OMRA President

The GoPro Hero Wide Sports Camera

By Tom Niemela

I’ve wanted a good helmet camera for years. I’ve tried the Oregon Scientific 1k and 2k models and have been mainly disappointed in their performance – there were so many features left out, or they weren’t robust enough.

Then I purchased the GoPro Hero (standard lens) Camera – now I was getting somewhere! This little baby was fully self contained, would run a full hour of video (with a two gigabyte SD memory card) and ran on two AAA batteries. The only snivel was that it was fairly challenging to aim. I even created little attachments to help aim where I thought it would record the best. The attached aiming devices worked okay, but it was still a hit-or-miss endeavor.

Enter the GoPro Wide Sports Camera. Earlier in the year I was at the annual NOHVCC Conference in Houston, Texas and my friend Mark Mitchell had one of the new, wide-angle lens units. He knew diddly squat about video cams, so just strapped it to the front of his chest protector, turned it on and we went riding. We really didn’t think much about it until we were swilling barley pops in the bar at the end of the day watching his recordings. Wow, it was awesome! Since the camera was strapped to the front of his chest, we got to see so much more! You could watch his arms and handlebars go back and forth as he navigated through the trail system, plus you could still see the trail ahead too! Very cool. And the angle that the little unit was aimed, was great.

I was so impressed that I purchased one of these wide-angle units before my recent Oregon Back Country Discovery Route trip.

After spending over a week with the cam, I came up with this verdict: This is by far the best video camera I’ve ever used. The key features that make it great for our sport of off roading are:

It’s extremely small!
Can mount anywhere. It comes with many mounts, but a chest protector I found to be the best. Plus, when mounted on the chest, it is less apt to get knocked off by limbs or brush. It also has other mount options to mount to your helmet, front or back fenders, frame, etc.
One hour recording time (with a two gig SD card). That’s a long time really. In fact getting one of these cameras creates a new dilemma: what videos to keep when you create your final video compilation? Plus all the videos start filling up your hard disk drive.
The f/2.8 lens has a 170-degree field of vision, which allows for not only better light sensitivity, but the full context of whatever riding you’re doing, and reduced jitter/shake from vibrations.
It has a plastic housing that is waterproof to 100 feet.
The 512x384 video appears to have great light, auto exposure, especially on bright, sunny days.
This unit also has a 5MP still-mode option, which can record still shots continuously at 2 or 5 second intervals.

Cons:

Due to the fisheye effect, small items will look even smaller. If you ride over a one-foot log, it may look only six inches in size.
It will go through the batteries, so I suggest getting the best rechargeable AAA batteries you can scare up.
It’s so small (especially the menu) that it is an eye squinter.

Summary: at a retail price of $190, it’s a smoking deal! I highly recommend it to anyone interested in recording their antics. For more info and example videos, go to their website: http://www.goprocamera.com/

-Tom