Too Wet?

I spent nearly 7 hours on the water yesterday in Lyme Bay, in a small, very wet RIB in quite large waves and 15-20 knots winds. The occasion was the 2010 Albacore National championships. I used 3 cameras: the K-7/50-200 which I kept inside my jacket when not in use, and two Canons: the 40D, with 70-200 f4L/1.4 extender and my old D60 with the 400 F5.6L. These cameras stayed inside the waterproof bag when not in use.

I got some nice shots from the K-7, but the sheer amount of solid water coming over the boat and spray in the air got the better of me in the end. All my available lens wipes were just sodden and keeping the lens clear of water droplets became increasingly difficult. A whole series of shots at the finish of the last race were ruined through water on the lens.

Pleased to say though that all three cameras survived the ordeal and out of the 1000 frames shot in total, I got some reasonable shots.

I also had a go at shooting some video of the leader rounding the wing mark, but the up and down motion of the boat made it a very unpleasant watch!

Showing it Off

I was at Netley Sailing Club, on Southampton Water, yesterday for the RS Tera National Championships. It was the hottest day of the year so far (pushing 30 degrees) and it took the sea breeze a while to get going. I took the opportunity to wander around snapping the surroundings and chatting to people.

Giles Barclay, another Canon user, was interested to see I was using the K-7. He had a go with it and was impressed by its compact size. The picture on this post was taken by Giles.

Once we got afloat it was quite a fun event - you can see the pics on the Fotoboat website. I used the K-7/50-200 alongside the 40D with a range of lenses: Canon EF 400 f5.6L, Sigma 10-20 and Canon EF 70-200 f4L with 1.4 extender. I found the Pentax viewfinder noticeably brighter than the Canon's, something I haven't commented on before.

Beer at the Weekend

I went to Beer Sailing Club last weekend for the RS700/800 open. Another lovely day with a building sea breeze - enough for some close racing but not enough for really exciting photos.

I used the K-7 with 50-200 in conjunction with the Canon 40D/400 f5.6L. In a small RIB (4m) with fairly choppy seas the smaller, lighter Pentax was much easier to handle than the Canon. But I wouldn't sacrifice the 400's image quality and reach just for ease of handling!

Nearly Very Wet

I paddled out to the Exe safe water mark to photograph Exe SC's bank holiday race yesterday. Quite a long way, into the wind and I was glad to tie up to the committee RIB and climb aboard for a breather. Took my shots, and set out back, now with both wind and tide behind me. For a bit of sport I decided to go over the Pole Sand, through the breaking water. Great fun until I was swung broadside by the fierce current then rolled by a wave! Luckily the water was only a foot or so deep but the kayak was completely inverted and the camera bag submerged. But the bag (Watershed Ocoee) was securely tied to the boat and stayed totally waterproof. The paddle was also tied on, so no dramas there.

Wet at Last!

Last weekend I went to a cold, grey, wet and windy Chew Valley Lake to cover the latest round of the RS200 South West Ugly tour. This was a great opportunity to put the K-7's weather proofing to the test. I was on a small RIB, and the combination of spray and rain provided enough "weather" for the 77 seals to resist. At least the spray was fresh (Bristol Water's finest drinking water) and not salt water. I kept my hand over the end of the lens hood when not shooting, and the deep hood proved useful for keeping off all but direct rain when shooting straight into the wind.

Going back into the clubhouse at lunchtime provided another test - with a sudden rise in temperature and 100% humidity everything steamed up instantly. Once I had towelled down all the kit, everything was still working fine - as expected.

Two snags are worth reporting. Firstly, when using the camera with gloves on it was all too easy for my right thumb to hit the Live View button, which lost me a few shots. Second, I lost more shots than usual through poor focus. This appears to be because I had the AF switched to 'S' (single shot), where 'C' (continuous - equivalent to Servo mode on Canon) would have been more appropriate. Read the **** manual!

The Dinghy Show at Alexandra Palace

The show took place over the weekend 6/7 March but as I was shooting for Dinghy Sailing mag I didn't post anything until the mag had come out. It's the May issue, now out, the one with the Scorpion on the front cover (one I took at Looe in 2005).

I used two cameras for the show shoot. The Canon 40D with the Sigma 10-20 lens and Speedlight 550 EX flash, and the Pentax K-7 with the 50/1.7 for available light shots. One of these made the contents page of the May issue - those huge stained glass roundel windows at Alexandra Palace are a camera magnet!

I went up to the organ loft to get a general view of the show, which needed the 10-20 lens so used the Canon for that. The aim was to get a shot with blurry moving people which I partly succeeded in doing (1 sec at f/32 was the slowest I could get).

RS Event at Chew Valley Lake

This weekend (13 March) I went to the RS 6,7 and 800 Winter Championships and Musto Skiff open at Chew Valley Lake SC. Great weather - sunny, not too cold and a bit of breeze. I was shooting with two bodies - the Pentax K-7/50-200 combination and the Canon 40D. I used a variety of lenses on the Canon: 400 f5.6L, 70-200 F4L with 1.4x extender and Sigma 10-20.

The results can be seen on the Fotoboat website. They are a reasonable representation of the event but nothing really exciting as the breeze didn't get much over 9 knots.

I tried a bit of video and have posted a clip below. As a spectacle wearer I find using the back screen as a viewfinder quite difficult, as I don't have the necessary depth of focus in my eyes to see the subject directly and the screen at the same time. A monopod might be useful to prevent too much up and down movement. As with anything, it will take some getting used to but I think mixing stills and video work is going to be difficult.