Test high def camera: only the smallest of hands will be able to finger the controls easily (holding it with one hand, my fingers and thumb almost completely encircle it)
Today I went to the Ocean Beach north jetty to test an HD camcorder (Sony HDR-XR150, built-in hard drive with 25x optical zoom) by filming some surfing action. My own camcorder (Sony DCR-TRV103, Hi-8 cassette tape with 20x optical zoom) doesn’t do badly for standard definition–that’s what I’ve been using for all the surfing videos I’ve posted here–but I wanted to see what can be done with a high def camera.
Alas, the test camcorder’s LCD display completely washed out in the sunlight, making it extremely difficult to follow the action. Since the camera has no viewfinder I had to jerry-rig a cardboard hood in order to see the LCD images at all. The resulting video looks very shaky, partly because I could hardly see what I was shooting, but despite built-in image stabilization and being on a tripod, this camera just didn’t perform to my expectations when it came to shooting action, especially at a distance.
My standard definition dinosaur--my hand can grasp about half of it
My experience reinforces my earlier opinion that a camcorder without a viewfinder is of no use for serious photography. I don’t know why manufacturers insist on omitting this critical component; I can only surmise they haven’t tried shooting action in bright sunlight themselves. Either that, or they just don’t care. Another thing most HD camcorders seem to lack is adequate optical zoom–this test model was unusual with 25x, but most consumer HD camcorders offer only 10x optical. Strangely, many standard definition camcorders have well over 25x optical. In any case, I don’t think the camera is worth the $700 asking price. As for other makes and models, I’ve looked all over without luck for an HD camcorder with a viewfinder and at least 25x optical zoom. If you know of one, please let me know where you found it!
Otherwise, it was a nice day at OB…the waves just kept coming, one after the other. Combined with the long paddle to get out, it made for a good workout (a fun one, though) for everyone.
Here’s video shot with the high-def camera. Although wide-angle shots with slow panning came out okay, the action sequences reveal the camera’s weakness. Keep in mind I was using a tripod here:
For comparison, here’s video I shot with my old camcorder. Its zoom isn’t as powerful and it isn’t high def, but the overall quality is better–and I didn’t even use a tripod. Skip the preliminary dog shots if you like; the surfing action starts at minute 1:33:
Waves are ankle high here, it’s a Friday Calm (the freeways weren’t that calm, though). I saw a couple of surfers and some kayakers, but didn’t see waves being ridden. There were signs up that Carlsbad Blvd. southbound would be closed for the next couple of months, starting near Palomar Airport Road. The Poseidon desalination plant will be built somewhere to the left of the power plant in the top left-hand picture. As always, pics are clickable for enlargements.
A calm morning at Tourmaline with a 7.4′ high tide (and kelp!) swamping the beach. As usual, you can spot at least a few longboarders out here even if waves are scarce. Click pics to enlarge.
The dawn patrol was out at Ocean Beach picking up remnants of the big swell of the past few days. With a series of storms expected to hit our area starting tomorrow, this may be the last clean surf we have for a week or so.
This week I took a short drive up the coast to Grandview St. in Leucadia to see if the predicted WNW swell was coming in. The main swell isn’t due until tomorrow, so it was a bit early for bigger waves though it did seem like something was brewing. The tide was going out so that dampened the waves a bit, but it was a good day for longboarding and for walking along the beach discalced.
One more day to savor the sun and waves before the first work-week of the year arrives. Big Rock is my favorite San Diego break for lefts. Waves here come out of deep water quickly on to a shallow (sharp!) reef and then break along a rock shelf which makes for hollow tubes and catapults from the backwash. The transition from deep water to reef is so abrupt that the takeoff zone is narrow and tricky. If the wave doesn’t look like it’s about to break on you, you’re probably too far out to catch it. I really liked this Jeff Alexander 6′1″ board that belonged to a local resident named Rand:
It was a pleasant New Year’s Day for the morning patrol at Ocean Beach. I started shooting at about 8:30am between the little jetties. There was one unfortunate kick-out contact at about 4:09 after which a few words were exchanged, but everyone seemed mellow and happy to be catching waves.
