The New Rig :: Cha Cha

You know that feeling you get once you have that new board in your hands? That's the feeling I got when I bought the GoPro HD video camera off of the infamous Bill Andrews. He had no use for it so he sold it to me at a price I couldn't refuse.

I had a GoPro set up on my old SPL housing. It was a first generation GoPro with standard definition. Now, holy crap, I've got the unreal colors and speed of the Canon 7D AND the wide angle HD video of the GoPro... all in my right hand! I would like to introduce you to... Cha Cha.

She's beautiful. Great curves, has two eyes staring you down, she likes to get close to you and is always down to put out... great photos and videos, that is. After a day of bringing her to life, today was the first day I had Cha Cha take a dip with me in the ocean. We headed out at to the reefs together and hung out with a few cool surfers. Cha Cha was comfortable and was easy to manuever through the water and waves. I just have to remember to press her buttons before each wave. The GoPro was set on Standard Def today but will have it on HD in the next sessions.

Got home and... unreal! Cha Cha performed perfectly! I can't wait for a sunny day and have her set to HD. I'll stick to HD 720 at 60 fps once the sun is out. That is unless it's going off, then I'll switch to full HD 1080p.

My only concern is not a major one. Now that I've added another 3 inches to the top of the housing, I have to be aware that I don't ruin the barrel photos by holding the housing to high in the tube. I noticed a few splash drops on a couple empty barrel shots today. Other than that... be ready to have Cha Cha dish out HD video along with the high rez photos on www.mannyvphoto.com.Oo La La...

To see the first round of the new rig, check out my photo session from this morning:
http://www.mannyvphoto.com/Surf-Photography/October-2010/October-13-2010/14178925_XzFLt#1046698637_ZGttR

Now who's ready! Look at that thing of beauty. Cha Cha is alive!

I hope my Mexican ingenuity doesn't go south on me (gulp)!