Go Pro or similar

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z1ppy

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looking to get a Go Pro or something similar for the boat. we have an ideal mounting point on the a frame and fancy recording some trips of spin it round and record some wake boarding practice..

Not really keen on spending big money on one as its going to get salty and knackered. Any suggestions?
 
I have bought a couple of the very cheapest second hand Go-Pros for around £80. They are fully waterproof so survive quite happily on the Wakeboard tower etc. Having a couple means you can get multi-angle shots to avoid the video getting boring due to a fixed viewpoint. I also have a Kodak Playsport which are at around £30 on Ebay to provide the fill in shots. At these prices I consider the cameras "disposable".

If you have not seen my videos before then here are a couple

 
Have a Garmin Virb Elite which I bought for skiing, has all the bells and whistles plus the advantage of talking to all the other Garmin kit.

Survived several crazy water slides in the South of France as well...

One happy customer
 
SJCAM 4000 wifi is superb, waterproof case works well for footage moving in and out of the water. Whole kit with cases, batteries and various attachments is £70. Also useful for checking the underwater hull and stern gear ;)
 
I too have a GoPro (Hero 2) and while I'm happy with the image quality, the fact that the audio is rubbish/non-existant is a bit 70's 8mm by todays standards. The selection of mounts is good but I suspect that is where they make their money from, ie. they are pretty expensive. The knobs are very easy to loose but you can get replacements from hardware store (though at the cost of usability).
 
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scubaman said:
I too have a GoPro (Hero 2) and while I'm happy with the image quality, the fact that the audio is rubbish/non-existant is a bit 70's 8mm by todays standards. The selection of mounts is good but I suspect that is where they make their money from, ie. they are pretty expensive. The knobs are very easy to loose but you can get replacements from hardware store (though at the cost of usability).
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I agree with most of that, have got a Hero 4 Black edition, its OK and does a job, but all a bit over rated, dropped it in the sea recently, ended up putting on a wet suit and spent 45 mins trying to locate it, finally found it, my son was happy as I dropped his one not mine, will be more careful in future to use the lanyard
 
I have just installed an app on my phone called "geek" that have plenty of cheapo ones. Haven't bought anything off them yet but looks like one for £27. The old adage us you get what you pay for so caveat emptor applies, but at that price maybe worth a punt?
 
I have a QUMOX SJ4000 and I am very pleased with it. It came with all the extras for about £70. I also use it as a dashcam. It is very well build and the fittings all match the Go Pro so you can buy Go Pro extras or use QUMOX. I bought mine from Amazon, plenty of reviews there.
 
Hi All,

I fancied an action cam but couldn't justify a Go-Pro so opted for an ION Air Pro Lite which was then on offer from Tesco online.

£60 delivered and it has a bracket for fitting to a bike helmet plus a nifty mini tripod. Best bit is that it is waterproof to 9 metres without a further case that the Go-Pro requires.

It has 720 at 60 and 30 FPS and 1080 at 30fps so if you want some slo-mo then you can do it.

Controls are dead easy - I was jumping overboard this summer when rafting in Spain and you can switch from video to single shot with the press of a button.

Quality is great for my purposes - its not 4K but then again I don't have a screen that can show that resolution yet....

Don't worry about wifi connectivity - it uses up your battery big time and is just a gimmick IMHO.

Link to vid I took when skipping off work earlier in the year to have a peek at the USS carrier in Portsmouth - spot the unusual craft we circle at around 6.30 on the vid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxViZQplgxA

Now selling at around £109 at Currys
 
4K will never catch on. The cost of bandwidth in commercial broadcasting already prevents proper 1080p at a decent bitrate so 4K will just never happen.

Anyway +1 with IonCameras. I have three IonCam Air Pro with wifi which cost me about £115 each. Much better than these cameras you have to put in a case and does not suffer with misting up unlike all the other cased cameras I have tried.
 
I use a Sony AZ1, the benefit being it has GPS so when you edit your videos can have your speed and location overlaid. It also comes with a video wristband which shows what the camera is seeing, and can control the camera, so if it's mounted up high you can control the camera without having to monkey up to it.
 
Richard Shead said:
I am puzzled why nobody will ever look at the Garmin? I love mine and it talks to everything else Garmin? (not a plug, I paid for mine!)
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It costs 3-4 times a go-pro clone , maybe ?
I think this threads shows just how many options there are, and you need to be clear exactly what it is you want the camera for. If you don't need a camera that weighs only 50grams or whatever because it will be strapped to a ten tonne 700hp boat, then you dont really need a go pro type.
IMHO Go-pros and clones are pretty lousy cameras, but they are very good action cameras.
 
salar said:
I have a QUMOX SJ4000 and I am very pleased with it. It came with all the extras for about £70. I also use it as a dashcam. It is very well build and the fittings all match the Go Pro so you can buy Go Pro extras or use QUMOX. I bought mine from Amazon, plenty of reviews there.
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Is the Qumox SJ4000 the same camera as one just called 'SJ4000' ... without the Qmox bit? ... (same for the Qumox SJ5000)
 
Kingfisher 2 said:
Ah but are its innards the same?
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No, there are many different copies of the original SJ4000 all also labelled SJ4000 or even SJ5000. Lots of articles about how to spot the real thing. Ironic that the GoPro copy is being copied.

The "correct" or "original" brand, I believe, is SJCAM.

It is not as good as a GoPro, though. I have both. I use the SJ4000 for more risky environments E. G. underwater, RC plane, etc.
 
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