[Question] Your Experience with GoPro Cameras?

[benhebert]

I'm getting ready to do some serious traveling. London (Jan 20 - 31), Saigon (Feb 1 - ?), China (? - ?) and then back to the United States in May.

I'm seriously considering purchasing a GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition and bringing that along with me in place of my Nikon D3100 DSLR.

The GoPro is smaller and I can film most of my adventures versus bringing the DSLR and lenses. These can be a major pain.

Although I've taken some good shots with the DSLR - I don't think I've invested the time to really do quality work with it.

So for the GoPro users out there:

Is it worth it?

What are you doing with yours?

 

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[Berters]

My hero 2 is in my draw Used it when I went snowboarding last but haven't been in a couple of years, I'll probably pull it out for a week this year. I bought it in preparation for a few weeks in Australia when the hero 2 first came out but it all fell through (an over priced volunteering company...)

My friends have Hero 3s and use them for surfing a lot, I think they're damn good and such an awesome piece of kit to have to hand, especially if you're travelling. I couldn't really comment on using it to take stills, I haven't used a display with one which you might want, it would suck to think you are taking good pics only to find out when you put your card in a laptop that they are awful.

 

[RHL]

I have a hero 2 and 3+ black. The 3+ Black is a quantum leap ahead of the 2. I don't have any footage accessible via my phone or I'd attach it, but the difference in the low light filming is like night and day (har har). The 3+ Black is also capable of doing 30FPS video in 2.7K resolution or 4K video at 14FPS (not really usable for motion shots, but some intriguing options for long/landscape shots. That's insane for a $400 camera that fits in your pocket.

I'm planning on laying out a massive progress thread on what I've been up to since October on the 31st of January. I'll get into the usefulness and features of the camera more then, since the Hero 3+ Black plays a fairly important role in my fastlane plan, and will until profitability allows the purchase of an EPIC RED Dragon, when I'll phase it out or relegate it to certain duties where the larger camera is nonviable.

I will tell you this: My 3+ Black in its stock case survived a fall from around 200FT into mud, where it lay for a while until I could locate and retrieve it. No issues, even the case took it like a champ. It's one tough cookie.

*Edit* A big and disappointing change is that the GoPro no longer comes differentiated by version with different mounts out of the box (Biking, surfing, etc). it comes with a few adhesive mounts for helmets, but that's it Want to film your Aventador on a cruise night? You need the $400 GoPro and a $30 motorsports suction mount (the same one that used to come included with the $250 GoPro 2). At that point, it's cheaper to ditch their cheapo plastic one and get a hardcore metal mount for $5 less from RAM.

 

[benhebert]

Yeah - so basically I'll be biting the bullet and ordering this bad boy tomorrow. Thanks for your help guys and recommendation.

 

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[RHL]

Hit up Craigslist first. It's new tech, so there won't be many bargains, but you might get lucky.