Like it says I need help, I am going on a family trip soon to Mexico and will be snorkeling with the kids and would like to take some underwater pics and video.
It used to be just mostly GoPros out there, but now there are many others out there. I have no previous experience with them so any help and suggestions would be great.
Also I would like to use it other times for winter skiing, hunting and putting on my bike.
Thanks
Not *really *an answer to your question, but I’ve been using a GoPro Hero for about 18 months (for cycling, skiiing, scuba) and wouldn’t buy anything else.
I remember when MP3 players were first coming out and I saw iPods everywhere so I did some research. When I decided on the Creative Zen I ultimately bought, I knew as a stand alone device it was a better value for the money. Once I began seeing all the things people could do with their iPods (car adapters, FM frequency accessories etc etc) I quickly learned that it was an iPod world we lived in. While others competed it was dominated by iPod life.
The moral of the story is do yourself a favor and get a GoPro. It’s a GoPro world we live in and all the accessories, mods, tips and tricks you’ll find are going to be dominated by GoPro users. There is just such a strong ecosystem around them you’d be foolish to go another route.
For multi-use, I’d recommend the GoPro. A ton of accessories to accomodate different things you want to use it for.
As far as which GoPro model to get, it depends on how good of quality you want to record. The 3 Black, 3+ Black and 4 Black all have the higher 4k or better resolutions. This is what most of the GoPro ads are recorded at and then sometimes downscaled back to 1080p for better quality than just using the 1080p. However, using this setting drains your battery and fills up your memory card much faster. Then you need a good computer to process the high quality video.
For me, I primarily just use the 1080p resolution @ 30 frames per second which is good enough for me. If this is fine for you, I would recommend the GoPro Hero 3+ Silver edition. I have a 3+ Black and the battery is pretty horrendous.
Here are some of the posted battery run time stats.
http://gopro.com/…-camera-battery-life
If you want even more, there is now an extended battery that works with the 3 and 3+ models that gives you 5 hours of battery life at 1080p 30fps.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQ6PBX2/ref=twister_B00MR30I6E
I don’t know too much about the new 4 series version. The LCD screen is nice to see what you are doing but that and the newer more power hungry processor likely means shorter battery life.
Also, to note. The GoPro resale value is pretty good. I just recently sold my 2 year old GoPro Hero 3 black and remote on eBay for $345 then bought a brand new in box GoPro Hero 3+ black WITH remote for $306. After fees, I pretty much upgraded for free!
I love the Countour GPS camera, It works great and it does not look like a brick like the go pro’s. All the same accessories are available for the countour and I have never had a problem with it. I have used one the past 4 years to record training rides and to catch all the chaos of RAGBRAI.
Thanks, guys.
Good point about the GoPros. Leaning that way.