It's here!

The GoPro camera arrived a day ahead of what the tracking estimated... so, only 5 days from California to Washington State.

I took the camera out of the box, put in a battery... and it turned on.  The first one did that, and then it locked up.  I held my breath and... pressed the button and the camera turned off!  That's a plus.  Back at the boat, I inserted the micro SD card and... got an SD card ERROR.  I tried to find how to format the card on GoPro's support pages - nothing.  I read the online manual - really.  Nothing.  So, I had to call them again.

I spoke with another nice guy who said, "No problem, we'll get that taken care of right away."  I apologized for having to call their support line yet again.  He started talking me through how to format the card.  That didn't work.  We tried it again.  That didn't work.  He had me plug it into the computer.  That didn't work.

This is fun.  Not.

We tried it with the card in and out of the camera.  Finally, on the 5th try, the formatting worked.  I took a photo.  Since there is no viewfinder or LCD screen, you have to assume it took the photo until you can download it to the computer.  Yep - a photo.

The young man suggested that we do the upgrade.  I told him the upgrade was already on the mini-micro-teensy SD card.  "Well, let's just check it."

He asked me to read the screen that comes up for a nano-second after the camera powers on... oh, and that screen is the size of my little fingernail.

"It went by too fast," I said.

"Turn the camera off, then back on again," he said.

I did.  Same thing.  "Even if I was wearing magnifiers, which I am not, it goes by too fast.  Seriously.  Can we plug it into the computer and read the card?"

"Yes, we can do that."

The whippersnapper probably has young eyes... and knows where to look during that nano-second that it is on the monotone screen.  Low and behold, I was right: the upgrade was already on the card, and therefore now in the camera.  I have no doubt the whippersnapper thought he was dealing with some old fart who... well, OK, I AM an old fart, but I was dealing with digital technology when this kid was still shitting in his diaper.

I'd like to see what he could do with a rotary telephone!  But, I digress.

I told him "Thanks," and got off the phone to try to shoot something.  Damn this thing is small.  I took a shot of Izzy and one of the boat...

I had to crop like crazy on the shot of Izzy... this thing is EXTREME wide angle.  It does have a narrower field of view.  I will put on some reading glasses and try to find that on that teensy little screen.

But, it works... one in a row!  Joan thinks I am going to have a lot of fun with this thing.  So far, I am not feeling particularly attached to it.  We'll see if it grows on me.