What have you tried and what had the best results?

GoPro in upside down mode, mounted upside down on the chest mount. Video setting 4 (960 x something HD) – make sure you use a class 10 card.

Not my video but the result is like this: ( but slower 🙂 )

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=ULjqko9sadGJ8&v=jqko9sadGJ8&feature=player_detailpage[/video]

I think chest mount is best for looking forward down the trail shots. On the bars looking up at rider and on the seat post looking back at someone following are fun too

GoPro in upside down mode, mounted upside down on the chest mount.

^ +1

GoPro in upside down mode, mounted upside down on the chest mount.

+2

….and Jurrasic five on the microphone….

Chest mount gives the best POV. Upside down to give a better angle as said above.
Having pretty good results with a K-Edge pro mount on the bars too. Not as good as a chest mount, but for when a chest mount is a PITA it works well.

Most of the time chest mount
[video]http://vimeo.com/45736210[/video]
though I got the post mounts and had a play in this one. Post forward/backward and bar mount (warning may make you sea sick 🙂 )
[video]http://vimeo.com/45345661[/video]

Chest is best for perspective but the key to an interesting video is lots of angles – chest, head, ground (gorillapods are great), bar mount. Mix it up, get creative and have fun in the edit.

That reminds me, I have a great ‘OTB’ video from Stanage that I need to get over to you, Mr Rocket!

Unicorn Cam …..

Only on a slow easy section. 🙂

Unicorn Cam …..

😯

As I said, a slow easy section. ….. Bar ends probably more dangerous and it got me a little good footage, which is the main thing right? . … 🙂

Above front tyre.

Ah Ha! Gravity-Slave indeed you do 😀
email in profile 😀 or DropBox?
or what other options are there?

Having done the bar mount (and as vid shows is not good on twisty trails) not sure about not having a static focus in the frame. And that is too many zip ties even for me

Chest is the best allround. Side of a fullface helmet second. Everything else is drastically worse IMO, but that doesn’t matter that much because if you’re looking at anything else it’s because you’ve realised that videos made entirely out of chest and helmet cam are dull as ditchwater.

The hamdlebar and rollcage mounts basically amount to “put it anywwhere”. Seatpost looking back and forward, bars pointing backwards towards your face, fork or frame pointing forwards.

Incidentally, on the handlebar pointing forward is technically awful, as it’s wobbly and moves far too much. But when you want an antidote to floaty smooth helmet cam, it’s ace, because it suddenly gives the feeling of being knocked about. After all, it’s only capturing the wobbles and movement that are there.

Apologies for the slight hijack, but we’re looking to get the Hero HD 2.

Can anyone comment on how much better it is than its predecessor or indeed the competition (Contour etc)?

Is anyone getting quality similar to that on the GoPro site? I mean, their (particularly Hero 2) promo vids are incredibly slick which makes me wonder what else they’re using to get that quality. Have seen a fair few YT/Vimeo vids that are nowhere near as good.

Surely if the source output is excellent then it won’t matter if using something like iMovie vs Final Cut (or Windows equivalent)? I’m talking in terms of quality, not adding fancy effects.

Any pointers appreciated.

Some good options above, I’m going to be trying to use mine for a spot of paintballing tomorrow. I have a head mount and the bar mount. The bar should be good for mounting on the barrel.

Bit early in the year but while you are all on. Does anybody have any tips for mounting when skiing? I’m thinking chesty helmet and possibly pole mounting. Anybody tried anything else? BTW it will be hire equipment so no practice beforehand unfortunately.

@ spacemonkey. I upgraded from the hero 1 to the 2. There’s a huge difference. Footage in low light situations is much better. I haven’t looked at the GoPro promo vids but the quality it puts out is easily up to professional standards.

Interested in picking up a mk 1 for mountain biking and road biking.
Anyone use a go pro on a road bike commute and if so where do you mount it?

Have seen a fair few YT/Vimeo vids that are nowhere near as good.

I think a lot of it is down to lighting and then colour grading/other post production stuff. Most people won’t do any of this and will definitely overlook lighting for headcams as it’s going to be hard to get a whole trail lit nicely! Also I think a lot of it is that the GoPro promo has mostly non-headcam/chestcam stuff (far as I remember) as that stuff is so bloody boring when used for a whole video.

I’ve heard there’s a new firmware update for the GoPro coming out soon that allows a higher data rate and also a flatter picture to allow better grading.

I reckon chest cam can look the best but it’s really shaky. I rented a GoPro for a day last year and was really disappointed with the quality.

Just bought a go pro 2 used it for the first time yesterday with a chesty, some really good footage just a bit bouncy! At ideas on how to stop so much vibration using a chest mount?

Chest is good, I’ve tried side of helmet recently
video

And a long time ago I tried fitting it to different parts of a bike, just a solo local ride trying the camera for the first time

[video]http://vimeo.com/22488206[/video]

Or directly on the bars

maff11 – Member

Just bought a go pro 2 used it for the first time yesterday with a chesty, some really good footage just a bit bouncy! At ideas on how to stop so much vibration using a chest mount?

Chesty guys I know say it needs to be pretty tight to eliminate the bounce.

Personally I like side helmet mounted view as it’s flowyer and smoother. Chest mount makes it appear faster and more manic but in a lot of the vids, half the screen is filled with toptube/pyjamas/bars.

Some nice ideas for mounting up there ^ and you can always plonk it in a tree or on the ground for a few more angles…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Ds7Uxey90&hd=1[/video]

Agree with Tom about the lighting. The most important thing of all!! [except for making sure you have the correct setting so your not taking four pics of yourself putting your helmet on 😀 ]

I don’t mean to be a killjoy. But what do you do with all this barmounted mtb footage?

^post boring videos on the internet I guess. I use mine as a way of reminding myself how awesome last summer was. I’m considering a HD Hero 2 just so I have a good quality camera that I won’t mind taking anywhere and getting dirty/wet etc.

Thats what I thought (and they were very cheap at the time) the only thing is the fish eye can be annoying on stills

You have to strap the chest mount pretty tight like a bra to stop the camera shaking. Also helps if you have moobs, if not I know people who use a cut up computer wrist wrest gel thing as padding.

My Hero 2 takes much better pics than my panasonic Lumix FT2 rugged outdoor camera. I have taken identical scenes with both and there is seriously no comparison.
I agree that the gigs of video footage I have of me mincing down technical trails is not really useful! If I can’t watch it who will?

Hmm, interesting comments guys.

Still concerned that nothing I’m seeing comes close to the promo vids. Lots of shaky/grainy footage regardless of light etc. Could it be that people aren’t recording on highest settings?

I rented a GoPro for a day last year and was really disappointed with the quality.

Was that the Mk 1?

Don’t yet feel comfortable shelling out £250+ on something that might not be all that good.

Still concerned that nothing I’m seeing comes close to the promo vids. Lots of shaky/grainy footage regardless of light etc. Could it be that people aren’t recording on highest settings?

If you have a fancy comp and decent editing software then the results have the potential to match the promo stuff. Sadly I have neither.

edit: mk 1 was the non HD version. The HD hero (1 or 2) is the one to go for.

Chest mount here with the HD1 – no need to use it upside down I wouldn’t say.

I wonder if a lot of the quality difference you are seeing is to do with encoding video settings, codecs etc – mine looks a lot better quality on the original video files than it did once I’d exported it from iMovie, and it looked worse again once I uploaded it to Vimeo (usually even worse on youtube).

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXhgZO8CFPw[/video]

Full face video

I like the side of a full face the most, not tried the chest mount, but it seems to work pretty well too.

I think the vids on the GoPro site go through a lot of post production colour correction etc in Final Cut or Premier, but iMovie lets you mess around with the colours a bit.

The original ones work a lot better in bright sunlight than they do in wet weather and where its a bit dark – perfect for Canada and the USA not so good for the UK. I think the top video looks pretty decent colour wise though, the 2nd looks very flat without having silly effects placed on it.

@Euro: Ah, didn’t realise there was a non-HD version. So I guess my question to _tom_ is “Is that the HD 1?”

A mate reckons Vegas Pro is better than Final Cut – maybe it is, but it’s also twice the price. Can’t justify that right now. Have an O/C i5 3.4GHz 760 + 8Gb + HD 6870 but would prefer to use my (somewhat lower spec) MBP or Mini.

Interesting that quality is dipping on published output. Maybe hosting via something like Vimeo Pro or Brightcove (both paid subs) would provided better?

I think the trick with getting the quality right for YT/Vimeo is to use the right settings. The issue is always going to be size vs quality but some rendering is better than others. Some of the videos posted above seem to lack detail and clarity. I am sure that this is not an issue with what the camera took but more an issue of the rendering to get a small enough file to post on line.

With these limitations it is difficult to chose a headcam over another unless they shoot the same footage at the same time and are rendered into the same file format/settings.

also worth knowing there is free editing software (CineForm Studio) from the gopro website when you register your device.
it doesn’t give an enormous amount of options, but does allow trimming/flipping without losing resolution.

Grum: Check what version of iMovie you have – 11 is the latest option, it out puts in upto 1080p.
ver8 for example is to export in 920x resolution

So the recorded output is normally anything from pretty good to amazing – it then changes for the better (if you have the s/w, the time and the effort/skill) but can then become worse once online?

If that’s (kind of) the case and I only wanted to share videos with family/friends etc (not online) then the quality should remain as per the recording?

Home made mount for my GoPro. Watch in 720 HD for best viewing.

Basically yes.

Post production (editing software) can further enhance what footage you have shot. For instance if it is to shaky you can remove some of this or if it is to dark/bright you can change this. Lots of other changes you can make but this gives you a rough idea. You can also cut out the boring bits and just keep the best bits of your huck or what ever and cut out the 3 or more failed attempts. You can do this and leave it in the original format and it will view fine straight from source so to speak. You can also render this with with a HD DVD setting and get a great quality but sizeable file to burn onto a DVD etc. Editing does take time nad a decent spec of PC to achieve, especially when you are working with 1020 HD video.

Raw footage is great to view but normally always needs some editing doing to it. Whether it be cropping to get the peak out of shot, reduce the background noise, tweak the colour balance or what ever. It also gets quite boring to just watch the whole trail for instance so mix it up a bit.

crotchrocket,
Think you’ll recognise a lot of this:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da3f4dGGQmw[/video]

Need some time at home to edit that clip, will drop you a mail when I get it on dropbox.