chriskellett Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 Hi Folks, I have a job coming up in the end of August that would like to use these cameras in some race cars. Does anyone have some experience on using and setting the inputs? Any tips or tricks. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfisk Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 I've done it. It is a mic level input. There are no audio controls at all. No audio metering. It's just an input, and you hope for the best. I've taken the mic level out of a Sound Devices MixPre-D and gone right into the thing. Remember that reflecto pole April Fool's day video I made? That audio was off of the GoPro I had mounted (I shot three'cams') on our Norbert DSLR frame along with a bunch of other stuff. I had run the audio to another recording source (another camera), but the audio on the GoPro was hotter, so I went with that. There is no audio monitoring in terms of a headphone or dedicated audio output. What I haven't tried is taking the mini HDMI out and running that into a monitor with speakers or something else with a headphone jack on it. I don't know if that signal carries audio, but I can find out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Mega Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 I would avoid the Gopro input altogether. I was in the same predicament for an upcoming job where previous series the in car camera used had no input at all and now they're using Gopro and wanted me to record audio onto Gopro. For many reasons I won't bother going into, I managed (and the series producer agreed) to continue recording in car audio to a Sony PCM D50 mounted on the dash board. Results always exceed the quality of the pictures and it has manual level control on the more than satisfactory condenser mics. Sync/hand clap or car door closing for sync and all is good. The Gopro audio just seems to hit or miss for my liking. Good luck Peter Mega Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael McQueen Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 i've done wireless hop using sennheiser g2 from mixer to gopro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 What's the world coming to, that people are using these cameras? A piece of crap $999 digital still camera is too sophisticated? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfisk Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 They are cheap, shoot reasonably good quality video, and you can mount them anywhere. Since they are so cheap, they are almost treated as an expendable on higher budget shoots. Now you can connect up to 50 via WiFi and remote roll all of them at the same time. With the dive housing you have a nice, cheap underwater video camera. They are literally all over reality shows, the Xgames, anything else extreme sports, or anywhere you want to put a small hi-def camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 But... the video is ugly. Look at it carefully, do the tests, and you'll see. The only good thing I can say about the camera is: it's what I'd choose if I needed to throw one out a plane or crash one in a car. Trust me, there are people attempting to shoot entire shows on them. To me, this is just another example of audio and video quality being degraded for cost, convenience, and ignorance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 They are cheap, shoot reasonably good quality video, and you can mount them anywhere. Since they are so cheap, they are almost treated as an expendable on higher budget shoots. Now you can connect up to 50 via WiFi and remote roll all of them at the same time. With the dive housing you have a nice, cheap underwater video camera. They are literally all over reality shows, the Xgames, anything else extreme sports, or anywhere you want to put a small hi-def camera. They've revolutionized any sort of stunt shooting. On the Ken Block "Gymkhana 5" shoot recently there was a whole GoPro department, a good idea since they were running as many as 65 at once at times. The shots they got with them were really great--made the video in my opinion. And I'm pretty sure the sound designer used some of the "free" GoPro "stressed" audio in his mix. You see a few being destroyed onscreen in the piece. I think they are a great movie tool. On "Making Stuff" we stuck them in places where there was only room for David Pogue (the host), no cameraman even, and told him to speak up (yell). Worked great. phil p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfisk Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 They definitely serve their purpose. I put mine in all kinds of places I'd never put a regular video camera, like in the ocean. I can put it on one of our boom poles and get 20 feet in the air with it. Should it be a main camera? Nope, not for cinema, but it can be a cool b-cam POV shot, and it's great for getting something small to get a perspective you normally couldn't get. I even put one inside of one our machines in the machine shop while it was making one of our iPhone cases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Feeley Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 Marc, I hear what you're saying, but IME it depends on how the camera is set up and used. There's a nice ecosystem of accessories and knowledge for these things. For example, there are at least a couple neutral-density/polarizer filters available. The one that Eyeofmine.com gives you a nice blur on roads and tires, does the usual nice stuff to skies. Useful and cheap. And month or so ago I got to work with an early version of the 35Mbit "log-curve" update GoPro will be releasing soon. The images from that camera was pretty damn nice. Surprised us. (I'm guessing the Ken Block shoot Phil worked had dozens of the 35Mbit versions) I think the (free?) update should be out in a month or so. We're sticking a couple dozen of these on some bikes for some historical recreations. Tests so far are very encouraging; these things won't kill our budget (compared to Iconix or what have you); we'll have imagery with a bit more heat than a pan across archival images. Chris, as for audio tips, I think everyone else has covered it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandyHall Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 I've seen the GoPro used as a BTS camera, which is very useful (and discreet most times). Wasn't there an epic BTS shot done on a GoPro for Hugo's final steadicam scene? THAT is what these cameras are good for in the film business. Otherwise, unless you're into extreme whatever, you kinda look at them and say, "huh?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VASI Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 NO. I DON'T SEND YOU VIA WIRELESS THE AUDIO TO THIS CAMERA. THANK YOU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McL Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 They've revolutionized any sort of stunt shooting. On the Ken Block "Gymkhana 5" shoot recently there was a whole GoPro department, a good idea since they were running as many as 65 at once at times. The shots they got with them were really great--made the video in my opinion. And I'm pretty sure the sound designer used some of the "free" GoPro "stressed" audio in his mix. You see a few being destroyed onscreen in the piece. I think they are a great movie tool. On "Making Stuff" we stuck them in places where there was only room for David Pogue (the host), no cameraman even, and told him to speak up (yell). Worked great. phil p You work with Pogue... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 Personally I wouldn't bother sending sound to the camera, but that's just me. It is too easy to sync sound from a dedicated sound recorder. I love my GoPro for many reasons but mostly for the fun I have shooting w it. Very cool uint. CrewC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 " But... the video is ugly. " but... how can that be..?? it's HiDef... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfisk Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 I checked with the folks at GoPro, and you can monitor audio out through the HDMI output, but you have to figure out how to get the HDMI to something you can listen to. Kinda cumbersome at that point. I'm with Crew on this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armin Siegwarth Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 probably you could listen to it via a small HD DP4 Monitor. They have 1/8" audio from hdmi afaik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sounddguy Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 " But... the video is ugly. " but... how can that be..?? it's HiDef... It's the highest quality ugly. None of that low fi ugly stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 " None of that low fi ugly stuff. " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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