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Lifetime Member Tim
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There have been reports in motorcycle racing of the camera going thru the helmet and causing head injuries.
actionjack
TY 4 Stroke God
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GoPro batteries DO NOT last in the cold. I also have constant problems with the remote syncing with my cameras.
As for the batteries, I mount a jump battery pack on my visor on my open face helmet and I mount a battery on the back of my modular helmet and my GoPro is powered by that. On some models the jump battery will not power the GoPro with cold-depleted batteries in place. I keep 2 spare charged GoPro batteries in the warm glove
box. Once in a while the visor-mounted jump pack battery suffers from cold-depletion so I throw that in the glove box to warm it while running a warm GoPro battery. Sounds like a hassle. Yes it is. Plus I hardly ever edit videos anymore.
There is supposed to be a new Cold Weather GoPro battery that works but I haven't tried.
Brett Turcotte is running an Insta360 flat on his visor and one cool thing is the lens are pointed up and down and they never get covered in snow that way.
As for the batteries, I mount a jump battery pack on my visor on my open face helmet and I mount a battery on the back of my modular helmet and my GoPro is powered by that. On some models the jump battery will not power the GoPro with cold-depleted batteries in place. I keep 2 spare charged GoPro batteries in the warm glove
box. Once in a while the visor-mounted jump pack battery suffers from cold-depletion so I throw that in the glove box to warm it while running a warm GoPro battery. Sounds like a hassle. Yes it is. Plus I hardly ever edit videos anymore.
There is supposed to be a new Cold Weather GoPro battery that works but I haven't tried.
Brett Turcotte is running an Insta360 flat on his visor and one cool thing is the lens are pointed up and down and they never get covered in snow that way.
Biff,
Does one need the riser, or can you mount the camera on the helmet? If so, is the field of view less desirable due to being lower?
Can it be mounted on the left side of a snowmobile and just provide 180 degrees of view?
snowdust
TY 4 Stroke Guru
This is why I stopped using mine. Just too much hassle. The cold weather battery is supposed to be good down to 14f. It's probably better, but still not good enough for colder days especially mounted on a helmet. I thought there was a way to wire it in direct, but I am not finding it. That would still be a pain, but at least you'd know it would work. They offer this, but not 100% waterproof... https://gopro.com/en/us/shop/mounts...501&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=pepperjam
REDLINE 1
Expert
Didnt have a problem with my battery, but it wasn't exposed to the cold all day . just made a few runs and recorded . the remote activation button worked well for me as well
When riding in cold weather the newer gopros support pass-thru power so you can keep the power source someplace warm. This involves a hard wire between a power source on the sled or external battery to the camera.
actionjack
TY 4 Stroke God
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All GoPros can be "direct" powered from jump pack or other means such as the USB ports I have hardwired to the accessory socket. You will find some GoPro models will not power on even hardwired IF a cold-depleted battery is in place. Simply remove battery. Jump pack on my visor or helmet will go all day in most cases.
I have come to prefer my super light F3 carbon helmet under most conditions so wiring my GoPro to the sled is a non starter unless it happens to be mounted on the sled. Thats why I improvise with jump pack - no wires from helmet. Just have to experiment with batteries to see how they handle the cold. The flat one I used in 21-22 worked all day every day even below 0°. This past winter it didn't seem to have the same cold weather stamina. I have an old 5200mah Spider pack I use on my modular that will go all day in any weather.
I have come to prefer my super light F3 carbon helmet under most conditions so wiring my GoPro to the sled is a non starter unless it happens to be mounted on the sled. Thats why I improvise with jump pack - no wires from helmet. Just have to experiment with batteries to see how they handle the cold. The flat one I used in 21-22 worked all day every day even below 0°. This past winter it didn't seem to have the same cold weather stamina. I have an old 5200mah Spider pack I use on my modular that will go all day in any weather.
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actionjack
TY 4 Stroke God
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I use something similar to that (non GoPro branded that I got on Amazon), only its powered by a battery pack mounted on my helmet or visor. Personally I wouldn't worry about it not being 100% waterproof for sledding. More likely to destroy or loose GoPro another way than have it water damaged from that. IMO.
Battery velcro-ed to top of visor
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DMCTurbo
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Hey Fleece, I have a drone that will actually follow you. I'm not very good with that sort of thing though. The only thing I can get my drone to do is slam into the ground.
dmarriner60
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I picked up a drone this winter thinking there I will get some good ice fishing shot of all the kids when we went for a school put on durby... still haven't had a flight with the dam thing yet. thinking I should put insurance on it before hand
Thats the difference between Power pass thru and just 'charging'. The new gopros support power passthru which allows them to both charge and power the camera. The older ones will more than likely quit if the batter falls below its output voltage threshold.
So @Fleecer , I spoke with some gopro guys and the insta360 team here at the show around cold weather testing. Both were aware of the problems, neither has done anything about the issue nor do they really seem to have any plans. I also looked for any significant new product launches or features and nothing to report there either. That is kind of good news as you are unlikely to buy something only to have it be outdated right away (or it would be at this show).
Some notes for your consideration;
Typically the 'engine' of a camera is spelled out as its recording resolution. Typically this will be 1080, 4k, 5.7k or some other number. You can think of this as its total recording capacity (resolution).
Single lens, mid focal length cameras like your typical SLR or point and shoot camera are much higher resolution so in terms of absolute quality (if that matters) a mid end camera will record higher quality than an action camera. An action camera (gopro, insta360, other) will be more focused on video and stills and as such they prioritize size over absolute quality or flexiblity. Typically action cameras have fixed focal lengths although the insta360 one RS is an exception as it has an interchangeable lens module.
How these cameras record. As an analogy, you could take a single picture, say of a ball, then record that picture. For the next frame, move the ball slightly. The camera does not record a new picture, it only records the part of the picture that changed. Imagine that the ball is rolling fast through the frame, this creates big changes so the camera has to record more change for each frame. The cameras capacity for recording isn't infinite so when the action gets fast or there are a lot of changes the camera will introduce errors. You would notice this as artifacts (blurriness, blocking, or just wrong video). All compressed video recording is trading accuracy for recording time. This is what allows you to record high resolution in such a small, limited device. When you are recording video the camera keeps recording each frame as the difference between the new image it sees and a reference frame (typically one of the last few). The tradeoff is accuracy for capacity (recording time). This will become important in a second.
360 recording vs normal recording. If you opt for a 360 camera you are spreading out the capacity of the camera recording engine over more picture area. In other words, your field of view (what the camera sees) is the entire world around you so that entire picture has to be recorded all at once for every frame and since the engine of the camera has limits (1080, 4k, 5.7k, whatever) this is the limit of what can be recorded. On top of which the recording engine is recording the changes and the bigger the field of view (the 360 view of the world) the more is changing in each view. There are two byproducts of all of these tradeoffs, the first is that the quality is lower, the second is that the lens is 'bending' the world around you into the flat plane that the sensor sees. You would notice this as distortion, like looking into a convex or concave mirror (caution objects are closer than they appear). This is why video recorded in 360 mode has the effect of simultaneously distorting the image while also 'flattening' the image. The distortion comes from the lens, the flattening comes from the fact that curves and distances get remapped by the distortion effect. If you watch 360 videos on youtube what you will notice is that curves look less 'curvy', in other words when watching the video, you tend to lose some sense of 'action' because the video is distorted. Objects moving towards you gain on you faster than they really are and the same with moving away form you. All of this is caused by lens distortion. In a two camera setup, you are mapping less 'field of view' to the same resolution of the camera so the video quality is higher. There is also less lens distortion so the action is more accurate. The tradeoffs are;
360 video captures all of the video at once so you are only dealing with one video file. You can change the point of view in an editing application so it is easier to find the right camera angle.
Dual camera systems create twice as much video to edit but... the video is higher quality. you have to put more work into aiming the cameras so you are always capturing what you want to see.
The final comment is about image stabilization. Any movement or vibration of the camera accentuates action but also makes the video very hard to watch. Image stabilization makes the action smooth but at the expense of excitement. The trend on youtube is to have hyper-smooth video but to me it also makes the video more boring and processed looking.
If it were up to me.
If I wanted accuracy and quality, I would use a 2 camera system. Probably Insta360 One RS cameras or GoPro Hero 10 but there are decent cameras for under $100 each (akaso). If I was just staring out I might opt for two of the cheaper cameras until I got a feel for camera setup, etc.. As you get more sophisticated things like handlebar mounted remotes or third party housings may become more important.
I would focus on the 'flow' of getting the cameras mounted, aimed, powered, turned on/off, and recording, retrieving your content, storing and editing.
If I wanted to just play around and I wanted simplicity, I would get a 360 system with one camera like the insta360 or gopro max. Either of these has decent quality recording for a 360 camera. You will get distorted video but maybe just recording is all you are after. Having a single camera to worry about will simplify your life immensely (at the expense of quality).
Either way, you will likely need a fast computer/laptop. Editing can be done on a phone or tablet but personally I find it much easier to do on a fast laptop.
Some notes for your consideration;
Typically the 'engine' of a camera is spelled out as its recording resolution. Typically this will be 1080, 4k, 5.7k or some other number. You can think of this as its total recording capacity (resolution).
Single lens, mid focal length cameras like your typical SLR or point and shoot camera are much higher resolution so in terms of absolute quality (if that matters) a mid end camera will record higher quality than an action camera. An action camera (gopro, insta360, other) will be more focused on video and stills and as such they prioritize size over absolute quality or flexiblity. Typically action cameras have fixed focal lengths although the insta360 one RS is an exception as it has an interchangeable lens module.
How these cameras record. As an analogy, you could take a single picture, say of a ball, then record that picture. For the next frame, move the ball slightly. The camera does not record a new picture, it only records the part of the picture that changed. Imagine that the ball is rolling fast through the frame, this creates big changes so the camera has to record more change for each frame. The cameras capacity for recording isn't infinite so when the action gets fast or there are a lot of changes the camera will introduce errors. You would notice this as artifacts (blurriness, blocking, or just wrong video). All compressed video recording is trading accuracy for recording time. This is what allows you to record high resolution in such a small, limited device. When you are recording video the camera keeps recording each frame as the difference between the new image it sees and a reference frame (typically one of the last few). The tradeoff is accuracy for capacity (recording time). This will become important in a second.
360 recording vs normal recording. If you opt for a 360 camera you are spreading out the capacity of the camera recording engine over more picture area. In other words, your field of view (what the camera sees) is the entire world around you so that entire picture has to be recorded all at once for every frame and since the engine of the camera has limits (1080, 4k, 5.7k, whatever) this is the limit of what can be recorded. On top of which the recording engine is recording the changes and the bigger the field of view (the 360 view of the world) the more is changing in each view. There are two byproducts of all of these tradeoffs, the first is that the quality is lower, the second is that the lens is 'bending' the world around you into the flat plane that the sensor sees. You would notice this as distortion, like looking into a convex or concave mirror (caution objects are closer than they appear). This is why video recorded in 360 mode has the effect of simultaneously distorting the image while also 'flattening' the image. The distortion comes from the lens, the flattening comes from the fact that curves and distances get remapped by the distortion effect. If you watch 360 videos on youtube what you will notice is that curves look less 'curvy', in other words when watching the video, you tend to lose some sense of 'action' because the video is distorted. Objects moving towards you gain on you faster than they really are and the same with moving away form you. All of this is caused by lens distortion. In a two camera setup, you are mapping less 'field of view' to the same resolution of the camera so the video quality is higher. There is also less lens distortion so the action is more accurate. The tradeoffs are;
360 video captures all of the video at once so you are only dealing with one video file. You can change the point of view in an editing application so it is easier to find the right camera angle.
Dual camera systems create twice as much video to edit but... the video is higher quality. you have to put more work into aiming the cameras so you are always capturing what you want to see.
The final comment is about image stabilization. Any movement or vibration of the camera accentuates action but also makes the video very hard to watch. Image stabilization makes the action smooth but at the expense of excitement. The trend on youtube is to have hyper-smooth video but to me it also makes the video more boring and processed looking.
If it were up to me.
If I wanted accuracy and quality, I would use a 2 camera system. Probably Insta360 One RS cameras or GoPro Hero 10 but there are decent cameras for under $100 each (akaso). If I was just staring out I might opt for two of the cheaper cameras until I got a feel for camera setup, etc.. As you get more sophisticated things like handlebar mounted remotes or third party housings may become more important.
I would focus on the 'flow' of getting the cameras mounted, aimed, powered, turned on/off, and recording, retrieving your content, storing and editing.
If I wanted to just play around and I wanted simplicity, I would get a 360 system with one camera like the insta360 or gopro max. Either of these has decent quality recording for a 360 camera. You will get distorted video but maybe just recording is all you are after. Having a single camera to worry about will simplify your life immensely (at the expense of quality).
Either way, you will likely need a fast computer/laptop. Editing can be done on a phone or tablet but personally I find it much easier to do on a fast laptop.
Typically both cameras are running. The transition from one camera to another is done in software. When you import the video into a computer or phone each camera video sequence is treated as a separate clip. The start and end of the clips can be trimmed. You put the clips back to back (typically) on what is called a timeline. Think of it as a ruler for time. You then 'trim' all of the excess footage to leave you with one contiguous clip.
Clip A (Forward camera) | Clip B (Rear Camera)
As you pass your race opponent you trim Clip A such that it ends when there is no more interesting footage, then you trim Clip B so it starts where there is interesting footage (your opponent falling behind). When you export this edit, you see the trimmed Clip A+B as one contiguous clip.
How fast can a drone go?
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