Kitesurfing camera

The self portraits were made with a handheld fisheye camera. This camera uses a special fisheye lens with a very wide 192 degree field of view. The advantage of this type of lens is that the rider, board and kite can all be in the same photograph. The disadvantage is that there can be considerable distortion in the image, the reason that I look so different in the different photos. This kitesurfing camera uses a compact digital camera that is contained within in a very compact and rugged Aluminum underwater housing. The actual digital camera is a Casio Exlim S3. The underwater camera housing is manufactured by Oceanhaus. A custom dual mode water contact wide angle lens (manufactured by Oceanhaus and optically designed by me) increases the camera field of view to 192 degrees above water and for scuba diving provides a fully water corrected 105 degree field of view. This very wide field of view makes it possible to have the kite, board and rider all in the same photo. The camera is attached to a spare kite leash wrist strap which is then attached to my wrist. I flip the camera into my hand to use it.

	The camera is attached to a very short wrist strap so that it is easily available. The button on the left is power and the right button takes the photo.
Optical ray trace showing the very wide 192 degree field of view. With this lens, the kite, rider and board can all be in the same view.

Using the camera while kitesurfing is somewhat challenging. You need to be flying the kite, edging properly and watching for other riders, waves, etc., all of this while also making sure the camera is secure, correctly setup, the lens clean, the shot correctly framed and the rider and kite properly posed. Water droplets on the lens surface are a constant problem, but I have had some luck with Rainex and even with cleaning the lens while actively kitesurfing.

The second camera is helmet mounted Pentax W30 camera. It takes a photo every 10 seconds using an intervalometer. This is the same camera that I mount onto the kite for aerial photography.

Self portrait

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