UPDATE: you can now watch my review video where I compare the SPL Dome Port and housing system with the KNEKT GPLT trigger system.
One of the drawbacks when using my GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition for taking still surf photo’s was the lack of a pistol grip shutter release, there are other drawbacks which result in me not recommending it for someone wanting to get into the stills side of documenting surfing (you can read my post on the subject if you’re interested), but this was a fairly big issue.
I did mention at the time that I was planning on building my own pistol grip, and I got as far as getting the materials together for it before developing an easier system which I’ll go into at the bottom of this post.
Right now it looks like there are a few options available, so read on to find out more, it’s probably worth pointing out that I have no affiliation with any of these companies and have not used the products myself (except the DIY option at the bottom):
Dale Kobetich’s Hand Made Triggers
Have a look at one of the few bits of information I can find on this one, this Youtube slide show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w75yw3z8mLo
I like the design of the single trigger option, inverting the case to allow a simple pivoting trigger is a touch of genius and this was what my first home made design was based on. The double handle thing is not quite as elegant and if you’re shooting video you don’t need the trigger anyway, you just press record and leave it, there’s no reason why you can’t just put the second camera above the first making it less unwieldy and removing a bunch of fiddly moving parts, not to mention avoiding accidentally switching it off when you want to activate the shutter for stills.
There’s no prices published but as it’s obviously hand made by Dale out of “epoxy glass and carbon fibre” you can bet it wont be cheap, and I’d think twice about making a purchase directly from him after reading this post on the surf photographers united forum.
KNEKT Trigger for the GoPro HERO3 and HERO3+
Obligatory low budget Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spojYnwrpJI
It costs US$ 150 which is about £94, that is pretty expensive, especially when you add on the cost of an old style Hero 3 housing if you don’t have one and you’re using the Hero 3+ camera.
Both this and Dales version are based on the original Hero 3 housing, which means if you have one handy you can stick your new GoPro Hero 3+ Black edition inside an old housing and get shooting straight away, but if you don’t happen to have an old style housing you’ll need to buy one first (Knekt have a helpful page on their site about the differences).
Obviously this looks like a more professional outfit straight away, but the design is lacking the simplicity of Dales, saying that, I’m sure it will do the job well, although I’d probably swap out the white grip for something that won’t look like crap after the first time in the murky British channel.
I guess it’s been a hit because they are only available to pre-order after the initial batch sold out.
SP-Gadgets Remote Pole
It’s a pole to put your GoPro on with a special place to put the water proof remote on the handle, simple idea, and relatively inexpensive at £60 ish (if you already have the black edition camera with the remote included, otherwise, add on £80 for the remote too).
Looking at the design it seems to me that you would point the camera in the opposite direction to the remote and use your thumb to trigger the camera, so you’ve got less chance of accidentally hitting the power button or LCD screen rather than the shutter button, I think this would work quite well in a surf photography situation.
The other benefit is the compatibility with any GoPro regardless of housing, you could even use it with the Hero 2 with the WiFi BacPac and remote.
The DIY option
Obviously this is my favourite, I have attempted to make a clone of Dale Kobetich’s design out of an Aluminium strip, but it’s too fragile, cracking under the stress of being bent through 90 degrees, plan B was to bend a piece of plastic from a cheap chopping board into the right shape and work with that instead, but after using the remote control to take some photo’s with a GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition 270 degree rig (full post coming soon) and being impressed with the performance and robustness of the remote control, my plan changed to one much more similar to the SP-Gadgets design.
The only major issue I had with using the remote in the sea for shooting waves was losing the connection with the cameras, this only happened when I went underwater for longer than a few seconds, or moved the remote further than about 4 or 5 feet away from the cameras, bear in mind the cameras were tightly wrapped in duct tape and often under the surface of the water when in use.
Here’s an artists impression of the latest set-up, I’ve temporarily miss placed my remote so this will have to do until I get round to doing a full post on how best to attach it to your GoPro handle of choice.
I reckon with the remote attached to my Bobber handle, very close to the camera, it shouldn’t be an issue, even if I do go underwater for reasonable periods, I also found that the WiFi picked itself up again fairly quickly after losing a connection too.
So that’s what I’m going to do, as you can read in the first part of my review of the camera, I’m not going to be shooting many stills with it, it’s pretty much solely for video for me, so I don’t need to splash out on a proper pistol grip for it, and based on the people I know who use a GoPro, not many are in it for stills, so we’ll see how these products do in the long term, when there’s a mass produced plastic version of Dale’s design available through a reputable business I might go for it, until then, the DIY option works for me.
Conclusion
If I was only using my GoPro for shooting still photographs of waves and surfing, I’d go for the Knekt, I have never dealt with the company but they look legitimate and their product does the job. I have now used several KNEKT products and they are all excellent, I highly recommend the KNEKT GPLT trigger for $99 and the KNEKT KSD6 dome port for $299 in particular.
All we need now is interchangeable lenses and complete manual control and the GoPro system will be a DSLR beater.
Leave a Reply