Anything better than goPro?

[Give_Em_The_DD]

Started taking my car to the track a bit more last spring/summer, was debating getting a goPro, was wondering if there was anything better for the $$?

Planned on either mounting somewhere outside car, or inside the cabin I suppose...

Budget would be anywhere up to $500 I suppose. If you wouldn't mind posting specs/ features (zoom, wind canceling etc) it would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

-tech challenged : /

[bimmette]

I did a bit of research before getting a gopro and it seemed to be the best in the market for the price range. If you do mount it outside of the car, build a little tether in case it flies off. Also, I should warn you if you're tech-chalkenged, I was a little overwhelmed when setting it up for the first time. Oh and the battery life sucks.

[Give_Em_The_DD]

Originally Posted by bimmette

I did a bit of research before getting a gopro and it seemed to be the best in the market for the price range. If you do mount it outside of the car, build a little tether in case it flies off. Also, I should warn you if you're tech-chalkenged, I was a little overwhelmed when setting it up for the first time. Oh and the battery life sucks.

Hi bimmette

Thanks for the reply...I started to do a little searching myself, and for the $ I want to spend, I think you are right.

It appears the newest is the 4, black n silver? Which one do you have?

I was told that right off the bat goPros aren't exactly "user friendly"

[MrPrena]

Around 2008-2009, I was reading the sports magazine for wearable camera. Stupidly, I went with ikam sunglasses. Portable, and nice, but extremely crappy resolution.

[bimmette]

Originally Posted by Give_Em_The_DD

Hi bimmette

Thanks for the reply...I started to do a little searching myself, and for the $ I want to spend, I think you are right.

It appears the newest is the 4, black n silver? Which one do you have?

I was told that right off the bat goPros aren't exactly "user friendly"

Oh, ok good that you're aware it's not user-friendly. I guess I expected something so popular and tiny to be simple, haha.
I have the gopro hero 3 in black.
I've only done one driving video, which I think turned out good. And I just used it for a video last week in a parkade, mostly stationary, and that video didn't turn out so good. So it's obviously meant more for those outdoor action videos with good natural lighting.

[Back in a Subie]

Check out the polaroid xs100, I have used one for a couple of years now and it is great camera for the price. Easy to operate, durable, good video quality, more aerodynamic than the gopro so less wind noise and you never hear it rattling around in its plastic case, and best of all it is only $150.

I have a couple videos on YouTube tagged "polaroid xs100" driving around in the Morgan if you want an example of the wind noise and video quality.

Here is a clip with the Polaroid XS100 helmet mounted (most wind noise) at speeds at 0-55 MPH

[gtron]

i heard aim smartycam is great for the track. i haven't used one myself. just word of mouth.

[fastflyer]

I'd get a goPro purely for this mount.

http://www.burgertuning.com/tow_hook...mount_BMW.html

[dc_wright]

If you've got a decent smart phone, take a look at Track Addict Pro. It's $9 for iPhone version. You'll need to get a windshield mount for the phone, but you can pick up a decent mount for $30-$40. If you get one of the wireless OBDII interfaces, you can get performance data logs integrated with the video. If you decide later to get a GoPro, Track Addict has remote wifi control for GoPro as a feature so you can run your phone and the GoPro in parallel.
If you're doing auto cross, the auto start function allows you to set up the phone in a ready mode, and then when it senses your launch, it automatically starts the phone and GoPro Video.

If you do just get the GoPro, the GoPro desk top app is terrible. You can get the AVS4U suite for $59. You get 12 apps, including a pretty good video editor/convertor that will allow you to create compressed video files to post to YouTube, etc.

[upstatedoc]

Originally Posted by fastflyer

I'd get a goPro purely for this mount.

http://www.burgertuning.com/tow_hook...mount_BMW.html

Holy cow that M3 got spanked.

[bmw-nj]

If you want something simple unlike the gopro get a Velocity Clip. It's a mount for your Smartphone and holds it well.

I use mine with my iPhone 6 and capture 1080p video with great battery life and have 64gb of storage on tap.

Simplest cheapest option and great quality

[gtron]

bmw-nj that Velocity Clip looks pretty cool! good tip.

i bet with all the odbii apps and the quality of phone cams today you likely don't need a gopro or aim smartycam.

i'm an android user so i use iSaddle Super Mini Bluetooth OBD2 with the Torque Pro app...

i wonder if there's a way to combine all of the above. i'll have to look into this combo soon.

[Give_Em_The_DD]

Thanks for all the replies.

I really like the velocity clip idea, and so does my wallet lol