Im going away next week on a downhill day and i will be taking my GoPro 3 black edition.

I’ll be using my chest mount but want to know whats the best video setting to use. I won’t really be needing any slow motion footage so 720p and 120fps won’t be ideal i don’t think. Would you use 1080p and 60fps with a wide lens?

Any idea’s on how to reduce shake other than riding smoother?

Also, whats the best way to take a photo? Using the photo mode the picture becomes very blurred if there’s any movement so its only really good for a landscape or still shot. Can you grab a screenshot of a video in relatively good resolution?

bump

In my experience a chest cam will give quite a shakey output, using a helmet mount is much smoother. Helmet mount with the camera facing backwards gives a great sense of speed.

I like the perspective a chest mount gives so want to stick with it really. I have tried a handlebar mount but that was very shaky on my hardtail.

The camera does come with a small white clip, but im not sure how it mounts. Does this reduce the shake?

Helmet cam is a bit detached, chest is a bit shakey….

Chest up really tight and a lot of varying of angles is good.

[shameless plug]
[video]http://vimeo.com/63068559[/video]all static video (tripod)
[video]http://vimeo.com/63057577[/video]chest only
[video]http://vimeo.com/60297980[/video]Static on the floor
[/shameless plug]

Nice vids, looks a little shaky i guess but if theres not alot you can do then i won’t worry. Did you use the little white clip it came with? And what resolution and fps do yuo normally use?

The white clip doen’t necessarily reduce shake its to stop the camera unclipping from whatever mount you are using.

As evidenced above – go pro only footage gets stale very quickly and should be used very sparingly if at all in your video uploads

yep I tossed the white plug and replaced with some twigs, I choose to use a lot more static cam these days. Really want a DSLR to combine with the go Pro, will also try doing the 720 version and scale the 1080 to crop the view.

Buy yourself a tripod adapter and set the camera up on some berms e.t.c, like Plumber says, it’s good to mix up the views and the tripod footage is surprisingly good. Beneficial when the weathers bad and you don’t want to compromise an SLR body/lens!

yep vid 1 was all done on tripod (cost $100) converting the plate that came in the go pro box cost $0.50

Thanks, i heard the white clip actually tightens the mount up so does help slightly to reduce the shake.

I will have a play this weekend with the chest mount and see how i get on, looks like it may need to be mounted upside down to get the right angle. Will try it pointing backwards too.

The static shots do look good quality! I probably will get a tripod but for the moment ill be cheap and mount it to a stick in the ground or something.

Anyone else have the issue with blurry photo’s? I think it may improve the shutter speed if i do the burst shots instead?

Re: the photo blur i believe the apeture and exposure are fixed. This means you cannot use a faster shot. Therefore fast moving action will always have some blur.

I don’t think you can get screen grabs (although I don’t know the exact spec of the new model) – this wouldn’t help with the blur issue anyway..

Hope that helps

I don’t think you can get screen grabs (although I don’t know the exact spec of the new model) – this wouldn’t help with the blur issue anyway..

Screen grabs will be done post production too

When i was playing with it is was inside and fairly dark, not sure if that would make a difference?

These are the sort of shots i’m getting, its hard to keep the dogs still!

Would a post video screengrab come out better, or would it be any better in daylight?

I’ve since updated teh firmware so will try it out again and see if its improved. I’ve also noticed that when doing the burst photo mode the shots come out dark, is this due to teh low light levels?

Its a GoPro 3 black if that helps.

As I understood it the white clip is to stop the rattle of the clip in the housing, so you don’t get that annoying clicking sound.

As evidenced above – go pro only footage gets stale very quickly and should be used very sparingly if at all in your video uploads

I would say it’s not really “goPro only” that’s the problem is POV only that’s the issue. Mount the camera in different places around the bike and try to get some off the bike footage. off the bike footage is always better but a much bigger pain in the arse.

For some ideas here is a video I made that was pretty much an exercise in using as many different positions as I could think off with the mounts I have.
[video]http://vimeo.com/39667530[/video]

In terms of the settings I would suggest going for 1080p 60 if you have a computer that can handle editing high res, otherwise go for 720p 60.

mikewsmith – Member
yep I tossed the white plug and replaced with some twigs, I choose to use a lot more static cam these days. Really want a DSLR to combine with the go Pro, will also try doing the 720 version and scale the 1080 to crop the view.

Thats the setup I’m using now a GoPro and a Canon 600D. I’m fairly proficient with shooting video on the Canon but shooting bike videos with the Canon when you are trying to ride as well is much harder. You need to spend more time (than with the gorpo) setting up each shoot to make sure you get the focus point right.

Are you looking to crop the 1080p stuff to reduce the fish eye?

Low light won’t help as it means the shutter speed is slower so stuff will blur. You can see that the chairs in the back ground aren’t really in focus either and I guess they aren’t moving right? 😉 So that must be you not holding the camera still either so its a double wammy of stuff moving making it even more blurry.

Yorkshire89; your still pics should come out a lot better with more light.
I think the GoPro is fixed aperture so the only thing it can vary to let the correct amount of light in is shutter speed.

Inside with no additional lighting the shutter speed will be fairly slow (don’t know, but perhaps 1/15s or slower). Outside with decent amounts of light, the shutter speed will be much faster.

I took this picture the other day on the GoPro (hand held) and as you can see no blur. Every thing is static though and as stumpy01 says there was plenty of light.

EDIT: You can notice though that towards the edge of the image (trees top right) there is some blurring. This is just do the type of lens and there is nothing that can really be done about that. You can see that (in varying amounts) even on fairly expensive lenses for DSLR’s. By the way this image is cropped hence why the fish eye effect is less pronounced and you can’t see the worst of the edge blurring.

Thanks for the advice, i will have a play with it and post up some results 🙂

buy yourself the roll mount clamp and use it on the end of your bars facing backwards facing ur shox etc

Yeah looking to pick a section of the video out as you get soooooo much space in the vid if the rider is more than 3m away