Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joe Spencer on December 11, 2015 at 7:07am

 I been using Gopros a while; overall very good. Huge accessory selection. An occasional problem usually related to software updates in my experience. I had a couple Drifts. Not good.

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Permalink Reply by Darrell Witham on December 11, 2015 at 12:28pm

Wayne,

I'm using GoPro, and have been pleased with easy of use and quality for the price point, running the low end model.  Regardless of what brand you select, video files tend to be large and having a capable PC to manage and edit your clips will be the other part of the process to keep in mind.  GoPro software works well, but does take some time to figure it out.  I did not read any tech info, just start loading clips and played with it, should you want to jazz up the raw video into more presentable formats.  Regards, Darrell

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Permalink Reply by Lawrence Bird on December 11, 2015 at 12:57pm

No frills, but apparently indestructible – I have a Midland XTC280VP HD Wearable… was well less than a hundred bucks as I recall… no gimmicks, but simple to operate – one control; on/off switch!  Time depends on the SD card – sort of a water-resistant instamatic of digital video.

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Permalink Reply by Marc Webster on December 14, 2015 at 1:30pm

Hello Wayne,

I think I can help you out since I have a product I designed and patented to attach Action Cameras to aircraft.  I have a mount for the CH701, 750 and 750 Cruzer.  I plan to have one for cantilevered wing aircraft as well soon.  Here is a link to my website which also has many videos worth seeing: http://cloudbaseengineering.com

Despite selling my mount word of mouth for 5 years I just launched the website last week and have been planning to make a page with tips and tricks to answer your very question.  Since I don't have it yet see below.

Now on to your question.

I have been using GoPros since their inception and over time they have improved to the point where they are the industry leader.  They use to be the most expensive option, but lately as 4K has become a common place in GoPros they started to now offer lower end models without the 4K.  For aviation filming, 1080p is plenty and no need to buy a camera with 4K capability if all you need is 1080p.  Also I always film at 60FPS since the added sampling helps with the Jello effect.  Jello is caused by the way the camera captures each frame in the shot.  The Gopro and most other action cameras have something called a rolling shutter.  Instead of capturing the image full frame at once it writes the frame line by line scanning horizontally.  Sort of like how an old CRT TV works.  Downside to doing this is as its writing the lines for the image, if as it gets to the bottom of the frame the item being filmed is in another place it causes the image to distort.  In aviation, it mainly affects the propeller and the horizon or scenery.  By filming at 60 frames per second this causes the camera to write 2x the speed so it lessons the deviation of the image between frames.  The cameras can do much more than 60fps, but that is only used for  slow motion capture.  when you upload to youtube or other location, anything more than 60fps becomes an issue as their site does not know what to do with it.

OK so camera recommendations:

GOPRO

Hero+    http://shop.gopro.com/cameras/heroplus/CHDHC-101.html

For people who buy my product that do not have any camera and cost is an issue I suggest they buy the Gopro Hero+

The Hero plus is essentially the same as the Gopro 3+ with a few upgrades that was offered a few years ago with a new name.  I still use my Gopro 3 at 1080p 60fps and it works fine.

.

Gopro 4 Session

This is the same price as the Hero+ with a few more features, but the small size comes at a price of battery life.  I have yet to try this camera due to the battery issue.

Garmin

Virb XE:  http://virb.garmin.com/en-US/virb-xe

This is the latest camera from Garmin and it has some cool aviation based features.  There are templates that cna be used to show your video with GPS track, G meter, Compass and such.  Its actually really a nice feature, but the camera sells for $400  It also has some image stabilization as well.

The other brands are not really worth your time but the Fly360 has some unique features and I plan to test one soon.  The camera image is a bit muted and I think that its an artifact of the image stitching but I still want to try it out.

Alsu using prop filters or ND filters helps a lot to get the prop to look normal.  Depending on what camera you buy will decide on what prop filter you can use.

Hope this helps,

Marc Webster

Cloudbase Engineering LLC

www.cloudbaseengineering.com

 

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Permalink Reply by Wayne Tyson on December 14, 2015 at 2:12pm

Thanks to all who have replied.

Has anyone actually used the Garmin? $400 is pretty steep, but I've found that for the marginal difference in price, I'm usually better off paying up front than later. In this case, I reckon it would boil down to just what the Garmin might do that the GoPro might not and whether I might find myself wanting those features vs considering them needless frills or complexities. An airport manager I talked to at the Copperstate Fly-in had a lot of praise for the Garmin. Maybe I can find a feature-for-feature comparison someplace on the Internet (although most that I've used in the past are often (always?) woefully inadequate.

As to mounts, I want to somehow mount the camera in the middle of the 750 cabin to zoom in onto the instrument panel for ongoing flight testing--not much to mount it on, and I'm not sure I trust suction cups, especially inverted on plexiglass. But I also want for it to be capable of strut-mounting (and perhaps other places). I've thought of the top of the "flying" tail, but that would mean that it would be shooting sky in turns. I suspect that reliable remote operation via a small display mounted in front and to the side of my eyes would be desirable, but operating keys might be difficult and distracting in flight (another product opportunity?).

I'm glad that a pilot, particularly a light sport pilot, is involved in the design of mounting equipment.

I look forward to any further comments.

WT

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Permalink Reply by Marc Webster on December 14, 2015 at 2:29pm

Hello Wayne,

For in the cabin shots, the sticky mounts that come with the cameras should do fine since the CH750 has flat panel aluminum everywhere.  Try and avoid attaching to the window as it vibrates in flight and your video stability will be poor.  If you have an inspection panel in the cabin of your CH750 (i am just about to build one so unsure) then I could sell you just the ball mount seen on my mount and then you can attach it to the inspection panel.  I do have a more serious inspection panel design that gives more of a mourning hardpoint for easy on and off, but in a cabin the quick on and off may not be needed and just having the ball mount there all the time s fine.

If money were not an issue and since your application is aviation, I would say buy the Garmin Virb XE over a new Gopro 4.  The only thing you will get that is aviation specific is the ability to have the cool aviation overlays in your video.  It looks like synthetic vision a bit.  Also all the Garmin items interact with each other so it can work with you watch and or your nav software on your panel or ipad.  I use FlyQ so it does not work for me, but I still like the  Virb XE enough to likely buy one to test it out.  I think the Vib has a longer battery life and their wifi or bluetooth to control it does not consume as much power than the gopro.  However on the flipside, since GoPro is so big there are many more after market accessories and an aftermarket large battery add on is possible on the gopro making the battery life not the issue.  At that point card space becomes an issue.

If all you want is good video and dont care for the fancy aviation features of the Garmin I would get the Gopro+

I am just a one man gig here but as time progresses I hope to reach out to Garmin to see if I can be a distributor.  I never intended for this thing to be patented nor be abusiness, but every time I went flying another person asked "can you make me one of those" so I made the choice to at least offer them and hopefully make enough to cover my flying lessons and costs and finding my own way to pay for flying keeps the wife happy...

Marc

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Permalink Reply by Wayne Tyson on December 14, 2015 at 2:54pm

Marc, thanks for the prompt response. I wish you lotsa luck in your venture. I would rather support individuals (go LLC?) than corporations.

Oh, yeah--I have steam gauges.

Best,

WT

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