Anyone with GoPro Hero experience?

[stommelen]

Has anyone out there ever played with a GoPro Hero cam? Just wondering if the thing is actually worth considering as inexpensive alternative for shooting race movies. Cheers, gfg

[iamuwere]

Didn't have much luck with application. Video was always "wavy" and never found a solution. Went back to my old $100 bullet camera and things are better now.

jim

[Matt King]

I've used one on my Mustang. The video quality is very good, as is the size and versatility of mounting the camera. They use SD memory cards and will record up to about 50 minutes on a 2 gig card, but I've found that to be inconsistent. They are sensitive to the type of battery used. GoPro recommends NiCads only. I've used alkalines and had problems with it shutting off before the memory is full, which I think has something to do with vibration. Not sure why the battery affects that, but apparently it does. The sound quality also leaves a little to be desired, but that's the biggest complaint. Overall, for the price they are pretty good. Here's a link to a video I shot at Mid-Ohio.

http://vimeo.com/1875611

[cooleyjb]

There have been mixed results when used on open wheel cars.

I haven't had any problems with the ones I've sold to people with street based track cars or even some of the local circle track guys.

[JakeL]

All of us CSR/DSR guys here in RMDiv tried them, and we all threw them in the garbage after a littany of unsolvable problems. We all ultimately went with ChaseCam or CAM-FX recorders and bullet cams - WAY better results.

Great marketing, poor product.

My $0.02.

-Jake

[mike g.]

I would skip it.

We got some decent video, but it was still a little wavy and took a bazillion times to get setup right. Too many 2 minute videos of getting to the grid then it shutting off or something. We tried all the battery setups - never got a full hour out of any of them.

It was frustrating, but ended up with a few races caught on tape. Although, the best video quality one we ended up with had the audio set on the wrong setting... oh well.

If I had to do it again, I'd save up for a different unit ($600-800 new, it seems).. I don't regret this thing, as it is useful and the mounts are fantastic (stick it on a street car fender and go dodging thru traffic :-) its fun to watch later).



-Mike

[PaulL]

Don't waste your time if you want to KNOW that your video will actually be recorded.

I tried every trick in the book, and the thing kept shutting off in the middle of a run.
When it did record once in the odd while, it was wavy and the sound was awful.

I've upgraded to a Cam-FX Racer's Package, and have been totally pleased.
Solid product. No problems. Great video and sound.

[Tom Sprecher]

I think the unit is a great bang for the buck, have been using one for almost two years now and have not had any of the problems mentioned above. The unit is firmly mounted to my roll bar using a modified case and an I/O Port mount. The mount from http://www.svtek.com/ would work well too. Somethimes there is some slight waviness (industry term) in the picture but only when in top gear and at redline. If not vibration, then maybe the waves mentioned are from EMI as my unit is not close to the ignition.

Use cheap, rechargable batteries because like most other small digital or video cameras, this unit eats batteries. That is reason the camera shuts off. A set of new or fully charged batteries occassionally lasts the 50 mins record time, but that limit is due to battery life.

My set up has dummy batteries and a 3V DC-DC converter. I also milled a slot in the case so the card can be removed for downloading to laptop w/o opening the case.

The audio is not very good, but I plan some additional trial and error experimentation. It may be so due to slotted hole in the case. I recently got a great deal on the wide angle unit and will play with that as well.

That's my $.02 and would give you more, but my application to become a bank holding company has not been accepted yet so no TARP $$$ here.

[Supersmile]

Spent a whole season and three different units trying to get one to work...never did achieve one usable video.

It worked fine until the car was started, then the vibrations locked it up. Tried several different SD cards and batteries to no avail.

[Bruce Allen FSCCA #82]

Mine works amazingly well. Best battery for full recording is Duracell Alkalines. Sound was bad until I fixed all the rattling bodywork. You must use the LO setting. Wavyness is vibration due to poor mount.
Also it is easy to push the record button twice and stop recording. Gotta look at light.

[captaineddie1975]

I agree with Bruce. I have had one for two years now and get fine video w/o much waviness. I had tried all different battery setups and find that the Energizer 1.2v NiMH
work fine if you keep a charged set (or new) in the unit before each run. Sound isnt too bad either and spare me on vibration problems. You will note from the picture avatar what I drive. Nothing has more vibration than an F500(except a Huey) and two strokes are LOUD. Mine is mounted on the top of the roll bar. They even work after drowning with water, ask me how I know.

[reidhazelton]

Mixed results on the solid mount engine cars. I have used it in sedans and it is much, much better. The problem is that the SD card slot does not have a lock (such as a camera where you need to push the card in further to release it) and the card is able to vibrate out, turning the camera off. I have a little piece of rolled up duct tape that fits between the car and the clear case to keep the card in place. It works 90% of the time well. The vibrations make for some low quality video. It is a fair amount of hassle to be messing with it all the time, not a simple on/off operation. But, it is like $150, so it is what it is.

How and where you mount it matters too. The clip and the mounting bracket that is slides into has a slight bit of play, so I put a piece of duct tape over the base and that has reduced some of the wavy video.

With that said, and not being able to afford any other system, any of your guys who don't use them anymore want to sell them?

[Ted Idlof]

I went thru some issues early on. Rechargeable NiMH batteries from Radio Shack and the motorsports articulated mount solved my problems. (it worked fine strapped on other FM rollbars, but not mine for some reason)

Get a card reader to download the file in 2 minutes.

I'm quite happy with it for my club racing application.

[GoPro]

Hi All,

GoPro here...just want to set a couple of things straight on our cameras as there is a lot of good information and a little bit of misinformation going on.

First off, thanks a ton for all of the support. We're a little company and I can tell you it is no small feat to develop cameras for motorsports. It's been a long road and we're happy to say that our current camera delivers on the promise.

In September 2008 we launched an entirely new 5MP Motorsports HERO and Motorsports HERO WIDE cameras.

These cameras are 100% new cameras, redesigned entirely from ground up (internals) to capitalize on what we learned with our first Motorsports HERO camera that we launched in November 2007.

The improvements include:

1) Totally redesigned camera internal layout to deal with vibration.
2) Totally redesigned power system that now boasts 3 hours 15 minutes +/- when using Endergizer Lithium batteries and about 2 hours when using NiMH rechargeable batteries. We do NOT recommend NiCAD or Alkaline batteries as they suffer voltage drop from vibration. This is very important to understand. It is a battery technology issue. NiMH or Lithiums ONLY.
2) Totally new sensor that has superior exposure, color, and low light performance. Not even close.
3) Totally new Digital Signal Processor for improved video and photo performance on all fronts.
4) Improved sound with better audio sensitivity and dynamic range.

We'll be the first to admit that our first camera had issues in some vibration environments and cameras shutting off was an issue. This is simply no longer an issue and we consider the problem entirely solved. Same goes for the SD card slot...we have an updated card carrier and your camera can go flying across the track (heaven forbid) and your camera will more than likely keep filming.

It pains us to read about some of your bad experiences and we can only assume you had an early camera and we did not live up to your expectations.

We'd like to correct that if anyone is intersted in giving us another go. We can assure you that our new and completely re-engineered 5MP cameras deliver on the promise.

If you are interested in a reduced cost GoPro, for a limited time please email us at sales@goprocamera.com and we'll see how many of you respond and we'll put a special APEXSPEED program together for you all.

Thanks for your support and interest...and have a look at the incredible videos on http://www.goprocamera.com and you will see how far we've come.

thanks a million, we're in this for the long haul and working our butts off to meet your expectations - GoPro (Nick)

[captaineddie1975]

I seemed to have a problem with Energizer 1.5v Lithium batteries not working at all.
Perhaps I will take you up on the offer.

[mike g.]

Nick,

I'd be interested in something as an upgrade or trade-in... Because, honestly, I probably won't bother taking my old gopro (standard?) to the track this year. It would probably serve some bikers or streetcar guys perfectly, but on a buzzy formula car not so much.

Thus, if there's a cheaper way to upgrade I am interested... Would you be open to sending a unit or two to some Apex folks for an unbiased review/compare, either to the old one or to another setup?

Thanks,

Mike

[reidhazelton]

Thus, if there's a cheaper way to upgrade I am interested... Would you be open to sending a unit or two to some Apex folks for an unbiased review/compare, either to the old one or to another setup

Ditto.

I should also mention mine was one of the vary first when they came out. I had mine pre-ordered. Sounds like you have found all the problems I have encountered, mainly the card slot not securing the card well enough for formula stuff.

-Reid

[-pru-]

I would like add my name to the list of those interested in updating to the newest 5MP GoPro Hero camera.

For the past two seasons, I have utilized the "1st gen" version of the Hero to capture my DB-1 Solo runs. Over that period, I have experienced some the camera issues noted on varioius ApexSpeed threads (wavy video, poor sound, power downs), but overall I have been VERY pleased with the performance of the camera. It works great for my needs! That stated, I would like to try an updated model as it appears to address all of the issues.

[sracing]

We have sold the Go-Pro now for a few years. Initially they had several problems. The biggest being the battery clip issue. Vibration would stop the video, or garbage the file.

However, since then we have sold probably 50-60 of them and have had good luck. We had one customer who never got his to work well. I suspect it was electrical interference. (The cameras are plastic and have no real EMF shielding. )

Currently we use them on our rental cars for our customers. (FV and FST) and have a couple motorcycle guys and some dwarf dirt cars using them with good results. We also have a 6 sec dragster using it with no problems.

I don't think we have any failures with the new versions in many race weekends.

Sound leaves something to be desired. They are ok for normal recording, but a race engine swamps the input and it's pretty fuzzy.

However for ~$200 they are a great deal. If you wreck one (actually kind of hard to do, since they are so light and small), no big deal. Our videos have been great. Granted you can't compare them to a $1000+ system, but I don't want a pricey system in my car for a couple reasons.

Jim
SR Racing

[PaulL]

I spent way too much time and effort trying to get my GoPro to work reliably.
I kept trying different batteries, different SD cards, different mount positions, etc.
It might work once in a while, it might not.
If it ever did work, the video would be wavy and the sound terrible.

Finally, I came in from a particular session and was REALLY looking forward to seeing the video ... but it had not recorded properly, and that was the last straw. Into the trash it went.

Now, with my new system, I can come into the paddock knowing and expecting that I will have video to look at ... not HOPING that it might have recorded.

First generation/second generation/whatever. The product was marketed and sold as if it were a properly working device, when in fact it was not.

A friend of mine, who also had similar problems, was fond of referring to it as the "GoMediocre"!

[reidhazelton]

In the beginning, before I found how well duct tape helped, I had the "I hope it is recording" thoughts. Once I got it figured out (through highly scientific methods of throwing it against my couch until it turned itself off,and then to see why it was doing so), it worked as well as $150 camera should I thought. True, it was marketed as a fully working unit, perhaps, but being a new company I assumed it would not have all the bugs worked out. Like buying the first model year of a new car, more often than not there are issues.

In their defense, whenever I had an issue, they (and Joe at CircuitMotorsports, who I bought it from) was willing to help and solve the problem. Even when it decided to leave my car and go for a ride of it's own down through T3 at Blackhawk, they sent me a brand new one with all the mounts and gizmos, not just a replacement camera. Unfortunately it became ten or fifteen plastic pieces and I didn't get a video of the excitement.

They are working on making it better and I would like to see how well the new model works. They know the problems and based on their customer service, I would bet their is improvement. I have definitely gotten $150 worth of information from watching my hands.

-Reid

[stommelen]

GoPro guys, having started this (useful) discussion (thanks for all the great input people, including the nice movies!) I fully expect some kind of discount ...right?
stommelen

[GoPro]

First generation/second generation/whatever. The product was marketed and sold as if it were a properly working device, when in fact it was not.

Fair enough, Paul...but that is why we're here communicating with you all. To let you know how much we really do care.

But please not that we didn't mis-market the product. It is just that the first version didn't cover all the bases. Please watch the highlight real at the top of our homepage...most of this was shot by customers who shared their footage with us...I think our new camera does a great job of speaking for itself: http://www.goprocamera.com

You have to understand how difficult it is to design a camera that will work on all cars and motorcycles, from street to full blown race, from 5,000 RPM to 15,000 RPM.

That is why, with our first 3MP camera we saw some people having fantastic success and others not.

On our F1000, which screams at 13K RPM it was magic. But then on an FC at 6K RPM it might have issues. It was a ton of work to sort all of this out.

We believe we've nailed it...and we're willing to put the time and effort into communicating with all of you to show our effort and passion to build the best possible products.

To be sure, this is ALL WE DO. We work more all nighters than I can even tell you. And it is fun...we love it.

So, Paul...I appreciate your words and believe me, we will make it right! I race SCCA f1000 and I am at the track all the time and I am seeing you guys and believe me...we are of the same tribe and GoPro is working hard to win your support.

My tribesmen, a deal is coming soon. We'll do a limited time Apex Speed "GoPro Loves Ya" deal for anyone that wants to buy or latest camera. It will be quick and over in a flash because we need to support our retailers who have been so terrific to us. But a quick sale will only help them with your new confidence in our product.

Last thing, we are not doing this because we need the sales or the money so please know this discount will come from our desire to win your support. Business is really good...but it doesn't mean a damn to us if our Apexspeed tribesmen aren't feeling the love.

More info soon, thank you so much again - GoPro (Nick)

[Tom Valet]

We use a ChaseCam in our FF and I dont own a GoPro but I think it is commendable that Nick has responded in the way he has, acknowledging that there were problems that he says are now resolved. I think that a lot of the problems with trying to capture video in a formula car are inherent to the cars themselves and not necessarily related to the system you are using.

We had a lot of issues with the ChaseCam, which is a nearly $1,000 system. Part of it was due to the tight packaging of an FF, part due to the vibrations in the car. Some of the mounting locations we tried caused the record button to be pressed accidentally. The rechargeable batteries were another issue, never holding enough of a charge, until we eventually hard wired the system to our car battery. The bullet camera vibrates out of focus and has be rechecked often. It took a season and a half to get the system to work reliably.

JD King has a GoPro since 2007 on his Zink and I cant tell you the number of times after a race where we didnt get any video from the ChaseCam but JD got the whole race on his GoPro and we were left watching JD's video with nothing on ours.

[BR21]

We have tried the GO Pro without much success. Seems, in an FC car, to violent of an environment for it, at least for us. Others seem to be able to get it working well after dicking with it but that was not our expierence. I gave it to my nephew who uses it as an action cam in a White Water Rafting program he instructs and it does works fine there. We also tried other cameras but when it was all said and done;

we bought the POV 1

POV 1 works fantastic. Easy to use, wicked good picture quality and contrast. And now it has an 8G upgrade which lets you capture a full weekend race program on one SD card. GP now makes a billet mount which allows you to use the roll hoop dead center as a camera placement but we also tried the mounting options supplied with the POV and they also worked great. NO VIBRATION at all.

Jim is a good guy to deal with not to say GP was bad because they were good to deal with as well. It is a touch more $ but well worth it to be sure, at least for us.

Hope this helps

[Jim Garry]

BR21,

Was your Go Pro the earlier unit or the later unit?

Thanks,
Jim

[BR21]

Jim, it was purchased last March.

[RussMcB]

Please add me to the list of people interested in the apexspeed group deal.

[J.D. King]

has been pretty good as Tom mentioned, but after a couple of shunts (one of which is on youtube) the camera became sporadic in operation, it could be from the mounting or batteries, I'll need to try NiMH or Lithiums once more before I s**tcan the camera.
I'd be willing to upgrade, go-pro has been nothing but helpful and extremely friendly to me as a customer, and I've got a great movie chasing Rand around Limerock, another of the Glen and even a Summit race, which made it worth every penny I paid for the system.

[Charles Warner]

Please add me to the list of people interested in the apexspeed group deal.

Me also.

[billwald]

Emailed GoPro three days ago about the Apex special. No response.

[Ted Idlof]

I would like to get the newer one simply because I can't add the wide angle lense to my existing case.

[GoPro]

JD King has a GoPro since 2007 on his Zink and I cant tell you the number of times after a race where we didnt get any video from the ChaseCam but JD got the whole race on his GoPro and we were left watching JD's video with nothing on ours.

Thanks Tom, that's really nice of you to post. Our heart is really in this and our cameras worked famously on most cars...thanks for recognizing that. We've put a ton of time into making them better and better. We're still working on it...!

Oh, I forgot to mention we have a 4GB SD card update patch coming out soon...you'll get 1 hours 52 minutes out of a 4GB SD card...nice upgrade over the 56 minutes standard recording time.

This will be a patch we'll make available in about a week...available to all 5MP camera owners, free download of course. Patch won't work with the 3MP cameras...only the new whoop-butt 5mp cameras.

Tom, thanks again - GoPro (Nick)

[GoPro]

OK! We're on!

We are now closing the offer to keep things from getting out of control!

We want to support our fellow racing industry partners so we are going to have SR RACING, a long time GoPro retailer, handle the special offer for you guys. You can email or ping Jim at sracing@mindspring.com and he will take care of you and tell you about the offer. It's very good. And it will help Jim's business which is even better. Jim is largely doing this as a pass through sale to you all so please support him with any other racing buys you might have at the time...nice for everyone to support everyone.

We're emailing Jim the emails you've sent us so he knows who responded to the offer. Jim will also review this forum to see who chimed in above to participate. You guys are in and congrats.

I want to thank you all sincerely for your posts. The down side is that this forum is largely focused on the shortcomings of a minority percentage of our cameras in the early stages of our business. What this forum is not covering is the thousands and thousands (and thousands!) of stoked customers we have around the world. At the same time...all of those happy customers don't mean anything to me when our core tribe of racers is not getting what they need from GoPro. Most have...but that some of our earliest supports we're left wanting more...well, we're here to deliver.

Just for fun, if you guys want to see how good our cameras are and what people are doing with them (not just racing) check out the latest videos on VIMEO and YOUTUBE and you will be blown away, here are links to the newest ones:

VIMEO:
http://vimeo.com/videos/search:gopro...rmat:thumbnail

YOUTUBE:
http://www.youtube.com/results?searc..._date_uploaded

And for you skiers...how's his for vibration in a crash!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvBldBonqI

We're working hard on new products and you are going to see more and more from GoPro as we're in this for the long haul and having a blast.

Thank you all very much...now let's see some footage!! - GoPro (Nick)

[racer27]

Did I miss the details of the offer. I had GP middle of last year, loved the packaging, but had issues with it turing off and getting fuzzy thus returned it. If the new unit has these issues worked out, we'd be willing to consider purchasing one.

[GoPro]

Did I miss the details of the offer. I had GP middle of last year, loved the packaging, but had issues with it turing off and getting fuzzy thus returned it. If the new unit has these issues worked out, we'd be willing to consider purchasing one.

We provided SR RACING with a couple of extra units to round out any "on the ball" later commers that wanted to give it a go. Please contact Jim at SR RACING and he can tell you if he has any special offer GoPro Motorsports HERO WIDE cameras left.

Thanks and smoke em if you've got em (tires, I mean tires) - GoPro

[Jim Garry]

????

OK! We're on!

We are now closing the offer to keep things from getting out of control!

This isn't a negative post in any way. I'm simply confused. What is the offer that you just closed?

I sent you an email on January 6th shortly after you announced the offer

If you are interested in a reduced cost GoPro, for a limited time please email us at sales@goprocamera.com and we'll see how many of you respond and we'll put a special APEXSPEED program together for you all.

Haven't heard back from you and still don't really know what the offer is/was. But I'd like to purchase your new wide angle unit under your special offer.

Jim

[GoPro]

????

I sent you an email on January 6th shortly after you announced the offer Haven't heard back from you and still don't really know what the offer is/was. But I'd like to purchase your new wide angle unit under your special offer.

Jim

Hi Jim,

No worries...we got your email and a bunch of others at our sales@goprocamera.com address. We forwarded all of those to Jim at SR RACING and he's going to contact all of those people that emailed us. I saw your email in there...so SR RACING will be contacting you.

You can also contact Jim directly...his email is in my post above.

Thanks Gary...psyched you are on board - GoPro

[sracing]

Guys,

As Nick posted, the offer is now closed. I have a list of those who signed up and will be sending you an email with the details. If you believe you should be included in the offer and for some reason you don't get an email in the next few hours, contact me. (SR Racing 859-252-2496 Jim). Nick/GoPro has put togethe rthe offer with a limited number of cameras at this price so there are some limits on how far we can go.

Ted Idolf and Racer27.... Please send me an email or call so I can add you to the list of group buyers.

Jim
SR Racing
859-252-2496

[Ted Idlof]

Ted Idolf and .... Please send me an email or call so I can add you to the list of group buyers

Email sent.