GoPro, iphone - outdoor arena videos for cheap

[BatCoach]

last summer I bought a used GoPro Hero silver 3 with the intention of using it solely as a way to get video of my rides in the outdoor arena. I have no desire to mount it to me in anyway, I just want to clip it to the fence rail and record parts of my ride.

To date I have been a little underwhelmed with the results. It frequently drops the connection to my admittedly aged iphone 6 therefore I lose the ability to start and stop taping. No matter where I put it on the arena I get a fish-eye type image which isn’t the end of the world, but I’m not satisfied with the overall image quality. I try to edit down the end result on my macbook but the files are HUGE and cause my computer to freeze.

Am I doing something wrong or is there a better way to do this? I’d love a solo shot or pixio, but they are out of my price range. With how fast technology progresses and camera quality is better and better is there a good solution for an affordable ( under $100) way to get decent picture in an outdoor arena?

[Aces_N_Eights]

Subbing even though I ended up buying a used Soloshot3 optic65 off eBay. It seemed the options were pretty limited for a small budget.
I was told the earlier models of SoloShot(1) you couldn’t buy a replacement battery for even though they are affordable used on EBay. But you’d still need to buy a video camera(sony) compatible for the Soloshot so still almost paying out a few hundred for a robot camera to track your work. Just as well off buying the newest model with camera by my guess.

With all that said I’m pretty ignorant to technology. And before I was setting my phone on an arena post and there was at least 20 minutes of cloud watching or the ground so anything would be an improvement.

[emipou]

I use a goPro. It too has the fish-eye. I’ve just played with it a bit and have found ways to make it work for me. I think my profile pic here is a freeze frame picture from a gopro video.
I used to get bugged by the lack of detail, but actually considering how stuck I can get on details, it’s probably a good thing.

What works well for me:

• I only let myself use it a check-in from time to time. No regular recording.
• I set it in a corner that works with the sun, at an angle, near where I plan to work a lot so I’m closer to the camera.
• I can use the app to power on and off from my phone, but usually, I just walk over, or ride up at the end and start/stop myself. (You need to refresh the connection to the camera anytime you re-access the app - it only takes moment)
• I’ll grab some snapshots from the video from my phone.
• import to my laptop and use the gopro editing tools to watch full screen - this is detailed enough for me to watch.
• upload the videos unlisted to youtube to refer to (they’re good enough detail at full screen). I’m not brave enough to share any examples. But I am pretty happy with the quality. I’d love a soloshot.

[BatCoach]

@emipou Do you upload to YouTube for editing or just for storage? I think I need to get better at imovie or download a different, more simple editing app. I also may invest in the gopro remote in hopes that it makes it possible to start and stop recording easier - I’m just trying to avoid dealing with a 20 minute video of me WTC that is impossibly big to work with.

[emipou]

@BatCoach

@emipou Do you upload to YouTube for editing or just for storage? I think I need to get better at imovie or download a different, more simple editing app. I also may invest in the gopro remote in hopes that it makes it possible to start and stop recording easier - I’m just trying to avoid dealing with a 20 minute video of me WTC that is impossibly big to work with.

Just for storage.
GoPro provides some pretty nice editing software for both desktop and mobile device that I use. The mobile editing is pretty much limited to snapshots since it takes so darn long to transfer files to my phone.