Mr. Beanz

Had a chance to ride the MTB today for a test run with the new Go Pro. Trying to figure out the helmet mount, handlebar mount positions. Oh, and the between the legs seat post mount ha ha! I'm guessing the guys that can mount it on the seat post have some skinny legs. I had to ride with my legs apart like a bow legged pregnant lady ha ha! Not bad but I'm not so sure I see any advantages over my Flip.

I do know it takes for ever to load an HD video. 1080-6 minutes took 3 hours on my computer whereas the Flip takes me about 40 minutes. Not so sure I see a big enough difference in quality. That's just me though, maybe my eyes are old. High speed Verizon DSL but we will be getting cable at the end of the week so hopefully it's a faster, better be according to what the cable rep at Best Buy says.

I climbed the east side of the trail (I forget the names). I have to say the damp ground made the climbing feel twice the workout. I was sweating bullets. Maybe my legs are just getting old along with my eyes ha ha! Ran into some dude and his friend at the little gazebo on top of the trail. He says walking is better with better traction, maybe I should have walked he he he! Dude's name is Victor and his camera shy friend Jackie.

The cool thing is that the upper parking lot is being enlarged. Looked totally different and closed for now but it'll be a blessing once it's done. Heck, I don't MTB nearly as much as I did a few years back because I can never find parking.

All in all a cool day but I better load in a lower resolution till the cable guy comes!

jsigone

true HD is 60+ FPS, where as other cameras might claim HD res but only run 30fps. That might explain the upload time difference.

For GP on the MTB, I find the view from the chest strap to be the best w/o too bumpy. But cool to try out the other views

Mr. Beanz

My FLip is not the HD model so maybe that is why it is much faster, even in the edit program. I'd set the camera on a lower resolution but the 1080 is the only one with the medium pov. I'm not crazy about the 170, looks to concave for my taste. I may have to give it a try though.

Yup, I'm thinking the chest strap would be best for MTB.

DiscTruckerMF

DSL sucks compared to High speed cable based stuff. Also, plug directly into your router as opposed to wifi if that is what you are using, wifi speeds are often limited. Lastly, depends on the processing power of your pc. I've got a over clocked quad core with 16gb of ram so my machine eats this stuff up.

DiscTruckerMF

hope this isn't too off topic but I just built up a 29er. my first mtb. i have a cheapo fork on it, what are you riding for a fork on your bike beanz? got any suggestions?

Mr. Beanz

No off topic whining here, the more the merrier.


I'm using a Trek 8000 MTB 26 incher. I have a Roxshock Duke XC. Not sure of travel and specs.

Mr. Beanz

My computer will be plugged into the router from what they said, gets installed tomorrow.

PhotoJoe 

I'm not saying this to be argumentative, but at this moment, I work in television and want to clarify in case it helps anyone pick the right setting to get the image quality they want.

HD or SD refers to the amount of horizontal lines of resolution. Standard Def is 480. HD can be 720 or 1080.

Frame rate can be 23.98, 24, 29.97(known as 30 frames) 50 (Europe) or 59.98 (known as 60 frames). Yes, there are high speed cameras used in live sports, but those are mega-buck exceptions to the rule. Faster frame rate captures motion better. Movies and high-end commercials use 24p. It has a more cinematic look to it. COPS tried to shoot 24p for one season and it just looked WRONG. Then again, shooting a feature in 59.97 would look bizarre.

"P" refers to progressive scanning and "I" refers to interlaced. Progressive is the best image quality, and is what a blue-ray puts out. Currently, 1080P is the best image quality available for consumer use, however television outlets are only able to output 1080i at this point. So, blue-ray is about the only 1080P you can get. ESPN made the decision a while back to stay 720P for their broadcasts. They feel the quality of 720P is superior to 1080i. This will change as mainstream television makes the jump to 1080P, but probably not before.

I think 3D is going to die a slow and painful death, however, 4K is the hot technology now. Yes, that's 4,000 horizontal lines instead of 1080! I have not seen it yet, but I hear it is AMAZING. Many of the NFL broadcasts will start shooting with it (from certain camera positions) next season (at least, that's the story I'm hearing). The resolution would allow a really high quality zooming option to crop into an image and show if the ball hit the ground, a foot touched the line, etc, all while keeping the 1080i/720P final broadcast quality.

TL:dR - Play with your cameras and see what works best for you!

Beachgrad05

Thanks PJ. Have a GoPro myself and still learning the settings. Tho I am now using standard definition due to space limitations on my camera and computer. The MS ride videos I did were in the lower setting while the first Clyde/Athena ride video was done in 1080...and my SD card filled up just before the shack...hence changing setting and only filming here and there now rather than just turning it on and leaving it. Now doing THAT is taking some practice as I have to go by the noise (beeps) to know if I have it filming or not.

freighttraininguphill

I always record my ride videos in the lowest resolution to save disk space and editing time. The lowest resolution on my GoPro HD Hero 960, Hero2, and ContourHD is WVGA 848x480 at 60fps. It looks plenty good enough for me, and Windows Live Movie Maker doesn't have to do the "Playback quality" preparing of the video prior to editing. With a long video clip, that process can take quite a while.

The new GoPro HD Hero3 Black edition has ultra-high resolutions of 1440p, 2.7K, and 4K. The catch is that you only get 15fps in 4K, and 12fps in "4K Cin" mode. In WVGA it will record at 240fps: https://gopro.com/cameras/hd-hero3-black-edition#specs

The Hero2 can record at 120fps in WVGA mode, but I always use 60fps.

Mr. Beanz

The gopro is so much better at beep recognition than the Flip. Flip give you 2 beeps gong on and off, reverse tones, beep, beep beep.... or beepbeepbeep.

GOPRo gives you 5 when going off beep beep beep beep beep.............and 3 beep beep beep then a hesitation,....then a final beep to acknowledge it is recording.

I did set mine to the one button operation, much easier and I use my camera for stills.

Ah, so not everybody is recording in 1080. It was a pita to edit. To place one 30 second clip into movie maker felt like a lifetime. Then another lifetime to save the clip.

Beachgrad05

I was using it in "stealth" mode where it didn't beep and found that did not really work all that well. LOL

I think my videos are pretty nice even not in 1080. Can you tell difference between my initial videos and the MS ride? Maybe if you know that there is a difference.

Your new GP might have more functions too.

Does yours have a view screen at all? or a way to tell what you have it aimed at? Mine requires some guesswork. LOL As you noted on one of my early rides I was pointed down too much and getting too much road and not enough forward.

freighttraininguphill

Nope, no need for me to record in HD, as it's a memory and time hog. The GoPro's 480p mode is excellent quality anyway. It's better than my ContourHD, even the ContourGPS with its 720p lowest resolution. I use 720p 60fps in the ContourGPS, but I really wish it had a 480p SD resolution like the GoPro. The last time I made a video with the ContourGPS I compressed it to 848x480, which didn't look much worse.

Mr. Beanz

Nope, probably why I thought ya'll was shooting in 1080

Mine is a gopro2 so nothing new. No view screen, wish it did. They sell an attachment but geeze, they soak you for every penny don't they? $38 for the cehst strap? Some little kid on youtube says he removed the top section of the headstrap and uses it for a chest strap. It tried it, a little tight but it fits my chest.

....and the tripod mount, another $8. I thought a tri mount wa a given in the camera world. Not that it is much but the principle of the thing.

I did the interview portion (and view of the new parkinglot) freehand and with the wide view, it's hard to miss.

Gettng the helmet angle is the tricky part.

Mr. Beanz

Seems the low in my go pro is 620. gvwmp620 or something like that

Then goes to 720, 900&sumthin then 1080.

I made little samples, same footge, different setting, hard to tell teh difference between them.

Figuring many viewers don't have the ability to watch HD on youtbe anyway, why worry about it.

freighttraininguphill

It's the Hero2, so your lowest resolution is 848x480 at 60fps or 120fps (AKA "480p" on YouTube, although the default player resolution of 360p looks almost as good, sometimes). Then you have 720p at 30fps or 60fps, 960p at 30fps or 48fps, and 1080p at 30fps.

IMHO, those ultra-high resolution modes on the Hero3 Black edition are way overkill. Besides, how many of us even have the computing power to process such high resolution files in the first place? Can you imagine how much of a memory and time suck those modes must be?
+1, especially those viewers who watch our stuff on their phones.

PhotoJoe 

They may not be as much of a memory-suck as you think. If they're only recording at 15fps, yes, they record more data for each frame, however, they only record 1/4 of the frames. I'm not in the mood to do the math, but I would expect it will be only a marginal bump in memory usage. (Comparing it to 1080/60).

Mr. Beanz

Ah, I see, the wvga-60 I tried to mention is the fps resolution and 848x480 is the screen resolution.

PhotoJoe 

You got it. FPS (frames per second) is how many times in a second it records the data. The resolution is how many pixels it records each time.

Deaver

This may or may not be of interest to you. I Don't own a GoPro but recently watched some Youtube Videos where a chap was testing a K-Edge Mount while on a Mountain Bike Trail. It attached to the Handlebars and provided very little "Bounce"

There are several Videos Here

Beachgrad05

I want that mount but its PRICEY

Esteban58

We just upgraded from DSL to cable - its like leaving the stone age... downloads are anywhere from 10 to 100x faster... So far I'm very happy.

Mr. Beanz

Thanks I hope so! Not that I was not happy with DSL, but to be able to load HD will be cool.

FTR, the only reason we are going cable is cause Gina got a laptop and wanted the cable for tv and internet.

Mr. Beanz

So it's just stiff? If that helps the vibration I just may try my $5 mount on my handlbars. Flat aluminum with straps, very secure, low profile and with the tripod go pro mount, I can use it now.

small



strapped to hb's holding Flip.

Mr. Beanz

Ha! Just realized my go pro has a remote control package included. Wifi bacpac. Salesdude was rambling on about smart phone apps that connect to the wifi bac pac so I didn't get all he was talking about but turns out it's a remote control. Apps available for the smartphone etc, whatever that means.