GoPro owners club

[IceBone]

Seeing as quite a few members own a GoPro, a specialised thread is a must, since so far it's all been limited to a few short off-topic discussions in other threads.

I got mine a few months ago for the ringmeet and have been playing around with it quite a bit. The first thing I noticed was that the audio quality sucks ass, so I got a Sony ICD-PX820 dictaphone with a tieclip microphone a few weeks later.

First test, which lead to the crappy mic discovery


Second test, this time already with the dictaphone, but haven't figured out the filtering yet


Sped up video, going cross country


Not every video has to be about cars


Or indeed in air


As per request, I did a short microphone comparison (first video with PP)


And then a more comprehensive test of both video and audio


And finally, recording the exhaust note (which turned out to suck ass) from today


Here's a handy tip for uploading to youtube: Don't upload anything less than 720p as it will turn out to be shit, even if it is properly 480p... >_<

[Shawn]

Good idea for a thread Ice.

I see you didn't have much luck getting the audio from your exhaust. Maybe you do need one of those hedgehog things for it?

I'll see if I have anything worth uploading from that mounting position for you to compare.


Oh, and in the meantime, have the GoPro owners seen this video? Possibly a fake considering how perfectly it all plays out, but still:

[IceBone]

Yeah, some foam over the microphone should do the trick, but my car has no proper exhaust note anyway. I think I'll get a nicer sound if I stick it somewhere in the engine bay, far enough behind to not overheat, near the firewall.

[Bad Bowtie]

Haven't got a chance to do a proper test of my Micover I just got yesterday, tomorrow night we have a big local meet so I might strap it on a friends' car and test it out.

I've tried it in the water, but never uploaded those videos. I thought it was scary leaving a $250 camera to cling to the outside of the car by a suction cup...throwing it in the water is 100x worse.

A couple videos...

Friend beatin on his WS6 with us following in another friends' Camaro:




Some GoPro footage in here:




And here: (lens and case was very dirty, hence the sub par quality)




Quality sucks here because I used Movie Maker to edit:




And a quick night run by my buddy on his bike:

[Bad Bowtie]

Random shit I've used it for:
-Strapped it to the backboard of our basketball hoop to watch a slam dunk contest I had with my brother
-Put in in the kitchen to see how my dog was getting up on the counter when we were gone
-Some girls wanted to see how they acted when they got drunk at my buddy's party
-Record some NASTY storms rolling in

And plenty more, just can't think of everything. It's definitely a fun little toy.

[thedguy]

Mostly use mine for track use, but I'm going to start using it more often to help in my fighting of traffic tickets, or in the event I get hit.

This was one of my first vids at the kart track, with timing info thrown in from my Evo + bluetooth GPS adapter




I tried doing a recording of much of LA by taking photos every 2 seconds but the camera for some reason had shut off about 1.3 hours in.

[speedmeist3r]

Can I leave this here? Not about cars, but taken from a GoPro nonetheless. Taken in 960P 4:3 resolution as it does give more picture up and down, which is better for cycling.

First half of the video the camera was worn by me, with a Chesty mount. The latter half my buddy took over. He's a little skinnier than I am, so it shook a lot, despite some attempts at tightening the straps.

[youtube]M1B5tR3DG2Y[/youtube]

[RdKetchup]

You kids with your GoPro-HDs.

In my days we had to use Crappy SD GoPro. Uphill both ways...

[Shawn]

I tried doing a recording of much of LA by taking photos every 2 seconds but the camera for some reason had shut off about 1.3 hours in.

Was it fully charged when you set off? I've noticed the GoPro uses a lot of battery just in standby, in fact it seems to get even hotter in standby than when it's recording video.

[IceBone]

So, I noticed that the image quality when recording in 720p or 960p mode is a lot poorer than 1080p. I did a bit of experimenting and came to the conclusion that 1080p mode is 100% sensor scan, cropped to 1920x1080, where as 960p and 720p are full sensor scans, resized to their respective dimensions. I contacted GoPro about it and got this reply today:

Hi Darjan,


Yes, you are correct, the 1080p video is a crop of the full 5mp sensor. The sensor read is cropped and then 2x binned.


The 960 and 720 i believe are just resized sensor read. However, the jagged lines are not an artifact of a sensor resize. They are a product of the resample/binning. They may be more prevalent because of the smaller pixel read in 720 and 960.


This is known, however, I can't comment if this is something to be fixed as removing stills from the video isn't the primary use of the camera. However, I will definitely pass along this email to our development team and we use our customer's suggestions to further the evolution of our camera.


Many Thanks,


GoPro Support

Well, at least they know why it happens. Only a matter of whether they'll bother fixing it. :/

[Shawn]

So would there be a point in filming in 1080p and then downsizing on the computer?

I tried 1080p once for shits and giggles, but when I exported it in Premiere Elements I ended up with a separate audio and video files. I guess I picked the wrong profile initially, but I've no cause to fix it as my computer doesn't seem to like 1080 files.

[IceBone]

The thing is, 720p has a 170° viewing angle and also supports 60fps. 1080p, as it's a crop, is only 120°. 720p also records at ~8mbps, where as 1080p at ~15. 60 fps looks brilliant in motion, but for a screencap, you need to record in 1080p for a clear image.

[Shawn]

The thing is, 720p has a 170° viewing angle and also supports 60fps. 1080p, as it's a crop, is only 120°. 720p also records at ~8mbps, where as 1080p at ~15. 60 fps looks brilliant in motion, but for a screencap, you need to record in 1080p for a clear image.

I don't find that any less confusing!

I guess I'll just keep with 720p since like I said the 1080p files are a hassle on my computer.

[TroyWK]

one i posted in another thread of me doing 2 laps of the Bathurst race track on a public day (60kph limit)

first is exterior mounted on side window, second is mounted under the front bumper. sound is terrible.

[user7]

gorillapod /= gorilla level grip

[Viper007Bond]

I'm seriously, seriously considering picking a 1080p one up. Not that I have much use for it until I get a Viper, but then again being able to shoot 1080p video on vacation, etc. is nice. My Canon G11 takes awesome photos but only 640x480 video (yuck) and while my iPhone takes 720p, it's lens is starting to bite the dust.

Might just buy it tonight...

[IceBone]

Viper: You have to take into consideration that there is no zoom on it and the sound quality is shit. It's a very purpose device and can in no way replace a proper camcorder.

[Speedtouch]

As I don't have £300 to spend on a camera, I've just ordered one of those HD Keychain cameras at a cost of less than £30. When it arrives I shall see how it does. Anyone want to send me a GoPro to compare?

[Viper007Bond]

Viper: You have to take into consideration that there is no zoom on it and the sound quality is shit. It's a very purpose device and can in no way replace a proper camcorder.

I got over my initial excitement. I still want one, but may hold off a while. I'm not concerned at all with the lack of zoom -- my iPhone doesn't have either. I also learned I can get the back glass (including the camera lens) replaced for $29 at an Apple store apparently, so I'll likely go that route until I get the Viper.

[Electric-Mayhem]

About 5 of the guys I go 4wheeling with have one, and I'm getting REALLY tired of seeing the same unedited "stuck to the windshield or hood" shot. Its great as an accent shot, but way too many people are using them as a primary video camera. One of the friends was really excited to get it, but after 2 trips put it up for sale since it wasn't as useful as he thought it would be.

I guess I'm lucky since I have a DSLR that can take very nice video (Canon T2i). At this point, I would rather spend the money on a nice mount and weatherproofing for my Canon then get the GoPro. I do really like them for shots like this though(plus some editing/minus the fumbling)....