GoPro or No Go

[VWCarlos]

For my birthday my family gave me some money to buy an action camera for my bike rides. Right now I have a budget of about $300 to make this purchase. I don't know a lot about cameras in general and I really don't know a lot about action cameras. I have done some on line research about them and gotten to this point and thought I would ask all y'alls opinion on the matter. So here is my quandary... I have enough to buy the base line GoPro camera and that is it or buy a nice knock off and some fancy do-dads to go with it. What do all of you that make these fancy riding movies use and is the GoPro really worth the extra you pay. Keep in mind I will not be making professional movies just some to share with family and friends and to post here for ride reports and the such. I am looking at the SJCam SJ5000 and also the GeekPro EOV1... The GoPro I am looking at is the GoPro Hero Session. Any info or suggestions are appreciated!

[Brian A]

I have a GroPro (my second one). If I were buying now I would go straight to the Garmin VIRB.
Check it out.

[SpeedyR]

or find a good used GoPro Hero 3 (black version ideally). really 90% of my shooting is with 1080p 30fps. On a race occasion (hey y'all, watch this!) I run it at 60fps. I have a 3 black and find no need to "upgrade" to the newer model, I don't need 4k quality as I don't have a 4k TV yet. Plus it's a nightmare to edit and store. I already have almost 1TB of data from my videos.

get plenty of mounts and see what else is out there for it. what type of riding (street, dirt, track, racing, etc)?

I'm finding I like the perspective of the chin mounted camera. someone on here did a group buy on a chin mount (procam or something). And get some extra batteries, I just get clones on amazon and a good charger.

the editing is what makes your videos worth watching. :)

[IceCold4x4]

Do you use a sena Bluetooth unit by chance?

[VWCarlos]

No Bluetooth except on the phone and it is usually in my saddlebag. 

[IceCold4x4]

ah ok. well if you did use a sena I was going to say that they sell a backpac for the go pro that grabs the audio from a mic inside the helmet and also it'll pull audio from people you are connected to. It's a pretty slick setup.

Also have a look at the sena 10c they are about 350 however you do get video ability, and bluetooth music and coms all rolled up into one easy package. just a thought.

[DR650RIDER]

I've got a Garmin Virb XE and a really cheap Go Pro knockoff from China. To be honest the video quality shooting 1080p @ 60fps is about the same (very good quality). The "knockoff" is an Eken H9 and comes with a lot of accessories that use the same Go Pro and Virb X/XE mounts. The only thing the Virb has going for it over the Eken is the G Metrix overlay data and some pretty good editing software. All this is from my personal experience and just my opinion. Good luck with whatever you decide to go with.

[polarissalesman]

I have the go pro 3 black..... I couldn't wait to use it.... easy enuff to video...EDITING the video down is a pain in the A$$ . I've tried several different editors... haven't found 1 I like YET.... I haven't used in about a yr.....  lol guess I need to sell it if I'm not gonna use it...