Friday 2 December 2011

Gadget Show on Channel 5 uses Flymount for JetLev shoot





I got an email from one of our Flymount testers to say that he'd seen Channel 5 using the Flymount and GoPro Hero to get close-ups of the rider on their Jet Lev review.
We'd met the team when we both shot some Grasstrack racing in Nottinghamshire. The guys had used some fancy mount to get on-board shots of Ben Collins - the ex Stig from Top Gear - and it just didn't cope well with the hard riding conditions. Their mount not only broke but smashed their camera and could have been a real danger to other drivers. They approached us and asked if they could buy a Flymount to finish their shoot and we donated one in the spirit of friendship and cooperation which mostly exists among non-competing teams.
Of course, the rugged little Flymount worked perfectly and they seem to be using it wherever they need its unique ability to provide steady and safe lightweight camera mounting in adverse conditions.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Using a Drift camera on a Quad bike




I was worried about the bulbous lens on the Drift when I put it on a Quad bike for some action video as they raced through the woods at the Lockwell Adventure Centre in the UK's Sherwood Forest area in Nottinghamshire.
We had a GoPro up front, Flymounted on to the bumper bar and the Drift watched the following drivers, and the weather had been very wet so we knew the mud would be a problem.
Amazingly, and you can see from the shots here, the camera was covered in mud and gunge but the lens stayed clear and we got some great footage.
With a careful hosing down the drift came up looking nothing like new and it still has an ex-army feel to it! Great, I don't like cameras which shout 'precious'. Two things help this camera - it's got a screen so you can accurately frame (as long as the sun's not shining into it) and second you can swivel the lens to accommodate crazy mounting angles. Video can look great if you use odd angles but not all the time - you need a level setting because that's how we see.
Anyway, for all the crap we've thrown at it, the Drift continues to give us what we want - clean high quality video and stills.

Friday 4 November 2011

Mountain bike and GoPro 90º








We haven't been mountain biking recently but one or two people have asked about shooting with the GoPro Hero, wondering if we could make a 90º adaptor so it can fit on upright tubes.
There's no need - GoPros come with a set of useful adjustable brackets and - using the Flymount GoPro adaptor and half of a GoPro bracket we can easily get a lot of useful adjustment.

Take the double jointed mount from the grab bag and take half off. It's modular so instead of 3 pieces it comes down to 2.
With the shorter mounting distance the camera is held tighter to the Flymount and the bike - wherever you decide to mount it.
That reduces the shake considerably and gives a very nice range of movement.
Neat too!

We are trialling a new GoPro adaptor specifically for high vibration environments where the camera needs to be at 90º to the Flymount. It's being machined out of stainless and is a really neat and compact piece of kit.

Monday 26 September 2011

Racing Mazda cars at Brands Hatch and Croft







Flymount was invited to shoot stills and video with the Mazda racing team - driver Jonathan Blake - at Brands Hatch and Croft racing tracks in the UK. We shot using 3 cameras on board but discovered that all is not simple in racing and cameras! The first qualifier went fine and both the Drift and GoPro cameras worked perfectly but the Contour was not switched on. Then we found that turning off the Drift at the end of the shoot - instead of switching the video off with one click then switching the camera off - we lost the video. A useful lesson learnt because the Drift is a very versatile camera with its rotating lens and small aiming screen. The GoPro functioned flawlessly, as usual! For some reason we never actual got footage from the Contour because every time we set it up someone either switched it off instead of on - or forgot. Maybe we were sabotaged because the media were there and trying to shoot the same angles we got and they were struggling - big metal mounts getting in the way and looking dangerous to me. Anyway, we got great footage from Brands Hatch so we drove up to Darlington and stayed on the Croft campsite next to the track. The weather was rainy but this adds to the atmosphere, I think.

Friday 19 August 2011

Darrell Wong shoots Flymount in Hawaii


World famous National Geographic photographer Darrell Wong uses Flymounts to create his great images of windsurfers in the beautiful conditions around Hawaii. He first contacted us a while ago to buy a Flymount because he'd heard it is the strongest and lightest camera mount for extreme conditions - and then he went out and made fantastic use of it. Darrell shot this image of John Skye with a GoPro on still sequence and caught John in a perfect moment with his arm circling the horizon.
As Darrell noted, you have to be careful setting up a GoPro or you come back with nothing - as some of his friends did a few days later when he lent them his Flymount. Otherwise - a great camera.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Dirt Buggies are go!


The guys at Lockwell Hill have a great track and acres of off-road land not far from Mansfield in the UK. I was shooting up there to see how the new Flymount GoPro adaptor worked in really harsh vibration conditions. It was hot and dusty, more like a safari in Africa than a Nottinghamshire buggy track - but it was great. I made the classic mistake of forgetting to tighten up the GoPro mount before the first race and I got a lot of sky in the video. It's only a moment to get it right, just have to do all those little mental checks before committing to shoot. Same with the GoPro - check it's in the right mode and running before they go. Easy if you concentrate!