Video Editing and Underwater Photography

I have not been blogging as often. Work and family life is taking a lot of my free time. I try to provide something entertaining or educational in my posts. Things will start to get interesting soon. I will be at the Strictly Sail show this Friday. Soccer Saturday and Sunday so there goes the weekend. Camping will happen this month as well as La Paz next month. I need to sneak a fishing trip in somewhere in between as well.

Meanwhile I have been struggling with Video editing and streaming issues for the past week. What a mess. Avi, mpeg, mov, vob, etc etc. Can’t we all settle on just one format for crying out loud? I am not happy with the Microsoft WMM(Windows Movie Maker) and I am not a lone. For some reason it will not import my Sony DCR-SR100 mpg video’s. I have tried converting them to AVI’s and still no luck. I guess I will need to break down and buy some video editing software. I was able to use some old avi’s that came from my Cannon S50 and create a 3 minute avi with WMM. It turned out well and was easy to use.

Microsoft Windows Media Player is finicky as well when it comes to streaming videos. I have installed several codec packages, and still no luck. TVersity is working better although I have an issue with it loosing its connection. TVersity won’t handle mpegs, so unless you have video converters chances are half the stuff you want to stream through these programs won’t work. Hopefully they will improve on things soon.

Just received the latest issue of Multihulls World magazine and am reading it from front to back. I keep seeing information on multihull boat shows. I am going to have to travel far to see a good one. I will be lucky to see 3 multihulls at the upcoming show here in Oakland, Ca.

I plan to do a lot of exploring above water as well as underwater when I eventually go on a serious voyage. What I would like to find though is the best place to start weather I am fishing or diving. So I have often thought an underwater camera would be a good option. One that you could drop down. Often times you see things on the fish finder and you just don’t know what it is for sure. I could see myself getting a little more serious about underwater photo’s and video. But not too serious unless I can recoup my costs. A quick internet search and I found the Backscatter Underwater Video and Photo online store. $7,515 bucks for the FX1/Z1 Housing package. I might have to settle for the mini system at a mere $1899. wow. Save you pennies.

I keep thinking about all the things I want to do on my adventures. Everything cost money and is gear intensive and will add weight and take up space. I am going to need a bigger boat and a sponsor. Maybe there is a video crew that want to film a reality Catamaran Sailing show with me as the captain. Yeah right. :)