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skydivetara

GoPro vs. Drift

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I received a GoPro for Christmas but I have had my eye on the DriftHD now. There are not a lot of reviews for the Drift, but I like that it has a review screen on the side, and it also has a remote to record and stop that can be made into a wrist mount. The GoPro has the option to take pictures, and the Drift does not offer that. I was wondering if anyone has any opinions/reviews to assist in my decision.
if you are not familiar with the drift you can go to driftinnovation.com

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Hi Tara

Obviously i'm a bit biased because I have supplied a fair number of our Drift Camera Packages now and have had nothing but great feedback ...

A few days ago Brumby wrote to me saying

Quote

over the moon with the set up, after each jump i kept checking to make sure the cam was still there with it being so light



Last week Derek a US jumper wrote to me saying

Quote

the camera and helmet work great.



Several guys at our DZ use this set-up for fun jumping and are surprised by the lightness and ease of use.

The low profile shape of the Drift helps to reduce the snag risk and top mounting the camera using a low profile bracket / box also helps to keep this risk to a minimum (especially when compared to the Go Pro).

I would still suggest that you use a helmet with a cutaway system for safety though ...

The easy access to the HDMI port for debriefs using a TV or to dump the footage easily onto your PC plus the option to take a quick look on the camera screen without having to take it off the helmet all help to make this a great camera for fun jumping ...

Hope this helps!


James

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Go Pro produces Mp4 files and drift produces .mov files.

depending on what you use for editing, this is something to consider.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

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they both produce .mp4 files.
.mov is just a container, not a codec.
MPEG is a format/codec.
A quicktime file may carry anything from Flash to uncompressed, 10 bit 4:4:4 content.

in other words, "Processing a .mov smoothly" doesn't mean anything whatsoever.

ALL of these non-standard MPEG cameras are more difficult to process for multiple reasons, the largest of which are that they do odd things with resolution/pixelshifting, and that their compression does not use industry standards, around which all software is written.

A newer laptop and any quad desktop should have zero problem processing these files. Be sure antivirus is disabled and as few background processas are happening.
Shoot at 1280x720 or 1920x1080 for best post-processing experiences.
And understand that older computers simply don't have the horsepower to decode these files/codecs regardless of whether they're in a Quicktime or Windows Interleaved file container.

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Just found the new contour GPS at chutingstar and I think I'm in love. HD video with integrated GPS will show your location and altitude with your video at the same time. Also bluetooth integration so your phone turns into a viewfinder in realtime :)

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.... Also bluetooth integration so your phone turns into a viewfinder in realtime



What a great idea. So glad they have come up with a good solution for the lack of viewfinder and having to be tethered to a computer to make changes. But don't go run out and buy a Contour now. The bluetooth feature is still in development. I wonder how droid phones will handle this since they don't play .mov files.
Andy
I'll believe it when I see it on YouTube!

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they both produce .mp4 files.
.mov is just a container, not a codec.
MPEG is a format/codec.


If you want to get technical, both MPEG-4 part 14 and MOV are file formats. They're pretty much the same except for some minor stuff no one cares about.

MPEG-4 part 10 specifies q compression standard, a.k.a. H.264, a.k.a. MPEG-4 AVC. This is the compression format both cameras use.

codec stands for coder/decoder, and is a piece of software responsible for handling the movie data decoding part itself. It is an implementation of the compression standard/method/algorithm/thingy. x264 is a codec for H.264, and H.264 compressed data might be found in a .mov or an .mp4 file. DivX is a codec for H.264 and MPEG-4 part 2, another MPEG-4 compression standard.

But yeah, in reality they (GoPro Hero and Drift HD170) pretty much use the same "format".

EDIT: whoops, MPEG-4 part 14 is not really the same as quicktime MOV format, I got a bit confused. It's based on that format though. And still, it's only the file format, or "container".

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Well I have decided that I definately do not want to keep the GoPro, so that is for sale on here....lol

But now I need to pick between the Contour and the Drift. I have an iPhone, and it doesn't look like the bluetooth will playback on my phone. So I am still leaning towards the Drift still. Please keep the feedback coming. I appriciate it! Blue skies

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EDIT: whoops, MPEG-4 part 14 is not really the same as quicktime MOV format, I got a bit confused. It's based on that format though. And still, it's only the file format, or "container".



No, it's not.
A container is like a paper bag. It can contain any number of codecs.
MPEG 4 pt 10, AVCHD, and h.264 are all the same family, and all can be contained in a .mov container.
Or not. The rest of it, I'm not gonna argue here. if you *really* wanna get technical, attend my sessions on compression algorithms at NAB...please be my guest.

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I used to have a videofile from a driftcamera but i think i deleted it, but i was impressed with the quality of the video.
Looking at the uploaded videos at youtube is useless as youtube compress the videos and makes them look horrible.

If anyone has a videofile i can donate some space on my server to host the file.

One thing that is a bit annoying with the Contour is when you use Sony Vegas to render the videos there is a problem with sync.
Its like Vegas skips the first 0.5 seconds of the video but keeps the audio.
So you get audio that is about 0.5 seconds ahead of the video, its easy to fix and its not that often you use the audio when you are rendering skydivevideos anyway.

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they both produce .mp4 files.
.mov is just a container, not a codec.
MPEG is a format/codec.
A quicktime file may carry anything from Flash to uncompressed, 10 bit 4:4:4 content.



so if I have a program that can process MP4/go pro footage, it should process .mov drift footage?

Is there a place where i can download sample files to test?

I have an i5 quad core 8gb ram computer with a medium range video card and a gigabyte p55 motherboard. So the machine should not be a problem, this stuff gets a little over my head but it is your forte.

If we could use drift as well as go pro I would ba a happy man.

We are processing mp4 (using realxstream) and they are working on avchd right now...
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

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hmmm, now I got more things to weigh.

I was going to get a Hero.. but the snag factor was my biggest "issue"

the contour and drift are lower profile and several other pro/con..

anyone have a link to download raw / uncompressed footage to compare what I would more than likely see @ home (?)
DS#727, DB Cooper #41, POPS #11065, SCR #13183, FA #2125, SCS #8306, HALO #309 SRA #5930

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Just found the new contour GPS at chutingstar and I think I'm in love. HD video with integrated GPS will show your location and altitude with your video at the same time. Also bluetooth integration so your phone turns into a viewfinder in realtime :)



Does it show actual altitude or is it elevation of the ground at that particular GPS coordinate?

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anyone have a link to download raw / uncompressed footage to compare what I would more than likely see @ home (?)



There is no such thing as "uncompressed footage" from any of this class of camera. They're all _highly_ compressed in raw form.
Drift and GoPro both have unprocessed downloads on their websites.

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I played with the GoPro, Contour and Drift before buying a Contour.

The Drift initially started high on my list to buy simply because of the display screen. But as I got to play with one, several things occurred to me.
A) When do you land an show all your buddies that cool "X" from the last jump on your barely viewable screen which is "really" only useful to line up your shot.
B)It's HUGE!

Aside from that, it seems the video quality is pretty much a tossup. I personally thought the Contour had the best quality recording, simply based on my own perception. I also loved he easy record button on the Contour, a nice big slider, easily accessible with gloves. Plus the lasers to line up your shot...VERY helpful, and also helps you see if you forgot to rotate the lens back to horizontal etc..

So, it was now between the Contour and the GoPro. GoPro=Giant F-ing toaster, and looks retarded. Contour, small, simple, stylish. After viewing quality comparisons, I felt the Contour was best for my needs.

I am super happy with my purchase, but wish I had waited like 2 weeks to get the GPS model with the bluetooth.

Ask yourself this, for mounting options on a helmet...which one gives you better options.

Contour/Drift = Side/top/front/back, whatever

GoPro=Pretty much limited to top mount, unless you're using a "body" mount of some sort, but those are generally impractical for getting outside video. The chest mount is useful for getting self shots etc.

That was my thought process on buying. Yeah, the GoPro is the big name, but I'm fairly certain Contour is gonna take a good chunk of their sales with the GPS model, considering it now does stills and has a "real" size remote screen.

Oh, and if anyone is curious about editing, Cyberlink PowerDirector works AWESOME for HD video. It's not as complicated as Vegas etc, but I can do everything I need. (Crop/Stabilize/Rotate being the 3 most useful functions)
"When once you have tasted flight..."

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Do you know if I need a specific type of memory card. I am not very familiar with what different 'classes' there are.



Drift says you don't want an SD card higher than a class six.
The Drift Stealth is an awesome camera for what it is. 60 frames per second in HD 720 is awesome for slowing down those exits and cool docks. It will never be a "real" camera but for a simple POV you can really put together some neat stuff.
The Drift beats the GoPro hands down in my opinion both for looks and function.
Here'a a picture of the pre Stealth HD170 mounted on my Tonfly CC1:

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