GoPro any thoughts......

[bigskygirl]

Hi guys, anyone have any experience with these guys for music? I see they are great little action cameras but haven't seen much on the music side. I realize the audio is not CD quality but wondered if good enough for the occasional video to post to YouTube and looking for something to use for the SOW social group.

Lots of places have them for sale this holiday season, here. The US I found the white edition for $199 and the hero3+ silver for $249.

I've been searching the forum for tips on video recording but coming up empty. I just wanted something I can set up and record, wasn't really sure about using a different mic and syncing the audio/video and such.

[Tom Morse]

The GoPro is a great little video camera. And the fish-eye-lens look can be readjusted in post as a more normal wide angle image. But be advised that — in the standard, right-out-of-the-box package — the microphone winds up being inside the waterproof housing so the sound quality can be very muffled. There are several ways around this: a housing that has a hole in it to allow sound to get to the mic, or a hole to allow a mic to be connected (I think). Or you can use the GoPro without the housing, but then you can really only set it on a flat surface as there's no way to really connect it to a stand or a tripod without the housing. I think you might do better with a video camera designed more for image/sound quality than for action/adventure/underwater extremes. Hope this helps.

[almeriastrings]

I've been searching the forum for tips on video recording but coming up empty. I just wanted something I can set up and record, wasn't really sure about using a different mic and syncing the audio/video and such.

The audio on these is pretty rough sounding... not only a very limited (mono only) built-in mic, but also the compression employed is not too great either. That's the bad news. The good news is you can use the track created, despite it not sounding good, to synch with a far better simultaneously recorded stereo track made on another device. So, you just use the poor GoPro audio as a guide for post synch software to 'lock onto'. You don't use it in the finished track. You could use a separate Zoom or Tascam, etc.

There are several ways to do this, from the old 'clapperboard' method (time consuming and fiddly), to use of the built-in facility in Final Cut Pro X, to separate software such as Pleural Eyes or DreamSync (good DEMO of method here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-kI5iQrc8))

As a camera the GoPro's are OK. Main limitation is the fixed, very wide lens which is not very flexible.

[Charlieshafer]

Yeah, I think I'd avoid it as a camera for music. Now, if you're playing while riding your mountain bike through the woods and documenting the crash, it'd be great! It really is meant as an action camera, hence the wide angle lens to capture as much as possible if the head angle or mounting angle changes. There are lot of options now in that same price range, even a number of good point-and-shoot cameras from Canon and the like have better video capabilities for what I think it is you're looking for.

[Barry Wilson]

For $250 I picked up a canon with built in stereo mics and 1040p hd. with a 32gb sd card we were able to get 30 videos last gig

[Tommcgtx]

Have you considered the Zoom Q2HD, Q3 or Q3HD? My brother asked me about video/audio capable recording devices for a gift for my nephew recently, and these are what I thought of. I'm not sure exactly which of these are available, or how well they work, but when I saw your post, they are what I thought of. Anyone have experience with these?

[JH Murray]

An ipod touch has a good camera and microphone. Easy to use. Easy to upload videos directly from it via wifi.

[bart mcneil]

The minute you guys get into technical jargon (and you're already there) you lose three quarters or more of your audience. Keep it on a third grade level so we all can understand.

[jonny250]

i would suggest just using a webcam for the video side of things and a plug-in mic to go alongside. I use an MXL 990 mic and a cheap logitech web camera.
i have a gopro which i have used for audio/video but its far from ideal unless you like playing underwater :)
there's no syncing involved. just press record.