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This Is the Sports Camera You Want

GoPro Hero2

  • 2011-10-28
  • Brian Lam
  • Cameras

The world of sport cams comes down to two major companies: GoPro and Contour.

Let me start out with a story, and then we can talk details. I have a friend who does a TV show for a living. He blows up a lot of stuff and films it, basically. He uses the GoPro because of its broadcast-level image quality. Watch:

OK, that's a video by pros, who are capable of making almost any piece of gear look good. Let's keep going with the testimonial. Cyrus Sutton, one of the best surf film directors of this generation, a friend of mine, thinks the GoPro Hero2 is the best consumer sports camera around these days. "GoPro hasn't released their data stream rates on the video but the original Hero already blew away the competition in terms of its mbps data rate and lack of jello frame in shaky conditions."

The GoPro Hero2 that just went on sale improves on that quality in terms of color, choices of resolution and frame rates. It is also the first sports camera that can catch 1080p at 170 degrees of vision, and at 848×480 pixels can catch 120 frames per second, which is useful for slow motion. It's also better in low light. All while using the same accessories and mounts as the first generation HD camera.

That means you can use the LCD back, the 3D kit (which needs a second camera), battery extension pack, the varying mounts for surfboards, chests, suction cups for cars, rollcage mounts, handlebar mounts, and on and on and on. Pretty soon you'll be able to use the Wi-Fi back to broadcast to laptops, tablets and nearby 3g/4g hotspots for live broadcasts, remote control and monitoring. (There's even a remote control dongle and smartphone app coming in a few months.) Unlike other sports cameras, it comes with a hard case that protects the camera and waterproofs it to 180 feet.

I personally have used the GoPro cameras for a few years and am glad to see the little black and white LCD display gain more detail because the old screens used to be a little cryptic. The camera also gets an HDMI out port, an input for external microphones, and a built-in battery warmer that helps extend battery life in cold weather.

Let's talk about the contour. There's a low end model that is 1080p, and then a middle of the road model that adds GPS and a bluetooth video monitor that you can watch using an Apple or Android smartphone with an extra adapter. The top of the line camera includes that adapter. All of these cameras are narrow so they work well on helmets. The mid line camera is comparable to the GoPro Hero2 in price at $300.

But bells and whistles are one thing. Brent Rose from Gizmodo did this side by side video, which shows the new GoPro as the best in color and motion handling and low light conditions by a mere mortal.

And isn't getting the shot to look good the bottom line on these things? I say, yes.

 

 

Best Sources

  1. GoPro Hero2
  2. Brent Rose, Gizmodo, "A bit early to say, but I'd lean toward the Hero 2 at this point."
  3. Brent Rose, Gizmodo, GoPro Hero 2 Lightning Review: Best Sports Cam Ever?, October 24 2011. "Bottom line: this thing is killer. While I still want to do some more testing to be sure, if I had to pick one from all the sports cams currently on the market, I'd grab this one. The images it takes are great. It's not just HD-sized, it actually looks HD. I like theContour ROAM a lot, but the Hero 2 has more options and the image quality simply wins. "
  4. Cyrus Sutton, Korduroy.tv, GoPro Hero2 Gear Preview , October 24 2011. "Questions and Room For Improvement: As mentioned earlier there is no 60fps at 1080p and the 120 fps is at Standard Def. Also the small censor size still requires plenty of light to perform its duty without considerable grain. There is a noticeably higher amount of saturation which looks nice but ultimately doesn’t matter if are in the habit of adjusting your colors in post. Perhaps the biggest question remaining about the new Hero is its Megabyte per Second Data Rate. An often overlook specification, this is perhaps the most important aspect of a camera’s potential performance. The reason the Go Pro has kicked the crap out of its POV competitors is because of its relatively high “mbps” data rate. At a lower “mbps” rate footage starts to break apart into mosaic patterns with rapid changes to the scene (as is common in outdoor and high action situations). The Go Pro’s relatively clean image at slow motion compared to other POV cameras, yet more much pixelated images when compared to a DSLR can be attributed to its middle of the road mbps processing.  It’s interesting that Go Pro didn’t include these figures in its tech specs like it has for all previous cameras. Could it be because they are not “2X More Powerful?” We’ll see.."
  5. Contour Cameras
  • Jeff

    The old aphorism about the weather: "If you don't like the weather just wait 5 minutes." seem to be true with gadgets as well. The cameras from GoPro have been the choice for several years. The GoPro line is great for rugged sports like skiing, etc. But for those getting into the water consider the Nikon COOLPIX AW100. It's a 16megapixel camera with full HD and a built-in GPS, waterproof to 10 meters. List $380

    www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Compact-Digital-Cameras/26293/COOLPIX-AW100.html

  • www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1353520545 Russell Frost

    I've used the ContourHD for the last two years.  I just sold it and bought a GoPro Hero2.  Why?  The lack of a screen on the Contour meant I lost shots or had badly lined up shots.  The lack of a clear and easily visible means of being sure the camera was recording meant I lost shots.  The Contour is the preferable format, being small and tubular but it's not as well constructed as you might think.  The back of the Contour is flimsy.  The Contour's low light performance was abysmal.

    So I'm looking forward to using the Hero2.  It seems like a more sensible, usable system.

  • synchrom.myopenid.com/ SynchroM

    I'm not sure what you're on about. The Hero2 doesn't have a screen either, though you can attach one, but then you can't see it when it's on your head anyway. The lasers on the Contour work brilliantly for rotation and direction, and gopro has no equivalent of that. The fiddly GoPro controls are impossible to use with gloves on, and the helmet mount seems specially designed to smash your camera on every chairlift!

    Contour's controls are trivially easy to use without even looking, it makes loud, clear beeps on starting and stopping recording, has LEDs front and back indicating when it's recording or not, plus you can feel the slider position even with gloves on. I often start and stop my camera while skiing or biking, without stopping. I've no idea why you found this problematic.From what I've seen, GoPro's cameras do indeed have superior video quality (I've not seen the output from the newer Contour+ which makes similar claims to the Hero2). My main complaint about my contour's quality would be more about dynamic range than plain IQ.I agree about the rear door/flap on the Contour not being great, but the main body has proven extremely robust during many unexpected dramatic encounters with rocks, trees, mud, rain and snow.Neither camera has optical stabilisation, which would be high on my wish list.What I really want is GoPro's internals with Contour's form-factor, ease of use and mounting system.

    As Jeff suggests, there are cameras coming from a different direction that are quite usable for skiing & biking, especially if a chest-mount is acceptable, such as the Olympus mju Tough 8000 which will generally have vastly better optics than either Contour or GoPro.

  • Anonymous

    hope they do a small 3d version soon that doesnt need two of them side by side.

Key Specs

Video Resolution: 1080p/30 at 170, 127 and 90 degrees field of vision; 1280x960/48/30 at 170 degrees field of vision; 1280x720/60/30 at 170, 127, and 90 degrees field of vision; 848x480/120/60 at 170 and 127 degrees field of vision.
Ports: Mini-HDMI, Composite, USB, SD, Expansion port, Microphone
Battery: 2.5 hours estimated

Approximate Price
$300
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