First Ride - 2015 | GSX-R 750

Body Position

Throttle Response

Handling

Ease of Use

Perceived Weight

If you are currently on a 600 and can't decide if you really need to upgrade to a 1000 yet then Suzuki has you handled in the 2015 GSX-R 750. The main difference between this bike and a 600 comes across in two areas. The first is the long first gear, this is where the majority of the bike's power seemed to be. The other place you feel the 750 engine is when cruising down the highway. You are able to maintain a much lower RPM while going 70 mph which makes things like long rides or commuting much more enjoyable. I was also really surprised with what I called the "nimbility" of the bike. I was able to flick this bike back and forth on the road even better than I do on my Yamaha R6! All around this was an amazing bike and if you get the opportunity to ride it I highly recommend it. 

Click to see the video on YouTube!

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First Ride - 2016 | GSX-S 1000

Body Position

FirstRide_1bar.png

Throttle Response

FirstRide_1bar.png

Handling

Ease of Use

FirstRide_2bar.png

Perceived Weight

After my First Ride on Suzuki's GSX-S 750 I was a little worried about the 1000. I can happily say that the GSX-S 1000 was the bike the 750 was trying really hard to be. This bike felt like a much better package and is overall probably my favorite of the super naked bikes (putting aside my love for the Yamaha FZ-09). The major upsides with this bike are the seating position, amazing engine and fantastic exhaust note (even with a stock exhaust). There were a few let downs which included the weight of the bike while standing still and the agility. Both leaving a ton to be desired on this bike. Overall though I see this bike as being a perfect 1 size fits all bike though I'm not 100% how great it would be at the track.

Click to see the video on YouTube!

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Sena Prism [Review]

What's better than awesome technology? Wireless awesome technology. Recently I got my hands on the new Prism action camera from Sena. What's a Bluetooth company doing making an action sports camera? I'm not really sure, but for it being their first camera, they came out of the gate swinging. If you want to know more about the technical aspects, I'll include a link to the Sena website where you can read up about the camera. This review is going to be more about my experience with the Sena and thoughts on it after testing. 

I spent the day riding around downtown Atlanta, Georgia testing out the Prism along with my handy GoPro Hero 3+ Black. Since I don't currently have the GoPro Hero 4, I figured why not test the Prism against the best wide angle action camera that I currently use.

Let's start with the things I appreciate about the camera. One of my favorite elements of the Prism was something I discovered before I got the camera onto the helmet, and that was the camera menu options. Being an avid user of the GoPro, I have learned their menu system over time and am very familiar with how to change settings. Being that this was the first time I had ever touched the Prism, I wanted to cycle through the menus and see what options the camera came with. It didn't take long before I felt the same level of knowledge about the menu systems on the Prism as I currently feel with the GoPro, and I was really happy with how intuitive the Menu was laid out. For your convenience, Sena even includes an amazing chart that lays out the menu for you, which of course I found after playing with the camera. While we are on the subject of the menu, I'll also add that the screen on the side of the camera is incredibly clear and is great about giving the user just enough information to do what they are trying to do without being minimalistic (GoPro) and wasting space with information. Here is a little video of me cycling through the menus for you to check it out. 

What's in the box? A ton of stuff is the answer to that question. If you are a previous user of action cameras, you will will know there are nearly one billion mounts for every camera for every situation. In the case of the Sena Prism, they give you all of those right in the box they ship the Prism with. It was really great to see that instead of selling you a camera and then making you spend the same amount of money buying their mounts to use the camera, Sena sends you pretty much any mount you could need for the Prism right from the get go. You can check everything out in photo to the right. I'm really excited about that dual suction cup mount. Further testing will need to be done, but I can assure you I'm definitely going to be trying to get a DSLR on that thing! 

So after that last paragraph you might be asking yourself how I'm going to modify Sena's mounts to fit a DSLR since they are like standard cameras and use tripod threads on the bottom. We'll in a feat of genius Sena has decided to have a regular 1/4 20" thread on the Prism which makes it compatible with normal tripods. That means not only can a Prism attach itself to other pieces of kit you have in your photo bag, but that inversely all of the mounting options could (weight permitting) support any other piece of camera gear that has a 1/4 20 thread! This personally excited me a ton and I'll be doing loads of testing down the road with these mounts to see what kind of ridiculous stuff I can come up with!

This Prism is a camera after all so let's talk about the video quality. Through my (day time) testing I found the Prism to have pretty good video quality. It seemed on par with the GoPro Hero 3+ black, but keep in mind the GoPro Hero 4 is now out which I assume would easily surpass the quality of the Prism easily. Granted price wise your looking at spending over $100 more USD getting a GoPro Hero 4. One thing I did notice during testing was a slight tint when their was less light. You can see in this image comparison when I went into an underground parking lot that the Prism has a warmer tint as compared to the GoPro. Based on how it looked to my eye I can say in this instance the GoPro was more "true" to what the area looked like to me. Along with the coloring difference another thing I was slightly let down with was the max FPS in 1080 mode. Action sports cameras are just that. Cameras made for fast moving action so with these cameras having 60fps should all, but be required so when I found out the camera can only do 30 fps at 1080 that was a bit of a let down. Hopefully this will be one of the first things Sena changes in future models. 

With Sena being a Bluetooth communications company, I came into this Prism testing with a pretty high expectation out of this camera in the audio department. Coming out of testing I can definitely say I was surprised how well the Prism was able to pick up bike audio. Older models using the bluetooth backpack for the GoPro drowned out background noise so much you weren't able to hear the engine. Knowing that, I was very interested with how the Prism handled it. As far as audio testing goes, my voice was mixed and I don't really have a definitive thought for or against it. I have my Sena mic right in front of my mouth in my helmet so that when I talk with rider they are able to hear me. I noticed that I tend to yell while talking in the helmet, which to GoPro levels out automatically, but the Prism audio seemed to cap out during the video. I feel like if you spent some time and positioned the Sena mic into a better location or just didn't yell you would be able to get great audio. I say this because the moments in my testing where I wasn't riding and talked at a lower volume the audio coming out sounded good. 

All things considered, I do prefer the GoPro mic audio using the lapel mic in the helmet. The Sena audio has a certain characteristic to it that I just don't care for. It sort of has a walkie-talkie'esc sound quality to it. That being said, I think after so much time working on in-helmet audio I think I have grown particular to the subject so I'm a bit more conscious than most. Regardless, it's definitely something to note while considering the camera over other options. (Note: During testing I did notice that there is a very slight audio delay. From my testing it seemed to be about 1/2 a second or less compared to the GoPro that had a lapel mic connected directly to the unit. When using the Prism alone you will probably never notice and I don't feel it's a huge deal as it shouldn't affect video/audio quality)

Click to grab a Prism!



Wrapping up, there are a few small things I wanted to mention that didn't need their own section. The first is something obvious, but the Prism charges with the same cable the Sena 20s uses. It's a small detail but very convenient. The ball joint mounting options are a great way to easily change viewing angles without the need for one hundred mounts like you see with GoPro cameras. This is something I see the market adopting down the road for sure. The Sena lens is on the thinner side of the helmet so you are going to see much less drag as opposed to cameras with the lens on the widest side. I would also love to see Sena come out with a less bulky case in the future because the waterproof enclosure doubles the size of the actual camera. 

All in all, I feel like the Sena Prism is a great option and if you are doing commentary over your action sport of choice then you need to be highly considering this camera. Once you factor in the price of not only the Prism but the 20s (it needs this to use wireless audio but can also use any bluetooth device) you're looking as spending a pretty penny. Is that worth the wireless awesomeness that it offers? That's something you need to decide, but I will say I'm really excited to add the Prism to my action camera arsenal. 

If you liked this review and/or found it helpful make sure to let me know in the comments and share it out to your friends. 

This the Prism is the right camera for you? Use this link when purchasing to help support the blog! Link to Prism on Amazon
 

Holly 2.0 Postmortem

Recently we completed the Holly 2.0 video. If you are reading this and haven’t seen it yet, you can click on the video (to the right) and check it out. The filming and editing of this video gave me the idea of starting a Postmortem blog series. Moving forward, I would like to use video demonstrations and such but for the first attempt at a postmortem, I will stick with text and photos. 

Holly 2.0. What was the video about and why did you want to create it? The Holly 2.0 video was a sponsored video thanks to the wonderful people at Monster Fairings. We teamed up with them to create a custom set of aftermarket fairings for my 2009 Yamaha R6, named Holly, now Holly 2.0. The goal of the video was to display the bike, revealing all of the stunning, clean details Monster Fairings and I designed onto each piece of fairing.  

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

The success of this video was dependent on producing an enjoyable experience for the audience to watch and show off the new plastics. With all sponsored videos, I feel it is extremely important to have a quality video first and sponsor appeal second. After all, a quality produced video is more likely to reach into the minds of viewers, versus a video that feels to views like a commercial. My objective is to evoke certain emotions within my viewers, bringing forth a  reminder of their passion and excitement that reminds them of how they feel every time they crank their motorcycle.

One of the key components we had in this project that really set it apart from our other video projects was the location. Previous to the day we filmed, I had a very specific location in mind for the shoot. I knew exactly where I wanted the bike to be, the background would be stellar and there was plenty of space for drone work. Little did I know, two days before the filming day, that area got hit with a snow storm, something very rare for the state of Georgia. Upon arriving to the location, my team and I discovered our location was covered in about two feet of snow. Not only was the intended filming location filled with the fluffy white stuff, but the entire area, no matter where we went was full of snow and ice. Finding the location we did was sheer luck, but where would anyone be without a little luck here and there?

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by Chase

photo by Chase

What went right with the shoot? Well, like I mentioned above lucking out and finding a secondary location really helped a lot and pretty much made the shoot what it was. To our surprise, despite all of the snow on the ground, the majority of the roads were well maintained and free of debris like dirt, ice, and gravel. The temps were also something that worried me a great deal, as cameras tend to automatically shut off in lower temperatures. Somehow we didn’t run into any of these problems, even with the temperature well past the freezing point and strong winds berating us the entire time. Another thing that I have got to be thankful for is that our IRIS+ drone didn’t go down. I know that must sound silly, but in the past we have had a touch of bad luck with the drone, having it crash once every major shoot. Needless to say, having it stay airborne was gratifying! It’s a little known fact, but before the shoot I attached electrical tape to the rims of the R6 in order to not have the orange bar around the outside show. Somehow the tape held during the shoot, while the next morning after returning home I found it peeled off the wheels draped over the front and rear calipers of the bike. I was so relieved that it held through the filming when I realized how close it was to falling off. One of the final things that went over rather well with the shoot was the beautiful landscape shots we happened to get. Driving by them on our way to another location we pulled over, set the camera up and captured a spectacular view of the mountains. In addition, the editing process went relatively smooth and that’s always something to be grateful for. 

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

Of course it wouldn’t be a regular video shoot if we didn’t have some challenges to overcome. As for the happenings that went “not so right,” we luckily had nothing very crucial, but there were some things that my team and I want to change up before the next video shoot. One of the main things in this list was the need for ND filters. ND filters, or Neutral Density filters, act as a pair of sunglasses for your camera. These are especially needed on bright days to knock down the amount of light getting into the lens. If we would have these while out shooting we could have gotten a ton more detail out of the snow, but with so much light being reflected from the white ground it made everything extremely bright. Do not fear though, they will definitely be part of the arsenal of camera gear for the next shoot!
 

I was also really let down with how windy it was. For most of the shots wind didn’t matter at all besides freezing myself and my crew. The crucial role that wind did play was making it near impossible to get smooth drone shots. The majority of the drone shots I had done were useless because when the wind would blow hard the gimbal (motor that keeps the GoPro stable) would vibrate very badly. Much more than any amount of post process stabilization can handle. This is less of something to not do for next time, but more something that I need to stay aware of for future videos that we use the drone. 

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

As embarrassing as it is I do have to include the whole “got the R6 stuck in about 3 feet of snow on the side of the road” situation. Long story short, while turning the round on a curvy road filled with 3 foot snow banks in the gutters on the side of the road I attempted to cut a turn close since I was only a couple inches away from making it. The second my wheel touched the thinnest sliver of gravel my front tire slid straight into the snow bank with me and the rear tire following. After about twenty minutes of pushing, pulling, revving and cursing, I somehow was able to get the bike out of the ditch. Oh, and did I mention, I didn’t have my phone on me so calling for my crew to help was out of the question. And the bike not only wouldn’t stand on it’s own in the snow, but the kickstand couldn’t come down. If I  wanted to get off the bike, the only thing I could have done was lay the bike down. Thankfully I had just a little luck and got out on my own. Lesson learned though. Don’t try to squeak by when you are by yourself on a shady turn.

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

This little point was actually not in the shooting process nor in the post editing process, but rather in the planning phases. Often I get a basic idea for videos based on a specific song I here. After I’m sure I really like the song I make a couple sketches that I like or would like to see in the video and then I just assume during the shoot I’ll collect enough B-roll to basically fill in the gaps where I haven’t planned for something. Moving forward, if time allows, I want to try to plan out everything in a video, down to the seconds, of how long certain shots will be in frame. I found myself in the editing process of this video not really happy with the amount of shots I had and felt that if I had taken the time plan out more shots for certain parts of the song I could have come out with a far better product. I will say I felt like the video came out okay, but I know if I had spent a little more time I could have really upped the production value. This is something I plan on implementing in future shoots during the pre-production phase. 

Did you like the track I picked for the video? I have realized that people on the internet vary quite a bit from person to person and you can never make everyone happy. Making everyone happy is by no means my goal with my videos, but I would like to appease as large of an audience as possible. This is why, moving forward, I plan to start using less genre specific tracks. The track used in the Holly 2.0 video was Noisestorm by Breakdown VIP and is a very “heavy” song with lots of bass and electronica sounds. I'm drawn to this type of music, personally, but moving forward, and as I'm working to become another step up in the professional space, I feel that toning down the audio tracks might be my best bet. That being said you can definitely look for the occasional “basstastic” track being used in a production video.

One small detail that I wish I would have done differently was to do photos of the bike with the larger cameras. During this shoot by the end of filming everyone was cold and tired and it was much easier to grab the little Sony A5100 and just snap some pics of the bike. I understand the want for this, but after getting home and looking at the pics I got from the shoot, I couldn’t help but find myself wanting more and better pictures. I will definitely not make this lazy choice during the next shoot. If I pull out the A5100 during the next production, it will be solely to do BTS videos for you guys here on the blog and on the C2W2 YouTube channel. 

more photos.

photo by Chase

photo by Chase

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by Chase

photo by Chase

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by HeadaDT

photo by Chase

photo by Chase

This brings me to the end of the Holly 2.0 production shoot Postmortem. Overall I think the video came out relatively well given all the ups and downs. I learned a ton as always and can’t wait to apply the things I mentioned above in the next video production we do. Be sure to leave your comment below and let me know what you think of this write up. Look forward for more to come as we create more production videos with C2W Media. I’m Chase, you guys are awesome and I’ll catch you next time. 
 

 

~C2W

 

What was in the gear bag?

Cameras:
Canon T5i
Canon T3i
Sony a5100
GoPro Hero 3+ Black

Lens:
40mm f/2.8 STM 
EF 50MM f/1.8

Accessories:
Dolica 62-Inch Tripod (x2)
StudioFX 40" Slider




*Links found in this blog will take you to amazon where you can purchase these items. Purchasing with this link adds no cost to you, but helps out the blog when you use it!