GoPro advice

benyflyguy

benyflyguy

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benyflyguy
I am thinking about a new GoPro. I have a Hero 3+ I got on eBay a few years ago for high altitude ballooning. For that application it works just fine. Cheap enough if it breaks or I lose it I don’t get too upset. Fast forward. A busy this weekend asked if I could use it to tape a flight or two for his son. He has special needs and is an aviation nut. Watched yT videos constantly. So we went up in his MU2 and I used camera in cockpit- bouncy and lost audio (due to noise) after start up. Then went up in our club 182 mounted on strut-pretty cool for that but other then noisy wind. We posted them up on yT and his kid went nuts loves watching them over and over and over.
I’d like to get a GoPro that I could mainline the audio from cockpit in so you can get better voice. The hero3+ doesn’t do that at least easily.
What is my best bet??
 
do u want a solution you can "grow into", setting up multiple cameras with different views or will you stick with one camera? if one, do u want to mount the camera or be able to move it around, point and shoot where ever u want? do u want cheap/easy/decent sound or more involved/more expensive/slightly better audio? bunch of people on here will give u plenty of options, but based on what you want to do might help narrow it down a bit.

1) quick, easy, super cheap, decent enough audio solution for 99% of what it sounds like you're going to do

2) more expensive, more hardware, only slightly better audio solution

I'm sure plenty of others will chime in with other solutions
 
If buying used, don't get anything older than a GP6 because of the image stabilization benefits. GP7 is better. If you can swing it, get the 8.

For recording cockpit audio, the simplest solution is to get something like this:
https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/gopro11-14862.php
There are several companies that make similar products. This allows you to record audio directly to the GoPro. I personally record my audio to a digital audio recorder, but for simplicity sake, I'd recommend you go straight into the GoPro.
 
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No experience with it, but if I were currently flying and wanting the type of solution you seem to be describing, I'd be looking hard at a Garmin 360 camera and a lav mic adapter for my phone.

Stick the lav mic in your headphone ear cup and record to an audio app on your phone. Clap three times where the camera can see it and preferably hear it (i.e. before engine start) and you can easily sync the audio and video file in editing software.
 
I will never buy another GoPro brand camera. Great camera, horrible software. I have a Hero Session which uses a phone as its remote. Video quality is excellent, but it's a nightmare trying to get it to connect each time.
 
I have thought about the new gopro but decided to stick with my two Garmin VIRB XE's. I connect my audio cable into the rear headset jac and have very good audio on my videos. I also have some cheap Activeon Gold videos for outside shots only, the audio on this camera sucks,

The VIRB XE is an older unit, and honestly I'm not sure what the latest and greatest is. It seems the gopro is the choice for a good many pilots.
 
Dana said:
I have a Hero Session which uses a phone as its remote. Video quality is excellent, but it's a nightmare trying to get it to connect each time.
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My experience as well. Its like reinventing the wheel every time I need to connect it. As often as not, I give up and use it without connecting it, just point it somewhere close to what you're trying to capture and hope you get some kind of usable clips out of it.
 
I have two GoPro 3+ Black and a 7 Black. While the 3+ are rock solid, have a simultaneous photo + video feature and also allow for the easy installation of an extended battery, the image quality looks pretty dated compared to the 7 black.

This being said, the 7 Black had some severe software issues at the beginning (I hope they are fixed by now), it for example crashed on an epic flight on the Bahamas. The other issue is the very limited battery capacity. This is not a big deal if the camera is used handheld but becomes a major pain if it is installed outside of the aircraft and you simply want to let it run during the entire flight. Even when it's mounted inside of the cockpit, the battery capacity can be an issue, as fiddling with the mount and the camera to swap batteries can be a huge distraction.

Anyway, I am currently also looking for a new camera, would be open to going away from GoPro, no other camera however matches GoPro's image quality and the number of available accessories. The other thing is, that the competitors have the same limitations in running time.
 
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Just get 2 of everything. I have 5, 5 session, 5 black, 7 black, and an osmo. None of them have been 100% reliable
If a sim doesn't cause an issue, the audio craps out or the video freezes and on and on.

I like the OSMO because it has the front screen so I can frame things a little.

Action cameras are all hit or miss tho.
 
German guy said:
The other issue is the very limited battery capacity. This is not a big deal if the camera is used handheld but becomes a major pain if it is installed outside of the aircraft and you simply want to let it run during the entire flight.
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I'm looking to upgrade, but this is my issue. What are the run times on the newer GPs?
 
Flocker said:
I'm looking to upgrade, but this is my issue. What are the run times on the newer GPs?
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GoPro has a list with run times on their website: https://gopro.com/help/articles/block/gopro-camera-battery-life

Note however, that these times are with wireless, GPS and voice recognition off. With wireless and GPS on they drop significantly. Wireless keeps obviously draining the battery, even when the camera is on stand-by. I had it on stand-by during our last year's Bahamas flight for about 1.5 hours. By the time I turned it on via WiFi, I had already lost over 30% of the battery capacity. GoPro released a software update which supposedly fixes this issue, some people in the forums are however still complaining about the battery rapidly draining when wireless is on but the camera turned off. I haven't tested it yet.

Another thing to be aware of is that wireless stays on (when activated) for 8 hours when the camera is turned off. WiFi will turn off after while but Bluetooth will stay on. If I turn the camera on, after it's been fully charged, I therefore remove the battery as otherwise Bluetooth would keep draining it for the next 8 hours.

I understand that the behaviour of the GoPro 8 is the same.
 
Flocker said:
I'm looking to upgrade, but this is my issue. What are the run times on the newer GPs?
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Not sure about GP's but I use the EC Technology Portable Charger 22400 mAh power bank with three USB connections to power my Garmin VIRB's for an entire trip. The unit also can charge my iPhone or iPad if necessary.
 
GMascelli said:
I have thought about the new gopro but decided to stick with my two Garmin VIRB XE's. I connect my audio cable into the rear headset jac and have very good audio on my videos. I also have some cheap Activeon Gold videos for outside shots only, the audio on this camera sucks,

The VIRB XE is an older unit, and honestly I'm not sure what the latest and greatest is. It seems the gopro is the choice for a good many pilots.
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I was thinking about the VIRB as I think the gps data is really neat to overlay.
What I like about the hero 3+ I have is the Brunton battery pack that straps right on as part of the mount. It extends battery life for hours at high res.
My next one will be more about the battery with inline audio capability. I’m not good at editing so the more the camera does for me at once-the better.
those 360 deg cameras are super cool though too.
 
I also like the concept of the Virb, but the Ultra 30 has already been on the marked for over 3 years, what shows in the video quality. It is not even close to the Hero 8.

Hero 7 and 8 also allow the overlay of GPS data, however not a nice as Garmin. There are however 3rd party tools which fix this to some degree.
 
Not sure where to mention this, but the conversation is kinda, sorta relevant.
My GoPro is good for about 1 hour of recording, my Insta360 One x is good for about 45 minutes.
I carry a couple of extra batteries for each device, but you have to be on the ground to change them. Not usually a big deal.
I also have a 20,000 mah power bank I bought 4 years ago. Works really great for cellphones, tablets, etc. And it has a built in flashlight. Great for my emergency kit.
But, I had never actually used it while in the plane.

Last week, I decided to plug it into the GoPro while in flight as I was pressing the one hour limit, and I wanted to make sure I got the landing at Kline-Kill.
As soon as I plugged it into the GoPro, The handheld radio became unusable. Even with squelch cranked up. So I plugged it into the Insta360. Same result. Cellphone, same result.
It turns out the power bank makes so much RFI when in use, it blanks the radio. Completely. Unplug it, problem gone.
Unexpected consequences. Glad I wasn't anyplace where I needed the radio.
Probably should have tested this, on the ground, 4 years ago.
Be safe out there, ladies and gentleman. Assume nothing is 100% perfect.
 
Shepherd said:
Last week, I decided to plug it into the GoPro while in flight as I was pressing the one hour limit, and I wanted to make sure I got the landing at Kline-Kill.
As soon as I plugged it into the GoPro,
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That sucks! I bought this thing from Best Buy...
86F51500-FFE1-40AC-8E3D-A7297EFE0FF7.jpeg

and I can plug it into the GoPro (even while recording audio into the same camera) and it doesn’t cause any interference. Not sure if a handheld would be different or not though.
 
You just never know. I installed a dual USB power port in my [experimental] plane. Using one port causes my radio to break squelch, plug the cord into the other one, no problem.
 
Misc things:

You can overlay Garmin GPS data (eg. GTX345) over Gopro video using the Garmin video editor..I think it's funny but works. But several steps. I think you could even overlay engine data if you have a Gxxx setup.

The gopro will drain the external (powerbank) first.

A 10,000mah power bank is big enough you can skip using the internal battery.

For the overhead camera velcro a lipstick sized powerbank (about 2800mah) right next to it to almost triple the gopro battery life.

The smart remote works fantastic for having all cameras start and audio synch at once...yes it does! But the fiddling to actually reach that state makes you want to step on it and crush it.

Has anyone found a way to dump all the gopro video right from the camera without their app. I hate removing that little card everytime.

To bad GigE heads are so spendy. Imagine 3 or 4 cameras each with a single ethernet PoE cable running back to a solid state recorder. Add one master audio input and hide it in the back ships power. Start up plane. Flip record switch. Fly. Shut off plane. Grab ssd and edit.
 
Sinistar said:
Has anyone found a way to dump all the gopro video right from the camera without their app. I hate removing that little card everytime.
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You should be able to use the USB cable to connect to your computer (or phone, with a USB OTG adapter), then use file explorer or another app to move the files. But it'll probably be slower than reading directly from the card.
 
Sinistar said:
Misc things:

For the overhead camera velcro a lipstick sized powerbank (about 2800mah) right next to it to almost triple the gopro battery life.
Click to expand...

That would be much easier to mount next to the Garmin VIRB XE then running a cord to the larger battery pack and setting it inside the back of the seat pocket.

I ordered the Anker Power Core 5000mAh unit.
ANKER 5000mAh .jpg
 
Dana said:
You should be able to use the USB cable to connect to your computer (or phone, with a USB OTG adapter), then use file explorer or another app to move the files. But it'll probably be slower than reading directly from the card.
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When I first got the gopro (Hero 5 black) i tried this but it didnt mount as a standard drive so i couldn't access the files like you could with any normal camera. Maybe that has changed with an update or newer model.
 
GMascelli said:
That would be much easier to mount next to the Garmin VIRB XE then running a cord to the larger battery pack and setting it inside the back of the seat pocket.

I ordered the Anker Power Core 5000mAh unit.
View attachment 86755
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I like the 5000mah! I was afraid it was just a bit to heavy for the velcro so tried a smaller one first. I also got one that is rectangular (Jackery) so it has flat sides to give the velcro for more surface area. But the round tube looks nicer and probably just as easy to mount.
 
For the gopros that we mount up front we use these 10000mah units. I just velco to the side panel of the plane and a short cable up (1ft). I like these because they have a power remaining display as well! I tried them on he ceiling for the overhead camera and too much for Mr.Velcro:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JYYRT7T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For the ceiling, ours is discontinued but this is fairly close (has flat sides for velcro):

https://www.amazon.com/Miady-Chargi...words=small+power+bank&qid=1592326917&sr=8-29
 
Can anybody comment on how well the newer GoPros address "Jello" (rolling shutter) in the frame? I don't mind stabilization / vibration, as I can fix most of that in post. But jello is so annoying, and much harder to fix. (Not gonna lie, I've thought about rolling my own software to try to fix it, but that seems extreme.)

Currently I have two Session 5's that I mount on a 182 strut, and they work great minus the jello. Have looked at the 7 (before the 8 came out) and was intrigued by this whole "HyperSmooth" thing, but not quite intrigued enough to buy. Now there's the 8, and I'll admit the Max with 360 view would be pretty cool on a strut. Of course, the 7, 8, and Max claim to have HyperSmooth, HyperSmooth 2.0, and HyperSmooth Max, respectively, in terms of stabilization, which is pure marketing speech and means nothing.

Anyone have first-hand experience with these (especially in re jello) and can comment, or came across a review they trust?
 
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