Looking for a GO PRO camera to recommend for my 2011 RT

[Spyderweber3]

As we all put our Spyders in for winter hibernation (LOL... Ontario) ..... only to wonder about adventures planned for 2020, I seek advice on purchasing a GOPRO or some type of dash camera to record my travels across the country in the Summer of 2020. Does anyone have any recommendations of what to buy? Is a helmut mounted camera better than a mirror or "bike" mounted camera? Any suggestions would be really helpful! Thanks!!

[CopperSpyder]

I'll be watching this one. I was looking at the Sena Evo but open to anything also.

[Realtor]

I have a Go Pro, used it in Sturgis this past summer. I used a helmet mount, worked great, 'cept I had to hold my head still,or the video was unwatchable... I tried to mount it to the bike, but the vibration of the Harley was worse that the helmet cam.... I figure the spyder would be less vibration, but havent tried it just yet. Thanks for the topic, I'll get it out and try it soon.... I figure using the suction cup mount somewhere by the headlight would be about the best spot..

[glennm]

Keeping an eye on this as I would love to have a dash cam permanently mounted if it could be secured against theft.

[Flamewinger]

I have a GoPro 5 mounted to the Trim LED dash bracket. It's does pretty good at recording nice rides.

67CFE7DF-7216-4CA2-B5F2-FE1E5B4BE514_1_201_a.jpg

[Realtor]

I have a GoPro 5 mounted to the Trim LED dash bracket. It's does pretty good at recording nice rides.

67CFE7DF-7216-4CA2-B5F2-FE1E5B4BE514_1_201_a.jpg

notice any vibration?

[Flamewinger]

You'll need to watch it on Youtube. For some reason its not working on here.



Maybe this will work

[Grandpot]

I use a GoPro Hero 7 Black. It has stabilization software that really works. Mine is mounted directly to the bike, in front of the windshield. I've run it on city roads, interstates, and some gravel. The Hero 7 Black is last year's model and was the only one with that software. I don't know which model has it now.

[blacklightning]

I use a GoPro Hero 7 Black. It has stabilization software that really works. Mine is mounted directly to the bike, in front of the windshield. I've run it on city roads, interstates, and some gravel. The Hero 7 Black is last year's model and was the only one with that software. I don't know which model has it now.

That is exactly what I use. I have mine mounted just below the windshield on my F3T. The mounting pad is not noticed unless I point it out. Gives a great view of the road and surrounding area.

[2dogs]

Keeping an eye on this as I would love to have a dash cam permanently mounted if it could be secured against theft.

Been watching this also. Here's an interesting link. https://clicklikethis.com/gopro-dash-cam/

[Grandpot]

I just put on YouTube the Spyders in the Hills video I shot this past October. It lost a little clarity on YouTube, but still shows the stability of the GoPro Hero 7 Black.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZiteLQbGsA&t=93s

[KosherKid]

I have a GoPro hero 5 session mounted center behind the windshield, Works good and is stable.

[bushrat]

Thanks for the post...

I'm another Ontario ryder, with a 2017 F3L. When I bought my Spyder, BRP gave me a small Cyclops video cam as a premium (incentive) to buy. Small, difficult to use, no real instructions. Tried it and gave up. Last fall, I bought a GoPro Hero 7 Black, mostly because it now has highly-rated vibration-free technology. Since then, GoPro Hero 8 has been released, but I don't believe any great advancements have occurred. Tried mounting my 7 on windshield bracket using a ram mount from the Cyclops, but the mount kept working lose and camera would tilt from force of wind. In the process now of mounting similar to way blacklightning and Grandpot use. I expect great things from the 7, and hope to begin taking some videos soon. BTW, fellow SL member Martin Slovakia, who posts those fabulous travel videos from Albania, has told us he uses two GoPro Hero 7's, plus a drone. His experience with the GoPro7 has been wonderful, but perhaps he will chime in here and speak for himself.

Just a question for Grandpot and blacklightning: do either of you have or recommend using a tether as a back-up in case your dash mount lets go?? Have you done anything special to stick down the mount? or just used the sticky stuff underneath?

[Grandpot]

Thanks for the post...
chime in here and speak for himself.

Just a question for Grandpot and blacklightning: do either of you have or recommend using a tether as a back-up in case your dash mount lets go?? Have you done anything special to stick down the mount? or just used the sticky stuff underneath?

I just used the sticky mount that came with the camera. I cleaned the surface with alcohol first.

[ValleyRider]

I have a GOPRO which I have no use. I am travelling for holidays and can only give you full details when I return home on the 29th, if you can wait that long. Let me know if interested.

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

My suggestion is to forget the whole idea. Why? Remember back in the 50's and 60's when 8mm home movies were all the rage. You'd end up sitting in someone's living room watching hours of kids splashing in the play pool, or Grandpa tripping over himself playing badminton, or miles and miles of roadside scenery where the ducks and deer were so far away you barely make them out! Each activity in itself could be entertaining to watch -- for about 3 minutes!

Getting a good video camera is only the beginning. In order to have videos worth watching you will have to edit them, usually pretty drastically like plucking 2 minutes out of a 150 minute total length. That takes time, a lot of it. And it requires decent video editing software, and a powerful computer to run it on to avoid screaming in frustration about how slow it's taking. As far as the helmet mount my short experience using one showed me very quickly the viewer can get sea sick from the constant motion caused by bobbing your head back and forth and side to side. But helmet mounting does have one HUGE benefit. You can pan side to side to capture the interesting parts of the scenery you are riding through. After all, we don't ride to just watch miles and miles of road centerline in front of us, right? That brings me to the limitation of mounting the camera on the dash. It just looks forward, not side to side. It won't capture the interesting stuff along the road, the stuff that makes a video worth watching later. I had a mount on my Spyder that I could pan the camera side to side and it worked reasonably well. The problem was I was monitoring the camera image with the GoPro app on my tablet. Because of the time delay of the image transferring from the camera to the tablet, coupled with the time it took to rotate the camera, I often missed capturing with the camera the sights I was capturing with my eyeballs.

Do what you want, but be aware getting from great scenery while riding to a video worth watching later ain't no walk in the park! For that reason I haven't used my GoPro for at least 2 years!

Some here will strongly disagree with the above, but that is my experience, and my story, and I'm sticking to it!

[Peter Aawen]

......

Do what you want, but be aware getting from great scenery while riding to a video worth watching later ain't no walk in the park! For that reason I haven't used my GoPro for at least 2 years!

Some here will strongly disagree with the above, but that is my experience, and my story, and I'm sticking to it!

In my experience, if you are concentrating enough on your 'recording' (however you are getting it/wherever your camera is mounted) in order to get images that are worth viewing without wasting hours of editing effort, then you very likely aren't concentrating on your actual ryding & staying safe anywhere near enough!

These days, I only volunteer with our local 'First Responders' when they're absolutely desperate for qualified staff, but the frequency of Emergency Call-Outs they get where a driver/rider has caused/been involved in a serious accident because that driver/rider was trying to record something is occurring almost on the same level as accidents caused by texting &/or 'phone inattention!! If you are driving/riding, then it's THAT which MUST be what you are concentrating on, not on whatever the image you'd like your camera to be catching!

A camera that you set & forget is the only safe way to go, be it on your helmet (which is not always legal tho, especially here in Oz! ) or hard mounted on your dash/tupperware somewhere..... and that means you WILL need to put a lot of time & effort into editing your raw footage to get something that's not just miles & miles of road ribbon or maybe scenery swinging wildly from side to side as you try to look at everything! Sure, that's OK by me if you want to devote that time & effort to your vids, some do it very well - look at Martin Slovakia & his Beast, he's done some great vids, just don't underestimate the hours & hours of commitment it takes to produce vids of that quality &/or vids that're worth showing anyone else!

[blacklightning]

I just used the sticky mount that came with the camera. I cleaned the surface with alcohol first.

Same thing here. The sticky mount is not going anywhere. With the minimal weight of the camera, it would be nearly impossible for it to come off. Plus I am normally leading, and my wife bought a warranty that it will be replaced if anything should happen to it. Even a hard impact to pavement.

[Spyderweber3]

Thanks so much everyone! It looks like the GOPRO Hero 7 has gotten many favourable reviews. I will keep watching. I really appreciate everyone's opinions and feedback. It gives me a lot to go on. Please keep adding....

Remember.... age is just a # time assigns you....
2020 is the year for "Perfiect Vision"....

[johnsimion]

I've been wanting a GoPro for a long time. I'm sure they're great quality cameras, but they lack the one feature I really want, and that's a time/date stamp that will show on the video. Without that, the only way to tell the date of a video is to look at the properties of the video file itself. If you do a google search, you will also see that people have been asking GoPro for this feature for several years but for some reason they keep ignoring that simple request. The Hero8 just came out and still lacks this feature. Meanwhile, at least some cheap substitutes like the AKASO V50 Elite ($118 on Amazon) DO offer this feature. I do NOT own the Akaso and I only know this from the manual for it that's online. The Akaso does, however, have several hundred very good ratings on Amazon and it's about 1/3 the price of the Hero8. This is a feature that I had on my VHS camcorder back in the 1980s and IMO it's unforgivable for a premium brand like GoPro to omit this AND continue to omit it over several generations.

[dpetrick]

I have a Hero 5 Black. I use the suction cup mount on the windscreen. I use the GoPro remote, attached to the handlebars. I usually ride through an area and then go back and ride it again to record the video. I use Premier Pro to edit and compile the videos. Editing takes a lot of time. Also my videos are planned before I go out riding to record them. Creating hours of random video and then having to go through it and edit to something useable, is very time consuming. One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing a posted video, where I watch for 1-2 minutes before getting to the 10-20 seconds worth watching, then having another 2-3 minutes of video with nothing to see. Concise editing is key to keeping the viewer engaged.
I would say if you enjoy editing digitally go for a Hero 7 or 8 and have fun. As a note I teach this at the college level so I do spend a lot of time editing video and still images.

[Katie]

A guy posted a video on one of the Facebook groups I follow that he shot using a 360 degree camera, and it was incredible. He said the camera he uses is an Insta 360 One X. Not sure I could be so creative, but it sure caught my attention and it’s certainly an alternative to the GoPro. https://www.insta360.com/product/ins...SAAEgIXYPD_BwE

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

A guy posted a video on one of the Facebook groups I follow that he shot using a 360 degree camera, and it was incredible. He said the camera he uses is an Insta 360 One X. Not sure I could be so creative, but it sure caught my attention and it’s certainly an alternative to the GoPro. https://www.insta360.com/product/ins...SAAEgIXYPD_BwE

Interesting. Not a true 360° degree camera as I see it. Two 200° images, forward and reverse sides. You do still have to deal with the big challenge of videos, editing to reduce hours of video to minutes of mind capturing video. I didn't look at the details of the software but I wonder if you can cut out like a 30° view of real interest out of the total width the camera sees. Their demo of the stabilization feature is pretty impressive. Certainly worth considering.

[scarecrow]

I use "i beam" vehicle safety system. With a front and rear mounted camera's. I like the pictures I and video I get.

[dpetrick]

I have used the Insta360Pro 2 and it does 360 degree video and stills. Would not want to try mounting it to a Spyder, it is too big. We are using it at the college I teach photography for.