GoPro

Jason Stine

Jason Stine

Administrator
Staff member
Hey guys -

Looking for a bit of advice here... For those of you running GoPro's on the rollbar of a roaster, what case and rollbar mount are you using? Does the standard case that's included in the box work fine with the wind noise and potential debris shattering it?

Also, how many GB of video data do you typically shoot in a race weekend? Trying to gauge what size SD card to buy too...

Thanks in advance,
Jason
 
i use the case and roll bar mount...no issues. i throw one of the desacant strips in there to keep fogging down. Just buy the biggest it can take...i use a 64gb...

aaron
 
Jason,

Buy the biggest card you can find or afford. The camera will get left on accidentally. Something unexpected will happen and you'll sit on grid for half an hour. It's always something.

Sorry to pile on to your post but I would like to add a question. What mode is the best to shoot in on the GoPro? I have not tried them all but have not found one yet that I really like. Forgot what I am shooting in now but everything seems farther away than it really is.
 
I found that vibration damping mounts didn't work. In fact they made things worse.

The more rigid, the better. The roll bar mounts that goPro sells are crap in a real race car (maybe they work in a street car). I even found that the plastic goPro housing was too flexy for our use after I replaced the mount, but not the case.

Here is what I came up with. It's hard to see in the pic, but there is a 1.5" mcMaster shaft collar with a flat milled onto it and drilled and tapped 1/4-20. Then a piece of 1" .125 angle iron forms the mount. This setup allows you to adjust in all axis and costs next to nothing.

Here is the aluminum case I used (note, this case fits the 3 - no clue on the 4).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Metal-Aluminium ... 25a20de8d4

Before: https://youtu.be/GDV8XSJFBg0
After: https://youtu.be/HjTzMlscEn0

With an open car, you may have to figure out wind noise. But I'd bet that a piece of electrical tape over the mic will solve the problem. Of course rain water will be an issue with this case also. The case has a provision for a screw on filter, and I would very much recommend getting a neutral filter for an open car, just to protect the lens.

I find each majors length race results in a file about 4-6 gig when recording in 1080p.

-Kyle
 
Use a hard mount similar to the picture on one car and a Adel clamp with a longer retaining bolt and the provided mount on the other. Hang both cameras under the rear roll bar tube, turning the picture up side down using the menu. Not a problem with either mount. Have an aftermarket remote button and indicator light that I wish I had more of but the builder quit building them. It's a wire system that plugs into the back of the camera. Put a slot in the clear case to get it through. If anyone finds one of these please give a shout. With the camera set on "auto on" the driver pushes the button to start and pushes the button to stop. Simplest thing on the whole car!

Bob
 
The newer GoPros that have WiFi also have Wifi remotes and there's also a phone app that you can control them. If you have a crew, the phone app rocks. If you don't have a crew, the WiFi remote is great.. It will control multiple cameras, but I've had a hard time getting both of mine to sync to the remote consistently. I'm not sure if that's user or equipment though so I can't complain about it.

I buy the biggest SD cards that are on sale. 32 or 64GB and they last the whole weekend without having to clean and reformat. Each race is in the 6-8-10GB range recording at the lowest resolution on the Hero 3+ Black or whatever it is I won at the NOLA majors a while back. That resolution is more than good enough and results in monstrous file sizes which take a long time to process.. My older Hero 3 has some lower res settings that are still plenty clear but use about 1/2 the memory. much faster to process too.

As for the case and mounts, I have the standard plastic roll bar mounts and case. They work just fine in both my 240 and RX7, but one of the cases buzzes a little bit at certain RPM- video is stable, but the audio is ugly. I just need to add a bit thicker foam padding or a piece of felt or something to remedy the noise.
 
if you use the wifi and harry's lap timer on your iphone the camera will start recording automatically when you cross start finish the first time.
 
Be careful with the standard GoPro plastic roll bar mount. My brand new camera (wife got it for me for Xmas) was lost at VIR last October because the mount broke and stupid me didn't put a tether on it :cry:. The new camera has a tether which is simple braided fishing line. Position the camera so it's in the interior of the car as low as possible to keep it out of the wind stream in an open car and not outside of it in case the mount breaks even with the tether. Sound is good and vibration is nearly non- existent.
 
I have two problems with my GoPro Hero 3 (mounted inside my GT6 coupe)- sound quality is mostly a droning din with a hint of exhaust and occasional loud mechanical clank/grinds from track pick up or the trans :( I'd like to hear more of the engine.

The other is uploading to Youtube - even an edited race that is not much longer than 10-12 minutes that is over 3gb, takes hours! One I'm uploading now is only 20% after 3 hours or more…

I guess my internet provider (at&t) upload rate really sucks!

Clark
 
Also when you're processing the video, you can dumb it down a bit to make it upload faster. if I'm tossing it on the internet for others to 'enjoy', then I'm not worried about super high def. I re-mix the video down to something moderate and then upload when I'm at work when I have a pretty beefy connection. (I work for a communications provider, so there's that... ;) )
 
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