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

[Dustin Mustangs]

I just don't see the point other than price. With the gopro you can shoot in wide angle, never miss a thing because of how wide the angle of view is, and then set your angle of view and frame the shot PERFECTLY in post processing while dumbing it down to whatever resolution you want. My buddy has a helmet cam at that res (not sure of the aov) and he NEVER gets any good footage because he can't tell where it is pointing good enough. Literally never and it sucks big time sorting through all that garbage looking for anything salvageable. Can the one you linked film at 60 fps? That alone is a huge advantage. And saying the gopro is hard to operate? Really?? I guess I understand the hassle (and hardware requirements) of editing but I personally edit all of my footage anyways. If you don't your videos are gonna suck regardless of how good you are with the equipment you filmed with.

To each their own I guess but this is hardly a clear cut decision.

 

[masterblaster]

look through 90% of the vids on here shot with them,its pretty clear cut. most completely suck with tiny dots as objectives with waves that you have no idea how big they are cause the perspective is squed horribly from a 170 lens. If your buddy is missing shots he either sucks filming or is using a cam with a 50 to 60 deg angle the same as the one stanton posted in his first vid,Ive never missed a shot with a 90 deg lens ever.
look through our web site in the vid sec,we have hel cam vids hosted all the back to 05 when all in ones didnt even exist

 

[SuperJETT]

why not just get the regular angle gopro instead of the fisheye? am I missing something here?

x2, I think master just doesn't realize that's available. The whole point of the gopro is to capture what YOU are doing, not others. Also, the Wide can shoot in narrow field also, it's a setting from what I remember.

 

[badvinny]

I want to know if it is easier to use, I like my gopro, but every third time I end up in the wrong mode, dead batteries or something, .....or maybe I am just an idiot?

 

[masterblaster]

Im well aware of them,have used them as well,they are old tech,they use a 60 or so angle lens way to narrow,they also do not have the same up to date internals,not the same in any way totally diff from the new 170 wide go pro,thats why you dont see any of the new hd models avail in the old non wide lens.
the wide hd model shoots slightly narrower field with the same 170 lens in 1080p to correct for aspect ratio,it crops it does not zoom at all. My point is all these vids on here are guys buying go pro wides to shoot thier buddies are wasting thier time and $ help get the word out,but the gopro if you wana shoot small clips of yourself,buy the tachyon if you wana shoot your buds also,simple as that

vinny it has happened to us all,they are a pain,the tachyon micro has one button on top super simple and way less likly to be in worng mode,batt deal is the same for now,upcoming models will have rechargeable built in lipos

 

[FlightPlanDan]

deja-vu.....
I've been checking out the Tachyon. I'm going that way.
Seems user-friendly. Good quality.
Cecil B. Demille, look out!

(did I spell that right?)

 

[Sidsol]

how secure do you think that velco is?

 

[FlightPlanDan]

how secure do you think that velco is?

Even with the ATC-2K I purchased a mounting system from #zero. And it was a far better system than what came with the cam. And very affordable with mega-fast shipping.
I don't expect any cam, no matter what it costs, to have a mounting system that will stand up to what we do.
That is something you work out as needed.
But, in answer to your question...No.
If the cam catches on...there will very soon be a "freestyle ready" mounting system available.
Maybe you will invent it?

 

[Waternut]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC4mllMr7GY&feature=player_embedded#!

good example of vibration shock resistance,if the cam is mounted on your head it should not be seeing much vibration anyway

the new cams have dynamic shock sensors and are night and day better,here is a comparison to last yrs model

Go to 1:25 of your video and watch the old model walk followed by the new model walk. Both are jumpy as all hell and it looks like the image tears and distorts the whole time. That's what drives me crazy. I agree the new model is better but it still isn't good. It's hard to focus on anything cool when the video is bouncing around like that.

Now look at this video of some old guy walking around with his gopro... Is it perfect? No, but it's still a lot smoother than even the new 2010 Tachyon.

 

[Dustin Mustangs]

the wide hd model shoots slightly narrower field with the same 170 lens in 1080p to correct for aspect ratio,it crops it does not zoom at all.

There is little difference between what it does going into 1080 and an actual zoom. It's also the same situation when you digitally zoom it on your pc afterwords given you don't exceed the native resolution. All you're doing either way is using less of the image sensor. That is just like the difference between a full frame and medium format slr. From the slr wiki:

Angle of view
An APS-C format SLR (left) and a full-frame DSLR (right) show the difference in the size of the image sensors.

The angle of view of a lens depends upon its focal length and the camera's image sensor size; a sensor smaller than 35 mm film format (36 mm × 24 mm frame) gives a narrower angle of view for a lens of a given focal length than a camera equipped with a full-frame (35 mm) sensor. As of 2008, only a few current DSLRs have full-frame sensors, including the Sony α 900, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, 5D Mark II, Nikon D3x and Nikon D700. The scarcity of full-frame DSLRs is partly a result of the cost of such large sensors. Medium format size sensors, such as those used in the Mamiya ZD among others, are even larger than full-frame (35 mm) sensors, and capable of even greater resolution, and are correspondingly more expensive.

The impact of sensor size on field of view is referred to as the "crop factor" or "focal length multiplier", which is a factor by which a lens focal length can be multiplied to give the full-frame-equivalent focal length for a lens. Typical APS-C sensors have crop factors of 1.5 to 1.7, so a lens with a focal length of 50 mm will give a field of view equal to that of a 75 mm to 85 mm lens on a 35 mm camera. The smaller sensors of Four Thirds System cameras have a crop factor of 2.0.

While the crop factor of APS-C cameras effectively narrows the angle of view of long-focus (telephoto) lenses, making it easier to take close-up images of distant objects, wide-angle lenses suffer a reduction in their angle of view by the same factor.

DSLRs with "crop" sensor size have slightly more depth-of-field than cameras with 35 mm sized sensors for a given angle of view. The amount of added depth of field for a given focal length can be roughly calculated by multiplying the depth of field by the crop factor. Shallower depth of field is often preferred by professionals for portrait work and to isolate a subject from its background.

There is a pretty cool focal length simulator linked below. Go to EF Lenses 101 on the right and then click the focal length one. Notice how most of the fisheye distortaion on the wide angle shot is in the outter edges. There is little difference between the center portion of the 15mm image vs the full frame 20mm and notice the difference in angle of view between the two.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ProductCatIndexAct&fcategoryid=140

I agree nobody bothers to utilize this but the capability to zoom in is there if you are willing to sacrifice the HD resolution.

 

[FlightPlanDan]

user friendly? Do I want to sleep with the owners manual, or do I want to turn it on and ride?
Most of us are gonna turn it on and ride, filter out the crap with movie maker, and post it up.

I don't care which cam is better. Especially if I've got to sleep with the manual. I don't think most other riders do either.
As long as it catches what you did that day, with decent quality, most will be pleased.

I don't see a lot of vids here on the "x" using the features that you say are available with the gopro. If it takes a rocket scientist or a ten year old kid to show you how to use it....it's worthless.

 

[FlightPlanDan]

RANT TO FOLLOW:

You can argue all day & all night about what camera is better. The truth is: most of us, who want vid, are gonna do/buy what is affordable and easy to use. We're not gonna want features that you have to program in by plugging in a laptop. We're not gonna want HD.
Djkorn and others make great vids. The rest of us are just recording stuff that people "may" want to see.
If you can't sit thru one of these vids.....THEN CLICK THE FRIGGIN" MOUSE and don't watch it!
We're not making feature films here.
This thread... or these two threads, have managed to make every member feel inferior about his/her camera and or editing abilities.
Kiss my arse. Don't like it......don't watch it.

 

[Dustin Mustangs]

user friendly? Do I want to sleep with the owners manual, or do I want to turn it on and ride?
Most of us are gonna turn it on and ride, filter out the crap with movie maker, and post it up.

I don't care which cam is better. Especially if I've got to sleep with the manual. I don't think most other riders do either.
As long as it catches what you did that day, with decent quality, most will be pleased.

I don't see a lot of vids here on the "x" using the features that you say are available with the gopro. If it takes a rocket scientist or a ten year old kid to show you how to use it....it's worthless.

The gopro retains it's settings when you turn it off. If you don't like to monkey with them you can set it up once and leave it that way. Or for that matter just leave it at the factory settings. Hold the front button it powers on. Push the top button it records. This is too much?

The stuff I am talking about in this thread has nothing to do with the camera. You would do it afterwords on your pc with an editing program, if you choose to. Obviously most don't.

 

[masterblaster]

waternut,depends on how you walk witht the cam and how much movement you transfer to the cam,a ski is alot more smooth than walking. ive had sony camcorders that still looked like crap filming walking.thats not vibration thats just bad filminng.

Dan,yes bro im just trying to keep it simple and have guys come out with a decent edit.EASY and CHEAP.long as everyone knows to use a gopro for just filiming yourself and nothing more,I feel like ive got my point across,the tachyon is the best out right now for the $ for filming others

 

[dirtnut99]

So master did you get one yet? I am in the search and can't afford the gopro hd.. THis cam is tempting because of the price, battery life, & storage capacity.. I am a film editing virgin... haha so I was wondering if this is easier or is it just the program you use that makes it hard to edit.. I like this cam, but I just want the best I can afford that puts out good quality...

 

[masterblaster]

yea bro i have the new 2010 micro cam,and another wavejunkie has the old 2009 model,tjhe new one is FAR better. I might try to set up a group buy with them,if their is enough interest and see if they will drop ship them all direct.

the only thing that makes it hard to edit is these trypoe cams without a good wireless rf remote are constant on record,this makes it so you have 2 hours or more of BS to weed through to cut a edit,in the future all thses cams will have rf remotes,that are wristbands,allowing you to edit while you shoot the footage.

 

[doorslammer]

have you got any video out in the surf?

 

[ksmith83]

yea bro i have the new 2010 micro cam,and another wavejunkie has the old 2009 model,tjhe new one is FAR better. I might try to set up a group buy with them,if their is enough interest and see if they will drop ship them all direct.

the only thing that makes it hard to edit is these trypoe cams without a good wireless rf remote are constant on record,this makes it so you have 2 hours or more of BS to weed through to cut a edit,in the future all thses cams will have rf remotes,that are wristbands,allowing you to edit while you shoot the footage.

If you set up a group buy i would be interested.

You mention difficult to edit like having 2 hours of footage, cant you stop the video by pushing the button on the top?

 

[masterblaster]

yes you can,if you mount it on the side of your helmet in the ear opening you can hear the on off beeps,but its far better to have a wireless remote.most times you will just end up leaving it on and being stuff with a long file to edit,ill let everyone know if the group buy is worth doing soon. will post up some surf footage before to long also

 

[dirtnut99]

Sweet!! I would be in for a group deal too if they do it.. I need to figure out my computer issue right now.. It won't let me view any of these vids or on their webpage, little x in the top left corner.. So I am just going off you all your comments and stuff.. haha I hate computers sometimes.....