Now my son is going mtbing with me more and more, he wants to do some filming (plus it’ll be used for part of his GCSE mtb coursework).

I’m not really ‘into’ the whole filming / action cam thing so know very little about them, hence the request for help.

I’ve been given a cheap and cheerful Rollei Bullet Youngstar 720p camera to try out and it has some plus points – ie. little screen to watch back what you recorded then and there BUT the battery life (USB charged) is rubbish – it lasted about 20 mins max. and the chest mount is pretty poor (I tried one but it points to the ground half the time! so I didn’t buy it).

Looking at Go Pro as the market leader / big name brand, etc. They are doing the Silver or Black Hero3+ with free chest mount and SD card right now.

Obviously there is a big difference in price – is it worth the extra? If so, is the Silver decent enough or would you recommend the Black?

What is the battery life like on the Go Pro in real useage?

Thanks in advance.

Which GoPro is it? I have the 3 and battery life is poor (30-45mins at 1080p). Ended up buying spares to swap over. The 3+ should have slightly more battery life though.

For the chest mount, I mount my GoPro upside down to get a better angle otherwise it does point down. There is a setting to flip the video on the camera.

I have the black, which came with a free wifi remote (never used), and a few more video/photo settings, it is supposed to film better quality in low light conditions which is the main reason I went for it. Not sure if this is still the same with the 3+.

Have a look at the Garmin Virb. I paid £280 for my virb elite from Amazon. Picture quality is excellent, it’s waterproof, has built in GPS and a screen so you can see and review what you’ve shot. Also can link via wi-fi to an iphone and show what your shooting or be controlled from there. Managed to do 90 mins of continuous recording with wifi and the screen turned on. I’m expecting more with those functions turned off.

Well pleased with mine.

Have an iPhone? Try this. I’ve used one and can recommend it as a (relatively) cheap way into action cam filming. It has a wide angle lens on the case too.

iPhone chest mount

A colleague has pointed me in the direction of a Polaroid XS100 @ ~£105. Its waterproof out of the box and comes with mounts. The footage he has shown me looks very good and is considerably cheaper than the GoPro. Only thing that looks dubious to me, is most of the pictures I have seen, have the camera mounted to the helmet whereas you can chest-mount the GoPro.

I think it will be between the GoPro hero 3+ silver or just keeping the Rollei and building a chest mount, IF I can can better battery life out of it somehow.

Thanks for the replies so far guys.