This latest product seems to me to be almost too high spec, with 4k video.
What’s realistically required for reasonable cockpit videos and can some of the cheaper car-cams produce anything worthwhile? I understand a filter is essential to remove prop flicker but other than that have little idea of what the baseline equipment would be.
Any suggestions for my Xmas list?
All that a (neutral density) filter does is to lose a load of light and thus force the camera to run a slower shutter, which blurs the prop.
If they did these cameras (which are hardly cheap) properly they would have manual shutter speed control, and then say 1/100 would remove the prop nicely.
If they did these cameras (which are hardly cheap) properly they would have manual shutter speed control, and then say 1/100 would remove the prop nicely.
I suppose for 99.5% of their buyers that is not relevant at all, so not going to happen? We need more GA pilots.
I’d like to see some more comments on this thread, too, though. Been thinking about getting a GoPro or similar and can’t really make my mind up which one to choose. I’d actually like to have two, to be honest, to mount them in different positions. 
None of these small cameras have mechanical irises, so the only way they can adjust exposure is by adapting the shutter speed.
This means in bright light, the only way you’ll get the low shutter speeds you need to sort out the prop blur is to add a filter.
There’s no software fix for this, it’s a hardware problem.
I thought it was something like that.
Well, at their prices, they ought to have, because a movie done with a Go-Pro reminds me of Pagemaker when it came out c. 1982. It came with about 20 fonts and everybody using it made sure all 20 fonts were used on each car boot sale poster they did with it 
They are great for attaching to a wingtip but once you have done that and produced a dozen almost identical (and optically distorted) movies, you will get bored with it.
If I wanted to do quality stuff, I would buy a camcorder. Mine has a manual shutter and shoots through the prop perfectly but cost £1500 3 years ago and is a bit big (Canon Legria G10). I think I saw a much cheaper one recently – about £500 – which did that. All full 1080P 25 FPS HD of course.
And a suction pad mount – example
Just my opinion
They are great for attaching to a wingtip but once you have done that and produced a dozen almost identical (and optically distorted) movies, you will get bored with it.
If I wanted to do quality stuff, I would buy a camcorder.
In all fairness, I find the output of what some of my friends did with their GoPro to be of unparalleled quality for a consumer product. They’re not made for aviation.
It’s a bit like fitting an expensive car navigation system to your airplane and saying it’s low quality because you can’t enter way points, flight plans, and what not. The ETA is also not accurate as it calculates a zig zag course depending on ground traffic rather than a straight line.
And won’t the person who gets bored with the GoPro after a dozen almost identical and optically distorted movies not get bored with the camcorder after a dozen almost identical undistorted movies?
The Go-Pro image quality is superb. Really amazing.
I just don’t like the distorted look. I know many people do like it so like all this stuff it’s a matter of opinion. Is what you get with a wide angle lens unless you pay a lot of money. In the old 35mm world you could go as wide as 17mm and still have a straight lens (I had one – was about £500 secondhand) but beyond that it distorted. The Go-Pro distorts way before the “17mm equivalent”.
I think boredom comes (or doesn’t come) from what one can do with it and continue to do with it (one could say the same about a PPL) and IMHO one can do more useful stuff with a camera that shoots straight. If you need the “fisheye” look for effect you can always pop a wide angle lens on the front of a camcorder.
Unfortunately you can’t mount a camcorder on a wingtip / wing strut etc. It also isn’t waterproof.
You can remove the fisheye in post processing – obviously you lose part of the image and some resolution, but if you’ve shot at 1080, there’s certainly enough ‘left’ for a decent 720 video.
I think the GoPro in it’s ‘widest’ mode is 12mm equivalent.
There is also the issue of optical zoom…
On a 20MP DSLR you tend to have loads of leeway for cropping especially if the target is a website, but this is not going to be the case with a video unless you have spent serious money.
My Nokia 808 can certainly make Go-pro quality 1080P movies but I still find it very limiting.
I fully accept we are debating two different markets / two different application areas, but I think it is worth being aware of that.
