GoPro or Not to GoPro

Armaghmagic

Hi all,

Was looking for a camera to take nice shots of scenery while out on my mountain bike,

Was looking at a bridge camera but was told that I should just get a GoPro so as to stop the need for taking a heavy fragile camera on my back.

My question is......are the stills of good quality?

I would probably go for the Hero 3 Black edition

Rew

Armaghmagic wrote: »

Hi all,

Was looking for a camera to take nice shots of scenery while out on my mountain bike,

Was looking at a bridge camera but was told that I should just get a GoPro so as to stop the need for taking a heavy fragile camera on my back.

My question is......are the stills of good quality?

I would probably go for the Hero 3 Black edition

Don't buy it for scenery stills, great for action video and stills not great as a general camera. Buy when of those toughened point and shoots.

ValueInIreland

The GoPro is so good, you will love it for Mountain biking - mostly for Video though. Stills are superb - 12Mp, but the lens in Very wide - about 180 degrees. The go anywhere nature of the GoPro means you will never want to leave it behind - more important than pure quality most of the time. If you want pure Quality bring your regular camera, but pack it in a small Peli case.

Armaghmagic

On that note, what sort of camera would be useful for that sort of thing. A normal point and shoot or a bridge camera? Any specific models that are small and robust?

Definitely going to get a GoPro, hear some great reviews!!:)

Corkbah

Armaghmagic wrote: »

On that note, what sort of camera would be useful for that sort of thing. A normal point and shoot or a bridge camera? Any specific models that are small and robust?

Definitely going to get a GoPro, hear some great reviews!!:)

a go-pro is great for attaching or carrying around and capturing your movement , mountain biking, horseriding, on a bicycle or motorbike...even scuba diving/snorkelling .... go pro is king....but mainly for capturing video.

a bridge camera will allow you to use your knowledge of photography to capture the scenery around you (definitely more bulkier and awkward to attach to a bike etc)

a Point and shoot will take pictures - depending on the model it may very well be capable of using the various scene modes to capture the scenery around you, it will be less bulky than a bridge camera and will be lighter to carry - which means it might be possible to attach it to a bike etc but is not necessarily designed to do so ...so if it falls it will break and because most point and shoots are relatively cheap nowadays - its not worth paying for repairs.

secman

Watched some footage of a GoPro camera last night at the camera club, time lapse work etc, just like watching our CCTV footage in the office on a fast speed ! Don't get it personally, not sure listening to the feed back last night that it was many peoples cup of tea. But everyone to their own.


Prices ranged from €249, to €359 according to the guy from Conns last night.
Secman

Rew

secman wrote: »

Watched some footage of a GoPro camera last night at the camera club, time lapse work etc, just like watching our CCTV footage in the office on a fast speed ! Don't get it personally, not sure listening to the feed back last night that it was many peoples cup of tea. But everyone to their own.


Prices ranged from €249, to €359 according to the guy from Conns last night.
Secman

Id be the first to say the still quality isn't brilliant but sounds like a bad timelapse to me, there are plenty of good GoPro examples out there like this which was posted to the main photography forum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LR8p_A1bG4

That said and as I said above I wouldn't buy it for stills use. Video its brilliant and its stills capability is a great addition to that. If you looking for mainly stills buy a still camera.

To get really good time lapse you need to do post production on the stills en mass which a lot of people dont bother with.

Rew

Oh and there are 3ish different models out top end being €450 each will give you different quality stills.