go pro or buy something else?

OMO: although I am aware this topic probably come up a few times, couldn't find threads.






basically I want someone to support me with my thinking process of buying a go pro and feel good about it. Is there a better camera on the market that is any better then the go pro. following is what I am weighing up:


pros
- needs to have good mounts. for (car/motorbike/bicycle/helmit/ my body)
- needs to have good quality footage
- needs good battery life and charger things (car/motorbike charging)
- easy to use. THIS IS A MUST. I cant be arsed to flaff around with it
- easy to line up camera prior to usage. don't want a track day looking at the floor


cons
- might be easy to break like in water or something
- battery life
- price (I can get a hero3+ black addition for £200???




if anyone got a hero 3+ black addition or silver could you say how much you like it and do you have any regrets on maybe buying something else?
easy to use etc.


I plan to use it for in order:
- recording my driving for insurance purposes
- record riding insurance purposes
- record track days
- record mountain biking
- recording those moments in life I probably wont see again

[Niall_farley]

Never had one but only ever heard great things about go pros but never heard anything about alternatives although by now there is probably great alternatives

I've got the hero black edition, apart from battery life, I can't fault it, but I've bought some copy batteries now so have 3.

It can record in 1080p @60 fps, which is bloody good quality.

You can buy endless mounts, there are lots of copies around, I buy mine off amazon so make a huge saving on genuine gopro mounts.

[Kenzie]

I have a Hero 3 Silver and have used it a few times. The quality is awesome. I haven't been able to try it out underwater yet though. I have just picked up a charger and two pattern batteries for £14.99 from Amazon, as well as handlebar mount for cycles, floaty handle for water use and a headband mount. There are other options but the defacto action cam has to be the Gopro. We picked ours up for £165 new from Sportpursuit. They had an offer on and the wife got extra off for first order. If you want it for insurance then I would take a look at the dash cam thread as the battery life might not be up to what you want.

[PyroUK]

Was in the same place not too long ago, settled on the drift ghost s.

Pros over go pro:
Waterproof out the box
300 degree rotating lens
LCD screen for lining up shots and reviewing footage
Remote included
Battery life spanks the go pro, 4hrs 1080p 30fps 3hrs 1080p 60fps.
A lot sleeker, mounted on a lid it's fairly subtle, more so than a go pro.

Cons:
Price* £330 if no deals can be found.

*wasnt sure so spent a good long while researching the GP V Ghost. Found a useful comparison on YouTube. The price tag puts it in range of the hero 3+ black but the image and fps etc aren't as good. However the spec is closer to the 3+ silver which is £240ish. Seems a bit over priced but if you price up the same stuff for it, remote, case, extra battery etc it works out cheaper.

Oh if you are interested it can do upto 120fps in 720p and 240fps at wvga. 8 or 12 megapixel stills. Has a DVR mode for dash cam but again battery life may not be great for that on a long journey.

There is a fairly decent range of mounts but I don't think as many as the GP. However it does use a normal camera screw mount so it's pretty universal, you could use a gorilla pod for example.

Hope that helps

At that price get the gopro. I have a gopro2 and its ace. There are plenty of pretenders to the throne but gopro is the best most comprehencive action camera on the market. You can get battery back packs for longer battery life. Lcd back pacs for lining up your shot and playback. Wifi remote for being able to control it on the move. And the best light handling camera I know of. Also a waterproof case for swiming 60 meters down. I use mine for cycling...motorbikes...and flying. If you wanna see some of the things ive used it for go on youtube.....look up the user socommk233 and find my end of year video.
Amazing cameras.....im actually annoyed you can get the black at that price. Doh!

The waterproof case is standard with purchase too. So waterproof out of the box.

[PyroUK]

Oh one other thing, sports pursuit are great for deals but be careful on the go pro's. The last 2 they did for the black edition had the 3+ spec at very good money but it was Infact only the 3.

I've got a GoPro 2. really good kit, but the two things which have annoyed me are, when mounting to the top of a ski helmet the originals mounts are quite long, and even though the camera is light it has a lot of leverage to move the whole helmet around and thus gives an unstable picture. Isn't such a problem on the side of my motorbike lid, which fits pretty snugly. Mounted to the side of my motorbike lid, it does stick out a bit, but picture is good.

It has a tendency of fogging up particularly on cold days or when mounted on a helmet when you are sweating. I believe this can be fixed with anti moisture strips fitted to the inside of the case, but haven;t got round to testing them.

A pro for it is that the whole system is very modular, and everything is available separately, even the camera body. If you loose the waterproof back to the case, its like £15 to replace, you can get more batteries (although they are a bit pricey), if you are trying to do something new with it, you can often combine other mounts/arms to achieve what you want if there isn't something specific already.

[LewSpeight]

If you can get a hero 3+ black for £200 then do it.
I work in the camera industry and you won't regret it. Battery life isn't the best out there but the quality certainly is. And you can always but a 'battery bacpac' which doubles the battery life quite nicely.

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