[Closed] Gopro 960 vs 1080

I've got a 1080, tbh if I was buying again today it'd not even be up for debate, 960 gives you most of the functionality for not much more than half the price, win. You do still get a 60fps mode, just not the 720p 60fps mode- and you're spot on, it's really just used for slo-mo.

The backpack screen thing just isn't needed, it's a bit of a gimmick.

Cheers that is what I was wanting to here. No need to spend double the price then 😀

Is there anywhere you would recommend getting it from for the price and accesories, I would be looking to get helmet mounts, bar mounts (but i believe these both come with a camera pack) and also a chest mount.

Thanks

I'm a bit of a GoPro whore.I've got the 1080P plus today I got the BacPac screen thingy today.

If the 960 had been around originally, I probably would of got it.I very rarely use full 1080P because it's a bitch to edit (unless you've got a very high-end PC/Mac).

60FPS is mainly for slow motion like you've said, which I have actually started to use a bit, if you've got the Twixtor plugin for After Effects, you can create some nice super slo-mo stuff.

I'd recommend the chest mount, got mine of ebay for 35 quid. The helmet mount seems to make everything look very flat...

Chest mount is the default angle really, gives the best feel of riding. Helmet cam's good for group rides, since it sees what you see but the footage is so disconnected, not so good. You should get some sticky pads and a vented helmet strap with your kit, but not the bar mounts. The rollbar clamp is quite good as well as it can be used to clamp to stems, frame, etc.

I've got the 1080 with the bacpac and it is awesome - well worth the extra. Unless you are happy taking loads of footage only to find out the camera wasn't pointed in the right place. Also the replay ability is great for checking clips while you are out. Get it from Jenson's to save some money.

It would be nice to know where the camera is pointing but then it is another £80 for the bacpac but i am sure it is worth it, what does it cost in import tax for getting it sent from the US and how long would it take?
Thanks

Took me two days and haven't had to pay any import duties, but I budgeted £50

Bushwacked - Member

Unless you are happy taking loads of footage only to find out the camera wasn't pointed in the right place.

Doesn't happen really... You can tell where the camera's pointing by eyeball.

Cheers guys, think I might order a 1080 from Jenson's and get the bac pac and mounts aswell, should work out less than a 960 with the mounts if I don't get stung by the taxes and even if I do it shouldn't be that much more than buying a 960 from here. Now to get the money together.

I should get good use of it anyway, mtb during the summer, tempted to get a kit to rig it up on a windsurfing board seen as it is waterproof aswell and then the snow sports throughout the winter.

bushwacked what postage method did you choose?

ps for highland

heres an accurate estimate for the camera with the chest mount

Total customs value: £224.16
Import duty: £10.98
Import VAT: £47.03
Total import duty & VAT due: £58.01
Total landed cost: £282.17 at USD/GBP exchange rate of 0.6141

Cheers alex, seem not too bad seen as the camera itself costs £300 here alone, think i might be waiting a month or so before I can order mine with my money situation atm, however would love to be able to get my hands on one before we go away to tignes in 3 weeks, Decisions, do I blow my money on the camera now or wait a month ish. I can see myself spending money on some other bike related object between then and now.
The list is never ending.

Will Jensons deliver it to the uk? Word was gopro won't let them sell it outside the US

I think they are an excellent purchase, I really do. Great for memories and quality enough for editing with.

win win. I'd await to see who posted bushwacked camera thou as DHL have always charged me tax on my doorstep

Fed ex was the method I used. Not sure if it made any difference but I phoned my order through.

Northwind - I'm just talking from my personal experience. I want to make sure my clips are lined up properly so the edits I do look good. Nothing worse that losing a clip becuaze of the angle it was shot or something like shadow was in the way.. It just adds that level of control - bit like discs over v-brakes 😉

Here's an edit I did recently just getting the feel for editing together different clips - when doing it this way it's great to see what you are doing in case you need to take the clip again.

Spoke to Jenson the other day and they do ship to the UK (with Fedex) so no great problems there.

The 960 vs. 1080 question has been bugging me too, specifically because I think that the hardware is probably the same underneath, so it should be possible to shoehorn the proper firmware onto a 960p with the right fiddling. However, that's a bit beyond me, and it would appear no one else on the internet has done it yet, so that's out.

I still wonder whether going for the 1080p version is worth it... I mean, how much will I use 1080p? How much is 60fps in 720p going to get used? Realistically, will I just stick it on 720p 30fps and leave it there? I hate choice.

So, 960p version or 1080p version?

To be honest having thought about it a bit more last night, I have a feeling I might be going for the 960, as much as the bacpac would be nice. Do i really need it?I was thinking about buying a camera before I even realised that gopro do one on their 1080 model. Plus if i go for the 960 I may even be able to get my hands on it before I go away to france for a week of skiing. Which would be ace.

More thinking time is needed me thinks

Tell me about it... Been mulling over whether to go for the 960 or the 1080 for months now and _still_ have yet to make up my mind.

That said though, it seems that GoPro release firmware updates for the 1080p more often (well, one, recently), o any software problems should be ironed out more easily.

And then, there was the contour...

I survived without the BacPac for ages, you get used to knowing what angle to point the camera at anyway.

I'm starting to like the 60FPS option though, combined with After Effects & Twixtor you can get some really smooth slow motion:

Wow that slow is quality.

Robodan what software are you using?

I'm guessing After Effects and Twixtor? 😉

GOt my 960 in 4days from Jenson, memory card from UK source took 5!

CAm, bar and chest mount delivered for less than the price of the cam alone on CRC

@toons - After Effects and Twixtor 🙂

Has anyone here played with both the Contour and the GoPro and been able to decide which one is better? I'm still in two minds, but only because the GoPro would be better for anything that involves water. The Contour seems to be cheaper and have better battery support.

is the bacpac the chest mount then?

been wondering what to go for myself here.bit clueless though on these cameras.

all i want is the chest mount and camera in one package,not bothered about slowmo,just quality vids.

Blower- no the bacpac is an attachable screen which connect to the gopro camera, but this is only available for the 1080p

Think you would best with the 960 in that case, think I am going to go for that aswell.

I've also been debating the 1080/960 and also the contor and just cant make my mind up! I think I'll go with the contor tbh as I like the helmet mount for group rides ect and the go pro on a helmet mount just looks well.........kinda like you got a toaster strapped to your head 😕

whys the helmet mount good for group rides?

was thinking chest mount was good for following people.

yes 960 i may go for that,which model all HD right? and how do you get chest mount for it?

Helmet mount allows you to see the rider in front aswell as the track beyond them I guess. Whereas with the chest mount you would be looking at their back the whole time. Yeh both the 960 and 1080 are HD. The chest mount is sold separately but if you are ordering from Jenson just stick it in your basket, it is $40 but that is cheaper than buying them here as they are £40 from crc.

@Blower All the mounts use the same attachment system. You can get the [url= http://gopro.com/camera-mounts/chest-mount-harness/ ]Chest Mount[/url] from a few places, got mine from eBay. Not cheap though ~£40

Blower - Member

whys the helmet mount good for group rides?

It looks where you look, so if you (frinstance) stop to watch someone riding down a big rock and they land on their face, you'll get it. But there's a big tradeoff of quality of riding footage. I don't use mine much any more but it's good to have sometimes.

i had a atk5k before i bought my go pro 1080 (through pinkibike)

it was a brilliant choice

old tube style cameras are not mountable as chest cams (easily or neatly)

the at5k stuck up high on my lid causing the helmet to feel top heavy, mounted on the side it tilted the lid unless i did it up super tight wich then gave me head aches.

the angles changed as the helmet moved about.

the footage always looked 'flat' as it's from the head, chest is best!

i've not used any of the other go pro mounts so my advice would be to get either the 960 (if you're not bothered by the additional 1080 features) and a chest mount.

Absolutely brilliant bit of kit, made better with the new software (1080) allowing 1 touch recording.

remember CHEST IS BEST 😉

The Ride Hero mount is cool during group rides, it's quite easy to mount to the seat post facing backwards.

You lot are _not_, repeat NOT helping me make up my mind on which one to buy.

I'd almost made my mind up on the GoPro, then you thrw in the 960 vs. 180 thing, then a mate offers to lend me his Contour and tells me that they are doing an iPhone app that uses bluetooth to link to the camera and allows framing and setting changing.

AaaaaaargH! too much choice!

Which one's got the widest angle?

I think I've read that the 1080 Hero Wide is wider in its 960 setting, but what about the 960 model? I don't think I've seen one branded as Wide?

And Northwind: you say "you still get the 60fps, but not at 720" what resolution is the 60fps on the 960 model?

Thanks!

edit: s'alright, found it:

960 HD Video Resolution Modes:
* 960p = 1280x960 pixels (4:3), 30 fps
* 720p = 1280x720 pixels (16:9), 30 fps
* WVGA = 848x480 pixels (16:9), 60 fps

Ned, all the HDs are Wide by default, that's a bit of an old tag from the non-HD cameras where the older ones had a pretty narrow FOV. You get 60fps only at 840x480- still good enough for most use but starts to look less nice on a big screen.

<hah- fast, but not fast enough!>

Cheers anyway NW!

What's the second hand market like for these? I'd imagine it's not bad, but I haven't seen many being sold on (which might underline the point!)

Got a big trip coming up which would be great to have one for, but I can't see myself using it much after that. Most of what I do just isn't that awesome.

Any ideas on how much might you lose on one after a month?

Got the 1080, just getting used to it. Ordered the bacpac yesterday and it arrived this morning. Will be having a mess around with it next week in Kaprun snowboarding

my friend rigged up a cable cam for his gopro last week, the screen was def useful for this as quite a few runs weren't timed right...

I wont get and dont want the screen its bullshit and un needed. anyone trying to do edits on it off the bike has the wrong tool for the job.

60fps in 720p is the only setting I'll ever use.

going to ring them tomorrow.

For stuff like RS shows there the screen would be dead useful, not for editing but for the quick playback to check you've got the shot. Not that useful on the bike IMO. Maybe for setting up unusual angles but even then not essential.

Has anyone here played with both the Contour and the GoPro and been able to decide which one is better? I'm still in two minds, but only because the GoPro would be better for anything that involves water. The Contour seems to be cheaper and have better battery support.

Not used the Gopro in any variant but do have the Contour 1080. There is a water proof/resist case for the 1080 that can go down to about 3 mtrs(I think). I have used the Contour out in the rain with no issues but the footage is not usually that great due to rain/mud on the lens.

You can make a chest mount out of the virtually useless elastic headstrap that it comes with.

The wrist strap is pretty useful - you can strap the thing to trailside/overtrail branches etc.

960hero with chest mount,and maybe helmet mount.still need a memory card.?
uk store purchase?

I think I am goign to have to play with both before I make my mind up. Am borrowing a contour 1080p from a bloke at work for the weekend soon, but if there is anyone in the Cambridge area that has a GoPro that I could play with, I'd appreciate it.

Just seen the new Contour's iPhone app thingy. Need to buy another little extra (Grrrrr... Contour and paying for extras!) but you can then frame shots with your phone. Thingy is about $30, so cheaper than a backpak. Contour also takes Nokia batteries, so cheap from that POV.

bumpety bump.. 🙂

yes, you need at least a class 6 memory card

And a big card at that. a 2gb card will last about 15 minutes in the GoPro HD - i found a class 4 works ok. Amazon is the cheapest for the card and CRC for the camera.

I had one of those Oregon Scientific cameras. Utterly useless for MTBing, the field of view is too narrow so you either get sky or trail.

Whats great about gopro.
Light
small
Wide angle (easier to position/gets it all in frame and sorts out some vibration)
Loads of mounts and bits an bobs
HD
Housing lens is replaceable (scratches)
Housing is replaceable
Water proof
fast charging
Lots of capture options (rez/photo/video/timelapse)
Good in low light
good mike
easy to use (two buttons)

960 or 1080 - notta lotta difference if you just want to capture rides. For some the screen and slowmo would be useful, some not. More options with the 1080.

If you are going to use for stills as well and framing is really important to you the screen might be useful(1080).

fast charging,thought it used aaa batteries?

stills would be useful.,but not bothered for faff with software editing.

crc pretty exspensive comparing to jenson.

cards are exspensive to ****.

No, the new version uses a rechargeable LiOn battery (so do the Contour though, except that it uses Nokia ones...) so you can charge it from USB or get a wall charger.

I've not found the 1080 to be good in low light at all. (not that I use it in those conditions that often). It tends to get very grainy quite quickly, or the exposure is all out.

Robodan, you mean the Contour? I'd heard that the colours all seem a little off unless you edit them through the software that Contour supply, but not about the grainy image quality.

I know that you can tweak the exposure and contrast settings on the Contour so that may help if you know that it will be a low light ride. No idea if the GOpro has this or not.

willard D'oh, Sorry i meant the GoPro HD doesn't seem to much good in low light...

Hmmmmmm. Curiouser and curiouser.

Well, not really, but another good bit of data to add to the "HeadCam Spreadsheet of Decision"!

I posted a reply earlier but it seems to have vanished!

Can anyone recommend anywhere to get After Effects and Trixtor for a reasonable price?

I currently use Final Cut Express but it's a bit too complicated for me!

Ok, just had fedex drop an invoice through the letter box for a customs bill on my gopro 🙁 wasn't as much as I expected though 🙂

Gopro updated and bacpac fitted, well worth the money

1st vid with gopro, straight out of the cam though, no editing, just local trails, so nothing rad, just to showcasr the "960"

flabby arms are my own 🙁

£300......
can't beleive there isn't a copy camera floating around on the market yet.

Man, GoPro just realised 3D Hero. Not sure who exactly will be buying or using it. Crazy Nonetheless.

[url= http://gopro.com/hd-hero-accessories/3d-hero-system ]http://gopro.com/hd-hero-accessories/3d-hero-system[/url]/

Rocketdog - nice vid. I'm assuming you didnt get the crash on camera

looks good quality that Rocketdog..

i got the 1080 in the end and just installed the latest firmware,havent used it yet,been too busy.
whats the best settings to use overall? gonna be doing alot of chest cam action.

vid at 960/30fps
pics here on the 10 sec timer thing
chest
[url= http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5261/5582992700_c8647ba966_b.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5261/5582992700_c8647ba966_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketdog/5582992700/ ]twisty[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/rocketdog/ ]rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr

seatpost
[url= http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5257/5582402961_bfa6ca1410_b.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5257/5582402961_bfa6ca1410_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketdog/5582402961/ ]the GoPro test ride[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/rocketdog/ ]rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr

what postition have you got the camera on yer chest rocketdog?and

did a few test vids today on 720 setting 60fps,with chest camera.got the harness and camera right over my chest,cant see much of the trail ahead like yours.mines more looking more to the ground and bars..

The advice that I was given was to run the camera in upside-down mode and clip it into the chest harness upside down, allowing you to tilt it away from your chest and have it facing further down the trail - that looks like what's been done above

I had the same problems with the chest mount, solved it by fitting an extra mount between the camera and the chest mount from the helmet mount, makes it a lot more tiltable.

Used the bac pac last week whilst snowboarding and it was great, however it does shorten the battery run time by about 15%

ive seen some people with the chest mount on their stomach
anyone else use this emthod?

I've just taken delivery of 960 from Jenson and didn't get any customs or VAT charges I'm pleased to say!

What is the best memory card to use?

Usually a week or so before a Fedex bill pops through your door,

I'm using an 8gig class 6

Bugger! Thought it was all a bit easy! I've seen a 16GB class 10 for £18 - assume that would be fine?

I'm off to Tampa in a couple of weeks for work. Was thinking about picking on up cheap while I'm there. Will Henson or the like ship to a hotel?

plenty!

Got to use a Contour at the weekend, and I was pretty happy with it, apart from not setting up my shot properly due to canting my head. Also, it was an old version that only shot 720p and I have to admit that I was not exactly bowled over by the quality. That could have been due to the gak on the lense though.

One thing I will say is that it is a very discrete piece of kit. It's easy to forget it is on and for other people to forget about. Probably more so than the GoPro.

Oh, did everyone see that GoPro have release a 3D version?

Here's a quick lap of the back garden from my 960 - i set it in upside down mode to get the angle right and no, I don't normally ride my bike with a shirt on!!

It's in 960/25 fps (the PAL equivalent of 30fps NTSC) and works pretty well I think. Will give it a run in Wales this weekend hopefully.