Depending on the resolution... The clips can get pretty big. I got a good deal at BH Photo on a 64G card for mine. I think it was 40-50% off on cyber Monday. Look online... I am sure there will be some deals this week.
Not sure about mounts by other companies... I have the Chesty and the bar mount. I use the bar mount on my fork upper. A little shakey at times, but cool video perspective. The chest mount takes a bit of adjustment to get right. I have a few clips of my topcap, since I did not have it tipped up enough.
Also check online and see if you need a firmware update. Mine needed one out of the box and another to get the IOS app to work. (You need a memory card to update the firmware.)
If you want to use all of the features including 1/2 second timelapse, make sure to get a class 10 card.
16gb will last about as long as a battery in 720 x 60fps (very general estimate) so 32gb will give you some extra room. 64gb prob only critical if you have battery bacpac or multiple batteries with no time in between to offload videos plus you might find better deals on the 32 vs 64.
The main go to mounts for me and the bike are helmet and chesty. Other spots end up being shaky unless just used for quick filler shots. Experiment quite a bit with the positions before actually shooting your "best" runs as the chesty can take some tweaking to get the right angle. Best to mount it upside down in the chest mount and point it up/higher than you think especially on steeper downhill trails.
Please don't mistake my enthusiasm for mountain biking as an indication of my skill level.
Warning: editing those videos takes a pretty powerful computer or a lot of time.
If you use the helmet mount, make sure your helmet fits tightly and the mount is very tight to the helmet. Also, don't look around. Quick turning of your head makes the video really annoying. Focus on looking forward.
I never really liked the helmet perspective. I like the chest mount, but you have to run the strap really tight to keep it from shaking excessively.
I put the roll bar mount on the down tube facing forward for an interesting and fairly solid perspective.
The 2009 Macbook Pro I use (2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 duo) struggles to smoothly play 1080p .mov during editing. It stutters at startup and at any transitions you add between clips. 720p never has any issues. Once the movie is done, converting it with Handbrake back to .mp4 makes it so the computer can play it smoothly again.
Video editing is one of the primary uses for my computer now and it will likely be the top reason I upgrade, soon, to make it less frustrating. I'll probably take an SD card with some raw video into a Genius store and see how well the editing process runs on the latest generation of hardware.
The 2009 Macbook Pro I use (2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 duo) struggles to smoothly play 1080p .mov during editing. It stutters at startup and at any transitions you add between clips. 720p never has any issues. Once the movie is done, converting it with Handbrake back to .mp4 makes it so the computer can play it smoothly again.
Video editing is one of the primary uses for my computer now and it will likely be the top reason I upgrade, soon, to make it less frustrating. I'll probably take an SD card with some raw video into a Genius store and see how well the editing process runs on the latest generation of hardware.
Warning: editing those videos takes a pretty powerful computer or a lot of time.
If you use the helmet mount, make sure your helmet fits tightly and the mount is very tight to the helmet. Also, don't look around. Quick turning of your head makes the video really annoying. Focus on looking forward.
I never really liked the helmet perspective. I like the chest mount, but you have to run the strap really tight to keep it from shaking excessively.
I put the roll bar mount on the down tube facing forward for an interesting and fairly solid perspective.
Have fun.
I had a 2008 Mac Powerbook (not pro, the plastic one) and it took a while to import the vid clips from my 808HD camera over USB2 (about an hour or two for 12Gb of clips). But, once it was in it edited up in iMovie pretty quickly.
Originally Posted by GuruAtma
So do bikers use the strap helmet mount, or the adhesive mount?
THe GoPro3 probably has a properly engineered mount. A regular camera threaded mount is a 1/4-20 thread. I took an old helmet when I was messing with my point and shoot digital camera as a helmet cam, and I made a long combination of nuts, bolts and big washers to make a mount through an old helmet. It was solid as heck.
The 808HD camera I use is so tiny and light, I just stuck to my helmet with velcro. It's about the size of a keyless car lock fob.
Adhesive Velcro will come unglued on really hot days. I actually have a safety string on there so if it comes lose, it won't lose it.
Like others have said. Make sure to get a class 10 card so that your able to use all the features of your new camera. A 32 card should be plenty, I have a 64 class 10 and come no where close to filling it and that was with around 6 hours of 60fps video.
Try out the different resolution settings. I found I like 16.9 resolutions for chest mount and lower. 4.3 resolution for helmet mounts. The 4.3 resolution is nice for helmet mounted video because it gives a much taller screen shot making it easier to capture the trail in front of the bike with out having to have the camera pointed to far down. Enjoy your new camera.
prepare for every awesome corner, berm, jump, drop, and rock garden you love to ride to look weak as hell when you watch it. Unless you're that joebmx guy and seemingly ride whistler every week.
"Santa" brought the boys a Contour. Tested it out on stagecoach before the rain started. Pretty cool. Have to ride danger close and keep your head pointed at the rider and focus in riding stable and smooth.
Well, I'm using my i7 quad-core 2.67 GHz laptop and I'm amazed at how long it takes to process 720p 60 fps videos for editing in Windows Movie Maker. It's not too bad for a 5-minute clip, but it seems like a slower computer would really take some time.
Show the trail. Lately everybody is showing mostly knees and handlebars, so all the videos look the same. The chest mount is lame. And you really do have to tailgate if someone is in front of you. Finally, do not compress too much or no matter what you "film" will look terrible.
And please edit out the beginning were everyone stares at the camera as they turn it on. You don't have to prove that it's you. We will believe it's you.
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Originally Posted by icantdrive65
