GoPro? Or?

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Jim SoG

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Want to start recording video of some trails and being new to all this, I am not sure it is worth the hassle and cash, so what device would be good for a beginner to record my off road travels? I know GoPro is a trusted name but I know they seem high dollar for the unit and then mounts and whatever, is that the only way to go or do you have an alternative?

Thanks for the help and info in advance,

Jim
 

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Want to start recording video of some trails and being new to all this, I am not sure it is worth the hassle and cash, so what device would be good for a beginner to record my off road travels? I know GoPro is a trusted name but I know they seem high dollar for the unit and then mounts and whatever, is that the only way to go or do you have an alternative?

Thanks for the help and info in advance,

Jim
They are pretty much the gold standard in my opinion. I definitely recommend the 10 especially for what we do. The stabilization is insane as well as the video quality. You can even grab it and take some pretty good still photos. Even clog with it. I almost always have one with me even hiking or around town for video or photos. It’s small and discreet I love it. For me it’s been worth the money. And you can get a kit off Amazon with all kinds of mount options
 

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I don’t have any experience with GoPro’s, but I can tell you to stay away from the cheap knock-offs. I have one that I paid about $30 from Amazon. It’s a complete piece of rubbish.

I am aware of some folks moving over to DJI after having issues with Go pro.
 

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We have three gopro's Hero 3,5, & 8 Blacks, Images from them are fantastic, especially the 8, however except from that I can't say I love much else about them. They eat batteries with a voracious appetite, get hot, and the two earlier versions randomly lock up. the remote control is great when it works, seems to disconnect from the cameras randomly. Gopro has a habit of changing its form factor so batteries and accessories are not standardized across the line.
We hard mounted a couple in the rigs and run them off of USB port so not always having to change batteries. I got Michelle a DJI Osmo Pocket for Christmas and so far have been very impressed, going to try one of DJI's action cameras soon as a replacement for the older Gopro and see how that works out. We do have BlackVue dash cameras mounted high on the windshield of our rigs also. Mainly for footage in case of accident, but works well because its always on and will catch anything that happens in front of the rig before you can get the action cameras switched on, such as a animals crossing the trail etc. footage is quite not as good as the Gopro, but not bad. I have been experimenting with adding lens hoods between camera and windshield to eliminate glare and reflections with mixed results, have to avoid super wide angle with a hood.

For out of rig photography I use a K1 Pentax DSLR, and for video Michelle uses the DJI osmo and a Cannon RP DSLR, Still learning my drone skills on the DJI Mavic Air II
 

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I would look more into things like the dji osmo handheld or feiyutech pocket, their gimbal stabilization is absolutely great and makes filming easy
 
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Want to start recording video of some trails and being new to all this, I am not sure it is worth the hassle and cash, so what device would be good for a beginner to record my off road travels? I know GoPro is a trusted name but I know they seem high dollar for the unit and then mounts and whatever, is that the only way to go or do you have an alternative?

Thanks for the help and info in advance,

Jim
Thanks for asking this question Jim, watching
 

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I love GoPros. Sure they have their quirks but they sure are convenient. I have five of them from the hero 4 up to the hero 8. The stabilization is great. Look on craigslist. I got most of mine from there at really good price. Everybody wants the latest and greatest and they’re willing to sell their slightly used one at a low price.
 

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Thanks for asking this question Jim, watching
The same here. I keep getting to the point where I'm thinking if I'd like an action cam and if it's worth the hassle and if so, which one is the right one. Thanks Jim for creating the thread. Great feedback here!
 
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MazeVX

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Just thought I'd give you some background why I said handheld gimbal cam instead of gopro.

The gopro and it's stabilization and various mounting options are the best if filming out or from a driving vehicle.

But whoever tried to make a nice smooth looking video filming out of the hand knows that it takes a lot of practice, here comes the gimbal cam, it takes that out of your hands and just makes great videos and has a lot of great and fun features like follow mode, panorama etc and doesn't require another thing to do so.

If you are going for both (action cam + handheld) make sure you have the same manufacturer so you can use the same compression and color profile for the video material from both cams.
That makes editing a lot easier and you get a consistent "look" or "style" throughout your video without dealing to much with editing.
 

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I have an earlier version of the Crosstour cheap but very capable "action camera" and it suits me just fine. For less than $100 I got this camera and a pile of accessories including remote control which is on my steering wheel; super easy to start/stop recording or snap a pic without taking my eyes off of the road. I can get the camera aimed once (on the dash) and never touch it again so I don't risk ruining the aiming by poking at the camera's start/stop button. IMO its video quality is on par or better than the more expensive options and at that price I can lose/spindle/mutilate and replace it a number of times for the same price as a more expensive brand. IMO the more expensive brand, and this may have been improved in later revisions, suffers from terrible distortion around the edges of the frame - this could be due to folks choosing the wide angle version. IMO non-wide-angle versions of any camera produce more pleasing video due to less distortion around the edges.

Higher video quality means more disk space required for storing your video and slower editing times (a lot more data to shuffle around). Not to mention longer upload times to sharing services as the resulting files will be much larger. So you will have to strike a balance between image size/quality and what you desire the final output to look like.

Don't cheap out on SD cards; get a good fast respected brand name. You don't want to lose video due to a card crapping out. Slower/cheaper cards sometimes yield choppy video (especially with higher resolutions) due to their slow write speeds. I like Sandisk Extreme cards but other brands, such as Lexar, are good as well. You are probably fine staying away from the cheapo cards and getting a known brand name with fast write speeds.

If I were going to get a new camera I would be looking at DJI first as I appreciate its output better than others. Their gimbaled versions don't appear to be a great option for mounting on the dash as they are long and skinny but are great for hand held stabilized video. Are you looking for a dash cam type affair or something that you can carry around? Or both? Do you already have a phone that takes decent video? I tend to use my iPhone out of the truck and the cheapo dashcam for easy shots while underway.

Yeah, its a rabbit hole ;) Good luck!
 

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Want to start recording video of some trails and being new to all this, I am not sure it is worth the hassle and cash, so what device would be good for a beginner to record my off road travels? I know GoPro is a trusted name but I know they seem high dollar for the unit and then mounts and whatever, is that the only way to go or do you have an alternative?

Thanks for the help and info in advance,

Jim
Jim, I wouldn't rule out going with a Dash Camera. I went with the NextBase 622GW. 4K Resolution and I wired it directly to my fuse box. When the truck's on, it's on. It automatically records in nice, short time segments, 140-degree wide angle viewfinder, and it accepts up to 128GB MicroSD cards. I recommend getting the "SanDisk Max Endurance" 128GB MicroSD cards that are engineered to better handle the extreme temperatures found w/in vehicles during summer months. I love mine.
Got if from Amazon.
 

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Want to start recording video of some trails and being new to all this, I am not sure it is worth the hassle and cash, so what device would be good for a beginner to record my off road travels? I know GoPro is a trusted name but I know they seem high dollar for the unit and then mounts and whatever, is that the only way to go or do you have an alternative?

Thanks for the help and info in advance,

Jim
I have two GoPros. Ended up using only my iPhone. Hassle free.