GoPro recommendations

[somethingsketchy]

After seeing a commercial for a GoPro Hero camera, I am wondering if these are worth the hype I've seen online.

I would primarily get the "Auto" edition to mount in a car, or on a snow machine, if they are as good as people are saying.

What do you guys think?

 

[Kaido]

Yeah, it's pretty great. The low-light isn't too hot, but if you have a lot of sun then it really shines (no pun intended). One of the nice things it offers is the option for both 720p and 1080p, which is nice for (1) the viewing angles and (2) for the framerate. In 720p mode (and WVGA and 960p mode) you can a 170º degree viewing angle, whereas in 1080p mode you get a 127º degree viewing angle. So swapping over to 720p basically gives you an ultra-wide angle view instead of just a wide-angle view, which is really nice for car interiors. Also, they have a 60 FPS option in 720p mode, which is really nice for slow motion. You can use that in Twixtor to do awesome slow-motion:

http://www.revisionfx.com/products/twixtor/

Here's some sample car clips with Twixtor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyp27k4SQHE

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU3dzrpA1sE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk6wkfVNFQE

If you want a really easy-to-use camcorder that requires pretty much zero configuration and takes great shots every time, the GoPro is pretty hard to beat. They have an LCD attachment now so you can see what you're aiming at, which is nice. There's no zoom or any other options on the camera aside from switching the resolution & framerate, so if that works for your situation (car/snow machine - definitely sounds like it would fit the bill), then it's a great little camera! It's definitely on my wishlist

 

[somethingsketchy]

Thanks Kaido for the feedback. I was debating getting one of these with a buddy of mine, and he contemplated the same one, for those long road trips to car shows.

The big selling point was the long recording time on a 32GB card for 720p video, albeit if I leave it plugged into the cigarette lighter port on the center console.

I wonder if it would be worth getting the "naked" skeleton case or just the stock case.