – floaty have two different approaches and quality. 360 Panorama has a more conventional approach of panning slowly to capture the panorama (or 360 if you spin all the way around). It will only capture a single row of images (portrait or landscape) which limits the inclination of the final image. At the time of writing, Occipital have introduced a 3D option that is a little experimental.  Here’s a sample of what it can do :

Panoramatic 360 – floaty takes the quick route – literally! Built with speed in mind and assuming you’re in a well lit area, Panoramic 360 builds the immersive image as you scan around the location using the iPhones gyroscope. Results vary according to the lighting, background movement of people and objects and the method of capture (up/down or spining). Here is and example taken on Narrow St, Limehouse.

One issue with Panoramic 360 is that the images are stored on the Occipital servers and are not in an easily exportable format. You can hack around in the source that’s generated by their online viewer (4 images) which you download (along with the .js files, css, supporting images) to host externally.

Moving away from the apps brings me to the Sony MHS-PM5KV Bloggie High Definition Handycam Camcorder with 360 degree lens.  The innovative 360 lens miniaturises what is normally a large and delicate mirror that you have to attach to your camera (see info about the Pano-Pro system later). It’s a little clip on accessory that’s only sold with the camera (unless you go through the Sony Spare parts system – it’ll cost you the same, if not a little more that an entire camera package!  - so don’t loose or scratch it!)  When you attach the lens, the camera switches into 360 mode (there’s a little magnet in the lens package).  When in 360 mode you can either record 360 video (720p) or take a 360 degree still image.  Sony bundle some windows software which will allow you to convert to a watchable (windows) format or you can use the free Ryubin’s Panorama.  No conversion is required as it accepts the raw output from the camera. Here’s an example of the cameras doughnut output – not that easy to watch! The bloggie is small enough to fit in you pocket and is even better when attached to your bike!

Last but not least – the Pano-Pro with it’s supposedly “largest in the market” panoramic lens.  Primarily targeted at the property market (estate agents etc.) it can be attached to a number of cameras – compacts and DSLRs. I’ve used it with the Canon 7D and Canon G10. Both require an adapter to attach the Pano-Pro lens with the 7D needing a supporting brace (otherwise you’ll either ruin your lens or have out of focus shots!) Although the quality generated using the Pano-Pro and 7D is far greater than the bloggie, the software (at additional cost) lets the whole package down. Updates are less than frequent (only on Windows at the moment) and the package is especially obtuse to use. Oh, and it’s huge!

To build the slider you’ll need :

Cordless Drill
WK10-80 system plus carriage
Giottos MH7000-652 Series 1 Ball Head With Quick Release (one, but it’s easier if you have two!)
a couple of bolts

The only new pieces I had to buy was the WK10-80 system plus carriage.  To assemble the rig you’ll need to drill one hole in the igus plate to accept the tripod head and one in the centre of the rail so you can mount it on your tripod. I went for a 10mm hole in the rail as it’s the right size for the Giotto head bolt and 8mm in the plate.  To attach the tripod head to the plate I simply use a Camera Flash Hot Shoe Mount 1/4″ Tripod Screw Adapter with thread adapter so it’s flush with the plate and will not snag on the rail.

Now for the resulting video!