GoPro or something else?

[Stephen]

I'm looking to get a GoPro for this year to record trainings, CPPS, and our full season playing the Millennium Series as well as the journey and everything else that comes with playing a major tournament.

I thought the best way to do this was to get myself a GoPro, that way I can use it as a barrel cam as well as taking it out and about with me.

Would this be the right way to go or is there anything else people would suggest? I've looked at the R7 and the Contour HD, but they don't seem to be anything else other than a barrel cam to me.

 

[phil-boy]

I have the Gopro Hero 2 and have used this on my barrel. I have also used it sitting on a start gate at an event and it worked really well.

Whilst it may be a bit more bulky compared to the R7 one, I really like it and have got other mounting bits for other sports and occasions.

Cant comment on the other cameras you mention But I do like the Gopro.

 

[Stephen]

I have the Gopro Hero 2 and have used this on my barrel. I have also used it sitting on a start gate at an event and it worked really well.

Whilst it may be a bit more bulky compared to the R7 one, I really like it and have got other mounting bits for other sports and occasions.

Cant comment on the other cameras you mention But I do like the Gopro.

Yeah that was my main train of thought. If I wanted something purely for barrel cam footage then I'd have gone for an R7 or a Contour, but I think there's a lot more uses for a GoPro and you can get different shots with it.

Plus I was looking at the Hero3 which is a fair bit small than it's predecessor, so hopefully it won't be too bulky when on the barrel.

 

[Tom]

Go pro, contour etc are all action came with wide angle lenses.
Barrel cam is just the description of one use
You can equally use the contour anywhere else.

The rest is just marketing
(According to marketing ladies can go roller blading once a month)
there are plenty of examples in advertising showing how the go pro can be used, and a vast array of go pro mounts to be bought.
There is also a vast array of contour mounts to be bought, but in addition the contour has a standard camera mount screw thread socket, which expands your choice of mounts to almost every mount option in the world.

The contour and bullet style cameras can be used in many more places then the go pro - and the contour is paintball proof without buying a waterproof case.

 

[Tom]

Plenty options for mounting:

http://www.ukscenario.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=38586

 

[Mclovin101]

How i mounted my Go pro using a mount that came with it

http://i694.photobucket.com/albums/vv308/Mclovin_101_101/null-1.jpg
http://i694.photobucket.com/albums/vv308/Mclovin_101_101/null.jpg

this one is using the handlebar mount but made is a massive object shoot

http://i694.photobucket.com/albums/vv308/Mclovin_101_101/130dd35db807d44d86bb77182a401fe7.jpg

 

[jont]

I've not used a contour or r7, but the gopros, especially the hero 3+ offers outstanding image quality.

One of the main issues in using an action camera in paintball is the distortion from the wide angel lens. You can capture between 14mm - 28mm depending on the crop on the sensor, but at its most narrow this still results in figures at the centre of frame appearing tiny in relationship to the rest of the image. This is great for jumping out of planes, but irritating when you're trying to revisit the crack head shot you placed at incredible range. You literally need to be on top of you opponent to see the paint brake.

That said however, the newer models will offer up to 120 fps at 720p, that's pretty decent for any device that's recording to sd card and the hero 3 will do 4k at 12 fps (theoretically enough to capture every ball). The colour replication is reasonable, although a little enhances regarding saturation. The h.264 codec does a nice clean job of the encode and although playback is sluggish on older desktops, quality to file size is acceptable. Most will record to QuickTime, and add the unwanted 1.8 gamma correction to the mid times, so expect images to appear slightly darker on a pic screen.

All in all, great piece of kit.