GoPro or Contour ?

[sky-pimp 0]

Things change quickly and electronics to quickly, gone are the days when the pc9 was the muts nuts even though it still does a great job .

The 2 most talked about little cam's seems to be the GoPro and the Contour so i thought it a good idea to start a thread just on these two as info on them seems to be dotted all over these days.

Lets have your thoughts, experiences good and bad on these two market leaders

YeHaaaaaaaaaaa

[Hellis 0]

Quote

Things change quickly and electronics to quickly, gone are the days when the pc9 was the muts nuts even though it still does a great job .

The 2 most talked about little cam's seems to be the GoPro and the Contour so i thought it a good idea to start a thread just on these two as info on them seems to be dotted all over these days.

Lets have your thoughts, experiences good and bad on these two market leaders

Ohoh?!? Searchbutton broken again?
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3788671
What i did not mention in my post in that thread is that you can add filters to the contour but not (as easily) on the gopro

[mccordia 73]

I am seeing more and more tech issue's (stopped recordings, camera not functioning as it should) with people who own GoPro HD's, and have been using them for a longer time.

Anyone know if the Contour HD has this issue as well?

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[Hellis 0]

If you use a replacement battery it could happen.
The batterytype used in the CHD is BL-5C, which everyone knows is the same batterys Nokia uses in lots of their phones.
But the dimensions might not be the same, if you get a battery that is thiner the battery can shake inside the camera and lose connection.
This turns off the camera and the video is corrupt.

A easy fix is use standard batterys, or if you use 3:rd party batterys use some tape to make them "fater" so they fit snug inside the camera.

It has never happend to me, i think the problem is more of a ground-sports-problem, where shaking and bouncing can occur.

[MotherGoose 0]

Most talked about does not necessarily mean best quality right ? I thought neither was any good for saleable video, has this changed ?

You think you understand the situation, but what you don't understand, is that the situation just changed.

[Jonntis 0]

The gopro is being frequently used for handcam. People say it's a bit too wide for filming tandem from the outside, even in its narrower mode. I dont know if the contour is being used for outside tandems, but I cant see why it shouldn´t work. At least from groundtesting mine seems to beat or at least match the image quality of my PC-camera, which is still used a lot for filming tandems, at least over here.

[rhys 0]

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Most talked about does not necessarily mean best quality right ? I thought neither was any good for saleable video, has this changed ?

Both are great as far as i can see. i cannot speak for the contour personaly as i don't have one but friends do. the GoProHD is not only better then a CX100, but it absolutley blows it out of the water...

The footage is clearer, the photos are great quality and there is no isssues with failing switches.

the lenses we usually use for our camera are not very good in the great scheme of things but have searved us well over the last decade.

Time to move on, if you are and outside cameraman, get a contour, if you are a handicam TM get a goproHD.

simple and inexpensive!

thow your cx100 away, they are more problem than they are worth.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[shropshire 0]

I've looked at the output from both and, to me they look about the same.

So it's down to cosmetics ... the GoPro is fuggin ugly and the Contour is smart ....

Job done then

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[MotherGoose 0]

Does Contour have the still photo feature like GoPro ? With 1080, the screenshots from video should be high quality, whats the max image size on a screenshot from video though? Has anyone played around with this ?

You think you understand the situation, but what you don't understand, is that the situation just changed.

[mnskydiver688 0]

The resolution from a 1080 frame grab is 2.07 MP. Good for facebook or other small web uses but not much else.

Sky Canyon Wingsuiters

[rhys 0]

I can't answer your question, but at this stge I would continue the hve a SLR for stills and a contour for video.

I'm sure DSE or somone could do so.

For handcam you are not expected to be a photographer,you are just capturing the experience, and you job is to keep the customer safe, photography is secondary. As an outside photographer you are supposed to be just that, a photgrapher.

I can't wait until they split the prism somehow in common SLR's to allow you to use the shutter for photos, while rolling video.

That is where I see it going.

Grabbing video frames as an outside camerman is cheating in my opinion, and you should avoid going down that road for the good of the profession.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[MotherGoose 0]

I hear you, and I patiently await the release of technology that will give us DSLR-quality stills with HD video in one package. I don't think we're that far away, although we all know that electronics manufacturers withhold the advance of technology in an effort to make more sales.

The next 5 years will be very exciting though, me thinks.

You think you understand the situation, but what you don't understand, is that the situation just changed.

[DSE 3]

Quote

I hear you, and I patiently await the release of technology that will give us DSLR-quality stills with HD video in one package. I don't think we're that far away, although we all know that electronics manufacturers withhold the advance of technology in an effort to make more sales.

The next 5 years will be very exciting though, me thinks.

We're farther than most would think. Look at the new Canons with dual cards. Stills just aren't very good.
But, we are getting closer.
Data bitrate is one of the biggest challenges.

[mnskydiver688 0]

As long as image technology continues in two directions SLR quality prints will never be found in a video camera. Why? There was a time when 2MP was SLR quality. When a video camera gets to the 6-8MP range there will be SLR's with much better sensors that reduce noise to just a memory. It is the nature of technological advancement. Combining technologies comes second to furthering the capabilities of an individual technology.

Sky Canyon Wingsuiters