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GoPro HD Hero2

I ended up buying the motorsports version on amazon because it came out before the outdoor version. I already had a chesty, and I ordered a head mount in addition.
 
same camera... just the mounts are different. So if you have one get the other and expand your mounting options
 
Yakoo752 said:
In regards to 60fps... my question is why the concern?

When you upload the footage the viewable output is 30fps. This is because the NTSC standard is 30fps.
Click to expand...

I use 60fps for 3 reasons:

1) Really fast action stretches the limit of 24fps, and things get choppy. Normally NTSC is good enough, but not always

2) @ 60fps, I can slow the video down and figure out what happened in, say, a crash. @ 60mph or whatever, a crash can happen in less than a second, and 24 frames or less doesn't always capture everything.

3) @ 60fps you can get smooth slo-mo for videos. Choppy slo-mo pisses me off.
 
you should always be shooting in NTSC in america. this has more to do with TV frequencies and refresh rates then frames per second. I can adjust frames per second all day long... but it's a time consuming event to convert from PAL to NTSC and vice versa. Actually, a lot of US licensed editing programs won't even let you cross convert NTSC/PAL

EDIT: I should add... there are several program out there that will convert NTSC to PAL and back... but every time you convert footage... you lose some quality. I put out TV ready edits so I can't risk degradation of quality, hence the time consuming-ness of it.

with that said... the rest is kinda YMMV. I have done a lot of editing in the last year with amazing results. I play with frame rates all day long... sometimes it can be as simple as slowing 30fps to 24 fps... or even 30 fps to 29fps simply to get the footage to match the music I am using... this small of a tweak is not even evident to the eye.... It's when you go below 24 fps that you start noticing things.

I would never try and slo motion 30 fps to half speed... it would turn out like complete garbage....
 
Yakoo752 said:
you should always be shooting in NTSC in america. this has more to do with TV frequencies and refresh rates then frames per second. I can adjust frames per second all day long... but it's a time consuming event to convert from PAL to NTSC and vice versa. Actually, a lot of US licensed editing programs won't even let you cross convert NTSC/PAL

EDIT: I should add... there are several program out there that will convert NTSC to PAL and back... but every time you convert footage... you lose some quality. I put out TV ready edits so I can't risk degradation of quality, hence the time consuming-ness of it.
Click to expand...

That's why I don't play ball with any editor that doesn't support arbitrary frame rates both in and out. Fortunately I'm very fond of NLE's, and being the beasts they are a good number meet my criteria. That way I can take in 24fps, 30fps, 60fps, 120fps at any resolution and produce NTSC compatible video without any loss in quality beyond that which is lost from being NTSC.

It's an extra step, and it is certainly not for everyone, but I don't mind.


Yakoo752 said:
I would never try and slo motion 30 fps to half speed... it would turn out like complete garbage....
Click to expand...

Hence my selective usage of 60fps.



FWIW I don't tend to make movies or anything. I shoot for my own benefit, and to share something cool that may have happened with friends.

What do I mean my own benefit? Well, for example, at a particular autocross I took my laptop and watched the footage of my laps between runs. My times improved dramatically.
 
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Cool I wanted an excuse to have 2 of them on the bike (forward and rearward) :thumbup
 
sliverstorm said:
That's why I don't play ball with any editor that doesn't support arbitrary frame rates both in and out. Fortunately I'm very fond of NLE's, and being the beasts they are a good number meet my criteria. That way I can take in 24fps, 30fps, 60fps, 120fps at any resolution and produce NTSC compatible video without any loss in quality beyond that which is lost from being NTSC.

It's an extra step, and it is certainly not for everyone, but I don't mind.
Click to expand...

agreed about NLEs and such... before I get any further...

explain

without any loss in quality beyond that which is lost from being NTSC.
Click to expand...
 
Yakoo752 said:
you should always be shooting in NTSC in america. this has more to do with TV frequencies and refresh rates then frames per second. I can adjust frames per second all day long... but it's a time consuming event to convert from PAL to NTSC and vice versa. Actually, a lot of US licensed editing programs won't even let you cross convert NTSC/PAL
Click to expand...

It's not a trivial problem. NTSC and PAL are pretty significantly out of phase with one another. Smoothing out the video so that it doesn't appear to jitter without changing the speed is pretty difficult.

Recording at 60FPS and down-sampling to NTSC is better, but again not perfect. Recording at 120, it's possible to eliminate the jitter completely, and only speed the recording up by a few percent. 150FPS is ideal, because you can just drop frames and end up with either NTSC or PAL frame rates.

Of course, down-sampling the resolution of the video is another problem.
 
Today has been a GoPro day. I got my head strap in the mail first, then a latch replacement part, then my new gopro HD HERO2! Battery is charging now so I can use it tonight.
 
jorbar1551 said:
Today has been a GoPro day. I got my head strap in the mail first, then a latch replacement part, then my new gopro HD HERO2! Battery is charging now so I can use it tonight.
Click to expand...

:thumbup

I had the fiance pick up the Hero2 for me today too. We're gonna use it for vacationing, and for me to make more lame videos of my rides.:ride
 
Yakoo752 said:
agreed about NLEs and such... before I get any further...

explain
Click to expand...

Oh, all I mean is that it has fewer frames and a smaller resolution. Don't get me wrong, I don't exactly scratch my eyeballs out in terror when I see a NTSC signal- it's fine for casual viewing. But, I'm big on making & keeping high-fidelity source material. Can't always go back and re-shoot, and I have the storage space.

As for the dilemmas Burning1 mentions, my eyes aren't good enough to notice problems like that :laughing
In any case, it's very rare I put video on a TV (computer monitors are generally 50-60Hz) and when I do I'm usually using VGA, DVI, component, etc which can all handle 30-60fps, along with the TV's I'm hooking to.


Honestly I stopped thinking about all this seriously years ago. a 16GB card can hold more 1080p video than a GoPro battery can shoot in one charge. My machine can store some 1,500 hours of 1080p video without a problem (and I got the space for free). I have no issues converting to a lower-res/fps format when needed. So I just stopped thinking about it, and shoot at max res or max fps and damn the storage. I've never said to myself regretfully "oh, I wish I had shot this at lower res/fps!" But I have, many times, wished I had a higher quality copy left of older videos.
 
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Random Post..

I need an HD wrist mount before Sunday. Does anyone know a brick and mortar store I can get one at? In or around the peninsula.. The north face palo alto?
 
Chris_BR said:
Random Post..

I need an HD wrist mount before Sunday. Does anyone know a brick and mortar store I can get one at? In or around the peninsula.. The north face palo alto?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure REI has it.
 
Ok maybe i wasn't clear about the FPS question....

Does anyone know of a video hosting site that supports 60fps? This dosen't mean "uploading at 60fps just so the website can convert it back to 30fps".

Its totally pointless to record at 60fps and then upload it to a site like youtube that just converts it back to 30. It takes up a shitload of hard drive space, and takes way longer to upload. Plus its simply not playing at 60fps when you watch it via the video hosting site.

I understand that you guys like shooting in 60fps because it looks awesome when you watch the local file on your computer.... But you know it's not necessarily 60fps when you watch the uploaded content from the video hosting site, right?
 
That's what I am getting at

If it is shot at a billion fps. It is viewed online at 30fps. It is viewed on you tv at 30fps It is never anything other. If I convert to 1 fps in my timeline it renders to 30fps. Even if it shows the same frame for 1 full second it is played at 30fps.

This is NTSC. Pal is viewed at 24

Higher camera frames per second is a tool used to improve image and editing. Camera has virtually nothing to do with end results. Do not confuse camera frame rate with viewing frame rate.
 
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For example. Tv is broadcast at 720p 30 frames a second. If you went out and bought a 1080p tv. Your tv is up scaling the image to 1080.

What do you think the nfl is filmed at? Much higher and much more fps. But it doesn't translate to the viewing experience quality and fps directly

Silver shoots at what he does cause it suits his needs. I am the same way. I know exactly what the end shot is going to look like. Precisely. If I record at 1080 I render to 720. If I shoot at 150fps. I render to 30fps. Why. So your computer or tv doesn't touch my end product.

I'll follow up with examples tomorrow
 
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Deciding whether I should upgrade or not... I'll wait to see what people say about them.

Chris_BR said:
Random Post..

I need an HD wrist mount before Sunday. Does anyone know a brick and mortar store I can get one at? In or around the peninsula.. The north face palo alto?
Click to expand...

Curious, are you going to use it for the Warrior Dash on Sunday? That's what I'm going to use my wrist mount for.

You can pick it up at Best Buy, that's where I got mine.
 
Don't know if this is been posted yet but it looks interesting for my original hero.

Taken from the GP site:

The original HD HERO is also compatible with the Wi-Fi BacPac and Wi-Fi Remote with support for remote control functions only. Video streaming is not available on the original HD HERO camera.

That remote would be way helpful in the racecar, always wish it could do that. I am still happy with my original, great toy for sure!
 
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