Wakeye Cylon Unboxing

[Horton]

[kylegansel]

Wow - super smooth versus my skidoc mount.

[Zman]

@kylegansel Which skidoc you referring to. I would expect the newer one on the ball bearing platform would be pretty darn smooth. Comments from others using newest skidoc? Just for comparison to Wakeye Cylon.

[kylegansel]

I've got the orbit camera mount. Check it out here. http://www.theskidoc.com/ski-doc-camera-mount-orbit.htm I still get a decent amount of vibration just using an iPhone so the videos aren't as clear as I'd like. I have played with the adjustments a bit. I mainly use it to review all our runs so each of us can learn. Here's one you can view. https://www.facebook.com/FishLakeSkiClub/videos/1795949023817085/ I'm not knocking it. It works great for a cheaper option for me.

[jwakes]

Does anyone know what would work best with an iPhone 8? My videos with the old wakeye are total garbage. Jittery off the charts. I contacted wakeye and they said it was my phone. I tried with them the iPhone X. Same sitch. Thoughts?

[Horton]

@jwakes @kylegansel @Zman

 

There are to completely different things going on.

 

First is the shake created by the connection between the camera and the rope. In the case of the Cylon there is ZERO shake from the rope transmitted to the camera because they are essentially not connected. They are both on the pylon but that is inconsequential.

This is the point of the Cylon. Rope slack no longer shakes the camera.

 

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Second is the how your phone camera deals with boat vibration. This issue has ZERO to do with what tracker mount you use. Many new phone cameras have optical and/or electronic images stabilization. In the above video almost all off the shimmer in the video is caused by the camera trying to deal with boat vibration. The fact is that phone cameras are not designed to sit in a hard mount and deal with boat vibration. The below video is basically unwatchable not because of the camera mount but because the phone camera settings are can not deal with the basic boat vibrations.

 

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[kylegansel]

@Horton Are there any cameras you'd recommend that are thousands to purchase?

[Horton]

I have no idea on the cameras. A standard GoPro does not have the image stabilization issue but it is too wide for my tastes. I would guess older phones might be best but it is a crap shoot.

 

The Wakeye or ANY tracker will not fix a phone camera that is overcompensating for boat vibration.

 

(Ok I promise to not use bold in anymore posts for a week or two)

[kylegansel]

@Horton Thanks for the insight.

[slow]

Impressive results

[disland]

I had a iPhone 4s that was working great but then wakeye updated the app and made it not work on the old phone. I now have an iPhone 5 that is working OK and I have been carefull not to upgrade the app. IPhone is the best bet because it can use the wakeye app which is great because it stops and starts the recording automatically.

 

Old iphones are cheap to buy. You dont need a service plan just use it on wifi. I use screen mirroring to watch the video on my big screen tv using an apple TV

[jdoverly]

I recently switched to an iPhone 7 and had a terrible time trying to watch videos. After some research, I started placing a small magnet on the screen opposite of the camera. The video isn’t perfect but at least watchable. In the end, my wife bought me a GoPro for my bday so I’m now learning how to use it. @Horton, there’s a way to zoom during playback that is pretty good.

[OscawanaSkier]

Been using latest Wakeye software with iPhone X all season, using the selfie camera. Very smooth, up to 120fps, however there’s no zoom with the selfie camera. BUT if you view it on your phone, you can easily pinch to zoom in (best place to review training videos IMHO). We find Wakeye’s convienence (turning on/off automatically) can’t be beat.

 

Also, we’ve been using one camera, and simply using AirDrop at the end of the sets so my buddies can take home their videos. Super fast to transfer (way faster than downloading on to a computer and sharing via the cloud)

[ozski]

I've been using a Samsung Galaxy 3 for years and its awesome with the wakeye. Does anyone use the new Samsung and how are the results?

[Zman]

S8 works great!

Need to try wife's S9 with super slow motion with 960 fps at 720p.

Even 60 fps at full 4K.

[Zman]

@Horton Good explanation.

FWIW, the Galaxy S8 and S9 allow you to turn off video stabilization if that is causing camera shake. Suspect most phones do.

[ozski]

I fabricated a Hybrid solution following an incident which can only be described as unfortunate.

 

[Jibbo]

@ozski If you broke a part of the Wakeye just send your details and this photo to them and they will replace it at no cost.

[ozski]

@Jibbo Tried that and they did not want to replace it in this case, previously when other parts have let go they have been very good. I'm quite happy with my solution, its tough and functional. Any camera mount lives in a high risk zone so I have no issue with Wakeye at all. This simply highlights the benefits of the new system.

[Jibbo]

@ozski after seeing that photo Wakeye will replace it.

[Justin_C]

If you're looking for a good alternative to your phone as a camera, do an amazon search for action camera. There are so many good options at a fraction of the cost of a gopro. Most of them even use the same mount and accessories. Most come with a huge kit of mounts, an extra battery on some and the video quality is great! Try and find one that has image stabilization and will run at at least 60 fps at 720p, if not higher. At the price they go for, heck, you could buy 6 and strap one to each buoy!

[Horton]

@Justin_C the problem with most action cameras is that they are wide angle. Even at shortline the skier is too small in the frame.