Wakeye App on new iPhone Xs

[skispray]

Over the winter I upgraded from an iPhone 6s to an iPhone Xs. When I set up the phone the Wakeye app was moved over from my old phone and seemed to be functioning fine. However, I tried to use the app last night for the first time on my new phone (attached to a Wakeye device) and while I was driving I noticed that the video being taken was extremely shaky and blurry. I checked footage from one slalom set and one trick set and the video was so blurry that it was unwatchable. Has anyone else experienced this and know of any fix?

[Zman]

The only thing I like about the Wakeye app is the auto start and stop based on speed. I wish you could use this feature without the very limited camera settings it uses.

I would rather set the native phone video settings, then just have start and stop by speed.

Phones today offer more and better settings than Wakeye utilizes. Such as higher resolutions and frame rates.

[Bill22]

@Zman a friend of mine does exactly that. Some how he uses the Wakeye app to start & stop his GoPro.

[Golfguy]

The image stabilizer on the newer iPhones make the video unwatchable. I bought a used iPhone 6 (pre image stabilizer) and it works great.

[Bill22]

What is sad is that back in the day, the app worked great on my old iPhone 5s. Now I have a 7 and as stated above totally unusable. Never update the app if it’s working good.

[disland]

The trick is to use an old iPhone, Dirt cheap on line. Keep your nice phone on the dock away from boats and water.

[Bill22]

@disland but how do you download and old version of the app after you have updated it to the new non working version?

[ozski]

Samsung

[VTskier]

My iPhone 7 was the same and it was suggested flipping to the face camera, which is less sensitive. This solved he problem for me. Worth a try on the 10.

 

[disland]

@bill22 I believe the new version of the app works on old phones

[Bill22]

@disland I’ll give that a shot. I thought last year I tried both my 7 and 5s with the same unwatchable result.

[OscawanaSkier]

@VTskier is right, best results with a X (and likely Xs) is by using selfie-facing camera. Used mine that way all last season. If

I remember correctly, the penalty is inability to zoom, and not as high of a frame rate. I purchased the Wakeye vibration plate last year but never ended up using it. Might try it this year to see if it solves issues.

[UWSkier]

All these newer phones have OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) in hardware. It's designed to prevent shaky images from your hand shaking. It's not designed to handle the shaking of a small block v8 at 3500 RPM. I had the same issue going from a Pixel to Pixel3.

 

So now, my old HTC M8 lives on the boat and works great.

[VTskier]

@OscawanaSkier You should be able to zoom after you save it to 'photos' app on iphone

 

[skispray]

@VTskier @OscawanaSkier you're right, the selfie camera is much, much better. However, one of the major drawbacks of using it is that the video seems to be mirrored so everything looks backwards when watching. Not the end of the world, but definitely awkward to watch.

[OscawanaSkier]

@skispray - interesting, that’s NOT a problem we had.

 

Although I wish we did...my offside would have looked a whole lot better!

[skispray]

@OscawanaSkier weird. It could be unique to the iPhone Xs although that seems a little strange.

[sailworks]

For what its worth- I have lived this story for several years. As has been suggested by others: its not the app or any version of the app; its the newer phones - their image stabilization works fine hand held, but useless re (most) boat vibration. The later apple iPhone selfie cameras work re shake, but no zoom. The best apple phone in my experience is 5 - not 5s and not later versions.

[jimski]

Been using mine on the I phone 7 and it works good with the ski doc

[Jody_Seal]

Anyone using the wakeye app on android galaxy 9??

[blakeyates]

I just began using my Ski-Doc Orbit w/Wakeye App. The video is shaky; I’m not happy with it. Any advice?

[DaveD]

@skispray Did you figure out how to reverse the mirror'd video from the selfie camera? I'm having the same issue. Thx

[Fehlindra]

Just go with a new Gopro, phones are not made for extreme sports. The gopro8 there are no shake at all 1080p 120 or 240fps to make nice vids in slowmo

[DaveD]

Hard to justify the cost of a new GoPro just to watch myself ski poorly. The phone’s already paid for.

[OscawanaSkier]

I bought the Wakeye Resolute vibration dampener a couple years ago, but never took the time to customize it (too much of a PITA). But finally sat down this spring and set it up - and boy was it worth it! Our ski videos using the front-facing camera on the iPhone X have never been better. I’ve stopped using the Wakeye app cause it doesn’t support the telephoto (2x optical) lens, opting to just let the default camera app run for a whole set. SO much more resolution and clarity. Wakeye isn’t selling them anymore, but maybe one can be picked up online or from a fellow BOS member?? This is a photo (1x lens) of my ski buddy Craig from this morning.

 

[C5Quest]

I found an iPhone 6 on eBay. Use it with wakeye and works great. Stays with my ski, no SIM card. Strictly video machine

[skispray]

@DaveD I found an app called RFV that allowed me to reverse the video. However, I used the Wakeye app so there were many small videos to reverse and I found it to be a bit too cumbersome. Ultimately I ended up using an iPhone 6 specifically for ski videos and I don’t regret it.

[ProStah_Skiah]

@skispray @DaveD I recently upgraded from iPhone 8 to 12 and ran into the mirroring issue. Here is how to reverse the video on the phone. 1) open the video; 2) tap "Edit" in the upper right corner; 3) tap the cropping icon in the lower right; 4) tap the mirror icon in the upper left; 5) tap "Done" in the lower right.

[DaveD]

Thanks @ProStah_Skiah !!! Worked perfectly.