Ed Hughes

After looking at my pitiful vidoes of the hillclimb up Palomar Mtn last weekend, and knowing I've got an upcoming DE the end of the month, I bought a GoPro Hero HD camera. It comes with a slew of mounts, but none, unless I want to adhesive to my dash or mount outside, work in my interior. I do have a camera mount on my roolbar, so I'll order a tripod adapter, and be done with it.

I tried it out today using the suction cup mounting arm on the passenger wing window. As the Rube Goldberg setup has a 6" arm, there is a bit of shake. But, there is hope. This will go up to 1080p, but it will be a memory hog, so this first example is Standard resolution. It is a 170 degree lens, so there is a wide field of vision, but it does seem to focus pretty well.

I'm uploading a 720p clip on Vimeo right now, I'll post that in a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyKXb18Etc8

Ed Hughes

I officially like the HD results better:

http://vimeo.com/13065909

GothingNC

Mucho better

John

dshepp806

better, 4-sure. Thanks for sharing, Ed.

I like these.....need to go faster, however......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Doyle

ivangene

first off I love the sound of your car!

but did you mount the GP in its waterproof box? door open? the sound I am getting sucks!

also did you suction cup it on? where (pass window>?)

nice vid, makes me want to gooooooo................ see ya!

Amber Gramps

Picture quality is great on the Vimeo, but my video card can't keep up.

TT Oversteer

I have the Go Pro Hero HD as well and I like it. I do agree that the sound sucks however. I've tried both open and closed backing plates and there's not much difference. Any mounting outside the car or even inside with windows open creates mostly wind noise.

Also, now I need a new computer to handle the processing speed required for this level of video and to convert files from SD cards or hard drive storage to DVD. There is also no way to pause, ffwd, rewind files; unless you are on the computer running quicktime. There must be software available to turn these files into DVD movies that you can pop into your home player and watch like a movie with normal DVD functions? The video quality in HD is great but the time and patience required to make these video files easily accesible outside the home computer format is beyond me.

Also a bummer to only be able to charge the camera battery with a USB cable plugged into a computer. I do like the small size of the camera and many mounting options it comes with though.

Overall an affordable (got mine on Amazon for $245) and neat package if you have current and powerful home computing and a lot of time and patience for fiddling with this kind of stuff.

Ed Hughes

I gotta keep it sane when driving amongst civilization!

I had the open back on the case, and it was cupped to the wing window. I ordered a tripod mount last nite, so I hope maybe having it between the seats will give a bit better audio. My iPhone video where the CHP passes me on YouTube sounds 300% better.

I've been reading up on software for editing, but heck, I don't even Photoshop pics. I'm probably going to just record at 720p @ 30fps and live with what I get. I uploaded the HD clip on YT as well, and it came out better than the STD res clip, IMO. Try that Doug and see if your vid card handles that one

It's just another toy, when it comes down to it. I almost bought the STD version, but glad I went HD after all. It certainly has handcuffs and limitations, but it'll give me some form of record when we get some fun runs in.

ricster

Much better. Now go drive those mountains. Don't waste it on city streets.

rusnak

NOICE!!! I agree....Ruby's voice sounds Awesome!

ivangene

I am with TT and Ed.... its OK... (mine is the STD) and I like the size and mounting options but for me the complete lack of zoom, and the audio suck. I have moved it, made a new mounting plate, played with settings... and still getting pretty poor vids.

SeanR

Much better camera Ed, now on the next drive, get behind a CGT so we can really test out the audio.

rusnak

Ed, a question: Can you pivot the camera to the pedal area, and shoot video of proper heel and toe shifting? I think some of the noobs might benefit.

Ed Hughes

That can be arranged.....or would you prefer an Enzo?

I'll play with that, that may work.

bart1

Vids are great - I love in-car stuffs!

Taking this a little off topic, but I can say I got behind this the other day and it sounded like he unleased hell when he opened it up!