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I'm thinking of getting a Go Pro set up. I know some of you guys use them and I'd like to hear some real-world reports. I'm interested in in-car videos so info on mounting systems is important to me.
I haven't used one in a car yet, but my biggest disappointment is battery life. I did a time-lapse video on a bike ride. The battery, fully charged, lasted an hour.
You can link it via wifi to an iPhone to see what you are filming, but that negatively impacts battery life. There is an extended battery that should help a lot.
No real world experience with driving videos yet but I have a Hero 3+ silver and a 3+ black and 2c to share.
1. The biggest plus is they were first. They have tons of mounts and there are tons of other companies making compatible mounts. Anyone who makes a mount will make a GoPro one (probably first).
2. Battery life is a consideration, which is why I don't like the Session. On the others the batteries are removable and cheap so they only need to last until you take a break. There are multiple ways to help maximize battery such a turning off Wi-Fi, reducing resolution and frame rate, the aforementioned BackPac, etc. If I had to have a Session, I'd buy two do I could switch then out while the dead one charges.
3. I'm upset with them right now because the firmware update hosed my 3+ silver. I'm still waiting to hear back from them but I'm not optimistic as it is out of warranty and I don't think they have a repair service.
4. The menus and software are more user hostile than they should be. The app used to have a lot of lag but it's gotten better. It's still not real time though, about .5-1 sec delay.
5. With all the complaints I have though, I'm not sure who else I'd trust in this product space.
+1 on battery life. I have a Hero 3+ (black) and the battery lasts 2 hours TOPS, depending on what size video and frame rate you set it up for. Like Spectre says, if you use the WiFi, either for the remote or for the app, it hurts your battery life. Using the app with video preview will kill a fully charged battery in an hour or less. You can get the skeleton case and plug it in to a charger w/ USB, but then you're going to get a lot of wind noise.
Funny enough though, I actually use the GoPro for working on the car/bike/stuff around the house more than shooting driving videos. Its a great second set of eyes, whether you're using the video preview on the app or recording. I've stuck it under the car wrenching the wheel back and forth to see what was clunking or loose and actually found my control arm bushings were shot. I've also set the frame rate to the max on my camera (240fps) and slowed it down in the GoPro studio to do a slow motion video to look LEDs on my bike (needed to figure out the polarity of the spark pickups). Helped the wife map out a place for the garden using timelapses in the yard to see how much sun different areas and at what times of day. If you're bleeding brakes, you can use the preview to keep an eye on the fluid in the reservoir. Just a few ideas. It comes in handy.
I've shot a few driving videos (car and bike)w/ my GoPro and have a few notes:
1) Camera Angle Use the video preview in the app to set your camera angle. I've tried to set it up by eye with what "looks right" and almost never get it. And even if you get everything in frame, it might just be a really boring angle to look at. Or the camera might not be quite level and the tilt in the video will drive you crazy.
It might just be me, but I think your camera POVs are kind of limited on the outside of the car. Put your face next to the car or maybe about a foot away and those are the sorts angles you're going to get. But you can still get a lot of crazy angles. Which is all you need for something like a track day or AutoX. If you wanted to be more zoomed out, you're going to have to have a pretty good boom on the thing
But I guess it's been done...
2) Wind noise - I've mounted the GoPro to the Mustang's windshield and all you can hear is wind. Being on the front of the car in the higher pressure bow wake probably doesn't help things. GoPros come with the waterproof dive case and have two case backs that come with it - one that's open for more sound (not waterproof), and a sealed one that obviously cuts down on a lot of noise. Problem is with the open one all you get is wind. With the closed one, it really cuts down on it, but you can't really hear the engine either unless you're flooring it. They might have aux microphones you could get or you might be able to put a mic on the back of the car, record it, and spice it into the video in their editor.
3) Camera shake- I didn't have too much camera shake on the Mustang videos I've taken, but did get a lot on the motorcycle. The bike is pretty softly sprung too which is weird. Either way, camera shake can make or break your video. Set a fairly high frame rate on your camera to help (which of course eats your battery and your SD card faster). I've tried 24 fps on a bike ride and the camera shake did weird things...like the video would actually accordion (for lack of a better term). It was nauseating and the video was unusable. Which really sucked because the scenery was great and it would've actually been a keeper.
4) Mounts - The links that come with the cameras are elbow or knee links. They pivot on each end, but only in one direction. They have some links where the pivots on the ends are 90 degrees from eachother -- that helps, but it can be a real pain in the *** to get the camera angle set the way you want it. You can only pitch and roll the camera using those, not yaw. Doesn't sound like that big of a deal until you're trying to set the camera on some weird angle like on a windshield or a fender. You can add the right combo of straight and 90 deg links to get an angle, maybe adjust the suction cup mount, but the more links you add, the longer the arm the camera's sticking out from the mount on. The longer the arm, the more the camera bounces. Get a ball joint or a gooseneck (or flex mount)
I have Hero 3+ Black and use it for SIM racing and trackday events. I have external mic mounted inside trunk cabin and mount GoPro inside rear window. I pick up the exhaust note without the wind noise
I have a Hero Black edition (newest one still I think) and honestly I'm not a fan. If the lighting is not perfect the pictures come out blurry, Ill take two or three of every shot I want in hopes of getting one good one. Depth perception, personally I can't seem to get it right.. You basically need to be right on top of whatever your trying to take a picture of. Video ( what you stated you'll be using it for) is the best part about it, can't complain much here other then the editing software (go pro studio) is a buggy nightmare. Everything is expensive, plenty of mounts, don't go cheap on the SD card.
There are enough apps and attachments to make it work pretty much anywhere. I will tell you that an extra battery pack will be essential for HD videos for any considerable length of time. I have two extra battery packs and make sure they're both fully charged before race/track days/speed runs. As mentioned, there's an app that displays the feed real-time to your phone. They'll go just about anywhere, and I've done some external shots at high speed with good results (except for sound).
I borrowed a Hero 3+ from a friend to capture some track time at Sebring a couple of weeks ago. I tried mounting on a headrest bar and a suction cup mounted on the roof. The roof gave a good perspective of the track, but the wind noise was horrible. Inside the car mounted on the headrest bar gave good images of the inside of the car, but the camera didn't have enough dynamic range to properly expose the outside. It was too bright out and the images of the track through the windshield are washed out really bad. Usually an auxiliary microphone is a good idea as mentioned previously. I watched some videos of another participant and his sound quality was very good.
6/11/16, 06:03 PM
