Presenting the GoPro HD HERO2 Professional camera: unboxing & test

Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of some old friends on my birthday, I now add a GoPro HD HERO2 camera to my photographic arsenal. The camera shoots both 11mp stills and high definition video at 1080p: 1920×1080, 30FPS, 960p: 1280×960, 48FPS + 30FPS, and 720p: 1280×720, 60FPS + 30FPS.

Unboxing

My friends astutely ordered the Motorsports Edition, which includes a suction cup, worth $30, that can be attached to the side of a vehicle. They also presented me with the “Roll Bar Clamp” that can be used to attach the camera to handlebars or seatpost. I then only needed to purchase a $15 “vented helmet mount” to complete the kit I’ll need.

The tiny GoPro cameras have gained a bit of a cult following among outdoors and “extreme” sports enthusiasts. You know, those guys in the flying suits, who launch themselves off cliffs, into Norwegian fiords, and “speed slide” from the summit of Mont Blanc, half-skiing, half paragliding.

I’m sorry to disappoint, but I won’t be joining that club, or careening through traffic at 299 km/h on a crotch rocket, as one cretin recently did, north of Victoria (and who has since, thankfully, been caught).

Nope, my videos will be somewhat more pedestrian. The plan is to commandeer cycling event participants and convince them to wear this unit on their bikes or selves, with the resulting clips mixed with “footage” from my DSLR. The big picture is to produce some “feature” films with perspectives from the bike and the road.

I had no idea when I was musing about this a while back, that my friends would make the technical part of the dream a reality. Wow!

The first test—shot at 720p: 1280×720, 170º angle of view, 30fps—with Super Dave directing—has given me greater insight into the virtues and limitations of the tool, and I’m looking forward to collecting more video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz8KkQhXjCI[/youtube]

Camera Field Test (Tunnel Vision, Directed by Super Dave)

Tagged as: cameras