GoPro hints and tips

[GOSSAMER]

I have just purchased my first GoPro and i'm looking for some hints and tips on best mounting spots for 4wding. I have a trip planned to Robe but being trip leader i'm not sure if i want to mount it looking forward at the beach/dunes in front or looking rearward to the cars behind? Or do i mix it up over the 3 days? Mount it on the roof rails or mount it somewhere lower?

[Pajero12]

Hey Gossamer,

I mount my gopro on the windscreen. I have multiple options for the camera incl waterproof housing, skeleton case and also have a battery pack. The reason I mount inside is to charge the gopro whilst I am using it.

The problem with recording your driving is that the battery doesn't last long (maybe 2-4 hours depending on the settings). You can control the gopro from an app but you need to connect to it wirelessly to turn it on and off, change settings and change modes from video to still etc. but, you guessed it, it almost halves the battery life!

do some testing but I have found that time lapse is the best setting on a 5sec interval. It makes the driving look awesome without filming everything (remember, you're driving at 20-25km/h at robe on the sand and through the tracks with a possible 40km/h max).

Have a play around but maybe a USB extension cord so you can charge it wherever you mount it

Another cool place to mount it would be on the side steps about level with the centre of your front wheel, but as far back as you can. You get cool videos of the sand flicking up - but after two or three minutes watching the footage gets boring.

Jim

[dean]

Yes Pajero12 makes a good point, keep all recordings short to avoid boring videos.
Mounting outside always gives the best footage, use a suction mount on multiple spots.
Use your phone app to view before recording.
Batteries don't last long but I have several batteries.
They are rotated and charge as we drive in another charger.
Dean

[GOSSAMER]

Do suction cup mounts stick ok on the outside? What other mounts are handy? I have a mount from a cheap Chinese camera I bought years ago that I have adapted to bolt to the roof rail. I was thinking a tripod to catch some out of car shots?? And maybe a clamp one that can sort of clamp most places???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sharkcaver]

You may have seen my footage from the canning? That was a GoPro only purchased days before I left and I really have no idea how to drive it. I started off with a suction cup mount on the inside, but its a bit jumpy. On Steve's advice, I put a sticky mount on the windscreen and never looked back. A much better idea.

For external mounts I made my own from the GoPro tripod mount and flat bar. The tripod mounts have 2 x 1/4" threaded inserts. Drill the holes in the flat bar, bolt the tripod mount to it and clip the GoPro in. For the Canning I used slider cam, and 2 roof rack mounts, 1 forward, 1 reverse. I also bought the kaiser Bass bull bar mount (cause its cheaper than the Go Pro version) but never used it. Maybe in the future when I dont have a rack mounted?? Personally, I prefer a bit of car in the action too, something you wont get when you bullbar mount the cam.

Good advise on shorter clips. I took over 600 individual shots on the canning. Some were far too long. When you compile the movie, you will want to edit these clips so the action shots are not too long or the audience will turn off. My canning vids in places are too long. But let me tell you, the time and effort in putting good footage together is a rather large burden. Near 4 weeks on the road for that trip of mine took me weeks - and its not perfect by any means - by the end of it, I just couldn't be arsed. Its a big chore. But I think whilst my vids still need work, I was getting better as I progressed.

I also started off using wifi and the app. It chews too much battery. In the end, I just selected the one touch start, and cut the bits off the start and end if I wanted to include that bit of clip. I believe the remote is a worthy tool, but at $140 or so, I'll just cut the crap off each end.

As for editing, I just used windows movie maker on a vista computer. That gave me some grief too, as sometimes the data must have been too much, and setting the movie to compile overnight, I would find in the morning it wouldn't publish. So I edited within the edit to smaller clips then compiled them at the end. That was another chore.

My car puter crapped itself on that trip and I had to buy another lappy. This is win10. I installed movie maker on that and note it is remarkably different from the vista version. So next time I go to make a movie, I will try the win 10 version (and have to learn the process all over again cause its so different) and see if that will handle my vids without doing edits within edits.

I also downloaded the GoPro software for edits on that lappy. It needs a 64bit system to run, something my home vista puter isn't. A quick play on that and I see the first process is to convert the clip from Mpeg4 to avi, then you can move onto the edit function. I haven't used it past that point to see how it compares to movie maker.

The dual battery charger with additional battery is a good investment.

Good luck. Hope to see some footage from you some time

[dean]

Do suction cup mounts stick ok on the outside? What other mounts are handy? I have a mount from a cheap Chinese camera I bought years ago that I have adapted to bolt to the roof rail. I was thinking a tripod to catch some out of car shots?? And maybe a clamp one that can sort of clamp most places???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep they stick alright, genuine go pro suction mount.
Make sure the area is clean and test before driving off.
I've stuck mine all over the outside of the car in all kinds conditions.

Below is an example of in car and outside mount. I reckon I had about an hour of video condensed into this which is still a bit long.
Being a complete novice in GoPro at the time I've stuffed by getting too much footage from inside and of the dash. I personally prefer the outside suction mount shots.
For front shots the suction mount goes at the very front of the bonnet now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKTH_xQf-6Y

Dean

[grhyso]

I have a kaiser baas suction cup and it works great outside. I carry a spray can of windscreen cleaner and waterless car wash so i can make sure it's spotless before chucking on the suction cup. However a couple of my more often used points i will be sticking the solid mounts with 3m sticky back that came with the camera.

Switch your mounts around and play with them through the trip, nothing more boring than a 10 minute video all from the same perspective. I have been playing with my gopro and the angles i like so far is centre of windscreen looking over the bonnet, on the door or step watching the front wheel, suction cup mounted on the c pillar showing the side of the car, on the rear window looking backwards and on the bonnet looking back at the driver. You can do little bits mounted on the front of the car with no car in the shot but please use it sparingly, it makes you feel sick after a while.

Know that it's a learning process, don't expect your video to come back looking like a pro production. But more practice will get you feeling comfortable with the process quickly, not a bad excuse to go 4wding more.

[sharkcaver]

One thing I did forget: Tethers.

Make sure you make something up that will tether the camera to something solid, should a mount go tits up, and you then lose a camera. Cheap insurance. I made my own from 300Lb mono leader and crimps.