Canyoneering & GoPro Hero HD

[Iceaxe]

OK, so I'm thinking about buying a GoPro Hero HD to video my awesomeness! Any advise from those using the camera. What accessories do I need to buy right up front? Any and all comments, thoughts and suggestions appreciated.

Is this the camera I really want? Should I be looking at other cameras?

Here is what I'm thinking of using the camera for.... I'll probably video some canyoneering. A couple other ideas I thought I'd try this year are mounting it to the roll cage of a sprint car. Mounting to the rear of a 300 mph streamliner. Mounting it on a blown alcohol sprint boat and a 5 liter hydro.... the first use of the camera would be two up coming canyoneering trips I have in the works so those are the only accessories I would need right away.

Also what about video editing software? I have a copy of Cyberlink Power Director someone gave me. I looked on the web and it seems to have above average ratings. Anyone using that program? Is it a descent program?

Thanks!









And maybe we should start a death pool on how long the camera lasts?

[oldno7]

You could also mount one on your headboard.

[Sombeech]

If you've got Windows 7, just use Windows Live Movie Maker to produce the videos. It'll do HD. Your version of Powerdirector may not be able to produce HD if it's a few years old.

As for the camera package, you may want to look into the motorsports accessory pack. It comes with a pretty sturdy suction cup mount, plus several of the helmet mounts anyways:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B002VA57XC

For the roll bar mounts, you'll want this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B001MS6OM2

[Deathcricket]

So I have the helmet hero, and I think it would rock for all your high speed sports you do. I actually took mine in birch hollow yesterday and got a couple half decent vids I guess. Honestly the hardest thing is getting the camera on the right angle. I'm at the point of putting some kind of dial on this sucker and saying on each recording "Ok 35 degrees" and then knowing 35 degrees gets your feet and awesome shots, 32 degrees just takes a pick of your junk as you are rappelling, and 37 degrees just gets the wall rushing by. It's kinda hit or miss.

I noticed it has a lot of trouble filming anything with a harsh backlight, Pretty much anytime I'm at the bottom on rappel filming above it came out like crap. This is further complicated by the need to get the angle exactly right. So sometime I wasn't even filming the subject, it was the sky or rock face above me. Now if you are standing above and filming someone rappelling in, oh man it gets a perfect beautiful picture. It's drop dead gorgeous stuff.

So my review, is that if you can nail down the correct angle each time and always have it not be too high or not to low, it will get some awesome shots. The high def is glorious. I'll have a couple videos and put them up shortly. Keep in mind I'm a total amateur and a person with photo experience might not have these kinda problems. Edit coming once I get the videos done!

[Iceaxe]

You could also mount one on your headboard.

Funny you should mention that.... the first thing the hot young stripper wife told me is we will NOT be mounting the camera on the headboard.

If you've got Windows 7, just use Windows Live Movie Maker to produce the videos. It'll do HD. Your version of Powerdirector may not be able to produce HD if it's a few years old.

I don't have Windows 7. The Powerdirector is version 9 and it can do HD. In fact, in all the reviews I have read Power Director beats MS Moviemaker.

REI will have the GoPro HD Helmet Hero on sale for $239 beginning May 20th. So that is what I'm planning on right now unless someone knows a better deal.

[moab mark]

So I have the helmet hero, and I think it would rock for all your high speed sports you do. I actually took mine in birch hollow yesterday and got a couple half decent vids I guess. Honestly the hardest thing is getting the camera on the right angle. I'm honestly at the point of putting some kind of dial on this sucker and saying on each recording "Ok 35 degrees" and then knowing 35 degrees gets your feet and awesome shots, 32 degrees just takes a pick of your junk as you are rappelling. It's kinda hit or miss.

I noticed it has a lot of trouble filming anything with a harsh backlight, Pretty much anytime I'm at the bottom on rappel filming above it came out like crap. This is further complicated by the need to get the angle exactly right. So sometime I wasn't even filming the subject, it was the sky or rock face above me. Now if you are standing above and filming someone rappelling in, oh man it gets a perfect beautiful picture. It's drop dead gorgeous stuff.

So my review, is that if you can nail down the correct angle each time and always have it not be too high or not to low, it will get some awesome shots. The high def is glorious. I'll have a couple videos and put them up shortly. Keep in mind I'm a total amateur and a person with photo experience might not have these kinda problems. Edit coming once I get the videos done!

One of my Buddies brought one to Powell last week and we had the same problem with the angle on the GOPRO. I also have the same problem on my Countor HD. The Countor seems to be a bit better by how it is mounted to the side of the helmet. He was having trouble hitting the GOPRO on the walls when he would bend over. In regards to the Countor HD the part I hate is trying to edit the video. It is very time consuming and difficult, at least for me. I use Power Director 9 and have also used Window Video Maker. Neither rock my boat. The extra weight on my helmet drives me crazy and the pain to edit the video keeps mine in the truck most of the time. When mounted to a motorcross helmet or your ski goggles you really can't feel it, but climbing helmets move around to easily and it feels like a brick attached to your head. In Slots no matter where you mount it it's in the way.

Just my 2 cents.


Mark

[Deathcricket]

One of my Buddies brought one to Powell last week and we had the same problem with the angle on the GOPRO. I also have the same problem on my Countor HD. The Countor seems to be a bit better by how it is mounted to the side of the helmet. He was having trouble hitting the GOPRO on the walls when he would bend over. In regards to the Countor HD the part I hate is trying to edit the video. It is very time consuming and difficult, at least for me. I use Power Director 9 and have also used Window Video Maker. Neither rock my boat. The extra weight on my helmet drives me crazy and the pain to edit the video keeps mine in the truck most of the time. When mounted to a motorcross helmet or your ski goggles you really can't feel it, but climbing helmets move around to easily and it feels like a brick attached to your head. In Slots no matter where you mount it it's in the way.

Just my 2 cents.


Mark

Oh I totally hear you. Although my canyoneering helmet is much better than my biking helm. It totally bugs me even though its not that heavy. As far as editing the video, I haven't noticed any problems except I have to lower the resolution immensely, otherwise it takes forever to upload a 3 gig file to youtube. It's not as pretty, but a 100mb-200mb seems to be ideal. Ok so here are the vids I shot this weekend. Had to discard 75% of them because the angle was so bad, hehe. But not bad for my first try filming. Maybe as I use it more they will get better.

This is a nice slick 75 footer, probably the best angle I got out of all my vids. And probably the best footage. Unfortunately I set my friction wayyyy to damn high and the vid is boring. But it was a wet rope and I was first guy down with no belayer so I erred on the side of caution, oh well.



Here is an overhead view, then I switch it 1st person perspective on the fly and rap down. But the angle is a little off. I should mention this was my wife first time rapelling ever so she is kinda slow. I was so damn proud of her though for tackling a hard canyon right off the bat.


Here is one looking up. You can see it gets washed out until I get it out of the harsh backlight. Still don't have the angle perfect but it was better than most. I love the part where she is behind the water. It looks glorious in High Def but you can get the general idea from this low rez video.


And then lastly, looking up with bad light and water falling on the camera. It's like a "here is the worst shot possible with this camera" type of shot. I actually think it would do better if heavy flow hit it rather than the light mist. The lens actually repels water quite nicely (you'll notice int he first vid it was perfect with heavy flow), but when its a very fine mist with sun shining down on it, not so much. Normally I would toss this vid away, but it's my wife's 1st time rapelling on a cliff, so it's near and dear to my heart hehe. But it makes a good example of bad conditions and how they look.

[Sombeech]

The BacPac might be the solution for the angle I've never had a problem with the angle, I usually get it pretty close to target. But if I did, I'd probably pick this up:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B004M187ZI

I think Carpey said it was nice to quickly review the footage too. Just turn it off while filming or your battery will drain.

The first impression I got from the GoPro a couple of years ago was how ugly it looked sticking way up on top of the helmet. That's why I stayed away until I saw you can mount to the FRONT of your helmet like a headlamp. This will avoid hitting low branches, rocks, or giving it such a top heavy feeling.

The usual mount position, ugly:




Then the front mount, not so obnoxious. Keep in mind this is a different clip altogether.



And the "self shot" for maybe some 5 second transitions in your video, might be a decent rappel shot? I imagine if you point it almost straight down, harness in the frame, it would probably catch some cool views.

[Iceaxe]

FWIW: I HATE rappel shots in canyoneering videos. Many people put in endless shots of the rappel, mostly from below, and I'm not a big fan of looking at everyones ass for 20 minutes of video. Maybe a short clip to establish the rappel/canyon, but please don't film endless rappel video if you want me to watch your video. That is one thing I enjoy about Carpey's videos. He does a good job of not overloading the video with endless rappel footage.

Next question: does the GoPro have a headband for mounting the camera like a headlamp without a helmet? Just askin', a friend wants to know.

[Sombeech]

Next question: does the GoPro have a headband for mounting the camera like a headlamp without a helmet? Just askin', a friend wants to know.

Yes, for those "special" situations

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B002EF2200

[Iceaxe]

A knowledgable friend told me this:

One more thing, make sure you've got a good SD card, the higher the "class" the better the buffer is. I'm filming with a 16GB class 6 and I wouldn't go any lower. I'll get about 3-4 hours of film on it.

Heck, I had never heard of class before. I though you just went on eBay and bought the cheapest card you could find. I had never heard of "class" before but after a little research I now understand whats-up.... anyhoo... what class and size card are you guys using? How many minutes of video are you getting?

Inquiring minds want to know!

[Sombeech]

Here's another setup that might work well for canyoneering. You know those rapps from the top where you can't really see the person heading down? Maybe stick the camera out on a collapseable trekking pole and shoot from there. Mount the camera to the end of the pole with a seat post mount. Or at least get some hard to reach angles otherwise. Maybe if you're straddling a crevice stick the camera way down underneath you, filming up. Lot's of quick transition clips of unorthodox angles make an otherwise boring video interesting.

Like you say, rappelling vids could be pretty boring, but you might be able to use it as a quick transition, maybe use 5-10 seconds of it or something.

[Deathcricket]

FWIW: I HATE rappel shots in canyoneering videos. Many people put in endless shots of the rappel, mostly from below, and I'm not a big fan of looking at everyones ass for 20 minutes of video. Maybe a short clip to establish the rappel/canyon, but please don't film endless rappel video if you want me to watch your video. That is one thing I enjoy about Carpey's videos. He does a good job of not overloading the video with endless rappel footage.:

So an angle like this you don't enjoy much you're saying?

[Iceaxe]

Exactly.... that was a total waste of 2 minutes and 6 seconds of my life.

[Deathcricket]

Exactly.... that was a total waste of 2 minutes and 6 seconds of my life.

And here I thought I would finally get my man card back with that vid. *sigh*

[Sombeech]

I think it might have been good if you had it pointing more vertical, watching your feet hop / walk down the wall, the rope maybe swaying down below - but for a short period of time maybe 5-10 seconds.

[Iceaxe]

Sweet.... I just walked in the door with my new GoPro HD Hero.

They are on sale right now at Best Buy for $239 plus if you buy 3 accessories you get 30% off the accessories. So I picked up the camera, a memory card, the tri-pod adapter and the head board adapter (looks exactly like the ride adapter).

Anyhoo.... its all put together and charging now. Any suggestions on what settings I want to start with for canyoneering? Mountain biking?

All tips and suggestions appreciated.

[canyondevil]

Sweet.... I just walked in the door with my new GoPro HD Hero.

They are on sale right now at Best Buy for $239 plus if you buy 3 accessories you get 30% off the accessories. So I picked up the camera, a memory card, the tri-pod adapter and the head board adapter (looks exactly like the ride adapter).

Anyhoo.... its all put together and charging now. Any suggestions on what settings I want to start with for canyoneering? Mountain biking?

All tips and suggestions appreciated.

I bought an extra battery and the LCD screen off the GoPro website. They were both well worth the money. The LCD screen allows you to see that you have the correct angle when on your helmet. Before I got it, I had many many videos on my dirt bike where all you could see was the ground.

[Canyonbug]

Sweet.... I just walked in the door with my new GoPro HD Hero.

They are on sale right now at Best Buy for $239 plus if you buy 3 accessories you get 30% off the accessories...

So Ice, Any idea how long this sale goes on? Nothing mentioned of it on their website, but if you put it into your shopping cart it gives you the sale price.

[Canyonbug]

So Ice, Any idea how long this sale goes on? Nothing mentioned of it on their website, but if you put it into your shopping cart it gives you the sale price.

Reply to my own post...I called the store in American Fork and they don't have any in stock, but they said the sale ends Sunday.