go pro

[SuperK]

Do any of you guys use just the basic go pro hero?

Do you like it?

Is the quality of videos good as comparing to the ones with the higher megapixels?

It seems really cheap but if your spending money i guess just spend some more and go with the silver has higher mp and all that jazz???

thanks in advance!!

I would just be using it for boring tree videos of myself and family, never going to be an August Hunicke or pfanner man lol.

 

[MasterBlaster]

You never know! Hey Kyle, do you know about this daily drawing?

 

[lumberjack]

You pretty well get what you pay for.

 

[treetx]

Sure, you get what you pay for. 4k and a bazillion frames a second. Unless you are a tech geek, the files are ridiculous and you can't see the difference btween 1080 and 4K anyhow.

I use them A LOT and hang out with people who do.

From their current line up, they all have great quality for viewing on computer or TV.

Seriously. I have a much older version than the current offering. I have a GoPro 2. You will like the new versions. What you will lack is some of the capability to interface with wifi or a remote control. For push button start and stop vid, the normal version is great.

You can see some of my flying vids with the Go Pro here...
http://youtu.be/aaVcw32xFP0?list=UUVwCj1Ur8oF1SH1LnX_xP4A

 

[lumberjack]

The newer cameras work far better in lower light than the early models. Better colors across more lighting conditions, faster frame rates for slow motion. You can crop the heck out of a 4k video and still have plenty of resolution.

 

[sotc]

Yeah, they need to stop working on resolution and focus on battery life for awhile!

 

[SuperK]

Thanks guys!

Butch I am going to enter that today that would be sweet.....wonder really what your chances are though lol.

The fps and mega pixels is way lower that the black edition and like you said treetx just wondering if the difference is really noticeable.

I guess one can always upgrade too, I just want to start capturing some life moments with family and trees!! Thanks for the help!

 

[SuperK]

Tree tx

those videos were awesome, I would love to do that!!

 

[vharrison]

You never know! Hey Kyle, do you know about this daily drawing?

Thanks MB, I entered!

 

[MasterBlaster]

I enter every day: so far, no weiner.

 

[brendonv]

I think gopros quality is top notch. I just updated my hero 3 and was able to pull these onto my ipad through the app. 1080 hero 3

For all the can do just get the best one you can afford.

 

[Tim_B.]

If you want to save a few bucks, check this camera out. I own one, it works fine, comes with a bunch of attachments. Here's the link.

(Link deleted, please use Gary's link, shown below.)

Tim

Here's some video shot with the Afunta camera. You don't have to watch the whole thing, I just want you to be able to see the video quality. There is some degradation in quality when going to YouTube; the quality of the original files looks a bit better on your own machine prior to upload. Click on the "settings" icon to change the resolution to 1080P, otherwise it won't show the video at the best it can be. Thanks.

Thanks again to Sean for the lesson in how to embed video. The instructions were clear and 100% correct, step-by-step. Much obliged.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aBQWMYkQ3ck" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Raj]

What's the battery life on those? I'm in the market for one, a local shop up here sells a Sony with a wrist strap screen and controls for $199 Canadian.

 

[arborlicious]

The battery life on the GoPro isn't great when you're trying to film tree work. Unless you only work 2 hours per day!

I grabbed a couple of Brunton All Day battery packs for my GoPro 3's and can now get 6+ hours of recording. Enough to fill 64gb memory cards. A bit more weight on the helmet too.

 

[SuperK]

Sweet thanks guys, Tim B I like yours seems like a deal for the money.

That's a bummer about battery life though thought it would last longer.

 

[sotc]

I'll look those up

 

[treetx]

The battery life on the GoPro isn't great when you're trying to film tree work. Unless you only work 2 hours per day!

I grabbed a couple of Brunton All Day battery packs for my GoPro 3's and can now get 6+ hours of recording. Enough to fill 64gb memory cards. A bit more weight on the helmet too.

Lordy, that's a lot of media to edit.

 

[Tim_B.]

What's the battery life on those? I'm in the market for one, a local shop up here sells a Sony with a wrist strap screen and controls for $199 Canadian.

OK, I'd say the battery life for a single battery on the Afunta might be about 1.5 hours or so. A 32 gig microSD card will store about 4.5 hours of video at 1080P resolution, at 30 frames per second. You can buy additional batteries for the Afunta camera and have them charged up and ready to go. I still need to come up with a good setup for containing all of the pieces/parts while in the tree, to prevent dropping them.

Let me say this about your $200 Sony sport cam. It sounds like an almost ideal setup. With my Afunta, I always have to take off my helmet to access the controls to turn it on and off. With your Sony, you get to leave the helmet on. Because of the trouble I have to go through to turn it on and off, I sometimes tend to just turn it on and leave it running, which ends up killing the battery for when you really need it. With the little screen on your wrist, you also get invaluable feedback with regard to what the camera will be looking at, whereas I operate in the blind, and only find out later that it was not pointing where I wanted it to be.

The only thing I don't like about Sony is the fact that they fairly frequently want to force you to use their proprietary memory card formats, instead of using industry standard SD cards or MicroSD cards. Their cards being proprietary means that you'll be paying more for the media, probably.

Another thing I have to say about Sony cameras, and this is a spec that you'll need to check for, is that they tend to use Zeiss lenses in their cameras. Zeiss lenses are some of the best and sharpest lenses made. All in all, sight unseen, I think you'd be happier buying the Sony camera with its set of kick-ass features than you would with the Afunta camera. Down the road maybe you could buy some of the cheaper Afunta cameras to have available to mount in the tree, to catch some additional camera angles, if you felt like it.

I'd say spend the extra money on the Sony, and avoid wanting to rip your hair out.

Tim

 

[Tim_B.]

Sweet thanks guys, Tim B I like yours seems like a deal for the money.

That's a bummer about battery life though thought it would last longer.

At less than $60.00, it is an unbelievable deal for the money, from only this particular vendor, though. I do not know why it is so much cheaper than the rest, which seem to be pushing $100. (I removed the link to a $60 version in a previous post, due to the possibility that it's a counterfeit. Please use the link Gary provides in a post to follow.)

Don't let these cameras get anywhere near strong magnets, or you'll really damage them. One of my hi-res Afunta cams was turned into a low-res Afunta cam by allowing it to get too close to my Mag Throw Bag kit, by Richard Mumford, AKA yoyoman. Just so you know.

Tim

 

[pantheraba]

I have two Afunta's and they do a good job. But what TimB says about how you control them is correct...a wifi would be nice to on/off and a remote monitor would let you know what the camera was seeing. Still, as I understand it, the GoPro does not have a display on the camera...my Afunta's do.

I started with one...got some good underwater video and have started learning to use it. The first has buttons that are pretty hard to push...the second one's buttons are easier...but easier could mean it can accidentally be turned off or on inadvertently.

Here is the link to where I got my Afuntas...there are apparently some counterfeit ones so be careful...the batteries don't fit the counterfeit ones or some such.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KX1YSOA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and the extra 32GB memory card: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M55C0NS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[pantheraba]

This is some Afunta footage from last Summer...comes with the waterproof case and a LOT of accessories. It accepts GoPro accessories per the specs:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/shPmvr2cjzQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Tim_B.]

I have two Afunta's and they do a good job. But what TimB says about how you control them is correct...a wifi would be nice to on/off and a remote monitor would let you know what the camera was seeing. Still, as I understand it, the GoPro does not have a display on the camera...my Afunta's do.

I started with one...got some good underwater video and have started learning to use it. The first has buttons that are pretty hard to push...the second one's buttons are easier...but easier could mean it can accidentally be turned off or on inadvertently.

Here is the link to where I got my Afuntas...there are apparently some counterfeit ones so be careful...the batteries don't fit the counterfeit ones or some such.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KX1YSOA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and the extra 32GB memory card: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M55C0NS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'll 2nd what Gary said about the possible counterfeits. Ignore the item I gave a link to, and use Gary's link. I read some of the reviews on the one I linked to, and they claimed problems. The one Gary linked to is only about $20 more. If I still can, I'm going to go back and delete that link. (Done.)

Tim

 

[gf beranek]

Unbelievable

 

[SuperK]

Wow those look like a good deal and work good.

Are they pretty tough, can be beat around and stand up to tree work?

 

[Tim_B.]

I dropped one about 70 feet or so onto soft, leaf covered ground once, when I failed to get it "snapped" into its holder just right. When I got to the ground later, it turned on just fine with no signs of any issues. I would protect it from rain and strong magnets, though.

It is not really obvious what the purpose of some of the extras are that come in the box, and the instructions that come with it are really sparse. It comes out of the box enclosed in a waterproof case. Just know that if you use it in this manner, you probably won't do very well with the sound recording aspect of its use. Which leads me to tell you that there is a little, black, odd looking piece of plastic that comes in the box that is actually an open-sided camera holder. It really is a nicely designed piece of hardware, as it comes with a nice brassy-looking threaded hole to accept a 1/4-20 bolt or screw, the standard size used for most camera supports. It actually has two of these threaded holes, so that if you need to, you can invert the camera and still be able to attach it right-side up using this bracket I'm talking about.

Tim