Go Pro question

Well there is a kook factor to it.... But if you don't give a crap, I like them. I love watching surf sessions from years ago.

 

They're not boring, but kind of a nuisance. Nice if you want to stack some clips in the barrel, but when the battery dies (and if you're like me and don't get out of the water until paddling isn't possible) you're stuck with it. And the best angle is ultimately mouth mount POV, which more or less makes you look like an arsehole. If you're photo savvy the new 4 black is a pretty impressive piece though. Time lapses and ease of carrying make it an awesome little travel camera. Overall I like mine and I've used it a bunch surfing, hiking, skating. But, most days I just want to focus on surfing and not "getting the shot".

 

My wife just bought me one a few weeks ago. I haven't used it much, but seems pretty cool. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll use it for surfing. Most shortboard footage I see isn't good. It just doesn't capture what's going on well, whereas someone filming from a standard location really does. As was mentioned, the mouth mount footage looks good, but no way am I doing that. Reverse angle on my 6' shortboard would likely reveal that I look like a double chinned freak paddling....I don't need to see that.

I think for mountain biking, and on my motorcycles it will be fun. I'll probably get the most use out of it as a mess around camera at the beach with my kids though. I'll reverse mount it on their longboard and hopefully get footage of them on their first waves. Could be cool for kayak fishing also.

 

They're fun to play around with, I love to carry mine around with me. Not only great for surfing/ocean photography but also everyday life. Really a versatile camera. Go for one of the cheaper ones, maybe buy it off craigslist or ebay. The hero 3+ silver edition would be my first choice if I wasn't looking to break the bank. It has great quality pics and vids.

Buy off brand mounts for less than $10 as opposed to $50++ most of these off brand mounts work great.

See you around the bridge

 

It's a good action cam (have two) but anything a bit ways away gets tiny and lost. Aka if you're trying to whale watch with it - you'll have great footage of mackerel breaching.

+1 on going with silver as 1st cam, if you don't need that extra res or "night mode" (that thing just bumps ISO way up and gets noisy no matter what)

The new housings suck a$$, and they call the old one - the "dive" housing. Is this right? The latch on my new one broke I a few months. The old one is solid.

Getting bored? Yeah you probably will, in a while. Could be a long while. I gave the better one to my bro to film his kid skiing, and the other one is collecting dust atm (no housing) but they're cool for what they are - action cams. Don't expect results that of a full frame with quality glass, obv.

I'd probably sell mine but no idea how much I'd charge (probably just trade for a set of fins and maybe some wax) but like I said - no housing.

 

My wife got me one a few cheebusis b days ago. Several times I'd be out in the water with it and it would just freeze up. Only way to fix was to get out and take it out of the case, remove the battery for a minute. Which really sucks when there's good waves.
Would have much rather gotten another board with the $350 she spent.

 

I see them as a flash in the pants fad, nothing more. Samsung is supposed to release a better and less expensive version--I saw that news a couple of weeks ago in the financial news.
And yes, most will tire of it soon, so money could be better spent elsewhere. just opinion.

 

Zero, I don't want to appear as either condoning or condemning GoPro's...but here's my personal take anyways.

Yes, it would be cool to have surfing vid's of yourself. Honestly, I believe that ALL of us would enjoy watching ourselves surf.

OTOH, when I'm out in the water and I see guys with GoPro's (especially on crappy to marginal days), the first thing I think (and every single local out in the water as well) is, "kook". Even some of these "pro's" out on the best days getting sick vids, I can't help but think "why?". I can't explain exactly why most surfers feel this way, but for me, it's not jealousy or envy. The whole thing just seems so vain.

Personally, I like having pix or vids taken from the beach. The vantage point is generally so much better, unless you've got a Mouth Mount and you're driving through some dredging slab. OK, nothing beats a GoPro in those conditions. But I'd rather have my old lady snap a few on a good day.

Then, there's the relative clumsiness of the GoPro. Camera placement hasn't been perfected yet, and it can be a distraction, especially when the surf is cranking.

But it's a free country...have fun with whatever you decide.

 

Enticing, but I'm looking for 3 worn futures to fit my quad. Brand new just screams rich kid. Jk
But really I got futures boxes so.......... :/ maybe some dope nubbies to go with the rad single I'm going for this season.

Besides the go pro is fairly useless without a functional housing, so idk how that would be of any value not would I feel right taking money for it. It's a 3 black not 3+ tho.
Here's my theory on their resolution btw, I was contemplating on posting this earlier from the crapper but had to go to work.
So here goes
I think go pro bs-es about it having a 12mp whatever photo sensor I think it's a digitally enhanced 5mpxl. I mean no way. I've seen that lens and circuit its tiny.
But if you have let's say a pixel matrix like so:
* <-- pixel.
Then the pixels around it would effectively be like:
***
***
*** < so like 9 of these guys. They are neighboring pixels and are responsible for the "image quality" so to speak, be it an edge... A color transition. Whatever...
But you can fool the final result to look like a higher res image if you take those 9 and add let's call em "semi tones" in between to gradually transition from one to another. Sharpness remains (kinda) based purely on a software algorithm. So then you get this:

*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
With the original 9 expanded to 9+16 to a total of 25.
Some quick math will show that 25/9 is like almost 3. Well 2.5 let's say.
If you multiply that rough coefficient by the 5mpxls their sensor really is you roughly get the 12mpxl they claim.

Software bros.

Still want it?

 

I wasn't able to get out this weekend.

 

My advice from personal experience. Skip the goPro. I bought the top of the line last year. Used it twice and gave it to my grom. Even he doesn't bother with it much. Waste of a bunch of money.

You'd be much better off getting yourself a SuperZoom camera with your money. I have this one but there are several other great ones on the market:

http://store.sony.com/cyber-shot-di...l-Cyber-shot-H-Series-Cameras?_t=pfm=category

Here are a couple samples of what my superzoom sony that cost less than my goPro can do.















If you want a camera for use in the water I'd highly recommend one of these or something similar: http://www.fujifilmusa.com/products/digital_cameras/xp/finepix_xp80/

I have an older one and actually found this to be more useful in and out of the water than a goPro. Even have a mount to mount it on a board. Pictures are better than a goPro. Video quality is good on my old one and the newer versions are far better in that regard. Here is a sample from that camera.




I consider myself to be pretty good with cameras but I've never gotten anything out of the goPro that impressed me.

 

nice one, south side? i dont surf much over there but.. maybe i should?

 

those are so cool, way better than GoPro.

 

looks really nice and breaking pretty far out too, whenever I look over there it usually is shorebreaking