metz1295

Anyone who records their rides, what do you use? GoPro, Cycliq, something else? Better to use a helmet mount, handlebar mount or chest mount? I'm not looking to be a YouTube master or anything. Just want to share my rides with my kid when I get home. Looking at GoPro's site, it seems they have some sort of cloud subscription. How much does that cost? Is it worth it?

Anything is helpful. Thanks in advance.

Happy Feet

I use a Go Pro 3 and a helmet mount. After some time trying that I would recommend a chest mount.

The angle from the helmet fore shortens the view and makes the perspective look odd. You don't get a true sense of speed and distance.
It also tends to "fire hose" the view. That means the camera goes where ever you look so the image bounces around.

Some people mount to the bars but then you just get a look at the road/trail ahead, with no image of what you are doing. If you look at some chest mounted video you see the hands and bars reacting to the terrain.

Another thing to consider is editing your video. Some people just turn the camera on and post a 30 minute, one perspective shot of the ride. Interesting to the rider, because they relive the experience, but youtube data shows most viewers drop off by 3 minutes unless something grabs them. I've made a number of diving videos and studied that a bit. If you can edit it down to that time, and/or add some other angles/perspectives, it becomes more watchable. I just edit in microsoft moviemaker (because I know it) but there are other editing platforms.

Here's a couple of videos. Helmet cam angle in the first two, various angles in the third. One is short, the other is ten minutes and the last is 6.5. You can see how the second drags on but the third is better because of editing. Cheap camera, basic software.

metz1295

Thanks, looks like the chest mount is the way to go. Follow up: About how long of a video do you get with the different memory card sizes? HD vs SD if you know that too?

Happy Feet

I'm not an expert in that but I use my GP in a certain way. Usually I video an outing and then download the files into my editing software, edit, and save the final result to my computer with a backup on an external 1tb HD. After that I erase my gopro memory. So, I need less GB capable cards as I don't store videos on them.

It used to be 2GB was good, Now I have 32GB but... big but.... I still shoot 1080. The new gopros shoot 4K and that takes a lot more memory.

Sorry I don't know more.

Turning the cam on and off to catch highlights (to stitch together later) will save more memory than leaving it on for the whole ride, if its a long one. Short files also help when it comes to editing as downloading huge files takes a lot of processor power, especially in 4K.

You'll have to decide whether you want to edit videos and how you will store the final product. That will guide how much memory you need and how you will shoot.

Darth Lefty 

I also tried a helmet and instantly understood why chest is better.

Get a good camera. I was gifted an inexpensive camera a few years ago and it was fun to play with but the video quality was just junk compared to go-pros.

One thing I still haven't figured out is how to get youtube to play it back without being terribly compressed. It's supposed to feed you finer and finer versions after it's been uploaded for a while but it never did.

2cam16

GoPro with various mounts depending on my mood. Sometimes on the stem, helmet(under visor) , or chest.

Happy Feet

Curious.

At the bottom left of the youtube screen is the settings cog icon. There you can change the playback quality. Sometimes it defaults to a lower setting. I think you can go into the settings when uploading and see what resolution is uploading. Bottom right of upload screen. But also, it depends on how you save your file and upload to YT. When I finish editing I always save my final copy as high def 1080p.

I have noticed a curious effect when editing. Movie maker takes my HD file from the GoPro and compresses it to work within the software. Then, when it finalizes the product it decompresses the files and sometimes there is an odd glitch that comes with it, usually a momentary slo mo effect. can't complain as MM is free software. People with Macs have a much better software with I Movie and now GP has its own too, but I still use MM because I know it so well.

Darth Lefty 

I think it was a compression problem with a very shaky shot, but anyway. It was a cheapie two years ago and dead now. I ought to pick up a one or two generation old gopro and see how it looks

Happy Feet

The picture quality of the new generation go pros is amazing. Even the still shots are better than many point and shoots.

I first had the original hero that needed an aftermarket lens retrofit for the cover to waterproof and remove vignetting. Occulus iirc. I just recovered a hero 7 with no cover from 70 feet underwater that had been there for a week (drone crash) and it fired up right away. They have come along way.

metz1295

Thanks all. Pulled the trigger on this starter kit. Added the chest, bar and helmet mounts. this discount on accessories that comes with the subscription is pretty significant. Will re-evaluate after the first year once accessories have been acquired.

https://gopro.com/en/us/shop/cameras...01-master.html