GoPro Helmet HERO Wide-Angle video camera
by Hollis Easter, 28 August 2009
GoPro Helmet HERO Wide retail packaging (click for full-size image)
I first heard about GoPro’s line of small, tough video cameras a couple of years ago when I was finishing my basic flight training. I have a friend who owns a Stinson tail-dragger airplane, and he mentioned that he had a video camera that–get this–could be stuck onto the wing of his plane during flight.
My interest was piqued.
Fast forward to 2009, where I’m holding the GoPro Helmet HERO Wide ($189.99 US) in my hot little hands. It weighs in at 4.9 oz including my rechargeable batteries and SD card, and measures something approximating 2.75″ x 2.75″ x 1.75″. With a pair of AA batteries I can record about 2 hours of video, which will fill a pair of 2 GB SecureDigital (SD) memory cards. There are rumors of a firmware upgrade that will allow the use of larger memory cards, but I haven’t seen the upgrade yet.
Description:
GoPro’s design is, at its heart, pretty simple: take a small video camera, strip it to the bare-bones features that it really needs so it’ll be light and small, put a fisheye lens on it to make aiming easy, stick it inside a waterproof box, and then give the user a ton of ways to attach that waterproof box to, well, anything. And I have to say that they’ve implemented that design very well.
In terms of user interface, the Helmet HERO is a cinch: it’s got two buttons. The Power/Mode button is used to, you guessed it, turn the camera on and off and then set which shooting mode I’m in. I can set the camera to shoot video or still images, delete things from the memory card, and adjust settings. The Shutter button generally activates a choice I’ve made with the Power/Mode button.
The camera itself doesn’t look either waterproof or shockproof–it’s light, and the plastic will bend inward under pressure. There’s a slot for an SD card, a mini-USB port that uses a special cable to drive both a computer connection and a set of RCA-standard A/V outputs, and a battery compartment. Pretty simple.
The camera fits securely inside its waterproof housing; a white rubber gasket keeps out the aqua, and a camming clamp keeps the thing locked down tight. A pair of spring-loaded buttons allow me to use the Power/Mode and Shutter buttons while the camera’s in the case, and (big excitement here) the whole thing is waterproof to 100 feet. That’s waterproof as in “you can press the buttons, Hollis, even while it’s underwater”. I asked GoPro, and they confirmed this. Often things that claim to be waterproof are just water-resistant, but the seals are bypassed if you press the buttons while submerged.
We won’t talk about how many of my watches have died that way. So it goes.
Suction Cup Mount kit
Anyway, back to the Helmet HERO. The beauty of the case is that it can attach to any of GoPro’s variety of mounts. Two plastic fins extend off the base of the case, and these mate with three fins on each of the mounts, allowing a mortise-and-tenon style binding. I adjust tension with knurled thumbscrews, included, that go through the fins and lodge in a little steel nut. I’ve dropped the nuts a few times, which is frustrating, but it’s not a big deal.
So far, the mounts have held up beautifully: the screws hold the camera steadily in place but still allow me to position it by hand. I like it. GoPro includes a variety of mounts in the standard Helmet HERO kit, including a headband mount, a neat strap that mounts on a vented helmet, and a variety of stick-on mounts that use 3M adhesive tape. All of those mounts can use a quick-release fitting that slides from mount to mount, making the transition even faster.
Handlebar Seatpost Mount Kit
GoPro also sent me some other mounting options to play with: the Suction Cup Mount ($29.99 US), my current favorite, which allows you to stick the camera to just about any non-porous surface (like a car, airplane wing, kayak deck, side of a computer tower, etc.); the Handlebar Seatpost Mount ($19.99), which provides mounts for various tubes on a bicycle; and the Chest Mount Harness ($39.99), which provides an in-your-face view of the action from the wearer’s sternum. All of them work well, so far–look for updates to this review with more information about them.
GoPro also makes some standard-lens (not wide-angle) cameras, and I would love to try one to see how the videos differ. I suspect there are applications where wide-angle is great, and some where a more standard viewing angle would be better.
Experience so far:
Before I go too much further with description, I should probably just show you some of what the Helmet HERO can do. Here’s a video that I cobbled together from my first day paddling my new sea kayak:
Kayaking on the Raquette River
By and large, the camera is really simple to use. Aim it, turn it on, go play outdoors. A little red LED flashes on the front panel to show that the camera is recording; I can also look through the optical viewfinder and see a flashing LED. I mostly eyeball the aim settings, although I could probably make them more scientific if I chose. There were times when it was frustrating to be unable to review movies out in the field–but that’s not what this camera is for. I do wish the camera would have some louder way of telling me that it’s stopped recording (due to battery problems or whatever), since it’s easy to miss the absent red LED, especially in bright light.
Suction cup mount on my kayak (click for full-size image)
Working with video:
I’ve never had a video camera before, so I’ve had a bit of a learning curve here. I’m a Linux user at home, with access to a Windows Vista PC at home and a network of Macs at work. One thing caught my eye very quickly: GoPro’s camera is a USB Mass Storage device, which means it plays nicely with Linux! Hurrah for intelligent non-proprietary designs!
Windows Vista has been… challenging. Since I’m reviewing the camera, I’ll leave out the recitation of trials and tribulations, but suffice it to say that if you’re a Windows user you may want to buy some better movie software than Windows Movie Maker.
I haven’t worked with video on the Macs, so I can’t really comment on iMovie.
Since the camera is a USB Mass Storage device, it gets mounted just like an external hard drive. Copy the files from the drive and I’m done!
Editing:
Did I mention editing? It never really occurred to me how much editing is required to make videos that look decent. The kayak video above was edited from 35 minutes of footage down to 2.5 minutes of actual video. This will depend somewhat on the kind of activity you’re doing: things change slowly while kayaking on flat water, but more rapidly while biking or whatever. So your viewers may have different attention spans depending on your activity.
For an example of how boring an un-edited video can be, please examine my first YouTube video with the GoPro camera:
So you should plan to spend some time with your videos before regaling friends and neighbors with all the details of your sick outdoor adventures. Also note: video files are large, and you’ll want a fast computer and a big hard drive to work with them. If you’re planning on uploading videos to YouTube, be advised: YouTube videos must be shorter than ten minutes. Annoyingly, YouTube will let you upload the entire 800 MB file before telling you that it’s an hour too long.
Summary:
So far, I’m really happy with the Helmet HERO. GoPro’s customer service has been very responsive and has put up with my dozens of questions. I asked them about the motorboat-y sound on the kayak video, and they said it’s a normal sound given the small size of the camera. So: maybe not the best for really quiet activities, but not a huge deal.
The picture quality is pretty great, especially for a camera at this size and price point. I’ve found some video artifacting (notice the black blob in line with the lens flares on the bike video), and the camera doesn’t like low-light conditions (including some things you might not think of as “low-light”, but these are relatively minor.
I’m looking forward to having more fun outdoors with the GoPro Helmet HERO Wide video camera, and I hope you’ll check back to see some more videos!
– Hollis
