Getó Fabuloso: My solution to the corporate lamestreaming of HD camcorders

Back in the good old days, camcorders came with this sweet thing called a “viewfinder”. A viewfinder was a tiny LCD screen with rubber eye cup that you held against your face. You got a clear, bright view of what your camera was recording (although many times it was in black & white). By holding the camera to your face, it gained a degree of natural stabilization and, in a slope environment, helped prevent the camera from excessive wind buffeting.

Unfortunately, a few years ago, the mega-corporations who produce camcorders decided that what “everyone” wanted was tiny palm-sized HD devices with giant flip-out LCD screens. While this is surely great for capturing little Johnny’s precious moments on a home video that will probably never even get downloaded off the SD card, let alone viewed, these two features together – tiny, lightweight camcorders with giant, glare-prone LCDs – have made these otherwise cheap and serviceable camcorders all but useless for capturing slope soaring.

Enter… Getó Fabuloso

The philosophy behind Getó Fabuloso is simple: most problems can be solved with duct tape.

In this case, the flap from a box lid, some lovely black Gorilla Tape, a few scraps of Velcro, some hot glue and about 30 minutes of my time was all that was needed to turn my little Canon Vixio from “Slope Zero” to “Slope Hero”.

Not only does Getó Fabuloso completely eliminate the major issue with small camcorders – the glare on the flip-out LCD screen that makes them all but useless for filming slope soaring – but in addition, you get the stability inherent to two-handed binocular style hold. That’s a win/win in anybody’s book.

And of course the cool Star Wars look & feel – reminiscent of Luke’s fateful encounter with the Sand People in Episode IV (still objectively the best of the franchise) – is purely coincidence

Pictures tell the rest of the story. I am sure others have found similar solutions; this was just a brainstorm of mine, as I have a pressing need to do some filming this weekend!