school me on go-pro's

[sandm]

got one for xmas, but haven't purchased it yet, just the cash to do so. see that there's 3's and 4's.

what would you recommend buying for suctioning to the back of the boat and taking surf vids. any must have accessories? extra batteries? extra cards? cases?

my big worry is that someone knocks the thing off into the water. assuming they float?

[IDBoating]

My son just did an exhaustive analysis of this because it's what he wanted (and got) for Christmas.

Short answer: GoPro Hero 3+ Silver with the GoPro floating backpack.

Long answer: The 3+ Silver is the sweet spot of all the tradeoffs.

The 4's bring 4K video to the game but at a huge hit to battery life. Since few people have 4K playback ability anyway, the only benefit is if you're going to be doing serious video production work where you might want to zoom in on a section of the image and still have relatively high resolution. Otherwise you'll probably play with it at first and then never use it.

The 3+ Black includes a "mode" whose name I can't remember right now that supposedly improves the ability to use the resulting files in video postproduction. My son dug into this pretty hard and concluded it wasn't useful. We use Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing - one of the top packages - and it didn't deliver any benefits.

What the 3+ Silver DOES have that is important is a 120 frames per second record speed. If you're doing action stuff like recording off the back of the boat, higher FPS can really help. It's not just for keeping normal motion smooth... it also means you can play games like slow down the video during impressive portions while still not getting the stuttering behavior that most people settle for. If you're capturing at 120 FPS, you can drop all the way down to 1/4 speed and still be refreshing at 30 FPS which will appear as continuous motion to the human eye. My son's tests since he got the camera show that doubling the frame rate has about a 25% hit on battery life, so there is an effect but it's better than linear.

No matter what you get, if you're putting it on the back of a boat I would 1) get GoPro's floaty backpack because the cameras do NOT float on their own, and 2) use a mount that attaches mechanically (i.e. with screws or straps) to the boat. On this last point, I don't trust adhesives long-term in high vibration, high humidity, high strain environments when I have a mechanical alternative. While the camera isn't heavy, it is separated some distance from the adhesive by the mount and thus has mechanical leverage to strain the adhesive when it wiggles. (The floaty backpack isn't at the same risk because it weighs almost nothing and is seldom under stress.)

Hope this helps... report back on what you choose!

[talltigeguy]

The ability to have a remote and take pictures is very cool. I have a friend who had a 3+ silver (I think), and while foiling, I would click the button and it would take 30 pictures in 2 seconds from the GoPro he was wearing. Pretty awesome feature.

Forget the 'other brand' boat, but I caught this picture for him. For the record he actually landed it.

Look Ma No Hands.jpg

[talltigeguy]

And here is one with a shadow of himself on the buttery water.


WaBoating, is there anywhere with a great deal on the hero 3 Silver? Shadow.jpg

[25cents]

I have the 3 silver and it is a great unit. I thought that I would use it on the back of the boat with the suction cup and the floaty back door, but read a few reviews that said the floaty doesn't help float when attached to any other devices, like the suction cup. I would recommend a telescoping pole and have someone in the back hold it and film. We have almost every accesory that was made and the two that get used the most are a floating handle and the telescoping pole. The floating handle we boat was the one from go-pole and it works perfect and it used 90% of the time.

[sandm]

looking into it, looks like the 2 I want to compare are the 3+silver and the 4silver. the added options in the 4(not black) look like they might be useful down the road. battery life is a consideration, but thinking in a boating environment, would be hardwired to a power outlet or have a few batteries on board to swap out. assuming that the usb cable can be plugged into a 12v outlet to charge it as you go. the added touchscreen on the back of the 4silver is worth noting, but price of the 3 is appealing, especially since I would need all the other stuff you need that it doesn't come with.

looks like these are also "map" priced, but some retailers have bonus packs that are where the "deals" are..

[Captainkurk72]

I have the 3+ Black edition and love it. Here is a list of what I like and I will leave it to you pick out which one gets what is important to you. I have seen on ebay good deals on 3+Black Editions and usually with mounts. I wish I had the HiLight Tag feature found on the new ones. This would save me hours of time I spend editing.

1. Mounts - "Handlebar / Seatpost / Pole Mount" This is my most used. I use this to mount to back of boat grab handle and wake tower. Also a DIY selfy pole (3' piece conduit filled with self expanding foam". Kids also use for mounting to bikes. I also mount to my gun or bow when hunting.
2. Smart Remote - I use this as much as the camera. The 3+ Black edition came with it but $80 new. I wifi connect to my iphone when positioning the GoPro and then connect the Smart Remote and use that for controlling the GoPro. The Smart Remote stays on my boat key chain so its very handy to get to. I have used the iphone for remote use but it kills battery quick and hard to keep on the dash during operation. I guess you can get a window mount and connect charging cable but i have yet to try this.
3. Battery - Not a major must have but I have lost some good footage and have since bought the dual battery pack and charger (Amazon)
4. Floaty BackDoor - MUST HAVE
5. 4K - My camera does have this and I don't use much but I plan on keeping this camera a long time and having 4K makes it "Future Proof" for me. I predict that I will be using mostly in a few years when i have a better mac and UHD TV.

Another thing to think about: I edit with my MacBook Pro (iMovie and GoPros free software), store final movie/video on a network drive and I use apple TV to stream to TVs in house. I will put on my macbook or iphone if want to show it somwhere outside of home. In a year time I have quickly used up the 1T drive and now shopping for bigger NAS.

Hope this helps and good luck shopping.

[H20 addiction]

Sorry if this has been mentioned already, I did not read all posts.

I highly suggest a "float" test in a sink/bathtub/pool before you decide to use your camera and mount setup on the water. The floaty back door will float the camera itself but may not have enough float for the attached mount. I attached a floating boat keychain to my mount to keep the camera and mount off the bottom of the lake.

[IDBoating]

Addendum: My son reports that the ProTune feature which comes in the 3+ Black is also native to GoPro's (free) Studio editing software. So if you really want that feature, you can have it with the Silver version by applying it from within their editing app. You don't have to pay for it in the camera.

[sandm]

didn't see enough difference in the 3 silver and black other than the remote. 4silver has superview. not sure I'd ever use it, but might be nice to have.

[bsreid]

If you were to suction cup it to the back of the boat would it be possible to get a small rope or string and tie it to the cleat just in case it were to fall off?

[JohnnieMo]

I have the 3+ Black. Whatever you get you MUST wire it in to Tigé Touch. There is a whole thread on this.

I mounted mine on the back corner of the boat. I used the GoPro supplied stick on mounts. They are very strong. Mine took a lot of abuse this year, was dunked under water a lot, and whacked with surf boards. I once broke a clip on the mount but could never even wiggle that stick on mount.

If you feel concerned tie a string through it.

Here is the angle.





I ordered a bunch more mounts to move it around the boat (and on a stick) for next year. Also got this thing






Sent from my Passport

[gibbs114]

I have hero 3 white,3+ silver and a new 4 silver. All good cameras have not used the 4 yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[viking]

I have the 3black. I really haven't used it as much as I would have liked up to this point but plan to this next year. I do use the remote alot. As mentioned before I have used my galaxy android phone to control but battery gets drained fast. Wifi kills them so have extras. Get on amazon and order up a Wasabi charger and couple of batteries. They are cheaper and seem to work better than oem. Use the float back door alot. I also have the battery backpac and it works well but not in conjunction with the floaty back door. I considered the LCD touch bacpac but everything i read is batt is dead too fast to even enjoy it. Have several roll bar mounts, helmet mounts, and such and work well when on side-x-side and taking pulls on wakeboard. Have surfboard mount but yet to use. The suction cup works great on side of boat. Next on my list is the floating handler and gooseneck.

[IDBoating]

Whatever you get you MUST wire it in to Tigé Touch. There is a whole thread on this.

Does it have live video output? I tried to look that up but couldn't find anything authoritative on it. I know it does out the connector to the LCD backpack, but I'm talking about an HDMI feed or {gasp} NTSC.

I used the GoPro supplied stick on mounts. They are very strong.

A different perspective: My son used one of the GoPro brand adhesive mounts today on a sled and the exposure to water ruined the adhesive. I helped him attach it and can vouch that it was SOLID when first installed. I was super impressed, didn't expect the adhesive to be that solid. But it literally fell off after about an hour of exposure, and - this is the crucial point - the adhesive pad was just barely tacky. In other words, it didn't fall off due to mechanical failure, it fell off because the adhesive stopped being sufficiently adhesive. I wouldn't trust those adhesives with a multi-hundred dollar camera.

If you feel concerned tie a string through it.

Excellent advice no matter how you mount it!