Video Camera who uses one?

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AUbicycles
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby AUbicycles » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:13 pm

meridaman, I find the weight of the go pro on the helmet for longer than 15 minutes to be annoying, I still notice it for shorter trips and while the POV can be nice, for comfortable mounting then on the body the chest mount (so I hear) is best - otherwise directly on the bike.

The GoPros are not heavy as such but still heavy enough to be noticable and they catch more wind than a compact side mounted contour. Have a look at this video, it could give you some ideas for mounting and angles: New Zealand Cycling Video

Though I havn't had much time to play with it, the remote for the GoPro is really handy. You don't need to film the whole time so rather than trying to fiddle with the camera while riding or worse, stopping to turn it on or off, the remote does this, turn it on/off as well as start/stop recording. On my older GoPro Hero Original I am getting more than two hours filming time though for longer day rides would pick the parts I wanted to film. With a remote strapped conveniently on the handlebars this is easy.
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Baalzamon » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:43 pm

Well I have the suction cap mounting now, so into the cars now for my commuting or on bike.
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby elStado » Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:44 am

AUbicycles wrote:meridaman, I find the weight of the go pro on the helmet for longer than 15 minutes to be annoying, I still notice it for shorter trips and while the POV can be nice, for comfortable mounting then on the body the chest mount (so I hear) is best - otherwise directly on the bike.
Yep. I was wearing my HD2 the other day while cycling in the Eifel National Park. Had it on for about 10 minutes down a downhill section and the weight was starting to get annoying after that time. Definitely wouldn't want to be wearing it for any longer than needed. Although the POV footage does look pretty cool at 1080HD. I was wearing the headband mount though, so all the weight is at the front of your head. I think that if it were mounted to the top of a helmet it would be more balanced and less noticeable.

After cycling and touring around Europe 'au natural' for the past 8 weeks anything more than a cycle cap on my head starts to get annoying. So for those who are used to wearing those weird looking foam hats on their heads might not be as bothered by the weight and bulk as I. Not sure how I will adapt when I get back to Australia. :x
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby VRE » Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:11 am

I also had an issue with the weight of the GoPro on my helmet. I put some custom padding inside the helmet, as follows:
  1. Adhesive velcro strips, with the hook strip or loop strip (doesn't matter which) stuck to the inside of the helmet, wherever you want more padding;
  2. Foam window-frame sealing strips, attach to the adhesive side of the velcro strip that isn't attached to the inside of the helmet;
  3. Join the velcro hook and loop strips together, the padding is done, and the helmet more comfortable :) .
Here's a photo of the inside of my helmet, to make the above more obvious:
Image
The velcro hook strip + window-sealing strip combination can of course be redone when the padding gets a bit flat, which I've done a few times now.

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Ozkaban » Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:38 am

meridaman wrote:Thanks for the tips Dave, do you guys find the weight of the Go Pro an issue? I won't be watching it back in full lol... Media request and what we'll do is play the whole ride back in about 6-10 minutes with some motivational tunes and interviews with people about me doing the ride who knew what I was like before and mix some before photo's in there...
Yeah, the weight is an issue. I was happy enough on a short commute though I needed to keep the helmet done up tight to stop it wobbling around. If you want a helmet mounted cam the Contour seems to be the better option. I have two moto riders near me at work and both have the contour for that reason.

the weight/aero issue is pretty minimal once it's mounted on the bars though. i wouldn't even notice it's there.

+1 to the wifi backpac. I don't have one but they're dead nifty. It's worth noting that you can either use the wifi backpac or the battery one - not both.

Oh, and check this out if you're worried about durability!




Cheers,
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby GraemeL » Tue Sep 18, 2012 10:54 am

meridaman wrote:Hi Guys,
With 70 pages of great info, I don't really have the time to trawl through all of them unfortunately.
My situation is this, I lost 100kg in body weight 3 years ago, kept it off (mostly) and next month will be taking part in the 1200 KMS for Kids ride from Sydney to Brisbane.
I'd like to mount a HD Video Camera either helmet or on the bike to record the ride, I have plentiful access to SD cards so that's not an issue, what about battery capacity/length, weight/aerodynamics? What do you recommend?
The GoPro is great and there are several places you could mount it. The main one would be the bars, mount it as close to the stem as you can, this will reduce a lot of sideways movement, You need to use a small strip of rubber under the mount, this helps to reduce vibrations, you also need to make sure the mount is as tight as you can get it, this includes the connection from the camera to the mount. You could also use the Chest Mount and Helmet Mount. The helmet mount isn't all that bad, if you use it for short distances.

If money isn't an issue, you could buy a few Battery Bac Pac's, this will give you plenty of recording time.

For some variation you could mount the GoPro onto the quick release on the front or rear wheel, this gives a different perspective and looks pretty cool.
This only takes a couple of small metal L Brackets, check out the DIY mounts, scroll down to mount 8.

To add some interest to your ride, you could also buy a couple of Jumbo cameras approx $40, these are 720P and very good for the money. These cameras are small and light, you could put these on various parts of the bike to give different angles/views.

Check out page 1 of this thread for more info.

Image

These are easy to mount and again look at the DIY Mounts for some ideas on cheap easy to make mounts.
You can also buy and external battery pack for these approx $17. Check out page 1 of this thread for more info.

Image

These are not waterproof but there are some DIY cases for it on its own, or with the external battery connected.

For more information look at the links in my signature.

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby GraemeL » Tue Sep 18, 2012 10:59 am

Baalzamon wrote:Well I have the suction cap mounting now, so into the cars now for my commuting or on bike.
I started out with the Suction Mount, but didn't like it. I now have the GoPro mounted under the rear view mirror, I used one of the flat adhesive mounts and one of the arms. It sits upside down, but that's not a problem because you can either flip it in the camera or do it in software.

Having it under the mirror keeps it out of the way and gives a very good view of the front of the car.

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Baalzamon » Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:03 pm

GraemeL wrote:
Baalzamon wrote:Well I have the suction cap mounting now, so into the cars now for my commuting or on bike.
I started out with the Suction Mount, but didn't like it. I now have the GoPro mounted under the rear view mirror, I used one of the flat adhesive mounts and one of the arms. It sits upside down, but that's not a problem because you can either flip it in the camera or do it in software.

Having it under the mirror keeps it out of the way and gives a very good view of the front of the car.

Graeme
Hmm interesting idea. I use my camera upside down on my trike so would save me the hassle of flipping it each time. And yep better field of view, guess what I'm doing when I get home :twisted:
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby elStado » Tue Sep 18, 2012 5:01 pm

meridaman wrote:I'd like to mount a HD Video Camera either helmet or on the bike to record the ride, I have plentiful access to SD cards so that's not an issue, what about battery capacity/length, weight/aerodynamics? What do you recommend?
Also keep in mind that you will need a high speed SD card (Class 4 min, Class 10 is best) with the GoPro HD Hero 2 to us it to the fullest extent (especially for time lapses).

http://gopro.com/support/faq-hd-hero2-c ... -or-higher" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby open roader » Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:14 pm

Can any GoPro users out there please provide a sample or two of the still images (photos) these cameras produce.....? I'm interested in a portable / mountable video camera that can expose a scene correctly.......
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby elStado » Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:21 pm

open roader wrote:Can any GoPro users out there please provide a sample or two of the still images (photos) these cameras produce.....? I'm interested in a portable / mountable video camera that can expose a scene correctly.......
In good lighting it takes really nice photos.

Image

Image

Not so great in overcast, low light conditions though. Typical for a action camera.

Image

Photos/video look amazing in golden morning/afternoon light.

Image

All these were shot on my HD Hero 2 at 11MP wide screen mode.

I really want to get a small, light-weight portable tripod for doing time-lapses.
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby RonK » Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:32 pm

elStado wrote:I really want to get a small, light-weight portable tripod for doing time-lapses.
Then look at the Tamrac Zipshot.
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby open roader » Tue Sep 18, 2012 10:07 pm

Thanks elStado, par for the course on exposure/metering but that wide angle lens is appealing to me..........
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby wizardhat » Wed Sep 19, 2012 8:43 am

I stumbled across a video from NAB 2012 (some kind of video/camera conference?) where the chief software engineer was talking about an improved camera video mode called protune that adds the following: 35mbps h264, flat color, no in-camera sharpening/de-noise, 24p. A bit more poking around and I found this screenshot comparison of the current and protune videos: http://i.imgur.com/7XPey.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It'll eat up SD card space faster but it's going to be a very nice quality improvement if that screenshot is genuine!
Image

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby zero » Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:43 pm

wizardhat wrote:I stumbled across a video from NAB 2012 (some kind of video/camera conference?) where the chief software engineer was talking about an improved camera video mode called protune that adds the following: 35mbps h264, flat color, no in-camera sharpening/de-noise, 24p. A bit more poking around and I found this screenshot comparison of the current and protune videos: http://i.imgur.com/7XPey.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It'll eat up SD card space faster but it's going to be a very nice quality improvement if that screenshot is genuine!
Its actually avoiding encoding damage more than anything else that I can see. (Cameras have to encode a frame on average at the frame rate otherwise they'll overrun their buffers and drop a frame). Go pro will be offering it on the HD Hero 2 as a firmware upgrade (as it requires no new hardware features to implement). So basically they are turning off all the smarts that process the image and waste time and using a relatively simple encoding step and dedicating time to the data transfer.

I'll be interested as usual, because encoding is a source of damage to night footage. May finally tempt me into joining the go pro owners brigade (I've tried just about everything else).

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Marto » Sun Sep 23, 2012 10:37 pm

Go-pro (I think) recording a pizza delivery, via the stratosphere:

Image

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby PA » Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:26 pm

Marto wrote:Go-pro (I think) recording a pizza delivery, via the stratosphere:
It arrived cold so a normal delivery then.
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby jet-ski » Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:27 pm

I love my gopro, I have a curved adhesive mount on the dash of my car and the bow of my kayak. I use it on the bike too. I have the battery bacpac and I think you could just buy spare batts and use the bacpac to charge them while you are using the camera. Also I would not bother with Class 4 SD cards anymore. I got a 32GB class 10 Kingston for $30, and you can get even cheaper than that.
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby AUbicycles » Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:50 pm

Update: Not surprised but the retailer confirmed that this was accidental (my liability) and not a manufacture issue. Obviously it did get a knock though I asked why the mount failed before the case. I certainly accept the verdict and have ordered a new one. Despite this, I will aim to avoid this type of mishap again because at $60 it is pretty expensive - that said it is a worthwhile investment to improve the video quality (especially if you don't break it).

Image

Ongoing point of criticism of the K-Edge GoBig GoPro Mount
I find the Allen Key screw to be too soft and within a short time it was worn.

Tip
Mount this UNDER the handlebar. I didn't do it as it was a bike on load and there were too many cables in the way however it means that the camera is also exposed. Mounting underneath the handlebars keep it more protected and also it doesn't stand out like a sore thumb.

A note, I have now spotted these at lower prices locally (online Aussie retailer) than overseas.
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Mugglechops » Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:03 pm

AUbicycles wrote:Update: Not surprised but the retailer confirmed that this was accidental (my liability) and not a manufacture issue. Obviously it did get a knock though I asked why the mount failed before the case. I certainly accept the verdict and have ordered a new one. Despite this, I will aim to avoid this type of mishap again because at $60 it is pretty expensive - that said it is a worthwhile investment to improve the video quality (especially if you don't break it).

Image

Ongoing point of criticism of the K-Edge GoBig GoPro Mount
I find the Allen Key screw to be too soft and within a short time it was worn.

Tip
Mount this UNDER the handlebar. I didn't do it as it was a bike on load and there were too many cables in the way however it means that the camera is also exposed. Mounting underneath the handlebars keep it more protected and also it doesn't stand out like a sore thumb.

A note, I have now spotted these at lower prices locally (online Aussie retailer) than overseas.
Have you thought of taking it to a TIG welder and getting it fixed?

Can't hurt giving it a try.

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Ozkaban » Wed Sep 26, 2012 8:20 am

AUbicycles wrote:
Ongoing point of criticism of the K-Edge GoBig GoPro Mount
I find the Allen Key screw to be too soft and within a short time it was worn.

...

note, I have now spotted these at lower prices locally (online Aussie retailer) than overseas.
They list the max torque on the Allen key screws as 2nm...very low - not far past finger tight. I wouldn't recommend moving it around much.

Who is the local retailer? I'd be interested in another for my second bike (due to above point!)
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Aushiker » Thu Sep 27, 2012 11:58 am

Image

Now you can stream your video live to Facebook :)

Looxcie says its new HD video cam is the first wearable camera that offers direct-to-Facebook live streaming through the Looxcie App for Facebook on a smartphone or tablet running iOS (5.0 or higher) or Android (2.3.3 or higher). Live mobile streaming is available up to 480p resolution and the camera adapts output to match the capabilities of the network, so streaming over 3G will be at 240p at 15 frames per second (fps), and 320p/15 fps for 4G or Wi-Fi. Users can specify exactly who gets to see the live broadcasts by creating viewing groups, which can be amended on the fly.


More at Gizmag.

Andrew
Andrew

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby GraemeL » Thu Sep 27, 2012 12:15 pm

It seems every man and his dog are coming out with video cameras these days. This is of course a good thing because it will help to bring prices down as well as better smaller cameras. But I am just surprised at how fast this has happened.



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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby maryusdemetry » Fri Sep 28, 2012 6:59 am

Aushiker wrote:Image

Now you can stream your video live to Facebook :)

Looxcie says its new HD video cam is the first wearable camera that offers direct-to-Facebook live streaming through the Looxcie App for Facebook on a smartphone or tablet running iOS (5.0 or higher) or Android (2.3.3 or higher). Live mobile streaming is available up to 480p resolution and the camera adapts output to match the capabilities of the network, so streaming over 3G will be at 240p at 15 frames per second (fps), and 320p/15 fps for 4G or Wi-Fi. Users can specify exactly who gets to see the live broadcasts by creating viewing groups, which can be amended on the fly.


More at Gizmag.

Andrew
Looks very impressive, thanks

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby bella26 » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:27 am

What's the best thing about riding up a long steep hill climb? Descending it of course! Here's a vid I've put together of me descending my local hill climb here in the Snowies. I found some recommeded render settings in Vimeo which seems to have improved the quality a bit. Obviously descending at speed has caused a few vibrations from rough road surfaces but all in all not too bad.

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