Which GoPro?

http://www.rei.com/product/857903/gopro-hero3-black-edition-wide-angle-helmet-cam-bundle

http://www.rei.com/product/839763/gopro-roll-bar-mount

The GoPro Black bundle plus roll bar mount come in at $429 plus free shipping.

Now until May 27.

Mrs. Claus got me a Hero3 Silver for the holidays, and now I need advice from the knowledgeable. It came with the full back waterproof case, the skeleton back, and also a thin wall case called the Frame or something, that doesn't really enclose the camera. I may not use that because I would like the impact resistance in case it flies off the car. It also came with a couple different adhesive mounts and connector bits.

I gather Class 10 are the microSD cards of choice, but how big do I really need? Right now I am fooling around with a couple of old 2gb mSD cards that we had from old phones. I know I need the faster cards for smooth recording and playback, but what's a reasonable size?

I plan to get a suction cup mount and a roll bar mount. Should I just get the GoPro branded ones, or are there more cost-effective alternatives?

What about external mics? The skeleton back supposedly is good for sound in high winds below 100 mph, but I don't want to hear just wind wash, I'd like to get some engine sound. Thanks!

Recording on a 1gig card at 720p, I was able to get 7 1/2 runs out of ten my first time using it.

Then I bought a 16 gig card... now battery life is my main problem. So I recharge it from the USB port on my hardwired in-car voltage inverter (shameless plug) (get it? plug?) at lunch time.

Now my problem is that the unit itself died, just locked up solid. Had to remove the battery to get it to turn off, and now it won't turn on and the red charging light doesn't come on. So I got a season and a half of use out of my Hero before it died. between that and YouTube's asinine new policies, I may not bother replacing it with a Hero3.

I use 32gig cards.

The GoPro mounts are the way to go, but if for whatever reason you want to use your camera on the rollbar with the top up, they don't have a good solution for that, in my opinion.

I used a big "zip tie" strap type mount for that and it works great.

Here's a link to everything i ordered on top of my camera:

Roll bar mount: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MS6OM2/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i04?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Suction cup mount: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009PK9SA4/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Extra batteries and charger: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AAIPT76/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Zip Tie mount: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B9N6P5G/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

32gig card: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009QZH7BU/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Think it all came out to about $115 shipped at the time of purchase.

I have a 32 in my black. You'd be shocked how quick 1080,@,60 fps goes.

Awesome, thanks for the info. Anybody know the difference between microSD, microSDHC, and microSDXC cards? I'm not fixing clear answers on the nets.

my black ed works great.

I didn't even realize that this was my thread....

I wound up getting a Black at REI using my dividend and the 20% off coupon.

I've been happy with everything except battery life, so I'll get one of the piggy back batteries and a car charger for it before next season starts.

I just added a Tech-Tip that seems pretty obvious to me now that I know about it, but was very helpful to me when I learned it.