I have to confess.

I suffered from withdrawal syndrome after completing Sony's "Prove Yourself" campaign.  It was an exhilarating three months of constant adrenaline rush from the planning, the anticipation, executing the activities and the eye-squinting video editing.

After posting up my final video and Action Cam review article, I twaddled my paws restlessly and gave mummy my signature sad eyes and tragic look.  I wanted more adventures.

So the other day, when I saw that mummy had not put back on her uniform by a certain time, I stuck my face right into hers and then I showed her the door.

"Take me out for another adventure... NOW!"

Mummy looked out the window and checked the haze reading.

"Okay Flapper, perhaps we could do something today."

Mummy dragged out the scoot and said, "Perhaps we could finally try this today.  We don't have much time left with the second Action Cam so let's see what we can do with this!".

Mummy borrowed the scoot from 'Auntie Lian' at the start of the campaign thinking we could probably do something with it.  But after realising it is quite a lean mean machine that is too heavy to carry around, she changed her mind.

But here's the other truth.
Don't trust mummy on anything that has less than four wheels.

Sssshhhh.
Don't tell her I bao-toh (snitched) on her.

Spending my last few moments with the second Action Cam before bidding farewell to it.  Did I tell you how much I truly love my Action Cam?

It was mummy's first time scooting.  I give her due credit for not crashing on her face.   After she got used to the feel and speed of the scoot, she got Frodo and me into a chasing frenzy.

"Ha!  I can finally 'outrun' Frodo!", mummy said gleefully.

I have a funny feeling that this scoot is going to be mummy's new source of entertainment with us....



So yeah, life goes on.
Just got to keep creating adventures.

And then, of course, there's Flap-a-zine.
There is always something to keep me busy.

---

End Notes (Tech-Blabs):

Footage was taken in 4K mode but final video was set at 1080p.

The second camera was clipped onto the scoot using my favourite accessory, the Clip Mount.

After running this activity, I discovered that i-movie has updated to support 4K format. How timely! I was excited to see how this video will turn out but faced a lot of problems with the edit.  Random footage persistently turned blank green.

Either 4K is proving to be too powerful for my now-considered-antique Macbook Pro or the new 4K function for i-movie is glitchy considering it is a new update.

Either way, think I should just stick to my personal setting for now and pray real hard for a new Mac to drop down from heaven's above. *guffaw*

I have started a new section called 'Doh-AH!' which is a compilation/feed of all of my silly brother's stories.  He is just too funny, irritating and silly not to have a section dedicated to his antics.

All I hear during this staycation is, "Frodo, down!", "Frodo, off!", "DOH AHHHHHH!"

Yes, there are many Doh-AH! moments everyday... without fail.

He will do something irritating and you can hear mummy exclaim, "DOH AHHHHH!".  Sometimes with an amused voice but most of the time with an irritated voice.  He has a daily 'irritating quota' which includes irritating Fluffy the cat, the human but mainly me, Flapper Choo.

So the other days while going through Uncle Nic's many many photos of Frodo and me, I decided that there are too many funny Frodo moments that he should have a page dedicated to him.

And the page shall be called "Doh-AH!"

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Caught On My POV Camera

Yet Another Doh-AH! Moment

And that is my irritating brother, Frodo Choo.
Never a peaceful moment with him.
But can't help but love him anyway just because he is too funny.

Do you have any sibling (human or pet) story you would like to share?
Send me your stories (click here)!
I would love to hear from you.

If I could, I would like to be a Mer-Dog (Mermaid-Dog).

Look at these stuff, isn't it neat?
Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?
Wouldn't you I'm a girl... dog... a girl dog who has everything?

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The Emergence of 'Mer-Dog'

It was not always that I was a mer-dog.

When I was adopted by mummy in May 2007 at eight months old, I did not know what swimming was much less understood the joy of being a mer-dog.  I had gangly legs that were oddly proportioned to my body, bow-legged and feeble, I walked (still do) with a girly sashay and was somewhat wobbly and clumsy.

At that point, mummy suspected I had crappy hips (aka hips dysplasia) and raised her concerns every time we visited the vet.  Physical examination did not indicate I had severe dysplasia and during that time, digital imaging was not as readily available as today so unless really necessary, vets would not call for X-Ray especially when I... did not show clear clinical signs.

To pacify mummy (or so she thinks), she was told, "He MAY have dysplasia but most probably just a mild one."

Mummy had a strong suspicion that my hips were worse than what it appeared so she decided to manage my physical condition in the mean time and well, be a dog.  A happy dog.

• Weight - Till today, mummy monitors my weight and physical condition very tightly.  I may look like #fatper (thanks to Uncle Nic) but what I pack is a 'manly' chest from all that swimming.  Mummy said (as my chest got bigger), "Good!  When your hinds go, at least I know your front can support you."

• Limited form of activities - No excessive jumping or pro-longed running on hard grounds;  Limited crazy agility stuff... basically she'll let me do a bit of everything but there will always be a time frame and limit.  For filming, my physical limitation will always be make known thus you will never see me do those "flying" moves.

• Careful of those oh-so-slippery floors.  One of the biggest cause to hips dysplasia.

• Swim, swim, swim and SWIM - One of the best form of exercise for dogs - cheap, gentle and effective way of strengthening the hinds.  Start from young... like lucky Frodo with those oh-so-enviable-hinds.  Don't start digging for "hydo-therapy" only when the problem starts.  Prevention is better.  There is no cure.  Either you live with leg problems or go for surgery.

• Do as dog do, be a normal dog... and live a happy active life.

So yes, swim swim swim and swim.

I was adopted in May.
I was introduced to my first swim in June.

Me: "No mummy!  That big wide sea looks scary!  I don't wanna go!"

Mummy: "Don't worry Flapper, you'll get the hang of it in no time and you'll love it!"

23-Jun-2007: "No mummy!  I don't wanna go in!  The big wide sea and wave looks scary!"

And sure enough, it did not take very long for the call of squeak toy and tennis ball became too strong to resist....

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The Awful Truth

So there we go.... the awful truth about Flapper's hips.  I have put the normal hips rad image on the left.... let's see if you can see the difference between the nice normal hips and well... my hips! (Normal hips rad image taken from pointeastwest.com)

The truth of my hip condition came to light on 10-Jan-2009 when I was two years old.  Thank God for digital imaging, mummy finally stopped sounding like a crazy paranoid self-imagining owner who kept harping over my deceiving hips.

The X-ray was the awful truth.

Clinical signs do not always correlate with X-Rays and vice versa - Dr A

I loved Dr E's reaction when he saw my x-ray.

"Oh my God, his hips are deformed!"

Dr A, who recently saw the x-ray after mummy found it, said, "So horrigible!"

If you can't understand the x-ray, these two exclamations should sum it all up.

Mummy shouldn't laugh but she did.  The condition is what it is.  It was something I came with when mummy adopted me and so be it.

Hip reconstruction surgery was not something mummy would opt for especially since I am coping with my deformity well.  I have seen dogs who went for such surgeries and they still moved worse than me.

So it's back down to management and knowing the actual state of my hips allowed mummy to manage me better.

More swims for me!
Yay!

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The Mer-Dog Adventures Continue....

I turned nine on September 25th 2015.

I just completed my exciting and meaningful run for the Sony Action Cam "Prove Yourself" campaign.

You see, it is not about letting my birth deformity limit me or defeat me or using that as an excuse not to let me lead a normal happy active life.  It just so happened that my life became quite extraordinary - by chance.

Mummy is grateful and thankful that at nine, I am still moving well and yes, I do get a bit of arthritic problem now and again but otherwise, I am still [very] mobile despite of my lousy hips.

We hope to keep it that way for a long time to come!

A short video by Uncle Nic of Frodo and my latest beach fun-time!




Life's a beach....  let my mer-dog adventures continue.  

I get it.

This is an 'Action Cam' so the point of this "Prove Yourself: Take Your Adventures to New Heights" campaign is to demonstrate the image quality and capability in capturing adrenaline pumping high impact activities.

However, after much thoughts and planning, I decided to do a range of activities that allowed me to test the camera's capability in different scenes/environments. What I, the ordinary home-user, am looking for in a POV camera is its capability to capture life moments with quality images.


There were other factors I was judging the Action Cam on i.e. durability, battery life, ease of use etc.

So for those who have been following my adventure stories for the past three months, you have probably read my raving reviews about the 4K Action Cam FDR-X1000VR so this is pretty much a recap of all that has been said.

Note:
My review is based on a POV-camera-idiot home-user and not as a professional. This is my first time owning a POV camera please do not expect big technical blah-blah reviews.

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Action Cam Positives

#1 - Image Quality and Clarity
When I first started using the Action Cam, I was a tad bit disappointed with the image quality especially the dog's POV.

Do not be mistaken.

It was not because the Action Cam is lousy. It was because I had not figured out the settings and the dog harness positioning (read my Tips and Tricks article). Once I did, I was very happy with the image quality and clarity which improved progressively throughout the campaign as I became more savvy with the Action Cam.

One key criteria I was judging the Action Cam on was whether I had to do any image/stability/colour adjustment on the footages. I would not be a very happy dog if I had to do any form of adjustments to the images.

The editing is tough enough, do I really need to do video enhancements too?

I am delighted to say/announce that all my videos were - "what you see is what you get". The image quality and clarity speak for itself in the videos.

The image quality turned out really good and clear for both indoors and outdoors.

The Advance Steady Shot function is really quite impressive.

HD mode is good enough for regular daily use. I only tested using 4K mode once but otherwise never used it. The image quality was good enough without going 4K.

To watch all my Action Cam videos, you can watch it on my YouTube channel.

Noteworthy:
Be realistic about 'on-the-move' images i.e. when the camera is handheld/stick-mounted while you (the human) are jogging/running and recording at the same time; or when the camera is mounted on the dog and it is running or jumping. You WILL end up with several nauseating footages and/or very blur images - otherwise known as NG (no-good) images.

Tip:
It is tricky getting good on-the-move images so plan the camera position and shots before recording

Overall, the Action Cam produces good quality images and does not need much tweaking for  home users. Very satisfactory and definitely  highly-recommendable.

#2 - Durability
Between mummy's butter fingers and my intense back-rubbing ways, I am proud to announce that my camera is still in one piece! So it's been mentioned in two separate articles that I missed scratching the lens by 1 mm, so yes, durability gets A-star from me. Pleasantly surprised that it survived our (mummy and me) use and abuse, not forgetting how often we ended up at the beach. I think most techies would know that sea water and technology/electronics are enemies.

PLUS!

Mummy's butter fingers + sea water = R.I.P.

The Action Cam survived our death fingers... or should I say death paws?

Me in action doing my violent back rubs

So mummy learnt the hard way.... Always put the waterproof case when the camera goes on me!

If the Action Cam survives after two years, we will surely change the rating to 5-paws.

#3 - Ease of Use/User-Friendliness
As a first time POV camera user, I did have my initial struggles figuring out how to use the camera - other than the very obvious red button = record.

Overall, it was not too difficult figuring the camera out.

In addition, after figuring out my 'sweet-spot' setting (read my Action Cam tips and tricks), it became a breeze after that.

That sweet-spot setting pretty much works for all activities, allowing me to crop the images and speed-up/slow-mo without losing much image quality.

In addition, the Live View Remote (see #4) and ability to connect to all mobile devices make it all the more user-friendly.

Need to spend time understanding the functions and referring to the online manual. But once figured out, it is an easy camera to use ESPECIALLY with the Live View Remote and/or mobile device(s).

#4 - THE Live View Remote
My absolute favourite thing in the whole wide world.

I was all oooh and ahhh when I was presented the Live View Remote for the very first time with the Action Cam.

Love love love it.

Biggest plus-point of owning the Sony Action Cam. Makes ease-of-use that much easier.

It allows me to frame the image before recording, able to control up to five cameras simultaneously, able to playback (only with single camera connection)... what is there not to love?

Can't live without it but my Live View Remote is right at the bottom of the sea... already.

Sadness.

Need I say more how much I truly love the LVR?

#5 - Battery Life
Another fabulous feature of the Action Cam - the battery life.

On average, it allows up to approximately two hours of continuous usage.

Tip:
A must-have and good accessory investment:

The Travel Charger.  A must-have.

Frodo and Action Cam recharging during our Jeep Road Trip

The respectable two hour battery life is a big plus point for buying the Action Cam.

#6 - Underwater Feature
The one thing that got me very very excited about the Action Cam was being able to take it underwater AND the fact that it comes with a default underwater/waterproof casing.

The image quality/clarity was decent underwater though I discovered after my first underwater test that I should invest in the flat dive door lens.

The flat dive door lens did improve the image quality quite significantly but at this point, hopefully Sony comes out with a version 2.0 for that flat dive door lens (read my tips and tricks article)

Uber happy for its underwater feature but not happy about investing an additional  lens that needs a V2.0.

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Action Cam Neutral

Design
I am not too fussed up about the aesthetics as long as the camera is not bulky and not pink in colour.

• Love that it is palm-sized, making portable and easy to hold;
• Love that it is neutral coloured like white;
• Did not fancy the toy-plastic-feel of the camera initially but after some time, it became an acquired taste and came to like it as is.
• The micro-sized 'video-camera-adapted' design is quite nice except it does not allow one to place it at the front of the dog (at the dog's neck) especially since the screw-mount is located at the base of the camera.
• Splash-proof, dust-proof and shock-proof design make it convenient and alleviates stress from careless and rough-users (*cough* mummy) - read #2 positive above on 'durability'.
• The buttons on the Action Cam can sometimes be unresponsive.

Overall design is acceptable and size is a big plus for portability and easy everyday usage

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Action Cam Negatives

#1 - The Accessories
I shall not dwell too much into the accessories.

Needs version 2.0 pronto.

The accessories has to be able to stand the 'adrenaline impact' as solidly as the camera.
Needs to be 'sand-proof'.
My accessories are finding the grave - soon.

However, apart from the travel battery pack/charger, there is one other must-have accessory: The Clip Mount. It is versatile, stable, good quality and importantly, can act as a one-for-all accessory except as a dog-mount.

The must-have accessory - The Clip Mount. Versatile, stable, good quality and can act as a one-for-all accessory except as a dog mount.

Version 2.0 for accessories, please!

#2: Charging the camera
Can sometimes be unreliable. Doesn't happen very often but does happen.

• Sometimes - had difficulty getting the camera to charge.
• Had to try on multiple plug points before the camera finally decided to start charging.
• Thought camera caput.
• Occasionally - camera does not charge.
• Charging indicator went on and left it to charge. A while later, the camera appeared to have finished charging (indicator light off). Then alas! Discovered the camera did not get charged during an activity.

---

4K Action Cam FDR-X1000VR

Overall Rating:

Personally, I love love love the Action Cam and it is a camera I would highly recommend to anyone considering a POV camera.

The image quality, durability, battery life and ease of use are impressive and exceeded expectations. And of course, how can I forget my all-time favourite Live View Remote? A must-have for heightened user-experience with their POV camera.

Priced at SGD749.00, the FDR-X1000VR comes bundled with the underwater case (up to 10 meters deep) and the to-die-for Live View Remote, it is value-for-money for its impressive specifications and well, it delivers.

As for the accessories, mine (other than the clip mount and travel battery pack) are visiting the grave... soon. Perhaps another visit or two to the beach and it will officially R.I.P..

The camera, however, on its own is a nifty and impressive little gadget. I truly do think I have been so blessed to be an owner of the Action Cam which now enables me to capture my life moments - no matter how big or small, indoors or outdoors.

Me wearing my Action Cam, capturing life moments.... and capturing the sunrise on my very special 9th Birthday

My very fit and agile brother, Frodo, wearing the Action Cam

How can we miss out my silly sister, Pebbles?  The dog hardness is oversized for her but she still looks good wearing it. Note: For long-necked breed dogs like Pebbles, the extension mount MUST BE used.

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And Uncle Nic Says....

Uncle Nic, my photographer and sleep buddy, who has dedicated his professional time to help me with this Action Cam campaign.

I decided to get a review from Uncle Nic of Furry Photo Pet Photography who faithfully walked this Sony 'Prove Yourself: Take Your Adventures to New Heights' Action Cam campaign journey with me. He is, after all, the professional and owns that renown POV-camera-that-shall-not-be-named.

And in Uncle Nic's usual cool style, short and sweet does it.

• Ergonomics/Design
• Rectangular design can make placing in tight corners odd.
• Easy to handhold. 
• Integrated tripod mount and splash proof makes it convenient to grab and go.

• Accessories could be better built IMO (in my opinion).
• Velcro loses grip over time with dogs.
• Mounts become jammed with sand.
• Love the clamp/clip mount though.

• Features/Usability
• Menu system hard to navigate without phone or live remote
• One-touch NFC pairing is awesome (only available with Android phones).
• Battery life excellent compared to most competing products for both the camera and live view remote.
• Minimal to no lag for live feed video.
• Short delay to trigger start/stop of recording.
• 100mbps video gives great quality footage.
• Photo modes leave much to be desired with long write times and high shot-shot delay.

Great video performance and very decent battery life. Live View Remote is a big plus.  Shot to shot delay for photos, unusual sideways design when mounted and  accessories with disappointing build quality mar an otherwise great product.

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Just FYI....

For more information about the Action Cam:

• Action Cam Microsite

• Sony Singapore Website

I have a brother from a different mother/father/continent.
His name is Frodo.
Frodo Choo.

And everybody loves Frodo.

Frodo has a derp face.
Everyone says so.
Derp face is as goofy as his face.
So everybody loves Frodo.

Everybody loves Derp-face Frodo (photo credit: Uncle Nic of Furry Photos)

Everything is about Frodo.
He is to your face with his ridiculous butt shake and big derp smile;
"Me! Me! Me!  It's got to be about me!", Frodo insists.
Then everybody loves Frodo.

Frodo is annoying.
His life mission is to irritate.
But somehow some humans find it... cute.
And so everybody loves Frodo.

Frodo loves the toy in my mouth.
The bone in my mouth tastes better too.
He will stuff things in my mouth...
And everybody loves Frodo.

Frodo has no concept of space or size.
He thinks he is a Chihuahua.
He gets in the way and flashes that derp smile.
And everybody loves Frodo.

Yes... He ain't heavy, he's my derp-faced brother.

Frodo has a big head but he is not the brightest.
Mummy says, "Frodo, your head is 99% play, 1% food."
Mummy taps his head, and we can hear echo.
But everybody loves Frodo.

Frodo is goofy and he's loopy.
Me thinks he has eyesight problem.
But when Frodo can actually do a trick,
Everybody loves Frodo.

"If anyone asks, we are not related." Images and Captions by Uncle Nic

Derp Face at his best

Frodo will fart in the human's face.
If Frodo has hair, the human will pull it back while he vomits and still think him cute.
Frodo will fall off the bed while sleeping...
Well there's just something... that everybody loves Frodo.

So I told daddy, "I am going to write a post about 'Everybody Loves Frodo'".
"For what?", daddy says, "Isn't everything about Frodo already?"
True that.
But I love him anyway.

Frodo is, afterall, my goofy annoying brother,

Frodo may be goofy and derp face, but I love him anyway... so does the camera.