I rarely shoot through the glass and I've never even tried using the fisheye for ice hockey. Wanting to do something different, I tried both at the same time over the weekend. I had one body/tele in my hands and I had another body/fish laying on the railing up against the glass. Anytime the action got really close in front of me I fired off the fish. These examples really aren't stellar, but it did get me thinking.
What about one of those Avenger suction cups that you see used in auto rigs? I'm thinking...find a clean area of glass to shoot through and rig a suction cup with say a magic arm setup with the camera and fisheye mounted placed up against the glass. One could then fire this body as a remote. Any thoughts? Anyone done or doing this? I'm talking high school level here, so no real worries about security and such.
I love the idea. The glass would have to be clean. My other thought is would a fisheye be too wide on a full frame body? Dont get me wrong, it would work - but on a crop body I think you would have great images to work with. Great idea - might have to try it one day!
My other thought on this is that it would be less stress on the mount and magic arm to have the camera mounted up-side-down. You would then just need to rotate the images 180 degrees in post.
I think it would give you some cool shots. The only thing I'd worry about is how things would hold up when you get a nice solid check into the boards right where you've stuck the camera. On the otherhand that would probably make for a heck of a shot
i've been doing this for a while, i love wide angle shots.
i remember seeing one that bill wippert took from the klutho hole and it blew my mind.
it was a toronto player diving in mid air taking a shot on net, one of the only double truck i've seen in thn
personally though, i would rather keep it on me, unless i had access to a k-hole.
you just need to know your hockey and know when to use it.
i keep a fish on my second body all the time, probably come away with 200 images a game from it.
i do like the incorporation of the boards in the frame though, gives a great sense of time and place
couple of mine from a few years back. using the 16-35 though
I like them, especially the one with the boards in the shot... I'd probably go for either my 14-24 or 16-35 over my fisheye though, but I di use my fisheye in my goal cam enclosure.
It's a nice effect and can be useful for the occasional use.
For a special event (not just an every-day game) it would add a great deal to the overall feel of the event.
I would highly recommend against mounting it to the glass. I would never mount gear in harms way like that.
I ended up giving it some thought and realized that I already had everything that I needed to pull this off. Here is how it looked and a sample with this setup. I placed it in the corners, centered on a sign so that I'd know exactly where it was located in relation to the players. I held the trigger in my left hand and fired it off when needed. Hope this helps. I'm sure this is old news an boring to you veterans but hopefully someone can find it beneficial.
If you are not a fan of me re-posting the image, just let me know and I will edit it out.
In this image (Which I LOVE BTW) I really like the fact that it looks like you can drive a truck between the net and the boards. I know it's just the fisheye affect but it is a very unique look. Great shots!!!
Very cool. Another option would be to mount a gopro with its accessory suction cup and fire it remotely. The new hero3 black comes with wifi remote or use the iphone app that allows you to see a live shot of what the camera sees and fire remotely with the iphone. You can switch between camera mode and video mode on the fly. It can fire 12mp in 30fps burst... Plus its so light and with the cage it comes with if it were to come loose, the cage would protect it but the suction cup is really, really strong... Sorry - sounds totally like a gopro ad but I just got one and they are pretty awesome devices with a ton of potential mounting options...
When i started reading this thread, I wasnt really to excited about the idea of using a suction mount on the glass. Thats just making a target for someone to get hit into the boards right on that exact spot, and possibly dislodging your camera. Then after I saw your magic arm set up, I got excited. Thats the way to go I think. To me its kinda like mounting a basektball backboard remote. Using anything that suctions can always get knocked loose. Super clamps and magic arms work great.
I'm still trying to perfect this setup but here are some more examples. I recently added a Lenskirt to kill any reflections I was getting from the glass. I've also been playing with the 14-24 rather than the fish for the last couple of games.
I've also been pulling the remote cam from the magic arm setup and throwing it on a monopod for some pre-game bench images.
Thanks, guys. The lighting is pretty adequate at the older rink. I think my settings through the glass are ISO 5000, 1/640th, f/4 if I remember right. I may have bumped the ISO up at the last game though.
