GoPro/Cameras

[Ballynoes]

Just wondering what others have in the way of a Go Pro, or camera.

Currently I have the Go Pro knock off the Qumox M10 Sjcam.

It' been a good camera for many years, sits on the top of my helmet just fine, and points where I look.

Quality is good, but recently it only lasts about 40 mins on 1 battery where it used to last over an hour.

Probably needs new batteries as they have been re-charged hundreds of times. So I thought I would just get an up to date one.

I would like it to have excellent picture quality, so as to read a number plate, for the obvious reasons. Good battery life say up to and hour, and small enough to fit on top of my helmet, as before.

All ideas welcome even the way out ones, experience counts for everything theses days, as reviews on websites don't impress me much..
Look forward to hearing your opinions.

TIA

 

[VWsurfbum]

My 2 penneth.
GoPro's are great but you need to work out your settings for what you want.
Budget does play a part, If you're on Facebook the GoPro groups always have people selling used ones at good prices.
I have a 10 Black and it's amazing, far better than I deserve for my riding but is not as versatile as my Max but which takes a little bit more faffing to get the shots you want, but as a 360 camera, its far better than the equivalent of the other options (Insta).
2 videos: 1 from this weekend on the 10 and 2, from the Max.

 

[Bear-uk]

I always use a power pack on my gopro 8 black. @stephenfostermtb

 

[Manc44]

I got the GoPro Hero 8 Black in Summer 2021 because at that time it was the best one for the money. The 9 and 10 were already out but cost more and didn't seem to do much more, although that horizon lock thing might be a useful feature, can't remember if it's the 9 or 10 that has it. The 10 apparently has a hydrophobic lens too, but I bought an aftermarket one for my Hero 8 and it's been OK. Doesn't stop water staying on the lens but it's a vast improvement over the globs of water that stick to the lens without it.

Battery life is crap on all these cameras (or the camera is crap, with a long battery life) they never seem to be able to do both and it would probably cost £200 more even if it did.

I just keep it on 1080p at 60 FPS in the daytime and use 1080p at 24 FPS at night. You're never going to catch number plates at night though - not without some fancy camera that costs silly money. Even the Insta360 with it's 1 inch sensor won't give you sharp number plates at night and that not only costs more than a GoPro, but reviewers have said isn't even waterproof - despite claiming to be. Those are getting up past £500 and it's just too much.

Even now I'd go for the Hero 8. The very latest ones are a rip-off IMO. All you're going to get with them is 5K or 8K... pffffff who cares about that, I just stick with 1080p on mine. Just get a bunch of TELESIN batteries, they are cheap af and loads of people use them. Mine last about 95% of the time the original batteries do. I got 3 batteries and a charger for under £25.

I always use a power pack on my gopro 8 black. @stephenfostermtb

That means the USB cable has to go into the side. I never found any way to make that waterproof so I never bothered getting a battery pack.

 

[Bear-uk]

I got the GoPro Hero 8 Black in Summer 2021 because at that time it was the best one for the money. The 9 and 10 were already out but cost more and didn't seem to do much more, although that horizon lock thing might be a useful feature, can't remember if it's the 9 or 10 that has it. The 10 apparently has a hydrophobic lens too, but I bought an aftermarket one for my Hero 8 and it's been OK. Doesn't stop water staying on the lens but it's a vast improvement over the globs of water that stick to the lens without it.

Battery life is crap on all these cameras (or the camera is crap, with a long battery life) they never seem to be able to do both and it would probably cost £200 more even if it did.

I just keep it on 1080p at 60 FPS in the daytime and use 1080p at 24 FPS at night. You're never going to catch number plates at night though - not without some fancy camera that costs silly money. Even the Insta360 with it's 1 inch sensor won't give you sharp number plates at night and that not only costs more than a GoPro, but reviewers have said isn't even waterproof - despite claiming to be. Those are getting up past £500 and it's just too much.

Even now I'd go for the Hero 8. The very latest ones are a rip-off IMO. All you're going to get with them is 5K or 8K... pffffff who cares about that, I just stick with 1080p on mine. Just get a bunch of TELESIN batteries, they are cheap af and loads of people use them. Mine last about 95% of the time the original batteries do. I got 3 batteries and a charger for under £25.



That means the USB cable has to go into the side. I never found any way to make that waterproof so I never bothered getting a battery pack.

I have just started to use media mod on mine and that's not waterproof anyway. Chest mounted now with the power pack cable tied to the camera mounting plate

 

[VWsurfbum]

GoPro 9&10. Batteries don’t last more than 10 min unless brand new in the winter

Chest mount is the way to go.

The new 11 mini looks cool but wouldn’t last long enough.

Really? I get long run times out of mine? are you leaving it running/connected to app/remote?

 

[VWsurfbum]

I have just started to use media mod on mine and that's not waterproof anyway. Chest mounted now with the power pack cable tied to the camera mounting plate

View attachment 105663

I was thinking about a media mod (just something else to play with, how do you find it on the chesty? does it pick up your voice still ok?

 

[Bear-uk]

I was thinking about a media mod (just something else to play with, how do you find it on the chesty? does it pick up your voice still ok?

Well I normally use it helmet mounted with the power pack in my backpack. I was constantly having issues with wind noise and tried all sorts of mods but nothing really worked.
So the media mod was on offer for £40 and I thought why not try it.
It has 3 mics on it, with only the front and back usable in windy weather.
With bare mics it does cut down noise but it's very sensitive like the camera ones are. So I fitted some dead cat material and my weekend ride was in some shitty wet and windy weather and the mod worked well at cutting out wind noise but it picked up all the snotty noise coming from the nose . Rear mic did better in wind than front. I have just fitted some foam under the dead cat but yet to test it.
Voice wise it's very loud on play back but sometimes struggles to hear me telling it to start or stop recording.
Over all its to sensitive but it gives the option for an external lapel type mic.
On another note a good mod when using gloves is to fit some bolts to a rubber protective case as it makes the camera a lot easier to use.

 

[Haveland]

I've been a GoPro user since Gopro 2 and have had a love/hate for them. I tried a few of the other cheaper brands but could never get them to work well (mostly issues with Iso noise on them). I haven't tried anything by DJI or Insta.

I currently only have a GoPro 9 but haven't found a reason to upgrade it yet. I feel like GoPro really hit the mark with this camera for all my usage but battery life does suck. Until they released that white winter battery. I went on a ride 2 weeks ago and forgot my backup battery but I left the camera just rolling on 4k for almost 90 minutes in about -6C weather.

Chest mount all the way.

Video from that day