 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi
I was thinking of getting a Go Pro camera for this coming ski season.
I was looking at GoPro Camera HD Hero2 Outdoor Edition
Has anyone tried out one of these - any good?
cheers
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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lauralime, a quick search of the forum will bring back losts of debate. In short my view.
Yes the HD Hero 2 is a good camera, the major downside being the form factor (people with these on their helmets are oft referred to as teletubbies. Aside from that issue, image quality wise it's hard to beat for the money. The User Interface isn't the best, but significantly improved over the HD1.
On the plus side you can pick the HD2's up a fair bit cheaper now the HD3's are out, particularly if you consider second hand an option.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Yeah they're good. Pretty good quality and has quite a few settings to tinker with which allows better editing after recording. Only real downside i find is the battery life as one battery may last two hours if you are lucky so if you get one make sure you get a spare battery that you can switch to after the other runs out. However it may be worth saving up for the hero 3 if you want all the juicy extras but the hero 2 is an excellent camera if you don't wish to spend as much and don't want the extra bits. Also get the chest mount so you don't look like a teletubby 
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Take a look at some broadcast TV and see what they're using for POV shots. So yes, they are good.
I've had no issues with battery life, shooting 8 hour days in minus 20 with a single battery, first with the HD1 and now HD2. Sure, if you want to leave it running continuously you're going to need a stack of batteries, but why would you do that? You would need a wad of storage cards, and you'd give yourself a huge editing problem to get that 5 seconds of gold out of 120 minutes of garbage. Small segments are easier to deal with.
Take a tip from the GoPro people: set it up in "one button mode", and turn it off most of the time, turning it on only when you have decent light and something sensible to shoot.
I would also avoid "backpacks" and other gizmos which will just suck your battery. Set it up, learn how the framing works, what light works best, then shoot that and don't mess about with it.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I have more experience than most with gopro cameras and what philwig, says is right. The only thing I would say is the wifi or lcd back is good for framing. but I always only suggest using them for that.
also don't discount the hd1.
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| ansta1 wrote: |
I have more experience than most with gopro cameras and what philwig, says is right. The only thing I would say is the wifi or lcd back is good for framing. but I always only suggest using them for that.
also don't discount the hd1. |
How can you be so arrogant as to say that, how the ferk do you know what experience anyone else has?
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I like the fact that with the HD3 you can check what it is seeing on your smartphone before you start recording. This would seem to me to be fundamental in setting up the camera without a lot of trial-and-error.
Having tonight been to the local showing of this year's Warren Miller ski flic, they were using extensive use of GoPros.
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Standee, he deals with GoPros on a daily basis... do you?
philwig, in fairness phil you're not "shooting" 8 hour days then are you 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Standee wrote: |
| ansta1 wrote: |
I have more experience than most with gopro cameras and what philwig, says is right. The only thing I would say is the wifi or lcd back is good for framing. but I always only suggest using them for that.
also don't discount the hd1. |
How can you be so arrogant as to say that, how the ferk do you know what experience anyone else has? |
i wasn't intending to come across arrogant just plain and simple fact that i have been dealing with the gopros and other cameras for many years, use them almost daily one way or another and can lay my hands on about 30 of them right now.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Have fun with it, but beware it can become a burden (cue Lord of the Rings music)..
The gopro will become an obsession... where to mount it, where not to mount it. Forward, backward, upside down. helmet, chesty, boot, board, ski, pole or handheld. Slo mo, burst. left on the snow and ski'd over. Then will come the incurable review of the precious video, load, play, rewind, forward play, pause, rewind. precious video, my precious video.
Editing precious, must take copy of precious, edit new precious. play with precious effects. render, rip, burn, share, post. Precious video will become your life.
Stooooopppppp nooooo.
Some tips...
get a spare battery
get a neoprene case skin (keeps it warm and if it's the same colour as your helmet make it slightly less obvious).
Always use a tether
get a good memory card
If you don't want wifi or protune leave it on the older firmware, or put it back on the older firmware (it's more stable).
Get to know the menu system (it's not the most intuitive, but better than the HD1).
Have fun, and remember even if you delete stuff, it can be recovered, which is both a positive (oh I've deleted that awsome crash by accident) and a negative (here mum take this card it's got some video of the holiday, including recoverable footage of a late night party - ahem!!).
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Timmaah wrote: |
| Standee, he deals with GoPros on a daily basis... do you? |
yes, thanks for asking.
why is it the people that have paid to be  believe their opinion to be more relevant, a bit sad in honesty.
most of use are here because we love to be on the mountains, and we share experience as we find it, some others, well, people can draw their own conclusions.
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Your reasoning is flawed and you should feel bad.
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You know it makes sense.
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i havent paid to be a and dont expect people to assume that because I use this sort of stuff regularly i actually know what i am talking about, but if people ask questions then I like you and others will generally try to respond.
I am not here to make money or solicit business or trade, i am here because i love sliding down hills on the white stuff (i wont add...... as much or more than the next man or woman as that would clearly be bordering on the arrogant and wouldnt want to get done for it twice in the same thread).
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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10 Things you will realise from your first footage.
1: you are slower than you think you are.
2: you look around an awful lot.
3: not even you are interested in your 5 minutes of perfect technique piste sliding footage.
4: your framing will be waaay off
5: the wind is very noisy
6: the sun is very bright
7: getting people to do something is nigh-on impossible
8: for interesting footage you will spend your entire time following someone
9: the 8 seconds you capture of someone/yourself falling over is the highlight of your reel
10: you end up thinking more about filming than skiing/boarding.
Sorry to relieve myself all over your BBQ, but my suggestion is that before you blow £200 or more on a GoPro and mounts, buy a £30 cheapo sportscam and try that first. See if you actually like it and enjoy the filming process...
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Poster: A snowHead
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Standee, ansta1, other people with filming experience - perhaps it'd be an idea to cobble together a guide to getting good footage on the mountain seeing people are really buying into the helmet cam experience now?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Richard_Sideways wrote: |
10 Things you will realise from your first footage.
1: you are slower than you think you are.
2: you look around an awful lot.
3: not even you are interested in your 5 minutes of perfect technique piste sliding footage.
4: your framing will be waaay off
5: the wind is very noisy
6: the sun is very bright
7: getting people to do something is nigh-on impossible
8: for interesting footage you will spend your entire time following someone
9: the 8 seconds you capture of someone/yourself falling over is the highlight of your reel
10: you end up thinking more about filming than skiing/boarding.
Sorry to relieve myself all over your BBQ, but my suggestion is that before you blow £200 or more on a GoPro and mounts, buy a £30 cheapo sportscam and try that first. See if you actually like it and enjoy the filming process... |
Very well said Richard_Sideways,
I would add
11. If you are having fun sliding (skiing/boarding) you will forget to film
12. you will freeze our fingers off trying to get glove friendly buttons to work
13. the perfect framing you arranged at the start of your run is off/ruined before you get to the 'good bit'
14. you can't see what's going on at any distance
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Quote: |
5: the wind is very noisy
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5a: and not all of us like the music (or sometimes "music") dubbed over the youtube final cut to cover up the fact that you've found out (5), plus the GEMA c***s ban all videos in germany that sound like they might have music in them.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Richard_Sideways wrote: |
10 Things you will realise from your first footage.
9: the 8 seconds you capture of someone/yourself falling over is the highlight of your reel
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Must go on youtube and search for the footage from the lad who had a chest mounted Gopro at the fridge on Wed night, I was most impressed with some of his (very frequent) crashes as he battled the terrifying conditions (lucky for him the slope was actually about as un-icy and snow like as Tamworth ever gets or he'd have been really overwhelmed!).
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Richard_Sideways wrote: |
| Standee, ansta1, other people with filming experience - perhaps it'd be an idea to cobble together a guide to getting good footage on the mountain seeing people are really buying into the helmet cam experience now? |
Best solution I've found is give it to my 8 year old, she is so focused on going where she wants as quickly as possible she doesn't look around her too much!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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andy, personal taste and legal issues aside (public domain music is available), my point was more along the lines that any running commentary people may give during their run will most likely be lost without using a separate mic which should be adequately windproofed.
davkt, expect regular editions of "Winter Special You've Been Framed" courtesy of GoPro, Contour, Drift et al. Plus the £250 pays for our cams and medical bills.
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Updated my GoPro2 so I can use the new mobile app. Spotted a new option "ProTune" what is this?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I posted this list from my experience faddling around with a GoPro whilst skiing last year when I posted the results:
- Always take the camera with you, if you take the camera remember to take something to mount it on! The lack of skiing of Hekla is a result of the latter problem but I probably missed more good footage from forgetting the camera or forgetting to put it on than managing to capture it.
- No one really cares that you look like a teletubby so you shouldn't either. Particularly in the middle of nowhere.
- I need better B-roll, I actually shot quite a lot but it was pretty useless. Need to get better at that so there is more scenery.
- Needs less POV. It's fine but doesn't really show off the situation very well or aesthetically.
- It's hard to point the GoPro in the right direction and easy to wack it with skis, poles and backpack straps so it captures the sky or ground. The Coe Cup footage in particular is a lovely view of my skis. Am getting better at this though so it's mostly trial and error.
- I need to find better people to ski with, harsh but for the most part I was the only skier with a bunch of people on foot. It also limited what I felt able to tackle so mostly skied well within my comfort zone.
I showed the edit I made at the Icelandic Alpine Club's show and tell and got a good response to it though which was nice.
I'd also add:
- Tighten the mount screws with a screwdriver. I do this for everything but the camera itself.
- A bit of duct tape on the mount stops it wiggling around even more than just using the rubber doodad.
- The chest mount is easily the thing that's easiest to use to get good footage of skiing but the most annoying to wear.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Fri 30-11-12 10:57; edited 2 times in total
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| Updated my GoPro2 so I can use the new mobile app. Spotted a new option "ProTune" what is this? |
It's basically a mode that uses a higher bit rate and produces a log-curve base colour output and turns off the in camera sharpening. It basically retains more detail in the image and so gives you something more easy to fiddle with. The Cineform software make it very easy to get a normal looking image back or you can use whatever editing suite you owns colour grading/correction tools. The higher bitrate means an equivalent length video does take up more space though.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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meh, thanks, probably a bit more fiddling that I would want to be doing. Do you use a filter of any kind when you film in bright sunlight?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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rob@rar, nope the HD2 I have copes with bright light much better than the original HD which really washed out. You can get circular polarizers for them though which do make a difference, makes the sky look really blue and any clouds really punch out as well as removing even more glare from the snow. So if you're finding it unsatisfactory it'd be worth giving one a try.
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| meh wrote: |
| rob@rar wrote: |
| Updated my GoPro2 so I can use the new mobile app. Spotted a new option "ProTune" what is this? |
It's basically a mode that uses a higher bit rate and produces a log-curve base colour output and turns off the in camera sharpening. It basically retains more detail in the image and so gives you something more easy to fiddle with. The Cineform software make it very easy to get a normal looking image back or you can use whatever editing suite you owns colour grading/correction tools. The higher bitrate means an equivalent length video does take up more space though. |
what he says, but as a slight addition. One of the main reasons protune was introduced was help those using multiple cameras (either the same or different). The major issue was that different brands, or sometimes in the case of different gopro's the footage had a completely different look and feel to it. Protune makes it much easier to adjust so the output looks consistent. Be aware, with Protune on some of the options and features won't work, its easy to spot as the display will show
1080-30 t (the t indicates protune is on).
The really simplistic way to think of it is that is similar to 'RAW' on a digital camera, though it's not RAW because it's still compressed in H.264 but hey ho, and I won't get started on the 8bit vs 10bit data sampling rates and what they've done with the HD3 Black.......
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Timmaah wrote: |
| philwig, in fairness phil you're not "shooting" 8 hour days then are you |
<shrug>I think you're saying that if you deliberately pick a meaning of a word which clearly doesn't fit the context, then the text no longer makes sense.
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The audio from POV cameras is pretty poor, but there is some and it's adequate for consumer use.
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ProTune - I'd add that for snow it should be good, because colour balance on snow is quite tricky and without ProTune you can get some minor colour cast issues. The bottom line is that you have more control over the post-production, which is good if you have a calibrated monitor and know what you're doing. For most consumers it's probably irrelevant.
Be aware that some HD2 cameras are unstable with ProTune turned on, so if you're going to use it then I'd test it first. And make sure you've a decent computer.
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Poster: A snowHead
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meh, ansta1, philwig, thanks. I'll ignore ProTune, at least for the time being. Don't think it's necessary for the video I shoot which is definitely of the 'home movie' standard I've got some little polariser filters to use on bright days (previously used a Contour and found it essential to use a filter on bright days to avoid washing out the snow).
Just out of idle curiosity, is the HD3 Black the same size as the HD2?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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rob@rar, no it's smaller, about 30% so according to the blurb but I dunno the actual sizes.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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meh, thanks, so a smaller waterproof case as well? Less of a TellyTubby effect?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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rob@rar, yup!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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rob@rar, Yes it's a fair bit thinner and lighter, but looked from the front or rear its the same height and width. Also the HD3 case doesn't support the HD2 or 1's or visa versa as the lens is moved slightly (but the case backs are the same).
If you want my honest view, if you don't want protune and you don't want to use the remote preview on IOS or Android (or the non Gopro options that are available) then I would really consider downgrading to the previous firmware. It will give you better platform stability and battery life in my honest view.
Happy to help you go through doing this if needed.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Should have added a lot of people are now using the new 'frame' mount when skiing. It's not waterproof and there is no 'lens' protection but it reduces the form factor even further. Not something I would do or suggest but there you go.
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ansta1, The remote preview is pretty useful, which is why I upgraded the firmware. Are there reports that the new firmware is a bit unstable?
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Yup, one or two... I am guessing you on are on V198. It kind of depends on Your actual camera as there are some build discrepancies (all anecdotal but well documented, if not by gopro).
Some things to try to see how stable it is.
Try an extended recording session, maybe 30 minutes to an hour without interuption.
Review the video (you will most likely see a difference in the way the new version splits files and uses space as it will break the files down into 1.7gb chunks and also use more space for the thumbnails and preview files).
If you have a wifi back and/or remote control try the following.
Connect the remote (ios/android/pc or actual gopro remote).
Start recording
Walk away from the camera until it loses connection. wait a couple of minutes and then go back.
There are reports that some cameras (mine seem fine btw, one was replaced recently by supplier) will stop recording once connection is lost and can only be restarted after a battery pull of the camera.
Probably planning to go the Hemel in the next couple of weeks with the kids, if you wanted to have a play with a HD3 black and you are about.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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ansta1, thanks, I'll try those things to see what happens.
After Monday I'm in the Alps for a month but would love to have a look at the HD3 Black if you're visiting Hemel in the New Year. Just let me know if you're planning on being there.
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Can anyone recommend an editing software for gopro videos and time lapses that is good but not too pricy?
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FAQ
