jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

This is a bit off the still photo category, but it's still photography.

Do any of you have any experience with the GoPro Hero video cameras? My son does a lot of video - local plays, art shows, concerts, interviews, etc. I thought the Hero might be a good birthday gift.

Any opinions?

George H Loc: Brooklyn, New York

Jerry,
I have a buddy of mine that has one and it is an amazing little unit. I would have no problem recommending it after seeing the video he shot underwater with it, truly amazing.

George

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Thanks. Now I have to decide if my son would get enough use out of it to justify the cost. I no longer scuba dive, and I've sold my motorcycle, so those two uses are out. I thought it would be good attached to a car, walking along a street, or just getting a good, wide view in a room.

Yeah, I talked myself into it.

George H Loc: Brooklyn, New York

Jerry,
You sound like my kind of guy, I used to own a motorcycle shop in Brooklyn, (Horn's Cycle Service), it was in the movie Amongst Friends. I also owned a Scuba diving store (Scuba Divine), and probably trained over a 1000 people how to dive.

I don't think you can go wrong with it.

George

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

When I was starting out in Scuba, I wanted a BC, and the one one I wanted was available in Brooklyn for the best price, so I drove down there. That was when gas was more reasonably priced.

I'll have to look for the movie.

My last bike was a '95 Gold Wing - very comfortable.

imntrt1 Loc: St. Louis

I have one that I purchased to mount on my motorcycle for trips because I wanted to get video of extreme riding situations. My issues are with the way the camera controls are set up - they don't work well for my intended use because you would have to do everything via memory. Several times I thought I was shooting in video mode and was actually doing single shot modes. The camera has a great concept - you can mount it nearly anywhere - and the high def photos are good, but for the money it is fairly limited in usefulness. I had problems with the waterproof case latch failing, but the company was good about replacing it. For my intended purposes of mainly video I would not purchase again and for random shots it is limited, yet pricey - $250 to $300 bucks. GoPro has a web site that focuses on video use for it and it does some amazing stuff that way. I would like to try out the underwater shots but have not done so to date. Hope all this rambling helps.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have read reviews that have mentioned your complaints. I have a time lapse camera that has the same problem with turning it on. Is it on? Is it off?

I've read that the curved lens causes blurry images when used underwater. People have gotten an $80 underwater housing with a flat lens to correct that. Some of these reviews were not recent, so the company might have made changes.

I'm just afraid that I'll spend $200 for a nice little item that sits in a drawer. No rush. I'll keep reading and thinking.

NIKONUT Loc: San Diego

This is a camera that will require the person using it to have a super imagination because of all the capabilities it has. Besides single, burst of three, continuous and video it will shoot in 4 "focal lengths". Yes, it takes some practice with programming the unit however, once you set it you can almost forget about changing it. You can add an LCD screen with a variety of changeable backs to it. It also can record sound. I bought it almost a year ago and am still finding uses for it. It uses an SD card and connects via a mini-USB cable to a PC, MAC or just about any piece of equipment in that category. It charges with an AC adapter or from your PC. As an example, for a Christmas party I attended I took my IPhone, DSLR and GO-PRO and downloaded all three with-in 10 minutes into my PC. To have the equal ammount of cameras would probably cost you more than that of this nifty system. :thumbup:

George H Loc: Brooklyn, New York

Guess you went to either Scuba Network on Atlantic, or the Aqua Crazy Harvey on Emmons Ave, possibly to Kings County Divers.

George

alienmurphy Loc: Alaska

My 22 year old grandson uses his GoPro Hero when he is hiking or climbing. He has a four year old sister who has been pestering him to take her skiing. Like she really knows what that is. Anyway he wore his camera the last time he went skiing (downhill). She watched the video with him after he downloaded it. Silence. The expression on her face.....priceless. No word from her since about skiing. Grandson loves the camera.

imntrt1 Loc: St. Louis

My issues with the camera were not the quality of the photos or the quality of the video - It is with the engineering of the controls, which inhibit the use of the camera and make it not efficient in use. I wanted something that I could simply push a button and activate when I saw something I wanted to video - and it does not make that an easy task as far as I have found. Then factor in that it costs around $300 bucks and I feel there is not a good reason to purchase one. I purchased mine simply on the word of the manufacturer and their description. I would not buy another one if it were half the price it is now. I even tried using a small DV Camera and it would not stand up to the abuse of a motorcycle ride or the elements, so it was a poor choice as well. I also found that the battery endurance on the GoPro was not great either.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yeah, the tiny, vague controls seem to be a shortcoming.

LegendaryMedia Loc: Longview, TX

A buddy of mine has a GoPro 960 and I had a Motorsports 1080 (Hero 1, not 2). I still would have mine, except I needed to sell it in order to get a T3i.

Like many people mentioned, the controls are a bit awkward, but you get used to them. Be sure to check the picture at the front to make sure it matches the mode you want and be sure that the red light is blinking and you'll be good to go. This does mean however, that you'll be looking goofy at the beginning and end of each video, lol.

We mainly do comedy sketches with them...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J96wtNkGOPA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcbnk5HVxMw

And used the timelapse...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf_ziC3o_lY

But they're great for first-person POV...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTXo4_7Kc8Y

We have taken them underwater too...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXG35YTzom8

In my band, we've attached them to various instruments for cool angles, but I never uploaded a video of it.

Another buddy of mine attaches them to street cars and mudding trucks...
http://www.youtube.com/user/rekjavicxxx

That being said, it's handy to have them as a second video camera, but the audio is GARBAGE. They're daylight balanced (no auto white balance), so you have to fix inside footage in post. The fisheye look can be corrected to a point in post, but will still look funny if you get too close when recording. The low-light of the Hero 1 isn't too great, but I've heard they've improved it in the Hero 2. The time-lapse is really just a series of pictures, so you have to know how to put them together as a video.

Hope this helps!
--Ray

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Great! What do you use for post? My son has been using PowerDirector and MS MovieMaker.

What do you use to put the time lapse together? I recently got a Brinno TLC200 - nice little time lapse camera.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Great wedding video! How did you go from TL to slo-mo? Did the Hero shoot the whole video?