I’ve got a bunch of outdoors activities planned that are active, so having a GoPro would allow me to document them.
The two GoPros I was looking at was the Hero 4 Silver or the Hero 4 Session.
The Hero 4 Session is was a very compelling package. It’s small and light, and the video output of 1080p at 30 fps works well. There is no outside case to worry about leaking. There were two serious downsides:
1) There isn’t a ND filter for it. Some of the activities I’m doing require a ND filter (driving in the mountains and flying). There are several addons that fit, but require buying a camera ND filter and having a lens that replaces the front lens.
2) Battery life. While the battery life for Session is good, it can’t record and charge. Combined with a lack of removable battery, I would be able to only get ~2 hours of video a day. This isn’t bad when I’m doing the activity over and over, but less convenient when it’s an activity that only happens once in a very long time and I want to get a full days worth of video.
The big downside to the GoPro Hero 4 Silver is the price. A Hero 4 Silver is twice the cost of a Hero 4 Session.
Figured money grows on trees so I purchased the Hero 4 Silver. Amazon has a good deal on a Silver with 2 extra batteries and a 32 GB micro SD card. Picked up some accessories at the same time (suction mount, chest mount, bike mount, backpack strap mount, other mounts, ND filter, and a 64 GB micro SD card).
Two mounts I hope to pick up in the future is a tug mount for the car and a wing strut for the airplane. Only reason I didn’t pick them up is they are $100+ apiece and I’ve already put a bunch of money into this. I’m likely to order two more batteries sometime in the future and pick up another 64 GB micro SD card.
In my initial experience, I’m happy with the hardware. It works well and should allow me to push out a 5 minute film of my activities every month (if I keep up the exciting activities). The software needed to produce a quality 5 minute short is lacking. I’ll put out details on that next Friday.