GoPro.....worth it?

narodvale

Hi all,

After much pondering (And almost buying a recent Aldi alternative) I've decided to take the plunge and enter the GoPro market. It would be used for some trail biking, surfing, hiking, and any other projects that spring to mind so I can justify the price.

There is a lot of positive feedback on boards related to the GoPro and I was wondering the following.

- Is there enough difference to justify the GoPro 3 over the GoPro 2, or for that matter even go for the GoPro3+

- With the mounts being very expensive has anyone sourced reliable non GoPro branded alternatives

Is it as good as it's cracked up to be, is there any negatives? (apart from battery life possibly)

As always many thanks for your time and input it's appreciated

Riamfada

I made some mounts out of plastic tube and some joinery boxes for scuba diving. They dont look pretty but the total cost was about 6 euro.

The GoPro branded stuff is unnecessarily expensive. It also meant that I could just dump the mounts and handles when I was finished with them.

narodvale

That's a great shout Riamfada, not sure would I have the creative ability myself but I'm sure it would work really well for scuba diving and other activities with less chance of impact or the GoPro coming loose. Do you dive in Dublin? My gears gathering dust since my CMAS one star, heading to warmer waters for further training. Would be another great chance to use the GoPro. What model do you have?

Riamfada

narodvale wrote: »

That's a great shout Riamfada, not sure would I have the creative ability myself but I'm sure it would work really well for scuba diving and other activities with less chance of impact or the GoPro coming loose. Do you dive in Dublin? My gears gathering dust since my CMAS one star, heading to warmer waters for further training. Would be another great chance to use the GoPro. What model do you have?

I used the GoPro 3 with a touch screen add-on . It worked fine. I was travelling Asia so I needed something that I could break down and disguard easily. Haven't had a chance to dive in Ireland in a while. It can be a bit cold and expensive. Heading back to Thailand in the Summer.

I know a guy who just drilled a mount onto his surfboard and then attached the go pro to that. Works a treat as well. This is what one of my rigs looked like for scuba.

gman2k

Worth considering the SJ4000 camera also, as a 100$ clone it does the job for me. Techmoan.com has a good review.

Farmlife

I got the silver edition and picked up a great cold shoe adaptor on ebay for $5 to put it on top of the dslr, can give a great perspective. but there only as good as where you can mount them. messing around with different angels can be great fun

pullandbang

gman2k wrote: »

Techmoan.com has a good review.

Just got a look at one of these last night and although it doesn't look as good as the go pro it uses standard AA batteries which is very handy if you're away in the wilds without access to a charger.

I have a gopro and the batteries are a bit of a nuisance but I've got plenty of spares and an additional battery back so I can fit two batteries at the same time.
In terms of image quality I'm not sure how good the Techmoan is but the guy that owns it seemed happy enough.

iamtony

Liquid image ego is another good alternative and a great price. I've got one and I'm very happy with it. Looks better too.

gman2k

pullandbang wrote: »

Just got a look at one of these last night and although it doesn't look as good as the go pro it uses standard AA batteries which is very handy if you're away in the wilds without access to a charger.

I have a gopro and the batteries are a bit of a nuisance but I've got plenty of spares and an additional battery back so I can fit two batteries at the same time.
In terms of image quality I'm not sure how good the Techmoan is but the guy that owns it seemed happy enough.

SJ 4000 uses LiOn batteries but not AA. They are only a couple of quid on Foxoffer. Camera is 1080p, quality is excellent.