I had looked at the soloshot when they were trying to get started with quickstart and while i really liked the idea the initial price was almost $500
which i thought was too much for me- Jump ahead and was reminded of them when crazyherb posted his xmas present only to discover price had come down
to the $300 range and I figured that was reasonable- so i picked one up and tried it out yesterday.
1. Its really nice- i could say i wanted it to be able to review myself for improvement but that would be a lie, while it will help with that it is
best served to stroke my ego by sharing some video that is hopefully fun to watch.
2. relatively easy to setup, got to my spot and set up the tripod and turned on the armband(transmitter- needs to be on for 10-15 minutes before
pairing to tripod) While i was waiting for it to warm up went ahead and set up kite and other gear- really no big deal just a change in my routine.
3. I used a cheap kodak playsport and can really see the advantage of a getting a "real" HD camcorder with optical zoom but as you can see in the
video all zooming was done i the editing software (comments on it forth coming)
4. Once it was paired- i went flying
5. Flying sucked- i tried short 10m lines on my rage 3.5 just to get up and running quickly and the rage does not fly well at all on short lines as
you wil see. More importantly at the end of the video i had my left handle break and send both lines flying to the kite- what a mess. Wind was very
gusty constantly fluctuating between 8-25 mph. If you turn up the volume, you can hear the wind. Bottom line really was not a good day to fly but
new toys had to be tested.
6. Video editing- Cyberlink Power Director 12 ultra. picked this up for $75 and is the easiest editing program i have used was able to make the video
below in less than 10 minutes and was very intuitive. did split screen, speed up, crop, and slow mo. Did not bother with transitions this time. I do
have basic experience with sonyvegas but Power director is soooooo much easier.
All in All initial reaction to the SOLOSHot- its a keeper, i think it really lived up to the promise of your own personal camera man, i do think that
to get the best results a decent handicam is required (initial search turned up a sony handicam with 27x optical zoom for around $250) so for some
really decent video of yourself for what ever purpose (show off or learn from your mistakes) I think the Soloshot is a Keeper.
Scott
Enjoy:
couple of things- bought the software after making video so trial tag will disappear. beginning of video split screen bottom is "straight" from the
camera and obviously top was zoomed in. middle section was no zoom and 1.5 speed, end was .5 speed and slightly zoomed in
I like it too.
What do you think about using the Solo to make training films? Such as demonstrating and explaining a particular jump or move? The Swivl is able to
follow, record video and audio, just not sure of the max distance of operating.
I like the editing also.
Appex buggy, Libre hardcore buggies.
Flexboardz. Blokarts.
PKD Century Soulflys. NPW's. Nasa Stars.
A few other less flown oddballs,
Line sets from 10" to 328" or 2m to 100m.
worlds only AQR that works.
North American distributor for PKD.
"Kite Bugging is not an addiction until you try to quit".
Jeff,
i like this and had looked at the swivl also but only briefly because dstance was limited to 20 feet and was really designed for the phone as camera-
it does have a mic and such so for instruction it would be great but the actually filming of the move or trick would have to be filmed on something
else- ie soloshot. other thing pretty sure with regards to the swivl it can move vertical but i dont think remotely so same as solo in that case. The
trick to all of it is the camera- i shot some more today and was really just to far away but have a few nice snipets. because any decent hd camcorder
has an external mic jack and real lenses so there again i think the soloshot can handle 5 lb camera (overkill but real strong tripod) swivel basically
point and shot.
As for editing- super easy will do the next video and see how long it takes- not including rendering- im guessing 15 minutes cause i want to figure
out text
scott
Scott, found out Swivl has a new version out and it will operate tablets and android devises also. still looking,
Appex buggy, Libre hardcore buggies.
Flexboardz. Blokarts.
PKD Century Soulflys. NPW's. Nasa Stars.
A few other less flown oddballs,
Line sets from 10" to 328" or 2m to 100m.
worlds only AQR that works.
North American distributor for PKD.
"Kite Bugging is not an addiction until you try to quit".
Jeff- still comes down to camera- real camera great tools- POS camera and poor video. I spent about 45 minutes working on this video of which 38
minutes was just watching what I recorded as I was deleting it. Love the tracking of the soloshot- any comments on camera ideas would be appreciated
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