GoPro Camera, any good?

[Rick]

I have been thinking about getting one and would like to know how people have found them, the pros and cons.

Is there anything else out there that is better for a similar price?

[Leon]

Paging Distrb ... he has one and can tell you stuff.

[Adydas]

They have a new 1080P unit due for release in the next few weeks for under $500 AU i think its a buy totally worth waiting for.

there is a website simlar to youtube dedicated to footage from those units with surfies, go karts, formula ford drivers etc all look fantastic.. record well even during an accident haha.

[88gtz]

I've got one that I use for motto x, they are an awesome little toy the quality is far better then what I had expected and it handles shock and vibration fine, I’ve had a few crashes with it too and its yet to be damaged I got to say its pretty funny to watch and suddenly see your feet fly past it as you tumble round.

Only cons for me are the sound is crap my bike exhaust to too loud for it to handle, and only other thing is that unless you have a laptop with you, you can't see what you've just filmed a couple of times now I’ve got home only to find I had the camera pointing to far down or something so you end up with a couple of hours worth of looking at the sky or ground

I keep meaning to try it on my racecar but I keep forgetting

Oh and they actually take quite good photos too

[atmosports]

We use them in the NZV8UTE series, they seem to work quite well, the quality of the footage is ok, not HD broadcast quality but fine for most uses. The good thing is they are solid state & don't generally cut out in the case of an accident, I think the only one that's been killed so far was one mounted to a rear bumper which predictably got taken out at the first corner & got run over on numerous laps by several 1800kg utes, camera was no longer working but the memory card was still intact & we got the footage from it.

[Truenotch]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JbQbLZVObw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSluB_oh2Co

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzvK_LqL ... re=channel


That's the old non-wide angle version.

[matt dunn]

I have seriously been considering one as the camera I use is our good digital camera, and the car gives it quite a hard time.

I have been looking at the 170 deg version which is at a great price on TM at the moment.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motor ... 179684.htm

I really want good sound too though, although apparantly if you drill the waterprooof case to let noise in ( makes it no longer waterproof )
they do give good sound.

Waiting to see if I can fine someone who has one to see though.

Hmmm, i feel a group buy scheme coming on...........

Matt

[gasman]

pics are avg quality, and sound is either too loud or too quiet and to get any good battery time out of it you need the lithium batteries. other than that its ok i guess.

[neo]

I've sent one back as it wouldnt record (and especially wouldnt record when it was cold).

Forget the sound with the go-pro, its useless. Image quality is ok (can see compression when the video changes quickly, main advantage is 1hr on a 2G card vs the normal 15mins.

The mounts are great, the camera just needs to match.

Ive been using a Panasonic digi-cam for a few years and thats been perfect, only problem with the digicam is 15mins @ DV quality.

I have some comparison videos here http://www.youtube.com/crazycarmotorsport

I'm using the orgional Go-Pro (my next plan is to add an external mic and see how that goes)

[Stott69]

How well would one of these mounts do stuck to the dash on inside of the windscreen? And is it a standard screw mount for the camera?

[Loudtoy]

I have seriously been considering one as the camera I use is our good digital camera, and the car gives it quite a hard time.

I have been looking at the 170 deg version which is at a great price on TM at the moment.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motor ... 179684.htm

I really want good sound too though, although apparantly if you drill the waterprooof case to let noise in ( makes it no longer waterproof )
they do give good sound.

Waiting to see if I can fine someone who has one to see though.



Hmmm, i feel a group buy scheme coming on...........

Matt

Actually thats a pretty good price for one. I've seen footage from one that was mounted on the bonnet back near the screen of a starlet rally car, Sound quality was very good actually, mind you it could have been how close the mic was to the motor (hyabusa setup) but there was bugger all wind noise from it. That was the latest version tho
Anyone know if they have an option for an external mic, was thinking of plugging mine into the intercom, tend to put the mute on if it's just the noise of the car for the whole stage, at the moment i'm just using the old tape style video camera, some of the younguns on here probably don't even know what they look like

[neo]

No external mic input.

I hear the wide angle one's mic is meant to be better, and a new gen should be better again..

Just pulled mine apart, man thats the smallest mic I've ever seen.. Will report on progress in afew weeks

[Distrb]

Forget the sound with the go-pro, its useless. Image quality is ok (can see compression when the video changes quickly, main advantage is 1hr on a 2G card vs the normal 15mins.

The mounts are great, the camera just needs to match.

+1

[matt dunn]

Hmm,

well from all those comments and the fact that I really want decent sound on my video's,

I'll probably just a s/h camera the same as what I have already been using and use that still.

[Distrb]

Hmm,

well from all those comments and the fact that I really want decent sound on my video's,

I'll probably just a s/h camera the same as what I have already been using and use that still.

biggest problem with sound is the housing they are in.

there are a few mods you can do to the housing to make the sound better. taking the rubber seal off the back, and the screwed in piece over the lense (you don't really need them if its in car)

this is about as good as the sound gets with these mods
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgFyk_Hi ... re=channel

[Rick]

Hmm,

well from all those comments and the fact that I really want decent sound on my video's,

I'll probably just a s/h camera the same as what I have already been using and use that still.

Thats what I was thinking, you can pick up a pretty good quality second hand video camera for the same price as the GoPro the only down side is the mounting options and size.

[Bazda]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEoKYigwf-Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRDioLeNDEI

Used on my car at superlap taupo.
Overall pretty good camera. But batteries dont last long enough so instead monted my digital camera onto the go pro stand . Digital camera has way more functions to get a good quality pic and batteries last over 1 hour easily.

Good points:
Its light
Small
Fairly easy to use
Video quality is fine

Bad Points:
Batteries last like 15-25min depending what type you use
I had to put thin foam inside the case to get good sound and stop vibration noises between the camera and the outer case it sits in
Cant hold a very big SD card

This was the first model, no idea what the new ones are like. But for the price you pay and if ur only using it for in car cam I rather use that money and buy a proper digital camera which you can use everyday!

[Malcolm]

we use one of these:
http://www.nzhelmetcamz.co.nz/products/ ... ort-system

The prices listed are for the complete kits they do, I think we just bought the camera and connected it and an external mic to a digital camera that took external inputs. It works really well, I'll see if I can find any in-car footage from it...

[Malcolm]

yep here's some:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkxHobtM8uo

all the in-car footage in this is from it, including the shots of suspension etc (it's really easy to mount wherever you want it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD9-ieh0ekw

and the in-car footage in this (starts at 1:08 )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIRd13Eoaa4

the sound isn't fantastic because the mic is kinda out in the breeze and the engine is pretty much right next to the mic, I think in a closed-cabin car it would be a lot better.

you might notice one issue we've had with it though: it likes to rotate on it's mount (so the horizon is no longer horizontal). We've fixed this recently by just using duct tape to secure it

[Stealer Of Souls]

I got one of these...
http://www.mymemory.co.uk/Sport---Outdo ... Action-Cam

Here's a "higher-spec" one.
http://www.mymemory.co.uk/Home-Gadgets/ ... ion-Camera

These are okay for a cheapie. The mounts they come with are rubbish though. Need something far more solid otherwise you get a wavey effect on the image as the cam oscilates during travel. Sound is reasonable, image resolution is a bit slack though. 640x480 at 30fps I think is max on the ATC2000.

From what I've seen the best are the type Malcolm has posted. Seen a couple of like that and they seem to work really well. Guess you get what you pay for...