Recently we met up with Philip Bloom in Palm Springs, CA. It was hot and I mean the kind of hot that makes you want to stay inside all day. Luckily for us we were staying at a hotel that had three pools. Now Jon and I were ready to shoot in Palm Springs… We brought our 5d, 7d, and a variety of lenses but we also had our brand new GoPro and Sony TX5 which shoot underwater video and photos. Along with Phil’s GoPros and two versions of my new favorite toy, the eggtimer (homebuilt version courtesy of Getaway Moments and the version available for purchase from CamaRush) we decide to undertake what we believe has never been done before: The first ever 360 degree underwater GoPro Timelapse.
A few technical notes:
Most of the time we were using the Delkin Suction Mount but at some point Phil brings out a fancier version (as soon as I hear which one it was, I’ll post the name here).
Also, we started to notice that on the Sony TX5 after you bring it out of water you have to give it a minute to get the audio back to normal since it is all auto.
So now that you’ve seen the video you know it never really fully worked. We really believe it would’ve worked but we ran out of time… We will try this again. A few things contributed to this repeated failure: battery life, card space, water pressure, and, of course, the inability to successfully mount the suction cup to the bottom of the pool for extended amounts of time.
I’m very, very excited to give this another shot in Orlando. However, failure has never been this fun 
10 Responses to “Palm Springs: 360 Degree Underwater GoPro Timelapse”
I’ll be honest Jon, this is the kinda stuff I usually watch 30 seconds of and then stop, but this was well cut and paced, even though it was just a fun video. Nice edit/sound mix:)
That was pretty funny.
Now I’m off to build my own eggtimer panning head!
Excellent! Now that was a fun video.
Reminds me of my snow day short I made before I got the HD GoPro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPS_FPJx0sM
Sometimes you just need to play with the toys and not be too
serious.
Great work, look forward to seeing more.
LT
Looks like you had some fun in Palm Springs. Nice clip. Did you consider using a brick or other weights to hold down the camera? Would have been a bit easier, I reckon.
Fun,
I really like the Edit…
To me, that wasn’t a great white shark but a megalodon shark’s bite”.
Good effort getting it to stick, funny video,
one question? who peed in the pool?
I bet it was Phil
Confirmed!
I had to test this new outrageous use of such a sophisticated tool. I was not able to try a full 360 degree move but the results are clear.
congratulations! You have taken timelapse to a whole new place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zad-XHaN-ak
or
http://www.getawaymoments.com/2010/08/underwater-gopro-eggtimer-panning.html
I’m a little late on this, but have you thought of just adding some weight to the suction mount, or any mini tripod for that reason? It will help keep it in one place, and it shouldn’t move, with the right amount of weight….in the case of the GoPro, 5 lbs should be plenty.
Just a thought if you every try it again…. Nice vid…looks like you had fun. I almost drove down to see you guys, as I’m 5 hours north of Palm Springs…
Let me know the next time you guys are in Cali. You should come up to my neck of the woods. Beaches, dunes, lots of hiking trails and the 7 sisters. (7 dormant volcano’s that have astronomical views)
i built a 360 filming rig this way that shoot 360 film in 1 shot in 3d.
Dan
I have one word for you Sand-Bag (or is that 2 words?) Happy New Year.