GoPro recommendation

[Rob J]

Hey all,

I've been thinking of getting a GoPro and was interested to hear of your experiences (good or bad) and any recommendation which you may have.

primarily it will be used for biking but will also use for family stuff as well. my daughter says a "selfie stick" is a must

Anyway I have a few questions which the guy at Curry's was unable to answer, here go

1. Which one is best suited for biking. I see they currently do Surf and Music editions.

2. Do they come with helmet/bike mounting brackets?

3. Do they come with a remote Record switch (for say mounting on the bars)?

4. do they record in a format compatible with a Mac?

5. Do they come with an SD card or do these have to be purchased separately?

6. can you recommend any websites that have good offers on at the moment?

Cheers in advance

Regards

Rob

 

[Bounce]

I've got the Go Pro Hero 2 HD Motorsport edition, which has now been discontinued by Go Pro, although there's likely to be some available in the market. I can't comment on the Hero 3 or 4/Music or Surf as I've never used either, but some f/back on the one I do have:-

When bought new, it comes with a variety of mounts, but additional ones can be bought (I also bought a chest harness/mount for off road use)
It does have the facility for remote record (newer versions have BT)
When purchased it didn't come with an SD card, but these are easily bought online
The video quality is superb in HD
If I was going to buy another, then the Hero 4 has it all (link below FYI)

http://store.magicseaweed.com/GoPro.../Item/29499/?gclid=CJzhl9j5tsECFQMewwod63UAEw

I haven't used other cameras such as Ghost or Drift; however, my experiences of the Go Pro are superb & I would certainly stick with them...

 

[(RIP) Bin Ridin]

I have a gopro 3, was not in love until I got the improved android app which lets you control the camera from yer phone (wifi) - you can see what is going on. Love now developing. I am testing two locations for mount - top of helmet and handlbar-mount such that speedo and gps are in view. Nice clear pictures, 64gb card, battery life 1 hour max, not great - thinking about buying a bigger battery and backdoor. Very clear picture, good compensation into the sun.

 

[Jacal]

I was also toying with the idea of getting one but thought it may just end up in the drawer with all the rest of the good ideas. They have now brought out a budget model at £99. Might just give this a try.

 

[Rob J]

I was also toying with the idea of getting one but thought it may just end up in the drawer with all the rest of the good ideas. They have now brought out a budget model at £99. Might just give this a try.

I know what you mean. I was looking at £99 version today but to be honest have come to the conclusion that the "bells and whistles" version would make me more inclined to use the thing, certainly on the bike at least.

I also figure that, God forbid, even the more expensive version also ends up in the drawer I can a) lay it to rest and know that I ain't ever going to be the next Steve Spielberg and b) sell the thing perhaps a little easier than an entry level version.

Thanks Guys for your thoughts. all/any more will be most welcome.

regards

Rob x

 

[Oilcracker]

I have a Gopro Hero3 black edition. It has the wireless remote, came with no micro sd cards only one battery a variety of mounts and I am disappointed with it.

It's not the picture quality or sound that do the camera an injustice, it is the what I think is a poor battery performance that lets the go pro down. I have been lucky to get more the 40 mins of recording out of it.

Bought a couple of extra batteries and a 12v charger so that I could regularly change batteries when using the gopro when out for a few hours or when travelling abroad.

Micro sd cards need to be decent quality otherwise they fail to write anything that I thought was being recorded.

The wireless remote proves useful when camera is mounted on helmet.

The best way to use camera I found was mounted under wing mirror on my last bike and using a skeleton case I could keep the camera fed from the aux power socket on the dash.

I am looking at other options of helmet/bike cameras maybe the Drift HD or the Garmin Virb elite. The garmin has the added extra of recording gps data whilst recording.


If you can put up with the short battery life of the gopro it is a good piece of kit.

It is compatible with MAC computers and can be used on Mac or windows platforms without having to reformat anything.

 

[Rob J]

k

It's not the picture quality or sound that do the camera an injustice, it is the what I think is a poor battery performance that lets the go pro down. I have been lucky to get more the 40 mins of recording out of it.

Bought a couple of extra batteries and a 12v charger so that I could regularly change batteries when using the gopro when out for a few hours or when travelling abroad.

Micro sd cards need to be decent quality otherwise they fail to write anything that I thought was being recorded.

Hey OC

I hadn't considered battery life so many thanks for your comments. I assume you are getting similar 30/40 mins record time from the two spares you bought? if so that's not great.

Can the 12v charger be wired to the camera whilst on the go I wonder. Not great if you have the camera hemet mounted but certainly an option if the camera is mounted somewhere upfront on the bike (and near the 12v supply).

Just a thought...

It would be interesting to compare the battery life of the Drift & Garmin devices I guess.

thanks again.

Rob

 

[Oilcracker]

RobJ I found the solution was to have either batteries on charge in a tankbag or use a cigarette lighter type usb charger and a usb lead directly powering the camera on its bike mount. Found that this option wasn't the best when go pro was mounted on helmet due to usb lead flapping around in the wind.
I found the benefit of having the camera helmet mounted was that you could see something interesting to the left of right of your path of travel,turn your head to look at it and you had the item of interest recorded. You couldn't do that with the camera mounted to the bike unless you can make up some form remote controlled mount.

You can however control more than one camera at the same time. So if you have a bit of cash could buy two or more cameras and mount them looking in different directions then edit the footage later.

 

[(RIP) Bin Ridin]

64gb card works well.
Wifi on shortens the battery life, I use it to see the field of view and then turn it off, controlling the thing with the top button. You can set it to one-button operation, so when you stop it, it is off, not on standby. Some warnings about heat buildup using while charging but I think this is unlikely to be an issue esp if you have the skeleton case.
It is a very nice piece of brain-food!

 

[Boxed-in]

There is a new Gopro 4 (either out, or very soon coming out), so either wait, or wait and there will be cheaper 3+ ones soon.

 

[RedRick Esq.]

Have a look at Drift Ghost as an alternative. They have some great features such as the time lapse facility where it records the past couple of minutes which means you can ride or see a good bit press the remote and bingo you have just the good bit. I run mine all day long from a power bank as opposed to drect power from bike as that cuts down on noise interference.
I also think that you don't look like a telly tubby with a drift on top of lid
Check out action cameras website and scour the web for discount codes i got 10% off with a code

 

[Taff]

The cameras are superb and the picture quality can't be beaten IMO.

However, I reckon that what lets them down badly is the editing software. The free GoPro one is crap in my opinion and the good ones (while not that expensive) will need a fair bit of dedication to get good at it. One of my targets for next year is to get a decent quality editing software and learn how to use it. I have tried editing and while it was working it was quite an enjoyable experience. I spent about 3 nights editing a bike trip the boy and I took then the bloody thing crashed and I lost the lot.

Bluntly, recording some decent footage is the easy bit. Editing the bloody thing is a whole different ball game.

I'm sure some Tossers on here are very good at it. I still reckon there would be good demand for an editing course. I'd pay to go on one.

 

[Rob J]

All good stuff this fellas. keep it coming

 

[Roadrash Rider]

Deffo look at the drift range the Ghost ticks all the boxes you mention plus 2.5 to 3 hours HD recording from a battery, plus you can tell when it's actually recording from the colour of the remote lights. Check out some of the clips on YouTube using the drift and GoPro bike mounted see what you think?


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[Rob J]

Deffo look at the drift range the Ghost ticks all the boxes


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Hey R/C,
The drift does look very good and battery life seems significantly better than the GoPro.
Certainly one to think about.
Thanks
Rob

 

[Rob J]

Well I've watchied a few reviews and, to be honest, think I'm preferring the Drift.
Really like the compactness and simplicity.
Time to chose between the HD or S versions I think.
Thanks to Redrick & R/C Rider for what looks to be sound advice.
Time also to hunt down the best deal (or perhaps wait for the NEC BikeShow).
Thanks to all.
Regards

Rob

 

[Micky]

Got the 3+ black edition and love it. Quality is as good as it gets

You'll certainly need a second battery. I can charge the second battery while on the move so no probs.

You do need to learn when to switch on and off ie when coming to an interesting bit of road etc otherwise you have hours and hours of film to edit .... which can only be done in real time

After speaking to GoPro I learned, but I'd already come to the conclusion, they're very fussy on the micro SD cards used. Only best quality and fastest writing cards should be used!

I use iMovie on my Mac .... so user friendly and intuitive ... great piece o' kit

 

[Roadrash Rider]

Hey R/C,
The drift does look very good and battery life seems significantly better than the GoPro.
Certainly one to think about.
Thanks
Rob

Have a look on YouTube for Advancedbiker at his trip to France this year all of the clips are with either the old Drift HD or Drift Ghosts. Belting but of kit and you don't need to put them in a waterproof box. That said if your riding all day in a downpour nothing's going to stay totally waterproof!


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[Roadrash Rider]

Ps look for the clip of Redrick on the D911 ;-)


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[Micky]

Taken with GoPro on the Col du Galibier last year ...

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