GoPro in car video camera for track day, pt 2.
Okay, I purchased the GoPro Hero camera. It comes in a overly fancy display case, but it seems to work as well as it is packaged.
The camera itself is roughly 1"x2", and needs to be placed in the waterproof/shockproof casing in order to mount it. It doesn't seem to affect the audio recording.
It comes with a variety of mounting options; for me, mounting on the inside windshield seems best. It mounts firmly, and the image stabilizations works pretty well.
It has a setting for high and low audio recording. You kinda have to play with it to see which one works best.
It will support up to a 2gb SD card, and after a couple of email exchanges with the manufacturer, they recommend you use either NiMH or lithium batteries, as the alkalines don't hold steady voltage, and will cause the camera to stop recording. Also, they said that on a pair of AAA Energizer Lithium batteries, you should get up to 5hrs of straight recording on the camera, which should last me a whole weekend of DE. We shall see. On a 2GB SD card, you can only get up to 55min of recording though, so either bring more cards, or keeps clearing them after each run.
One drawback: Windows Vista can't play the video back with audio on media player. Some codec error perhaps? I thought I had purchased a defective camera, but GoPro said that the playback will work on Quicktime (which I verified taht you can hear the audio on Quicktime). They said they were working on resolving the issue on Media player.
The camera and mounts are all in one package, which I purchased off ebay for $179.00, no tax, no S&H from a motorcycle parts dealer, fast shipping. I bought my SD card at Fry's for $10. I can let you know who the dealer was if you're interested. Still a cheaper option than the Boxster roll bar camera mount for roughly $199, plus I still need to throw in my own camera.
My DE is this weekend, so I'll update when it's over.
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