replay xd or gopro?

[jeffw]

I'm thinking of getting a camera for the car, but not sure which to get. I've heard the replay has less distortion, and all of my experiences with older GoPros were less than stellar.

Suggestions?

[naschmitz]

Vio POV HDs are getting cheap.

The front camera is the POV HD in this video: The rear camera is the older DVD quality version 1.5. YouTube transcodes it to 30fps but the original is 60fps. I still like it a lot. RF remote control to start it, viewfinder, global shutter.

Or you could buy the brand new Aim SmartyCAM HD for $1000.

[jeffw]

Interesting. I had been drooling over a POV.HD before....

[jeffw]

Bert: Can you hard-wire the POV.HD for power?

[naschmitz]

Both of mine are. There is a $40 cover to replace the batteries.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/6 ... Power.html

[dradernh]

Here's some GoPro Hero2 1080p30 footage from a Group 52 event at the Glen last October 2nd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy7ZBLX55IA (for best results, watch at 1080p HD; note the cameo appearance by Oleg Pudeyev at 2:45). Granted, it's an overcast day, so the camera's capabilities as far as contrast & white balance are not in evidence. This was shot at the Hero2's Medium FOV; the Wide FOV gives the best video fidelity, but also by far the worst edge distortion, and the Narrow FOV has so much noise in the image that it's a last resort. An everyday scene on the highway in bright sunlight can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHisbEXLDL0.

With these cameras, I'm interested in whether or not they show a realistic image of where the car is at the edges of the track. The GoPro is barely satisfactory, as it's basically about very wide angles so that outdoor extreme sports can be shown as they appear to the person doing them. Those wide angles really distort the edges of the frame, making it difficult to say exactly where your outside front tire is positioned. GoPro's approach is fine for "Hey, look what I did this weekend!", but not so good for "Am I using every inch of the track at turn-in and track-out?" See: exit of the toe at ~3:38 in the video; if you didn't know better, you'd think the left front wheel was off the track. So, with the GoPro, you have to make a visual adjustment regarding car placement - when you know the track, it's no big deal, but you can't rely on the image to tell you the exact position of your car.

All that said, for what we do, the GoPro has pretty accurate color, handles contrast very well when it's mounted in the windshield, has a range of resolutions/frame rates from which to choose (want to do slow motion? this is an excellent way to go), and it has a ton of options that make it a very flexible unit to own & operate.

I had a Panasonic HDC-SD9 camcorder that was terrific in all ways, but it stopped working while I was at the Glen, and the only unit available on short notice was the GoPro Hero2. I'll be using it this year. The Hero2 is NLA, and has been superceded by the Hero3, which comes in three flavors. They're compared here: http://gopro.com/product-comparison-hero3-cameras; the Silver Edition is analogous to the Hero2.