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Go pro camera
- Thread starter j57snow
- Start date
My son recently bought the 1080 GoPro. I was trying to talk him into getting one of the "lipstick" style cams because they're more compact and look like they'd be more durable, but he wanted the GoPro. Well I played around with it a bit and the picture quality is outstanding, as is the sound. The cam itself is so light and fragile, you definitely don't want to drop it, so keep it in it's protective water proof housing that comes with it, which BTW, is heavier than the cam itself. Also, with the supplied helmet mounting hardware, the cam will stick out too far and seems unwieldy tho I didn't actually put the helmet on. It comes with a bunch of attachments for mounting and helmet straps but you also have to pay another $80 the the LCD back to see what you're filming. personally, I'd go for the Contour GPS HD Camera, http://contour.com/products/contour-gps. Built in GPS maps your track, speed, elev, all in a durable aluminum housing and plenty of accessories also available. Just my 2¢ worth. Others may now chime in to disagree. ;-)
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mjkaliszak
New member
No problems with battery life & durability. The sound is actually better with Go Pro than the contour however all I have is a bunch of vids. I never spent the time to develope a " good clip " that was edited . I found that all my filming seems far away, even though it is close ( when sled mounted or helmet mounted )??? You have to be right on top of someone to get a good shot ( we already ride like mad men sometimes ).... HOWEVER... my bud says his don't look that way so their must be something set wrong with mine or you can zoom closer during editing ? ( Which I have never done ) My " IT manager " whom is my 14 yr old son hasent taken the corrective action to progress this project any further ( girls or baseball seem to be the hold-up ).
Some day we will make a you tube vid with tunes, also some of the members here have some good vids they produced, in our camp we are behind.
2 Thumbs up on the 1080
JMO
mjk
Some day we will make a you tube vid with tunes, also some of the members here have some good vids they produced, in our camp we are behind.
2 Thumbs up on the 1080
JMO
mjk
The GoPro has a wider angle lens than the Contour, but both make things seem pretty far away. With the 1080 option you can clip and still end up with 720 or even 480 if you are burning to a DVD and have good quality without pixelization.
I have the 720 Countour (I considered the 1080 but my computer isn't really fast enough to do any real editing). Most helmet cam footage in the Team Kesslers videos is from a Contour. All of our Contours are 2 years old, and in those versions the sound quality is really poor at speed. It is supposedly better with the newer GPS or ROAM (which just came out and with a killer price of $199).
Our Contours get about 3 hours in the winter on a battery, so we usually carry a second battery for a full day od shooting. A 16 GB micro SD gives about 8-10 hours of footage so that isn't ever a problem...
I wish we had a GoPro to compare right next to each other with the Contour... Both companies are on the cutting edge with new products coming out frequently, although I think Contour is a little ahead right now with options and price, but the sound thing is a killer if you want sled noises...
I have the 720 Countour (I considered the 1080 but my computer isn't really fast enough to do any real editing). Most helmet cam footage in the Team Kesslers videos is from a Contour. All of our Contours are 2 years old, and in those versions the sound quality is really poor at speed. It is supposedly better with the newer GPS or ROAM (which just came out and with a killer price of $199).
Our Contours get about 3 hours in the winter on a battery, so we usually carry a second battery for a full day od shooting. A 16 GB micro SD gives about 8-10 hours of footage so that isn't ever a problem...
I wish we had a GoPro to compare right next to each other with the Contour... Both companies are on the cutting edge with new products coming out frequently, although I think Contour is a little ahead right now with options and price, but the sound thing is a killer if you want sled noises...
The GoPro has two different lens angles, 127* in 1080p and 170* in 720p and 960p. When I was looking at the Contours and seeing markings on the lens ring, I thought they also had different angle setting. After looking again today, I see I was wrong. They have 170* though the GPS model has a 135*. I really haven't got around to checking batt life on the GoPro but their website says 2 1/2 hrs. Figure an hour in the cold then. Like I said tho, the video and sound were very good, but we were just hittin some park trails on mountain bikes. My main concern was that it just seems so delicate when out of its housing. You can ck out youtube to compare pics and sound. I just seen on TV today that Best Buy now carries the GoPro HD in several different mounting configurations so you can check em out there and see what you think. Plus, the price is the same as most online retailers.
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I got the 1080 last year and I like it. I liked the wider angle vs the contour, but like already mentioned it makes things seem farther away. I think the wider picture helps when watching playback so you don't get seasick from all the bouncing around. I have mine mounted to the top of my helmet, but am going to try a hood mount this year. Probably be too much vibration though. Sound is great, but anything faster than about 40mph is mostly just wind noise. Battery is about 2-2.5 hrs if left on constantly. I wired in acc. plug so I can charge it while driving. We usually stop for breaks enough so I shut it down and it usually lasts most of the day. I usually only turn it on or bring it out when we find play areas. It's pretty easy to use, but I haven't figured out the whole editting or making videos look good for youtube. Had one issue with the clamp on the WP housing, but the complany had replacements to me in 3 days. Yes, they sent an extra one too. Even tried it underwater last summer. Super clear pic...wish I had somewhere to dive. Here is one of my youtube videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0LN9u8sIsY. It has a little tic to it cause the battery was very low.
GoPro recommends a class 4 or higher SDHC card. Walmart has PNY 16gb class 10 for $30. Best Buy wants $50 for the same card. You can find plenty of 16gb cards for cheap, but their write speed will be too slow for video, esp HD video. I would recommend class 6 minimum and 8gb or bigger for any HQ video recording. 8gb will hold about 2 hrs of HD vid. Also, consider a quality brand such as PNY, Kingston, or the Ultra and Extreme Sandiscs....But not the plain blue Sandiscs. I've had cheaper off brands that have failed on me. BTW, the class rating is for the write speed. Higher class = faster write times.
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