Inexpensive video camera setup?

[Bill Steele]

Fellow racers:

Where do you mount the GroPro Hero camera on your car?

I have acquired 2 GoPro Hero cameras. They came with several different mounts. I was surprised to see such an array of mounts included in the box.

I see that several formula race car drivers use them, but lets get some input of where to mount these.

Does anyone use the large suction cup mount? and do you trust it to hold up under the speeds that we run, due to wind resistence on the mount.

I am planning to use the small mounts (camera slips in and slips out) and permanantly attached them to the body work.

Any feedback on this will be appreciated.

Richard, the guys that have used both the suction cup and the 3M stick on mounts seem not to have any problems. I tried the suction cup and tied a lanyard to it just in case but didn't need it, it stuck fine. The only downside to the stick on mounts is they seem to be pretty permanent. I am probably going to buy one of the POV.1 units from Jim Gustafson, so I am reluctant to stick one of the permanant mounts to my bodywork.

I think the best location is behind the driver over a shoulder. I think being able to see the head movements and the dash and steering wheel add a lot of perspective to the video.

[Richard Hybels]

Itried the go-pro a couple of times and it shut itself off in 3 sec.
I'm using an old canon z45 and it is great. A button on th edash turns it on when I remember
Slow motion back up fast forward etc which you don't have with go pro

[JHaydon]

Where do you mount the GroPro Hero Motorsport camera on your car?

I got the Handlebar Mount and clamped it to a forward roll hoop support. It was just over the top of my helmet, with the right mirror visible. That mount won't work if your tubes are bigger than about 1 1/4" diameter.

I also saw a car with a simple sheet metal bracket fabbed and hose-clamped to the roll hoop. The adhesive mount was then stuck to the bracket. This would have an added benefit of being able to insert cushions of various materials (aluminum, plastic, rubber) between the bracket and the bar to get the best vibration isolation.

[PaulL]

I use the basic Hero wriststrap and strap it to my roll bar.

I've had problems with shutting off until I went to Lithium batteries.

2 friends of mine tried the GoPro with NiMH batts this past weekend, and both of their cameras shut off.

Not sure if it's because they were the 'hybrid' rechargeables, or not, but these cameras definitely have problems with premature shutoff.
That can be very dissapointing when you find out your race didn't record.

BTW, they go on sale at REI.com for $99 from time to time ... online only.

[PaulL]

update on GoPros;

I thought I had solved my GoPro quitting problems with different batteries ... but they still shut off all the time.

I returned them, and I will not use them anymore.

[Richard Dziak]

Paul and others:

Agreed, the Go Pro Motorsports Hero just won't do the job. They continuously shut off, even after buying the best rechargeable batteries.

For me they were very disappointing. I tried one today on the suction cup in my truck dash on the way to the office and it couldn't even handle that.

So they go back to Amazon.com.

There is something inheritently wrong with these, but what can we expect for a cheap camera. They look neat because of the size. Even the data in the display window was sometimes upside down, frame numbers in reverse.

I really would not suggest anyone wasting there funds on this product for racing. They are not worth the headaches and trying to get them to work.

I tried everything I could.

[racer27]

As noted a couple posts ago, I had same issues.... Mine ended up going back to Amazon as well. I beleive, I got full credit on the camera, but not on the battaries nor the charger.

First time out, video froze every 4 seconds, sound cut in and out

Next day, with fresh Enigizer Lititiumn, a differant mount, results were much worse.

Video lacked any contrast (Yes lens was clean/dry).
Then we had breakup/freezing. T
Then went all Phycilidelic/Kodachrome
Then it died entirely about 10 min in.

[Jim Gustafson]

We (Visual Communications) considered becoming a GP dealer. We have been looking at a less expensive system, to offer racers who may not be able to afford the POV.1. After some careful evaluation, and reading the posts here on Apexspeed, we decided that the GP Hero wasn't a good fit for us. There is another product we are evaluating and hope to make a decision soon. Like the POV.1, it has to be a good sytem, or we won't offer it.

Jim Gustafson
Visual Communications
Racing Since 1970

[Bob Devol]

I have experienced many of the problems with the GoPro HERO camera that were mentioned on this thread.

Know what? GoPro support's suggestions fixed just about all of them and they said they were more than willing to perform warranty work on the camera if their suggestions didn't pan out.

The HERO isn't perfect, but it's a pretty good deal.

[PaulL]

I tried all the suggestions they could think of to prevent it from continually shutting off, and to no avail.

I also had very weird, wavy recordings that they could not resolve ... they attributed it to harmonics between the car and camera, but it did this on 2 different cars, with different engines, and 2 different cameras.

The sound would also get out of sync when manipulated in Movie Maker, and they didn't have any ideas at all on how to fix this.

A good deal?
No ... I wouldn't put it on my car if it were free.
If you can't count on it recording when you need it to, then it's not worth beans.

[jivey]

We sell the cameras on our web site iveyengines.com. I spent alot of time figuring out that turn off thing so we do up a little isolation kit for the case that works well. I've only had one camera that it didn't fix but it was a camera problem i think. We sell the cameras with batteries a card and kit. It's a good idea and works good for the money. But they need to work on customer support. --Jay