First Impressions: GoPro HERO Camera (Part 1)

Motorsports HERO Wide.

As you all know by now I broke my Sony HDR-TG1 two weeks ago after dropping it onto the concrete garage floor. 

During my last visit in New York City, I acquired a new “movie-toy” to film some of my favorite activities as motorbike riding. 

Originally released three year ago, the GoPro Hero cameras series was added by the GoPro Motorsport Hero WIDE. 

It has a wide angle lens, sound recording and a setting to take photo every 2 seconds. 

Between the different GoPro models, I choose the wide angle camera, because my Sony HDR-TG1 does not get that feature. I also wanted to reduce the risk of breaking the Sony camcorder during an action shooting. 

Awwwwww! I guess, I was right not trying to use it on my Ducati since I dropped it trying to film the installation of the GoPro on the motorbike.

Wearable and Mountable:

The different parts made it possible to wear it or mount it. 

 

 

The package includes a quick release buckle, a vertical surface quick release buckle, two flat and two curved surface mounts with very strong 3M adhesive pads and the side-mount pivot arm with a really powerful suction cup. 

So fare I only used the side-mound pivot which I found easy to use to get different view angle without using one of the surface mount that need to be glue.

GoPro Wide Specifications.

• Resolution:  5 megapixel  
• Optic: 170° glass lens and automatic exposure. 
• Video:  .AVI file. 512 x 384 video with mono sound with with adjustable recording/input level. 
• Stills:  .JPG file 2592x1944 photo every 2 or 5 secs, 3X photo-burst sequence.
• Self timer and upside down Photo/Video flip. 
• Memory:  16MB internal, expandable with SD card up to 2 GB (not include).
• Power:  2 AAA batteries (high output rechargeable or lithium units recommended).  
• Interface:  USB cable and RCA plugs, MS ME/2000/XP/Vista and MAC OS X 10.2 and later operating systems are supported.

I highly recommend to get rechargeable batteries. The non rechargeable batteries are expensive and don't last very long. 

Since I bought my GP Batteries Charger It really extend the autonomy of the camera. 

Price.

I bought it in NYC @ ADORAMA for $135,99 which was $63 cheaper than on GoProcamera.com and $32 less than on amazon.com. I was lucky to find it at that price.

Thoughts.

Easy to mount and to use, waterproof, I can now film my motorbike rides using different angle. My only regret is for the image quality.

I do not want to be to long with more technical stuff. 

I will write other post about the GoPro Camera. The next one will be about how I mount it on my bike.

You can go on my YouTube, Dailymotion or Vimeo

Let me know what you think about it.