Are you a GoPro guy?

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Are you a GoPro guy?

Post by downer »

I enjoy watching YouTube videos, particularly motorbike reviews, tours and how-to's, and recently my wife won a GoPro Hero 8 in a competition (along with a few other electronic goodies).

Having never seriously considered it, I decided to rig the camera up on my bike and "make" my first video. First of all, I tried attaching the camera to my helmet, which was simple enough but the resulting video was quite disappointing and quite a palava, particularly because my bike has a largish screen so finding a decent filming angle (with a good view ahead) is quite tricky.

Next I tried attaching the camera to the front of my bike and set off for a quick ride as a test. On return, I looked through the resulting video and of course, it was quite boring. I cut both ends off the video and set about uploading the middle bit to YouTube - in all a video about 5 minutes long.

Well, the YouTube upload process takes absolutely ages... and ages... and that's without spending any time on editing the content to cut the most boring bits, add start and ending etc. I'm also fairly sure I lost some of the video quality somewhere along the line...

I have quite quickly come to the conclusion that it's all too much hassle and I am not a GoPro/You Tube guy. I think the camera will be for sale quite soon, and I have a new respect for those that regularly make and publish interesting content. I now know it ain't easy.

Having said that, I think the camera could be useful for reviewing my rides and helping me to improve, so maybe I'll hang on to it.

Here's the video, just in case anyone is interested.

https://youtu.be/dz-cAKeJ0Sc




Do any of you guys do this stuff?
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Re: Are you a GoPro guy?

Post by scooter »

Having made well over a hundred YouTube videos with a Go Pro and bored myself watching them back I have decided that it's not for me.

I've never worked out how to successfully edit them, have lost picture quality somehow and it takes forever. This all backs up your own comments.

There is nothing wrong with your video and I did watch it all.

It lacks what mine do, decent music or quality chat.

When you watch someone like TMF you realise how much of an art form to produce it is.

You do handle that bike's power rather well though.

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Re: Are you a GoPro guy?

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

Like a lot of these things, it may well appeal to people who are passionate about what you are doing. I suppose if some death-defying downhill skier used one, then people who enjoyed skiing might be interested.

The average Joe is probably going to say – "yeah, some guy on a bike."

I accompanied a group of kids racing the school's electric "cars" last summer and was given the job of rigging the camera onto the car and then editing the footage. Three hours of driving around hay bales at 15 mph was mind blowing numbing. Best moment was when one of the girls went into the back of some guy from another school who had panic braked in the pit lane. :lol:

They were both fine.
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Re: Are you a GoPro guy?

Post by downer »

scooter wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:52 pm Having made well over a hundred YouTube videos with a Go Pro and bored myself watching them back I have decided that it's not for me.

I've never worked out how to successfully edit them, have lost picture quality somehow and it takes forever. This all backs up your own comments.

There is nothing wrong with your video and I did watch it all.

It lacks what mine do, decent music or quality chat.

When you watch someone like TMF you realise how much of an art form to produce it is.

You do handle that bike's power rather well though.

scooter
Wow, 100 videos. That's a lot of effort.

Personally, I rarely watch the bike videos with music, and I recognise my own limitations when it comes to quality chat. :lol: Anyway, adding an audio stream from a helmet mic is a whole new level of added complexity, particularly with the camera on the front of the bike. Additionally, to add an external mic to a Hero 8 requires some additional hardware (and money). I think I'll leave it to the experts.
Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:14 pm Like a lot of these things, it may well appeal to people who are passionate about what you are doing. I suppose if some death-defying downhill skier used one, then people who enjoyed skiing might be interested.

The average Joe is probably going to say – "yeah, some guy on a bike."
Bit disappointed you didn't comment on my cornering lines or IPSGA technique, AVO. :lol:
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Re: Are you a GoPro guy?

Post by scooter »

downer wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:31 pm Wow, 100 videos. That's a lot of effort.
125 actually, and not one of them was even nominated for an Oscar.

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Re: Are you a GoPro guy?

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scooter wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:43 pm
downer wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:31 pm Wow, 100 videos. That's a lot of effort.
125 actually, and not one of them was even nominated for an Oscar.

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Re: Are you a GoPro guy?

Post by scooter »

I just suck it up to be honest although I'm thinking of getting Ricky Gervais involved in my next production (if there ever is one).

Well done once again on your Blood Bike duties.

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Re: Are you a GoPro guy?

Post by Thermexman »

The quality isn’t that bad at all. I believe that YouTube does compress the quality somewhat? Having been involved in three crashes, that weren’t my fault and only getting the correct result from the insurance companies because other motorists stopped to act as witnesses for me, I now use dash cams as routine.Its amazing how many stupid drivers you capture on film.

We even saved a friend from being involved with a scam when her neighbour tried to claim that one of her visitors damaged his car. When none of her visitors owned up, she was going to pay up, in order to keep the neighbour sweet before my wife’s dash cam proved that the damage wasn’t there when she visited on the given day. We showed him the footage and the @#£t hasn’t shown his face since.
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Re: Are you a GoPro guy?

Post by downer »

scooter wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:00 pm
Well done once again on your Blood Bike duties.

scooter
Cheers scooter. Had to deliver a poop (FMT) to an infectious diseaase ward last week. Wasn't sure what to expect but fortunately it was only a small package.
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Re: Are you a GoPro guy?

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Thermexman wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:15 pm The quality isn’t that bad at all. I believe that YouTube does compress the quality somewhat? Having been involved in three crashes, that weren’t my fault and only getting the correct result from the insurance companies because other motorists stopped to act as witnesses for me, I now use dash cams as routine.Its amazing how many stupid drivers you capture on film.

We even saved a friend from being involved with a scam when her neighbour tried to claim that one of her visitors damaged his car. When none of her visitors owned up, she was going to pay up, in order to keep the neighbour sweet before my wife’s dash cam proved that the damage wasn’t there when she visited on the given day. We showed him the footage and the @#£t hasn’t shown his face since.
Yeah, permanently wired "dash cams" would probably suit my purposes, rather than the somewhat over-specified GoPro. I've looked into it a bit, but it's quite a hassle wiring them into the BMW canbus arrangement, unless you use a specific harness adaptor gadget (which costs £££). However, it may be something I end up doing - especially if I sell the GoPro to fund it.
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