Rig modified (again)

Following on from my last posting about the frustrations of my Optio S12, I've changed camera and modified the rig yet again.

I decided that the S12 and GentLED were a lost cause, so decided I would up the ante and replace the S12 with a W80. This is a waterproof and shockproof camera, which is a bonus, but more importanly for me it includes a built in intervalometer that can be set to a specidied number of shots, or to continue shooting until it the card is full, the battery dies or you stop it manually. The interval can be set to anything from 10 seconds up to 24 hours. Once again Digigood on eBay was my source and the camera was delivered promptly (must remember to leave feedback!

So on inspection, the camera was a different form to the S12. On the S12 the tripod mount was roughly in the centre. On the W80 it is at the far right as viewed from the rear. This gave me a little bit of a problem as I had saved weight in my rig by only having the camera mount large enough to reach the mounton the S12, so I needed to extend this down. So I cut the existing mounting plate off and bolted on a new, larger mounting plate. Fortunately, none of this is visible when the camera is installed. While I was at it, I drilled out the rivets to the gentLED bracket and removed that.

The W80 is slightly larger and heavier than the S12, but fortunately I don't think I've upset the balance of the rig.

While I was at it, I modified the picavet slightly. Originally, the lines had been running through the eyes in the cross. My friend Ramon Palares from Holland suggested that I add in some split rings to hang the rig from as these have smoother edges than the cross itself and so will reduce the likelihood of fraying.

Pictures of the new rig to follow.