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GOPRO is popular in your guys country ?


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I think the go pro is one of many small hd sports cameras coming along -- very easy to attach to almost anything but it has a very wide angle lens I believe, quite a different matter to orient it smoothly and with controlled level with tighter lens ala steadicam. Just another tool with an appropriate use.

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I like to find new perspectives to mount my GoPro on the rig (as you can see in that video). Otherwise, I'll use it for extreme sports like wakeboarding. In my mind, it's not a production camera, just a toy.

Edited by Mike Germond
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I will say the battery performance leaves me high and dry on many occasions. I've had them strapped on my life jacket all day, only to land my best jump of the afternoon and find out the camera died during the run. And the WiFi BacPac drains the camera even faster. It has its own battery, but once that is dead, it drains the camera. You can't fill a 32gb card within the battery life on these things.

 

I created a dummy battery with a voltage regulator in it so I can run the camera off of AC power. I have been able to leave a GoPro on and timelapsing for as long as 4 months with media changes every few days. They are great for timelapsing. Check it out..

 

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You dont have to make a dummy battery and a regulator you can just use this...

 

http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Mini-Wall-Charger-Phones/dp/B0009H2M1Y

 

 

I do it all the time...

 

But if you get an old battery plate you can just take apart a usb car charger and wire that into the battery plate and a AB Hytron 140 will power a gopro for a very long time....

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I tried that first, but it doesn't sustain over an extreme period of time (1-3 months). The camera heats up too much and causes recording errors and unreliability. Ultimately, the camera is much happier if you bypass the charging circuit completely. I still use the USB charger method for a short, 1day sort of time lapse though.

Since our camera was in a remote location, I defeated the battery in the WiFi BacPac and hard wired that to the dummy battery too.
The jist of this thing is the frame of a cheap eBay battery, a National Semiconductor LMZ14203 Simple Switcher, and the appropriate resistors to make the output voltage of choice. I used a 12v 400mA wall power supply, and the LMZ14203 can accept input from 6v to 42v.

PSU1.jpeg

 

PSU2.jpeg

 

PSU3.jpeg

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True, but the USB plug is blocked by the case, I guess you can you "the frame" to free it up. at this point, you can use the Paralinx Ptap to USB cable (I love this gadget and already have two of them)

 

I use the Skeleton Housing a lot and you can slip the power cable out the side that way. You can also plugin via USB or input an external MIC like I did in the Steadicam video.

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Love that Time Lapse Mike,

And to those that think GoPro's aren't professional, They are used ALL the time in the Reality and competition TV world. I got my first 3 GoProHD's in November 2009 and since then I have not worked a show where we haven't used them, and when the Go Pro 3 came out with the more narrow field of view selection, well.., that took it to a whole new level, no more world warping.. It's so popular now with production companies that I sold mine cause I was not getting rental out of them any longer. But my first 3 paid for themselves maybe 20 times over in the first year. Now I doubt that would happen, being that production can pick them up at a best buy anywhere for 400 bucks.

Can you imagine the clarity and ease of use of similar products in 3-5 years?!

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For those trying to do long-term time lapses with a GoPro inside of their waterproof housing with no physical modifications while still using 1 internal battery, check out the Timelapse Controller from http://www.cam-do.com/

 

I've used this on multi-day time lapses with success without having to externally power the camera or compromising the waterproof housing!

 

You put this $80 circuit board into the back of the GoPro (same port as the wifi backpack, LCD screen, etc...) and using dip switch settings you can control your timelapse. The camera will turn on and off for each frame and theoretically you can do months and months of timelapes, even underwater, with the ONE battery inside the housing. Amazing stuff!

 

TL-Rev4-800.jpg

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GoPro is so popular in Australia that our version of 60 Minutes did a report on it!

 

Interesting stuff!

 

I personally have had a bunch over the years .... 6 x GoPro 1's, 3 x GoPro2's and now im onto GoPro3's!

Shot 2d, 3d, action, sports, drama, music clips everything! Had a couple of slight little issues over the years but nothing

too much go wrong with them.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi-ajC6GbfI

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  • 2 months later...

NSFW warning and not for those of a nervous disposition but look up the music video for 'Bad Motherf***er' by Biting Elbows for a pretty insane example of how they can be used very creatively. Certainly not a production camera but they are fun. My partner is a skydiver and once you have enough jumps under your belt to be allowed to have a camera attached to you pretty much everyone uses one.

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