Ladies On Two Wheels

I'm currently considering upgrading my current helmet cam/video editing software for a very large cross country trip next summer.

My current set up is a Contour Roam 2+. Sadly Contour went out of business in 2012 so my camera is no longer supported. What I struggle with is the quality of the images - the camera can only do 1080p - 30 frames/min. or 720p - 60 frames/min. I need more as the images are not crisp and require a faster film rate to not blur out the video while moving.

As far as software, as I'm on a PC, I am using the crappy Windows Live Movie Maker - which is extremely limiting in terms of creative options. Looking for a more advanced but easy to learn/use program that will allow me to expand my editing options to produce a more professional production.

So chime in folks - looking for lots of input before I put my requests on my Christmas list!

Thanks!

DC

I have a GoPro, Hero 4. I don't do a lot of video shooting or editing so my scope is rather small. After I learned what all the buttons did, I was up and running in no time and could have produced a short video using many choice templates offered. GoPro has the software, mobile app, templates, etc. Lots of third party mounting accessories can be found at competitive prices. I have mine set up on my engine guard and it has captured some cool views on some of my rides. Just haven't had time to experiment with camera and editing. The camera has different dpi settings & frame speeds and to me the HD quality is amazing. Mine came as a packaged bundle so I got an extra memory card, and camera housings. Just my two cents from a casual user.

I have a GoPro Hero 4 as well (Silver edition), and I quite like it - though I mainly use it as a "dashcam" just in case, so though I've copied some interesting videos off it, most of them end up being deleted when the card fills up. I record at 1080p 30 FPS, which looks great (to me at least) and is definitely more than enough for my purposes. 60 FPS might reduce blurring, but it's worth noting that 60 FPS recording will literally double the data volume and halve the battery life, so you'll want to carry a couple sets of spare batteries (and perhaps extra memory cards too). GoPro sells external extended battery packs that, in exchange for making the camera little bulkier, greatly increase the battery life, which is really nice for longer rides. Hero 4s are also capable of recording at higher resolutions; the Hero 4 Black can record 4k at up to 30 FPS, 2.7k at up to 60 FPS, and 1440p at up to 80 FPS. And, if you really want, the Hero 4 Black can record 1080p at up to 120 FPS. On the other hand, for $100 cheaper, you can get the Hero 4 Silver, which isn't quite as featureful - though it can record 4k, it tops out at 15 FPS, 30 FPS for 2.7k, 48 FPS for 1440p, and 60 FPS for 1080p. It does come with a screen, though (which the Hero 4 Black lacks entirely), which makes deleting unwanted videos easy to do without having to fumble with pairing the camera to your phone and such. I opted for the touchscreen instead of the higher framerate capability, especially since I never plan to record above 1080p anyway. That being said, if you plan on extracting still frames from the video you capture, you probably will want to record at 2.7k or 4k, which may make the Hero 4 Black's support of 30 FPS at those resolutions more worth it.

You can find GoPro's full comparison table here. One thing I'll note is that the table refers to a feature called "Superview" with some of the supported resolutions - you can find an explanation of that here.

As for editing software, I've only ever used Windows Live Movie Maker myself (again, sufficient for my purposes), though recently I experimented with a free/open-source video editor (the name escapes me at the moment) that seemed powerful but made a nuclear reactor control room look simple. I've heard good things about GoPro's video editing software, but I've never used it myself. But, in general, video editing software is one of those classes of software where the truly good options are also the most absurdly expensive. To paraphrase an old saying in I.T., you can have it good, easy to use, or cheap - pick any two.

Phenomenal feedback FL - thank you so very much - I am contemplating the GoPro Hero 4 Black but Silver might just do the trick as well. Optimally, 1080p with 60 FPS might be what I need to get the crystal clear, crisp images I'm looking for with no blur. If I can do that on the silver and save a 'Benjamin' - it might be the ticket!

You're very welcome! Yeah, if you don't plan on recording at a higher resolution than 1080p, I would definitely recommend the Silver over the Black edition.

By the way, here's a short (5 minute) video I uploaded to YouTube several months ago as a test, shot on my GoPro at 1080p/30 FPS, so you can see what the video quality is like. Note that YouTube seems to have degraded the quality a bit for some reason (probably for compression), so it is a tad bit more blurry than the same video raw off the camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R06w3c99aYo (remember to increase the quality to 1080p to see it at full resolution; also, you might want to mute or at least quiet your speakers since the audio is nothing more than loud engine and wind noises).

FastLizard4 wrote: Note that YouTube seems to have degraded the quality a bit for some reason (probably for compression), so it is a tad bit more blurry than the same video raw off the camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R06w3c99aYo (remember to increase the quality to 1080p to see it at full resolution; also, you might want to mute or at least quiet your speakers since the audio is nothing more than loud engine and wind noises).

Thus brings me to another question - I have noticed the same thing that when I look at the movie off the camera from my computer, resolution is pretty nice, but once it goes through YouTube - even when I put it to 1080p, I lose resolution - ARGH. I've heard that Vimeo does not distort the video as much as YouTube, but like YouTube as my channels for personal as well as my group (NDR) are all set up/subscribed to aleady. Any thoughts on this front for a fix?

One of my videos below - filmed in 720p 60 fps but published @ 1080p:

https://youtu.be/ZjkaEzxDqAU

Dualsport Chic wrote:Thus brings me to another question - I have noticed the same thing that when I look at the movie off the camera from my computer, resolution is pretty nice, but once it goes through YouTube - even when I put it to 1080p, I lose resolution - ARGH. I've heard that Vimeo does not distort the video as much as YouTube...

Honestly, I'm not sure. I've not used sites other than YouTube, so I don't have any first-hand experience, but I have heard the same about Vimeo. Of course, YouTube remains the most popular video sharing site, so that's a very good reason to stay there.

Dualsport Chic wrote:...but like YouTube as my channels for personal as well as my group (NDR) are all set up/subscribed to aleady. Any thoughts on this front for a fix?

For preserving quality on YouTube, I believe you might be able to prevent it by (re-)encoding the video yourself to YouTube's preferred specifications before uploading, which in turn eliminates any need for YouTube to do any processing themselves. I'll ask around to see if this is indeed the case, but here are YouTube's recommendations for video/audio encoding: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en (note that I've not tried these myself, so I don't know if they'll actually help or not).

We just got a GoPro Hero 4 Session. It is a big smaller than the Black and Silver, but we got a really good deal on it at a local sports store as maybe it was a Christmas return or something, but got it, case, remote, more connectors, and a memory card. FIgure it will suit my hubby and I just fine. Got our oldest son the Hero 4 Black last Christmas and he loves it.

Here is one of his video's from this fall. He does rally racing and this was in upper New York state. His average speed was about 98 mph I think!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCKv3YOHhiY

I found a killer deal on a GoPro Hero 4 Black - so took it home with me from my local dealership who was getting out of selling them - HURRAY! Got the remote, an extra battery, video backpack as well as battery backpack. Can't wait to test it out once the Winter rolls by!

Lights! Camera! Victoria Coppola framing the action.