With the release of that drone thing I got to thinking what are they really for?
I’ve come up with the realisation that it is so other people can see what you do rather than for you to enjoy it yourself.
I’m as guilty as anyone of taking a picture of my bike in a suitably epic spot and posting said picture on the net . Then hoping that someone I’ve never met (and probably never will)will write and let me know how fabulous I am.
After this years snorkelling trips I thought I’d get a go pro and video the turtles that we saw. We could invite the family round and show them 30 seconds of a turtle eating a piece of rock or we could just remember how exciting it was for us to discover them.
I appreciate the professional stuff we see on here but it does get to a point of the recording being more important than the actual event.
Honest answers please.

Rarely…. I’m always disappointed to see how slow it looks like I’m going!!

Let’s face it, most MTB footage just proves how slow most of us are compared to the pros so very rarely watch it more than once.

Occasionally watch footage from motorbike trackdays and feel wistful that I’ll probably never do another one. Don’t do that too much as though as I start looking for track bikes on Ebay when I’ve had a few beers.

Rarely, mine is on the bike and watching my footage is not nearly as exciting as footage on the likes of pinkbike. When I use it now it’s either for the memory, like a photo, or to show other people a trail I’ve worked on or found.

I generally get round to editing up a holiday and some stuff we do messing around locally. The holiday stuff comes out if someone is asking about trails and it’s nice to show the folks back home what I’m up to. the messing around stuff is for what we did and looking back at

This astounds me in general – the amount of stored amateur* footage out there must be staggering. And for what?

*Still on about MTBing.

I’m useless at actually remembering to put the thing on my bike in the first place!
I rarely use it. The last time I actually bothered to use it was on our summer hols last year. I did a family vid and although I put it on vimeo and shared it on here (for some of the reasons you list above), it’s actually nice to put it on with the kids and have a bit of a reminiscence.
Last time I went to BPW, I suggested setting it up but my mate put me in my place a bit and said to just enjoy the riding – he was right.
I’ve come off Facebook for similar reasons – I was posting stuff for recognition rather than actually wanting to share.

Photos and film clips are mostly good for forgetting about until once in a blue moon I open up the folder they are in and have a few happy memories

Rarely, I’ve made 2-3 vids I was actually pleased with, but to make them even half decent you need to know the trail like the back of your hand and by utterly flying along, even them it might be interesting to your Mum and Mates (Wife shows no interest).

If you want to make something of general interest, even just other MTBers you need to do something special, and if you can’t whip like Brendog that means multiple angles, multiple cameras or a least riding the same thing half a dozen times trying to make it look exactly like the last, then spending a huge amount of time bent over the laptop editing, adding music etc.

I tried to talk one of my mates into filming a section of trail we know well ‘properly’ according to Strava it takes us about 50 seconds to ride it – I reckon to cover the whole thing from static view points would take a decent lump of a day to film.

I film every big mountain adventure I go on with the bike, then combine the footage into one five minute film at the end of the year. I watch these maybe once every few months, I also stick ’em on youtube where a few hundred folk with spare time on their hands watch them.

Watching a POV run of myself (let alone anyone else!) going down a local trail? Why bother, I could just go and ride it.

I bought my first gopro this spring and have shot loads of footage, riding, swimming, paddleboarding etc. So far i’ve only edited one 30 second clip distilled from about 2 hours at the skatepark! My favourite thing though is extracting great stills shots. Try mounting the camera low down facing backwards and get a friend to follow you down a trail

I find GoPro footage is great for sticking on when you have friends round.

Great for when you want them to leave that is.

I enjoy the act of ‘directing’ and the editing of an interesting film; provided there is some sort of narrative to base it around however lame. I did one in the summer based around an early morning swim which was fun to do but took up much of a week long break to get enough footage for a 2.5 min film. But you have to do it properly for it to be worth watching with lots of different angles etc. Which trashes hours and hour, possibles days of time. It also trashes the actual event you are filming. A film worth watching comes from multiple repeated scenes, setting up the kit to ride/swim/fly past and then returning for it and maybe people to be the subject matter of the film prepared to be ‘directed’. Just standing at the top of a run, pressing record and then stop at the bottom with a single POV is dead easy but also just a waste of digital storage.

I watch some of mine, but not very often.

I rarely re-watch runs of favourite trails etc.. but I like watching old vids of cycle touring I’ve done with my gf and so on.

I’ve also found Microsoft Hyperlapse does a nice job of speeding them up…
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=52379

I stopped using mine because I had hours of footage I’d never watch. But now I use it more selectively and most of it does get at least viewed if not necessarily used. (shooting shorter clips is what makes the big difference, I had 10-15 minute blocks before and it’s just… urgh)

Me and a mate have been doing loads of filming for a plug piece for the trailfairies and that’s going to be a horrible job to go through. Hours of footage from 2 cameras to edit down to a 3 minute pop video. But hopefully we’ve done enough while filming to make it actually interesting- lots of statics and flybys and varying angles.

mrs bought me one for xmas.. can’t bear to watch footage back, let alone edit it as it makes me motion sick. awesome 8)

Almost exactly never.

There’s already someone on youtube with better footage of everything I could film.

My mate does a ski summary video each year and he has a real knack for filming and editing. I took loads of POV footage of the same trip last year and it was s**t.

You need to think about what you are filming as well as filming it, you also need to spend more time actually doing stuff on the snow and not hanging round as part of a large group all waiting on the slowest mover.

Also, you need to know when the device is on and when you have just turned it on to film your trip into the boot root or when taking a leak … seriously.

As for riding, none of the riding I do looks cool enough to film.

My cameras has a full memory card with a few uplift days in there and last year’s Alps trip. The previous full card was copied over to the hard drive to sort through later, covers the year previous.

Haven’t looked at any of it 😳

I’ve just started playing about with one, and finding it pretty good fun to be honest. It’s turned my riding this weekend from formerly being all about head down, arse up, mashing – to something where I’m actually taking time to enjoy making a film while I ride – and enjoying riding more. A creative process – if you like.

Plus, riding with an action cam makes me look totally Enduuuuurrroooo 😆

Anyway, I fear I’m chancing the wrath of the internet gods by linking this twice on STW in one hour 😳

But see what you think, kids. It’s my first attempt at this! (I fear it may be found to exemplify every failing previously outlined above, but I quite like it). 😆

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU9CRTeAsmQ[/video]

But see what you think, kids.

Far too long and I stopped watching quickly because I couldn’t see anything that far in front of you. Helmet mounts are best for steep downhill I think as they seem to point more downwards. Chest mount for everything else as the view tends to open up a bit more.

That looks like my old bike no_eyed_deer. Yeti ASR5C?

I bought a Hero4 Session 2 weeks ago and still not used it. Although I’ve not got any mounts / accessories yet and primarily it was to film my daughter on her balance bike.

I’m tempted to buy a chest harness along with the standard handlebar seat post mounts. What does everyone else use?

Fair points 😆

Must try harder!

The camera appears to have a ‘wide angle’ mode that I was unaware of. It might be a better view with that next time..

^ Yep – ASR 5C – it is a sweet bike, for sure.. 🙂

A creative process

Sorry N_E_D I think you put the wrong link up – you put up the one to the raw footage before you got all creative? 😉

Anyone want to sell me one? A camera not an edit of your footage 🙂

I stuck some of the vids from this year’s holiday on YouTube at the weekend. Mainly so A group I rode with could see what the trails are like where we went. The videos in themselves are pretty boring though, mainly because I’m not very good!

About 5-6 years ago I put up a 2-3 min video on YouTube of me and the OH skiing on a deserted glacier at Les Deux Alpes on a blue bird day (using my normal camera in my hand). I only really did it to see how YouTube works, the video has had 16,000 views, no idea why as again it’s pretty boring.

I’ve hardly watched any of the videos I’ve taken.

KingofBiscuits – Member

I’m tempted to buy a chest harness along with the standard handlebar seat post mounts. What does everyone else use?

If you’re only going to use one, then for action chest is best but for your use stick a sticky “foot” on your helmet, it’ll get you all the “where I am looking” stuff with your daughter.

Handlebar and seat mount are less useful than you’d think, I use them sometimes just to give an alternative angle and break up footage- nothing duller than a single perspective video, just ask Hitchcock. Becase you can’t quick-release the camera on and off these you tend to use them less often.

My favourite is just a gorillapod with a gopro foot on top- brilliant for static shots, I can hang it in a tree or balance it pretty much anywhere and it takes about 5 seconds to switch from onboard to static because it all clips together.

Thanks Northwind. Yes, I do like the look of those gorillpods too. It’s not just about video either. Some of the stills that can be captured, especially from alternative angles/positions look great and was another reason I purchased the Session e.g.

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Psyched to announce that I'll be riding a @yeticycles as a social media ambassador. I just got my new #SB45c a couple of days ago. Got the #newbikestoke something fierce right now. Almost hoping it stops snowing here in Colorado. Here's a shot from last night with fellow #yeticycles rider @ericbiboom in @eagleoutside. @gopro #hero4black @smithoptics #yetitribe

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http://singletrackworld.com/magarchive/issue-61/%5D

I’ve had a Veho Muvi and a night video camera I forget the name of, for something like eight years. They both got some regular use when new, probably more the novelty value than anything else, but neither have been used at at for maybe three years!

I used them a fair bit for my more nocturnal fish, but wading through three hours of footage to find interesting moments was a real borefest! 😆

I’ve got about 30gb of Alpine footage, been on my PC for a couple of year.
Maybe I’ll look at it when I retire.

Only to compare previous runs to see where I can go faster, where I’m loosing time etc. I use kinovea for this as I can sync the 2 videos.

I thought GoPros were meant to capture those nasty fails and bails?

KoB – those are some great alternative camera angles there! I’m gonna try those out next time I think. Gorilla pod…? Hmmmm must Google!

Will try to be more ‘creative’ in future! 😉

Think I’d prefer to spend my time actually riding the trail rather than watching footage of me riding a trail I’d already ridden. In the same way when I go to gigs, I prefer to watch the gig, with my own eyes rather than through the screen on an iPhone to watch at home later. I find life is more enjoyable that way 🙂

What I find most crazy is the guys I see out all the time go-pro’ing their surfing. It’s just some whitewater mush near Newquay, not exactly Hawai North Shore! Can’t imagine the the inlaws being impressed having to sit through half an hour of that sort of footage when they pop round for tea!

Read the other day that for £200 you can get filmed by a drone while you ride in the Alps. WTF?

My Wife got me one for my 40th. Mainly for snowboarding.
It generally goes along the lines of “is it on? Is it on? You sure?” Then 10 mins of crap footage.
It’s in a drawer somewhere unused after the first trip.
I like snowboarding, not fannying about with a camera or a pole with a camera on the end.

the actual raw footage? Never.

I will shoot loads of footage and then edit the highlights into a short film (max 5 minutes) with accompanying music to remind myself/those I rode with of whatever cycling trip I have been on.

I will watch those edited highlights frequently, some more than others depending on how much i enjoyed the trip/how well I edited the movie. After a few months when I am certain that i don’t want to edit another movie i will delete the raw footage.

Maybe it’s because you haven’t got 6 year olds to do the filming for you?
(although, even this footage is a bit long!)

[video]https://youtu.be/CCmqOFDbQmY[/video]