POV camera and editing setup

[Rad]

Finally getting a POV camera for skiing/boarding, climbing, snorkeling, caving, and family fun. Wondering what hardware and software y'all recommend.

Priorities are image quality and performance, rugged, easy to use, and versatile.

Thx

Rad

 

[genepires]

I have a gopro model. no experience with others to compare though. One thing is that I am unable to review footage after taken. no screen on it so you must download before viewing. I have quite a few videos of the inside of my pocket.

But other than that, I have been happy but i am not a "pro" by any means.

It is rugged though.

[CaleHoopes]

Share the pix from your pocket... or it didn't happen ;-)

 

I also have a gopro. Its not the 1G model, it's the 2G model (not the current 3G model).

 

The biggest issue I have had involves POINTING the camera. So, after climbing a pitch, I stopped and restarted the camera which caused it to point down more toward the top of my helmet. The next pitch has 25% viewing of the top of my helmet. DOH.

 

For editing... iMovie or Windows Movie Maker work great.... Movie Maker does transitions fairly well. You will find some issues. Of course if you're doing something very intensive, you'll want to have something like Premiere. But unless you're really doing PRO work, I'd avoid Premiere.

[Farrgo]

I have the GoPro 2.0 as well. It is definitely a niche item, albeit a rad one. You can buy an LCD screen that allows you to see what you are filming (comes with additional waterproof casing). I haven't used this camera other than just holding it in my hand, but I would imagine getting interesting footage would involve a bit of trial and error before figuring out what the proper the mounting position/placement would be.

[Rad]

Thanks. cc.com banners seem to be working because there's a gopro ad below!

[dberdinka]

The latest gopros seem to solve the aiming/review problem by offering wifi and an app that allows you to view the output on your smartphone. Seems like getting the top of the line Gopro version is the way to go so it won't be completed outdated in 6 months to a year.

 

All the reviews generally say it has the best image quality by far.

[max]

....so it won't be completed outdated in 6 months to a year.

 

You don't want to find yourself on the wrong side of a gopro gap!

[Rad]

The latest gopros seem to solve the aiming/review problem by offering wifi and an app that allows you to view the output on your smartphone. Seems like getting the top of the line Gopro version is the way to go so it won't be completed outdated in 6 months to a year.

 

All the reviews generally say it has the best image quality by far.

 

It would prob need to be hardwired transfer to the phone, or greatly compressed versions for viewing, otherwise you're moving a 75Mb file. I'll look into it. Thanks.

 

I've bought gopro3 silver and prob will return to go to black for various reasons, but if you look at comparison videos out there it's really hard to trust anything. What I hear is that 50-75% of product reviews are fakes, glowing reviews paid for by the vendor or thinly veiled rants from folks paid by competitors. That's why I posted here so you guys can tell me the real story. THx.

 

Also, I want a pole and the one at REI has a tendency to loosen, making me nervous the camera will pop off at a bad time such as on the lift.

Thx

[glassgowkiss]

I use FCPX and 21"iMac for editing. I think iMovie will edit GoPro footage as well. It's H.264, so I transcode it to better editing format (ProRes).

[dbb]

If I were to buy a gopro, I'd go for the v3 Black. While 1080p resolution is plenty for most uses, shooting at 2.4k (or 4k) allows you to do more aggressive image stabilization later. Also, having 1080p at 60fps is unique (most provide 720p). However, those extra features may not be important to your uses.

 

FWIW, I have an original Hero and I mis-aim it all the time, especially when skiing. Screen/remote app (which I think Contour has also) would be really nice.

 

If you're just doing a little fun editing, iMovie should probably work well enough. Otherwise, I'd probably recommend investing the time to learn Premier as it natively edits H.264. Transcoding to ProRes is a pain and explodes your disk storage.

[Rad]

I'm moving back to PCs, so not likely to go w Mac based editing systems. Will look into the suggestion above. I do have the Adobe suite (through work). Does Adobe have video editing products that are good?

[Adam5]

I'm moving back to PCs, so not likely to go w Mac based editing systems. Will look into the suggestion above. I do have the Adobe suite (through work). Does Adobe have video editing products that are good?

 

Premiere is good, albeit complex.