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 Post subject: thinking about a goPro
PostPosted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 4:06 pm 
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Location: oki - jp
so i have been thinking about getting one of those new goPro 3 black waterproof things (never owned a go pro yet). i was thinking to use it to record my trips, then anchor up and go snorkeling. however when i'm done recording then what? i guess you then have to sort through and edit your video to make it look all cool and adventure packed. then what, i guess i have to upload it on some site like this or youtube.

most of my kayak sailing is pretty slow paced and relaxing (by design) and other than the occasional cool sighting of some surfers, fishermen or some cool nature image or sea life it is pretty dull. having to compress that down to a 2-5 min video for a few people to watch doesn't seem all that fun after doing it a couple times. i would think all the trips would start to look similar.

i was just wondering if this is the case for those of you who own them? do they quickly loose their appeal or are they worth the investment?


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 5:13 pm 
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Very quickly. :roll:

If you shoot @ 1080P it is a real PIA. First you must copy all the 2 gig files to your computer or local drive. Those videos are very large and difficult to play. It must be slowly browsed and the selects converted to another format before editing. That can take hours. Then the editing - take as long as you like. The edited video needs to be exported/saved as yet another file format. THAT file must then be converted to a low rate h.264 file for upload to youtube. Converting a couple minute show usually takes hours. Uploading THAT file will take several more hours on a cable modem. Then it processes for awhile. Only then will you be able to view it through the site. And start promoting it.

If you shoot more than one camera angle, as we do, multiply the time you must invest in all this,..

I use the GoPro footage mostly for quick review of racing sessions, crashes and fish catches. And the occasional supermodel.

Shooting at 720p will still give you great results and will allow you to use and edit the format more efficiently. (They are half the size). Using your wireless remote control to limit the scenes you capture will help oven more. :wink:


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 5:25 pm 
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I use the Drift Ghost camera. The process for recording and editing the video is roughly the same for all these action cameras.

I've found that recording in 720 provides fantastic video quality, within a smidgeon of 1080 even on large screen TVs, and takes up far less computer hard drive space. Much quicker to process as well.

Keep in mind that videos you upload to Youtube, etc., and which people are going to watch on their computers, iPads, cell phones, etc., won't display anything in high resolution to begin with. You'll find that filming in 720 DPI will do all you need to do and then some, several times over.

As far as getting the camera to begin with - do it. Eventually you'll do something that you wish you had recorded.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 9:50 pm 
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Location: Lake Macquarie NSW AUSTRALIA
No. 1 thing is that you’ve got to enjoy doing it. Whether or not it’s the creative nature within, I dunno, but it’s become a sort of a hobby for me. As we know, the AI is an excellent vehicle for a hundred different activities whether it be fishing sailing, camping, as Tom said, snorkelling etc, etc. whatever floats you boat ( sorry about that ). Personally, I enjoy exploring, videoing and camp cooking. I know exactly what you mean about trying to make videos dissimilar so they don’t become boring. And I hope that the exploring for me makes all my videos a bit different. But at the end of the day, I don’t really care. I do them for me, and as a bonus for the other people I go with to have a record of the trip, and as another bonus, others on the forum who get to see a bit more of Australia. Todays cameras are excellent value and quality, with the GoPro being up with a few others at the top. I use the Panasonic Lumix FT1 only because the GoPro doesn’t suit what I need it for due to audio limitations and field of view, but for action footage, the GoPro is hard to beat.

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 10:32 pm 
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well even if i don't take it everywhere with me (1 more thing to lug around and be aware of at all times) i could still just throw it in my pocket when i go out snorkeling and what not. BTW i am not a minimalist by any stretch but i don't like carrying around stuff, especially while on a kayak. i stopped carrying around a digital camera about a month after i dropped $400 on one when they were a brand new hot item. if it wasn't for the invention of a cell phone camera i would never be able to take pics ;)

if i get one i would just leave the mount on the kayak or in the kayak i suppose. is the waterproof case (with goPro3 black inside) small enough to fit in a pocket of some cargo shorts without being annoying? i guess i could just bring it in my pocket and if i see something cool while kayaking or snorkeling pull it out and turn it on quickly right?

if recording in 720 mode how long would it take on average to pull a 30-60 second second clip off the camera and be able to upload to FB or youtube for you guys that are used to doing this routine?

***my life is certainly not that exciting but i do live in japan and i am somewhat in the modded car culture, so there are occasionally times in the evenings when out of no where i am in the midst of a 1-5 min really exciting car related experience, whether it be a convoy of modded cars in a car club or just friends, or a race, or just the occasional weekend car meeting in some random parking lot. this and the random things seen while on the TI (surfers, ocean life, etc) or random jumping overboard and going snorkeling adventure are about the only times i would possibly want to record stuff. i just don't know if it is worth the trouble or who else would ever care to watch it but me ;)


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 1:30 am 
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The car stuff sounds ideal for the gopro! Lots of good mounting options.

On the boat, you could wear a chestie harness with your PDF and capture most of the day. A versatile tilt head camera stick will get everything else worth shooting. (Angles of you).


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 5:18 am 
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Location: Fairfax, CA USA
Converting the videos from one format to another and such depends on your video editing software, the packaged go pro stuff does a bunch of hops.
The time it takes depends on your computer. My work machine doesn't take but a few minutes to convert a pile of 10-20 sec 1080p clips. My personal laptop is a bit longer, but not much.

Trolling through the hours of recordings to get to that pile of cuts should be something you enjoy


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 7:46 am 
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Here's something that may help you. Instead of filming long segments, consider breaking them up into shorter ones. Even if I want to film, say, a 5 minute experience of something, I'll blip the camera remote off and then right back on. I'll do this a couple or three times. This gives me several shorter clips. As I review the day's clips, it's easier to cut out those you don't want and quicker to load those you do. Otherwise you sometimes end up wasting time uploading a 5 minute clip just to get 20 seconds out of it somewhere.


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 10:05 am 
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Location: Forster, NSW, Australia
I run a Drift 720HD and a "Sports HD" 720P from Kmart. The Drift is mouted on a Railblaza 600 boom attached with a Starport to the outer end of a front ama, while the Sport HD sits in my PFD pocket for odds & ends.

I just discovered that the remote for the Drift (which comes with a velcro wristband) is NOT waterproof (WTF?) despite the camers being water resistant in bare form and 10M waterproof in its casing, so I drowned mine. Fortunately the importers replaced my remote, which now lives in a waterproof packet in my PFD.

I tended to run the Drift full time, but now follow Tom's advice and start-stop many times. I get too bored looking at me for more than an hour LOL

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 10:20 am 
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Location: Georgia
As you may already know, there are 3 versions of the GoPro3. White-Silver-Black. Their website can give you a good side-by-side comparison. If you're not a videophile consider the least expensive White. I agree 720 is the best video format for this camera.

They (and Amazon) have tons of mountings, etc. There are mind numbing variations of mountings and home made suggestions on YouTube also.

Be forewarned, the White model (in 720 format) only films in UltraWide while the other two have Narrow, Medium and Ultrawide capabilities.

For normal vacation videos I would have preferred to be able to video in Narrow or Medium, but my White only does Ultrawide.

When you're out of the water, it's great to have a camera that easily fits in your shirt pocket, with room to spare.

bill


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 11:39 am 
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I agree with the previous responses as I have found 720 the easiest to work with. I own the Hero 3 black because you are not confined to wide angle views. I would also suggest that you use an Apple computer to edit and upload videos to youtube a much simpler process than using Gopro software and a Microsoft based computer. I have both and the Apple video editing software is far and away superior! To see some of the editing techniques go to youtube and search for Hobiekayakman there are many of my kayak related videos there some fishing some sailing and some technical stuff. Most important of all, you obviously enjoy what you do when kayaking, why not share it with us.! Just don't make it too long and edit out all but the most interesting. Go for it!


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 12:57 pm 
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I often feel I would rather have a good still picture camera on a stick. Editing video doesnt seem fun to me. I usually prefer still pictures to moving pictures. Is a GoPro a good choice even for still pictures or is there some other camera that would be much better for me?


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 1:05 pm 
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I have a Go Pro Hero I really like...

but ya'll considering the new Gopros might think about the Garmin Virb Elite... I just picked one up recently and it is pretty decent, and has built in GPS functions.


The software that came with the Virb is pretty basic by my standards, but for those of you who don't like the heavy editing, it could be just the thing.. Pulling still frames from the video is very easy.

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 1:30 pm 
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I have thought about buying a quadrocopter with a camera. But I guess it wouldn´t survive long! :D


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:32 pm 
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Location: oki - jp
i was watching a tv show here in japan last night and they had a crazy looking remote control quad helicoptor with a go pro attached to it. anyone got a link or know how much these run for :D


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