ECOShot Introduction
Published May 17, 2008 | 
SeaLife EcoShot Compact Digital Sports Camera
The ECOShot Compact Digital Sports Camera was designed with us water-babies in mind. In fact their 2008 brochure displays a kayaker in free fall over turbulent drop in sharp hair-raising color. So it only seemed right that we should offer a review from a kayaker’s perspective. Of course cameras are like kayaks in that it takes time to get a good feel for how they actually perform. With that in mind SeaLife gave us three full months to put their ECOShot through its paces. Today I’m going to share a general overview of the ECOShot and show you a couple of the first pictures I took straight out of the box.
SeaLife has spent the last 28 years focused on underwater photography so one would think they should have a pretty good grasp of the issues that come up when shooting in a liquid environment. The ECOShot certainly looks the part. The camera is a tough looking rubber armored 6 megapixel digital. It is depth rated to 75 feet and shock tested to 6 feet. (The brochure makes the “tough” point by showing the poor little camera under the wheel of a 4X4.) Similar to other compact water cameras the ECOShot has no lens cover or viewfinder. Shots are taken and reviewed using a large 2 inch LCD on the back face. The ECO is a bit larger and heavier than either the Pentax Optio or the Olympus Stylus coming in at just over 10 ounces/295 grams (with batteries & card) but is still small enough to fit into a larger PFD pocket. Functions are controlled by six small buttons on the back face. The shutter button is on top of course and is certainly large enough to manage with gloves.
ECOShot with optional Wide Angle Lens
One quickly obvious departure from other cameras in this market is that the ECOShot does not offer a zoom. Instead SeaLife went for an “instant focus” set up with a range from 2ft to infinity. While in some instances this may be a limitation, it may also be an advantage. By removing the zoom you also remove the focus lag that can often be a real hassle when shooting in the moving on water environment. I know I’ve wrestled with the auto focus features on other cameras before and my hope is that this feature (or lack of a feature) may actually mean getting some shots that are sometimes lost while waiting for a slow auto focus. One other unique option is a new “SPY” mode which allows the camera to take continuous pictures at set intervals. You can imagine setting the camera up this way to work with wildlife that may be a bit too shy to pose for a enthusiastic photographer. In SPY mode you just set the camera to take shots at intervals from 5 seconds to 5 minutes, hit the shutter button and walk away. The camera will continue to take shots until the memory card is full or until you again press the shutter button.
The SeaLife ECOShot operates on 2 standard double AA batteries or rechargeables and uses up to a 1 gig SD card for storing your images. There are 14mgs of on board memory for those times when you forget to put the card back in. (Keep in mind that a single high quality shot will take between 2-4megs of space.) The Camera also comes with USB cable, Photo Express, and Photo Explorer Software.
For my review Sealife sent along their new mini wide angle lens, a float control/wristband and hard shell case. Next week I’ll share with you some of my first impressions.
Below are a few of the first shots right out of the box. Keep in mind of course that images posted on the web may look nothing like they do in real life due to variances in monitors, resolutions and such. The images I post along the way are only to give you a general “feel” for the end results.
First photo right in the front yard.
Camera held just over the water
Sunlit paddle. The green is pretty representative of the lake’s color
Sun on the lake and the glitter
oh, and of course my ugly mug!
on a wing
Published May 15, 2008 | .jpg)
You know that bit where you get some really cool news but you’re hesitant to share it for fear something will jump out and screw it up? Sort of a Woody Allen moment I suppose. Well, a few weeks back I was invited to another symposium which is pretty exciting. If it all plays out I’m looking forward to seeing a bunch of folks I’ve talked to via the web for a couple years now, but have never met in person. That’s pretty cool. However, since it’s not until later in the year I think I’m going to hold my breath until the ticket is in hand. Yeah, I’m a tad paranoid sometimes!
In other news I’ll be reviewing the EcoShot from SeaLife over the summer. The camera should arrive in a few days. So we’ll see just want it can do. Of course the big factor to me is that it can out survive the Optio! More on that coming soon.
Ok, gotta run!!
see spot run
Published May 13, 2008 | 
So are we ready to give the SPOT personal GPS tracker the “Gadget of the Year” award yet? Well, they probably have Niels Vinther’s vote. I’m frankly quite amazed how many news stories have been appearing that share “SPOT” as the common denominator, and so far with happy endings.
Have your say
Published May 13, 2008 |
Sea Kayaker Magazine is wrapping up their Reader’s Choice Survey on Thursday so if you want to be heard you should jump over to http://www.seakayakermag.com/2008/08e-newsletters/March/got-a-favorite.htm . Everyone loves a good Survey Monkey!
Eat The Press. . .
Published May 13, 2008 | 
went to the animal fair
All the birds and the beasts were there
The big baboon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair.
You should have seen the monk
He sat on the elephant’s trunk. . .
Good Morning one and all! I’m sure you can imagine how difficult it can be to sit down each day and try to write something coherent. Like a newspaper it’s often impossible to always write something that is interesting to everyone who picks it up. Newspapers, bloggers, and anyone working on a regular schedule have to mix it up. By jumping across a bunch of subjects your hope is that you will hit something interesting to different segments of those folks that drop by. It gets even more challenging if you actually write 3 blogs! – Prepare for a blog about blogging. . . .
Blogging has become the voice of the web over the last couple years. The web is slowly pushing print and even broadcast television off to the sides of today’s media. I can still remember when it was assumed that only nerds and geeks had blogs. These days every journal, magazine and news network worth their salt has a blog if not a multitude of blogs. It’s really not surprising that a “blog” is just as likely if not more likely to be the way people come into a website. Suddenly the home page is relegated to the backwaters of the site. Readers tend to skip all the welcoming blather of a homepage to get right to the most up to date content, then move from there right on to the subjects they are interested. The poor “homepage” often just get’s in the way.
For the publisher blogging builds a new connection with readers. It’s more personal, and maybe more important it’s there when the READER wants it. Even the readers have figured out how to use blogs to their own advantage. Often they use comments to reach into the pool and bring readers back over to their sites through links, or to promote their own ideas and opinions. Personally I’m not real fond of this. The comment sections should really continue a conversation, not become a Laundromat bulletin board.
Now the thing about successful blogs is that they need to be in constant change. There always has to be something new. (Well, almost always). Suddenly there is a new demand for writers out there. Coming up with fresh new content is not a simple task. Now as I’ve said, I have 3 blogs. Quixotica is my baby of course and really my personal place. That’s why it’s “quixotic”, It’s usually about paddling but my weird mind goes all over the place! The other 2 are regional and tourism related. Luckily they are not updated daily (YET) which make them a bit simpler to manage. However I’m getting a feeling they are going to be demanding more time as well. In the last month or so I’ve started to receive feedback on those blogs that hint to more work in the future. Often it’s email from companies or attractions that want to be featured there. In addition I’ve started to get invitations to local press conferences, open houses, and other events seemingly out of nowhere. Honestly I’ve not figured out how I want to react to that stuff. I don’t seem to have enough hours in the day now, without starting to prance out to every little local event!
Sometime in the next few days I’ll write a bit about the ways I spur my old brain to come up with something to write about each day. Not sure you all will find it of value, but I know there are some other bloggers out there so maybe it’s worth the space.
Salas, Salads & Cellphones
Published May 12, 2008 | 
Sawadee, whanee phop ghan,
sookchai plan chan day phop t’.
O laa, laa, laa, laa, laa, la
Yesterday we spent the day roaming around Olbrich Garden in Madison. Obrich is sort of a little botanical oasis in the big city with a multitude of large display gardens and even an indoor Jungle! The photos are from a Tai Pavilion, called a “sala”. It was crafted in Thailand then shipped to Madison and reassembled. You’d think you were actually in Thailand if not for the trees!
Having a 7 year old along on such excursions demands a bit of compromise. An adult can stroll ornate gardens all day and lose themselves in the atmosphere. A 7 year old has to adapt the gardens to their imagination like levels in a video game, and top it off with a trip to McDonald’s. The mistake there is that my mind says, “Fine I’ll have a whopper”, but my body has long since been without that sort of food. The total rejection called for an evening dose of Alka-Seltzer and lots of water.
Recently on Wellsphere.com which I’ve mentioned is an online community aimed at the more health conscious among us, they had an interesting discussion on ways to eat well when dining out. Of course I couldn’t very well comment since “dining out” is something I rarely do. When I do I usually feel ill afterwards. The brain always thinks “Gee, I never have. . . . so just this once” . . . and usually I pay for it.
If you are one to eat out regularly, you may find Wellsphere’s new Wellternatives feature useful. Wellternatives offers you a spot where you can just enter any restaurant and pull up their nutritional information. What I think would work for me personally is the text version that works on a cellphone. You can actually be in the a parking lot and text “diet” + restaurant name + menu, and get that info right off. Of course it can’t save you from yourself. I should have known better than to eat a McDonald’s burger! However, if you have better will power than I obviously demonstrated the Wellphone feature is a pretty good idea.
More Photos from Olbrich Garden
yesterday was mother’s day after all. . .
Don’t be Koi, be gold fish. .
Little indoor waterfall
Spinach Kaleidoscope
sun obscured by clouds and water
Screen Cap: Reuters
Bicycle races are coming your way
So forget all your duties oh yeah!
Fat bottomed girls
they’ll be riding today
So look out for those beauties oh yeah
- queen
Today is “Ride Your Bike To Work” day here in the States. The sad fact is, the only people riding their bikes to work today are of course the ones who always did. In fact according to the National Sporting Goods Association less than 10% of Americans, that comes out to around 35.6 million, ride a bike 6 times or more a year and those numbers are falling. So with that in mind pardon me while I rant against the price of fuel, and the size of bum cakes. . .
It’s the point of desperation. Imagine staring at a quickly emptying checkbook and seemingly empty cupboards. The choice is a simple one. . You can fill your gas tank and thus make it to the store, but if you do that you have nothing left over to buy food with? What do you do?
When I was younger and desperately poor I never faced that sort of decision. Oh, the cupboards were often bare. But when you did have some money it was obvious it was not going into the gas tank. It was assumed you would just walk or ride your bike. (not that we had bikes) Half the time, the old wreck of a car wouldn’t make it anyway. There were always flat bald tires or a 10 year old dead battery to get in the way as it was. Back in the day we walked everywhere, in any weather, often with small children in tow. We had to.
Coming from that background the recent press lamenting the high costs of living and tentatively touching on subjects such as walking or bike riding or Gasp!, PUBLIC TRANSIT seem just a little silly. The fact is of course that some folks are just going to have to adjust. We may in the end, be all the better for it.
To get a sense of the mountain that has to be climbed to get people out walking one only needs to go for a walk through their hometown. I like to walk and often do. It’s become a habit over the years. However it’s quite common that when someone I know sees me they will pull over and offer a ride. Of course that’s just good manners, but there is an undertone that reads something like; “Why are you walking?, Is something wrong?”. It often takes a bit of work to convince your good Samaritan that you actually ENJOY walking. Even when they drive away you are left with the sense that they don’t believe you and think it’s only a sense of pride that won’t let you accept the ride. Strolling on a warm sunny day is ok, walking to get somewhere just seems off in our collective psyche.
I think at the moment many in the states are going through a bit of shock. The studies and articles out right now are showing that although people are cutting down on their driving, they are not so much finding alternative transportation as they are just not going anywhere. I imagine it’s somewhat akin to getting hit on the head with a rock. For a moment you just sit there trying waiting for the fog to clear. In time of course you get up and get moving again. Only you are a bit more careful to avoid the falling rocks.
Even at $4 a gallon we can’t really complain about the price of fuel. Compared to most of the world we’re still getting quite a bargain. Gasoline in most of Europe is running somewhere around $10+ per gallon. (Why the disparity? Here’s an article with a bit of insight on that.) Still, we’ve spent a good long time a tad isolated from the global economy. It’s a bit like telling a child to clean their plate because the kids in (pick your place) would be happy to have it. That logic never helps since your kids just have no frame of reference. Telling adults that we should be thankful for $4 a gallon does not work either. The fact is our way of getting from here to there is founded on cheap fuel and it will take quite a sea change to adjust. Today we can focus on the idea that dragging that old bike out of the shed is a good idea, however making it happen will be a bit more of a challenge.
To further complicate matters higher food costs tend to go right along with the price of fuel. In fact food prices have increased in the range of 6 % increase over last year. Some foods, especially those made of grains have risen more than 50% over last year. Of course It’s hard to find people outside of the states who feel too badly for us here as well. In fact some in India wanted to point out that the US eats 5 times more than they do per capita. Their message?, EAT LESS!. . Well, we can take heart because we know the real reason the folks in India weigh less than us is the fact that the pull of earth’s gravity is less in India than anywhere else on the globe! They Cheat!!!
In the end there is a lot going on, but it’s not rocket science. Living on credit can’t last forever, fuel prices have to go up, and with that everything else goes up as well. The world is also becoming more populated and more competitive which again will effect availability and send prices up. When we finally do get over the shock I think things could get much better. In time many of us will have to do what the health boards have been telling us for years; Exercise more and eat less. Hey even obesity contributes to global warming!
And this all relates to kayaking how? Well, slim budgets can point us to alternative recreation as well; a walk in the park, a swim, riding our bikes and of course paddling. Coincidentally I also got this newsletter from Genera Kayak Center in Chicago. It says in part; As many of you may have heard, the pundits say we’re in a recession. The price of gas and food is high, rates are low and the dollar is weak. During a time where the common perception is that this will decrease people’s ability to recreate, I say that this is only one more “excuse” to get into paddling!”
Even if you don’t paddle , just going for a walk is a great start.