best hel cam for surf is out......time to sell the gopro

masterblaster

masterblaster

X-H2
strickly as a helmet cam,99% of the vids shot here are done from the helmet,and 75% of those suck cause they are shot with a 170 angle gopro and the guys have no idea how close you have to be to make that angle look worth a crap,most are just tiny black dots barely in perspective.You literally have to be unsafe close to get a decent shot.
the tachyon micro is a FAR better cam for this,its cheap and shoots with a 90 lens.........perfect for jetski action,and its got GREAT quality,handles low light and bright sun great as you turn into the sun it auto adjusts smooth.
If you have a go pro wide and all you do is shoot hel cam of others,sell it to someone outside the ski community and get the tachyon micro.you will be much more happy with the footage,it captures the true experience of the size of waves and tricks MUCH better, almost perfect.

http://www.tachyoninc.com/

check out the accurate prospective,quality of colors,saturation,smoothness,quickness of light meter from shade to sun.
 
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Dustin Mustangs

Dustin Mustangs

uʍop ǝpıs dn
Location
Holland, MI
I like where you are going with this, but the hd gopro can still out shoot the one you linked. The angle of view is the big thing here and it more or less equates to how 'zoomed in' you are, right? And your argument is that the gopro is too far zoomed out to film others?? Well, that camera you posted has a max resolution of 640*480 and an angle of view (aov) of 90`. If you shot using the gopro hd in 1080 mode (127` aov) and cropped it down to that resolution (ie digital zoom) you could have an aov of just over 40 degrees. Less than half that of the one you posted. Or, if you wanted to keep the 90 degree angle of view of the one you posted, the gopro hd could do it with over twice the resolution.

Granted, you have to edit the gopro footage to get this effect. The added benefit here is that you are able to zoom the camera (digitally) in post processing and are also allowed a pretty good amount of correction up/down or left/right for things that would have otherwise been out of the frame.

Gopro wins if you know how to use it and I think that is the underlying issue here. People misuse these things.
 
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masterblaster

masterblaster

X-H2
dustin,the hd gopro has the same 170 angle lens,it just chops the edges in 1080p for screen aspect ratio,trust me I called gopro about it as soon as it was released.the gopro hd is a expensive hard to operate POS for "helmet cam use" Its already hard as hell for most any computer thats not brand new to edit.Dont even get into dig enhancing and zooming,ive tried that as well and it looked like crap.not to mention was major time consuming. Im talking about something anyone can do right now.
also the gopro standart lens cam is old tech has too small a angle lens,and has no where near the quality as the tachyon micro or the new gopro 170.

Nick,bro thats what im saying,the res this cam produces is GREAT for our kinda vids on vimeo and uturd. A lens in the 90 to 100 deg angle is closest to the human eyes perspective and makes waves and big air tricks look VERY close to the actual experience. I cant tell ya how many peps on here are bitching their vids dont relay the actual conditions.The only thing this cam is missing is a waterproff "RF" type remote. It has a useless ir line of site remote currently but I spoke with someone at tachyon and they may offer a add on waterproof rf type wrist band remote if their is enough demand for it.So everyone should call them up and ask them to do it when ordering a cam.They are the same price everywhere so order direct.$129 is a great price for this quality.
There is a HUGE diff in the amount of time it takes to cut a edit on your comp from footage taken that is already semi edited with your remote.I have a sony 480 ex bullet hel cam with a waterproff lanc remote that is great I cut edits in 15 min and done with it.Im just sick of the backpack and wires.These all in one cams are getting better fast.in yrs to come they will all have rechargeable built in lipos as well.

this one already has a rf remote but not as good quality as the tachyon and another crap 170 lens and the cam is twice as big and heavy on the helmet.http://www.driftinnovation.com/
 
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Waternut

Waternut

Customizing addict
Location
Macon, GA
More power to you. I know the whole reason I got the gopro wide was to shoot video of my own actions...not others. That video doesn't look as bad as many but I can't stand seeing a video that looks like it's shooting through a soda straw.

edit: Since that video was shot entirely in glassy water, it's hard to tell how it reacts to bouncing. I remember one of the older cameras (not gopro) was so awful that I couldn't watch it from all the vibration and bouncing.
 
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masterblaster

masterblaster

X-H2
go to their site and watch the motocross vids,but watch for the date they were shot and the make sure they were shot with the new tech micro cam,all the vids are grouped look for the ones labeled micro the thing handles vibration shock better than any other all in one cam ive ever seen,we have had almost all of them at this point,the old tachyon xc was good but nowhere near this quality in all respects

no debate in the gopro being great for 1st person,thats not what is being discussed here though
 
stanton

stanton

High on jetskis.
Location
atascadero,ca
shooting someone with a non wide angle lens on a helmet cam can be very difficult and most of the time the shot is missed or chopped and you end up getting less usable footage than compared to a wide angle. the wide angle also makes it less shaky so you can actually watch the video without getting a headache. i would never buy a camera unless it had HD capability, and youtube supports this now so saying it all looks like poo once you upload it is BS.
personally i think that cam is just like a oregon scientific, same resolution.
now lets compare vids.. both videos were saved the same way and uploaded to vimeo, i saved the video in HD resolutions (.wmv) while the cameras are not so you can see the full potential of the cams.
oregon scientific, old camera, but similar lens to the tachyon
go to vimeo to watch in "HD"
[video=vimeo;7749218]http://vimeo.com/7749218[/video]
now the wide angle go pro.
[video=vimeo;5497786]http://vimeo.com/5497786[/video]

to me the choice is obvious!
 
masterblaster

masterblaster

X-H2
stanton..reread some of the thread,the old org sci and even old tachyon were 50 deg lenses,thats all the old tech could support,they did SUCK the new ones are 90 deg.you dont miss a thing and everything looks accurate prospective. please dont come in here and confuse guys into buying crap cams for our use. hd is not ness for our vids on a computer mont.this cam just out for 2010.It also is cheap enough everyone can buy one,3x more or $300 bucks for a cam you could easily lose is no good,the stock mount also sucks for gopros,The wavejunkies alone have had even tethered go pros break off in wipeouts,we have lost 3 of them already between all our riders. Beleive me buy this cam and compare you wont be sorry.
 
stanton

stanton

High on jetskis.
Location
atascadero,ca
masterblaster said:
stanton..reread some of the thread,the old org sci and even old tachyon were 50 deg lenses,thats all the old tech could support,they did SUCK the new ones are 90 deg.you dont miss a thing and everything looks accurate prospective. please dont come in here and confuse guys into buying crap cams for our use. hd is not ness for our vids on a computer mont.this cam just out for 2010.It also is cheap enough everyone can buy one,3x more or $300 bucks for a cam you could easily lose is no good,the stock mount also sucks for gopros,The wavejunkies alone have had even tethered go pros break off in wipeouts,we have lost 3 of them already between all our riders. Beleive me buy this cam and compare you wont be sorry.
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90 sounds good, but to me it still looks very similar, for a helmet cam i think wide angles will make it easier to get that useable footage. the best shots are the up close ones anyways! maybe you think hd is not important, but i do. everything i get from now on will be hd so it doesnt look like crap when i watch it on my big screen.
wheres YOUR vids?
 
Idok

Idok

F1pro
Location
Nations oldest muthaF+++kin city
stanton said:
90 sounds good, but to me it still looks very similar, for a helmet cam i think wide angles will make it easier to get that useable footage. the best shots are the up close ones anyways! maybe you think hd is not important, but i do. everything i get from now on will be hd so it doesnt look like crap when i watch it on my big screen.
wheres YOUR vids?
Click to expand...



wavejunkie site....



dude, torr has been toting a helmet camera around for YEEEEEARS...



he was camming back when I was riding squarenoses!




I would definatly take his advice into account on camera gear....
 
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