Choose me a Go Pro camera

mr2peak wrote: In reply to mazdeuce: GoPro app, and go look in your handbook

So I have to go read? Ah crap. The whole point of my asking was so I didn't have to figure it out myself.

In reply to mazdeuce: Mazdeuce, if you download the Harry's Lap Timer app for your phone, you will use that as your data recorder. It will use the GPS unit in your phone to sample your position once a second and record your speed, and the G's you're pulling. The program also has GPS maps of tons of tracks in the U.S. and abroad (or you can easily make your own map). If you load the map, the GPS will measure your progress around the track. The program will also display this data as a synchronized display over-layed on your in-car video. Example of HLT/GoPro

If you have one of the wifi GoPro cameras, the phone will hook up to the wifi, and Harry's will transmit markers back and forth between it's recording of the lap data and the video recorded on the GoPro. You can then use Harry's and a laptop easily to put the recorded lap data as an overlay to the video, since they are marked with internal reference points. Synchronizing with other data overlay programs can be tedious, but HLT makes it seamless.

If you want to add in throttle position, gear selection, and RPMs, you need an OBD II car and an OBD II reader that will communicate with Harry's. Once you get that set up, Harry's will grab that data from the OBD II port, record it, and overlay it on the video.

You can even get all crazy and use the phone camera to capture one video (like the driver) and the GoPro to capture another (like the track view) and display them together. HLT, two videos, OBD II data

Also, the data tracking is improved if you get an external GPS antenna (which communicates with the phone by Bluetooth or wifi) to increase the sampling rate above 1 per second.

Now THAT is awesome. Thanks. I'm going going to try and get it all working before the next track weekend.

I have a Hero3 black and the camera works great. I have the remote mounted on the dash in the race car so I can start it in grid before I head out. The remote battery only last about 30 minutes for me and when the remote battery dies the camera goes off. That is the one drawback for me. Well that and I find editing and posting a real PAI but I am a bit of a computer neanderthal so it's probably just me. :)

Marty

I'll throwout an option I haven't heard yet.

Garmin Virb Elite. For GPS recording and playback of course!

I have both a Hero 3 and the Garmin. I use the garmin more. The downside to the Garmin is battery life, and the accessories are a bit more expensive(and a little higher quality), but it is really easy to adapt it to gopro stuff..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqMct1pq4tE

I have two Hero2's and WiFi backpacks. I also have the wrist remote which is awesome to start/stop while waiting at the starting line versus either getting out or using a cell phone. Suction cup mount for one, usually sticky mount front bumper for the other.

A friend tried a cheaper knockoff and the case fogged up 10 seconds into a drive and wasted the whole shot.

mazdeuce wrote: Now THAT is awesome. Thanks. I'm going going to try and get it all working before the next track weekend.

It's a little fiddly, like I said. I would give you a run-down of the hardware I'm using, but since I have an itouch not an Android phone at the heart of it, my setup won't help you.

If you need phone and camera mounts, RAM Mounts makes good stuff. I buy mine through Amazon.

Jerry wrote: I have two Hero2's and WiFi backpacks. I also have the wrist remote which is awesome to start/stop while waiting at the starting line versus either getting out or using a cell phone. Suction cup mount for one, usually sticky mount front bumper for the other. A friend tried a cheaper knockoff and the case fogged up 10 seconds into a drive and wasted the whole shot.

The suction mounts are no joke, my Hero survived 175+ mph without a safety tether and only the suction mount holding it to the side of the bike....

I've done the full setup with Harry's Laptimer, OBD data acquisition a wifi GoPro and external GPS as well. Getting everything synched is a bit of a challenge, but the app make's it about as easy as it can be, especially if Harry's is starting the camera.

Update rate on the OBD data is also highly dependent on the car itself. 3 Hz is about the best I can get out of my car-- this also makes the data/video synch look a little funny sometimes.

I've mounted the GoPro in the left grill opening, about 3-4 inches from the engine intake, so I get pretty good sound there.

As you can see from the video though, there's nothing magic to keep bugs off of the lens!

http://youtu.be/UR6oulSleGU

I was given a GoPro 3 Silver. I butchered the box to make a mount for the ceiling of my car

http://youtu.be/dc5dzcKzZsc - This video has better video(by no means good, or great but that was my choice to keep size limited)... audio picked up tiny exhaust vibration

http://youtu.be/oC73j3m_Hf4 - This was second video, video is even less quality, but audio is good, and no exhaust vibration

FWIW I've got a Hero4 Silver and a Contour Roam2. Started with the Contour, it's stupid simple to use and cheap, but you have to hook up to a computer to change modes and see any video. Mounts were cheap for a bit while the company went under so I've got a whole pile of them.

I picked up the GoPro because it was $100 off but quickly ended up spending that and more on mounts. So far I'm a fan, but I'm not selling the Contour, the simplicity is pretty nice for simple point and shoot. I'll do some side by side vids once the Autocross season starts.

After moments of extensive research, this is the one I'm thinking about:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/gopro-hero3-silver-edition-camera/1617384.p?id=1219060404491&skuId=1617384

Unless someone can convince me that I need this one:

http://www.bjs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?subCatName=gopro&catName=cameras--camcorders%2F&searchCategory=2001817+4294948877&currentPage=1&langId=-1&productId=3000000000000052543&pageSize=40&catalogId=10201&sortBy=&categoryId=209&partNumber=P_161740193&storeId=10201&ddkey=http:Search

FWIW, it might be best to wait for a deal. I set up a deal alert on slickdeals.net for "GoPro" so I get an email any time something posts with that keyword. There have been eBay daily deals for Hero3+ Black editions for close to the same price as that silver at Best Buy. Example (now expired but will likely pop up again soon): http://slickdeals.net/f/7655532-gopro-hero3-black-edition-camera-with-remote-320-free-shipping-ebay-daily-deal?v=1

Woody wrote: After moments of extensive research, this is the one I'm thinking about: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/gopro-hero3-silver-edition-camera/1617384.p?id=1219060404491&skuId=1617384

Best Buy had a killer deal on those during Black Friday. The camera, Bacpac (lcd viewer), and memory card for $249.99. We gave 4 away during our annual awards banquet and I was fortunate enough to receive one. It's my first "in car" camera since I attempted to use a cheap cam-corder. I've only used it around the house and the wifi pairing with my phone is great.

I've been tempted by the Woot! cameras but they have really mixed reviews. Now that I have a real GoPro, I may pick one up for comparison.

I ended up getting this for $349, mainly because it was in stock, which will give me a week to figure out how to use it.

http://www.bjs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?subCatName=gopro&catName=cameras--camcorders%2F&searchCategory=2001817+4294948877&currentPage=1&langId=-1&productId=3000000000000052543&pageSize=40&catalogId=10201&sortBy=&categoryId=209&partNumber=P_161740193&storeId=10201&ddkey=http:Search

That'll do just fine and that's not a bad price. Make sure you get a good memory card. I think it's worth picking up this mount kit too: http://www.amazon.com/Accessory-Ultimate-Combo-accessories-Cameras/dp/B00JBT6F3W/ref=sr_1_6?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1425579519&sr=1-6&keywords=gopro

I got one when I picked mine up, solid for the price.

Good deal! Results are awesome! And the protective case can even withstand a full out fuel fire! Image from last weekend:

I use a GoPro with Harry's Laptimer and a VBOX Sport for 20Hz GPS, though it costs as much as the GoPro. Combination works well with a little patience but the results are awesome.

Battery life is horrible so buy extra and the one thing I would recommend is to get the very best SD cards possible. Spare no expense and they aren't cheap. For the technical stuff you don't probably care about, the camera only writes files to 4GB in size and then it's supposed to continue writing to a new file. This works with good SD cards and is hit and miss with cheaper ones (even pretty decent ones). Also gotta watch it overheating with the higher video settings.

Ask me how mad I am about a three wide photo finish that I don't have on the GoPro because it stopped recording when it hit the 4GB mark a few minutes prior.

Basically I get a little under 18 minutes of record time on the 1080p setting so just keep that in mind. Mine was mounted above my head on a main hoop so I couldn't see if it was recording or not but in a car on a windshield you should be able to tell real quick when it stops recording if you keep the beeps turned on.

Have fun!

Zookie wrote: the one thing I would recommend is to get the very best SD cards possible.

Expand upon this thought please.

Woody wrote:

Zookie wrote: the one thing I would recommend is to get the very best SD cards possible.

Expand upon this thought please.

GoPros will not work with inexpensive SD cards. It will freeze up, lock up, stop recording, and generally piss you off.

Mine does that about 10% of the time even with the recommended cards. That's one of the reasons I very seldom use it.

http://gopro.com/support/articles/software-update-release

Good list of "compatible" cards.

I don't know if they'll have problems with cheap SD cards but they will have problems with slow SD cards. Ever notice how they have Class 6, Class 10 etc on the packaging? That has to do with read and write speeds:

https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/speed_class/

If they write speed isn't enough to save the hi-def video coming from the camera, bad things happen.

Cheap = slow usually. We can get cheap class 10 cards (which should theoretically be fast enough) at local electronics stores but I wouldn't use them in the GoPro. Get the best you can.

I was using the Samsung Pro. This model is in the list that gl21133 posted but my card was 64GB not 16GB and 32GB as is listed on that page. That model in 64GB is potentially why I missed my photo finish. That or there isn't a problem with the card and GoPro just hasn't updated that page to reflect the availability of the 64GB version.

Don't know but I would say either contact GoPro and tell them you want a no BS recommendation to a specific card that they can validate has had less issues than any other or hopefully people here or on the Internet can tell which card to use so you won't have this nonsense problem.
I've seen the Sandisk extreme models mentioned a lot but I don't know which specific one to recommend to you. There are a number of them on that page gl21133 mentioned.

Given that my problem was on the closing of the file at the 4GB limit and what should have been starting the next file I can't even promise that the issue was the card. Could have been the GoPro. It was writing just fine until it closed that 4GB file. It just never created the next one. That seems to have less to do with speed and more to do with the GoPro (whose firmware was updated just before my event).

Not much help since I'm still wallowing in the same problem but I would do some tests. Set it to record something and just let it run for half an hour or so on 1080p resolution. Your SD card should have multiple files on it from that length of recording. If it doesn't then at least you'll know you have to deal with this problem before you really need to count on the device.

In reply to Zookie:

I'm using a Sandisk Extreme Plus 32G. I set up mine to do a time lapse of a sunset the other day, one frame every minute. It shot 34 frames and locked up. When that happens, I have to pull the battery to get the stupid thing to reset.

I just bought a Kdlinks x1 to replace my dead dash camera. It shoots video as good as the GoPro and in the last month of running 2-8 hours a day, hasn't locked up once and it was half the price. The stupid GoPro might not ever come out of the box again. Hell, I have better luck with Harbor Freight tools than I do with my GoPro.

FWIW, I bought this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M55BS36/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Anyone use the Replay or the Drift cam?
http://store.driftinnovation.com/
http://www.replayxd.com/