This one one of my Christmas presents and I have been playing with it now for a few days and have tried out most of the features. I know several others here have been considering this camera so I thought I would pass on my initial thoughts. There are probably a lot more technical reviews out there but this is from the boating/fishing standpoint.

This is not a family video camera. This is intended to attach to something and capture high quality video where normally you would never take your video camera because it would be trashed. I bought this mainly to attach as a cockpit cam for the boat.

1) The camera is really small, fits in the palm of you hand and is like a big ice cube. It actually looks a little cheap like a kids toy. But it is a solid little compact thing. No moving parts to speak of except a couple buttons.

2)The case is very rugged and waterproof to about 200'. It has a removable back door that allows one to put a "skeleton door on to get better sound in non waterproof operations. There are lots of ways to attach this to people /vehicles/stuff

3)It is a bare bones video box. No screen (one is available as an option but it is not waterproof then)

4) It has a 170 degree field of view. You get a little fish-eye effect at the edges but it is really wide. Personally I think it is not quite 170 but pretty close.

5)It has various modes, still, video, sequential shots, timed, etc. All very useful. The storage is an SD drive. In its highest HD mode this will dump a lot of data to the card so get the largest card you can ...32GB is what I would recommend. Mine came with a 8 GB and I filled that 1/2 up in about 20 mins of video. It has a HDMI video out as well as non-HD video out.

6) The quality of the video is outstanding. It is remarkable actually the kind of video you can get out of this little cube. It has no zoom no fancy lens but for what it is it does a great job. IMO that is the weakest element of the camera, the fixed lens..it is fine for most remote mounted applications but it would be nice to have some optical controls or settings.


7)I think it will work out well and stand up to the outside elements just fine. The biggest annoyances is the distortions due to the spherical window along the edges, straight on is fine. But that is compensated by the fact you can dunk this or bang it without getting trashed.

They are making a remote pack that would allow control of the camera remotely (wireless) as well as a wireless HD video feed to a ipad or cell phone. This will be a nice addition as you can turn it on/off and watch the feed remotely.

For the money ($200-300) it is a cool gadget for the outdoorsman.


Again I plan to have a couple fixed mounts on the top of the cabin looking out to the cockpit and out forward. Also I plan to attach it to a cement block and drop it down to the bottom of buzzards bay and watch video of tog stealing my bait in HD slow motion. (Maybe I can learn something)


This camera will be causing me to buy a several terabyte hard drive just to store videos, it will overwhelm my desktop pretty soon otherwise.

I joined the club. Have had only limited play time and haven't even really taken a video. I did put in order(s) for a few accessories:

1. the orange floaty ($15) to keep it on the surface when accidentally dropped overboard.
2. miniHDMI cable ($14) so it can be plugged in directly to an HDMI TV for viewing
3. a tripod mount adapter ($6), needed to attach to #4
4. a Quikpod QPAK-COMPOD extension pole ($18) which extends out 38.5" (maybe get some interesting underwater fish videos as we get the fish near the boat)

I don't plan on attaching mine to a brick and dropping in Buzz Bay but would be interested in volunteers to scuba/snorkel with the camera attached....no flood light kit so natural lighting a must.

Can't wait to have some time to PLAY!

Damn: didn't even think about Terabyte drives for storage but I have a couple to start with. Should be some good deals....

"4) It has a 170 degree field of view. You get a little fish-eye effect at the edges but it is really wide. Personally I think it is not quite 170 but pretty close."

It actually has 3 viewing modes, the 170d is the widest but I think narrowest is 110d which should help with the lens/housing distortion.

Camera also takes still shot in a variety of methods: 11M, 8M, 5M; individual, rapid-fire at various time intervals 0.5 to several mins(?), shutter delay etc.

Make sure to update the FIRMWARE and install GoPro's CineForm for movie editing. The CineForm will auto check the firmware update. All available from gopro website.

Been thinking about one myself. Jim or Buzz, can this be activated from a distance, say by a fisherrman on the rocks below while the camera is on a bike on the canal access road, so that it will film someone landing a fish below on the rocks?

They are making a wireless backpack that will allow a remote to control it from up to 50' (avail in feb). I would suggest you put it on your head ala skinners' video to record that. I think with the fixed lens details will be lost in the distance.


BTW I played around with the software Buzz mentioned yesterday. Seems like it is missing a lot of editing features.They have lots of color and zoom/pan and frame rate controls but I could not figure out how to speed up a section of the boring part of my video and then slow it down when the good stuff appears.
That software appears to be needed for 3D conversion.(no plans for 3d yet) I used it to make a clip and when it was done the clip was larger in size than the original...I have not figured that out yet. Still have not updated the firmware yet but glad they have a resource to keep it current, if for anything else this is useful. I have found that many of my devices (esp GPS devices) have greatly benefited from a software or firmware upgrade.If you have never updated your boats GPS or even hand held, you should do it.
I think if you have adobe's stuff it would be more useful. I have not tried it yet but I have CS3 or 4 (back from my calendar days) and I should dust that off and see how it works with mp4's.

I just got one as well for snowboarding and fishing.

What are you guys using for an editing tool? I downloaded AVS editing but found it a little difficult to use. What are you guys using?

I have used and like Windows Movie Maker to edit movies. Comes bundled in Win7/Vista

I was going to try that next...movie maker, i used it a few times before it was pretty simple.
Not enough time in the day to do all this stuff!

1st Underwater test. I'm actually impressed with the brightness since it was 4PM on a cloudy day Dec31 in a black vinyl pool. Also impressed with the depth of focus, these fish were inches from the lens. video took in 1080p, edited with Windows Movie Maker, movie is 1'25" and file size 224Mb in HD.

Goldfishtest.mp4 video by PRBuzz - Photobucket (http://s772.photobucket.com/albums/yy10/PRBuzz/?action=view&current=Goldfishtest.mp4)

with windows movie maker are you converting the MP4 files? I heard it doesnt use MP4 files?

Yes the MP4 was input and edited no problem

It seems painfully slow....I am loading a 2.5GB file and it dogs the machine down just loading it. I probably need a new machine I guess...XPS 2.4 GHz dual core with 6 GB just does not cut it anymore.

Need an 8 core 32 GM machine all amped up.


Actually after it "digested" it, it seemed OK...I was a little difficult "preparing" it.

nevermind...got it figured out. pg 33 duh!

Vegas Movie Studio HD 11 Overview (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiohd)

Easy to use, easy to edit in, easy to add to.

I worked for the company Sony bought and they left most of the features in that we developed.

Anyone else find the battery on this thing doesnt last long at all.? I used it for about 3 runs on saturday and it was dead. I have the original Hero.

It gets pretty hot in that case too. I swiched over to the skeleton back door and it was still pretty warm. If you have that door on there is a lot of wind noise.

My battery life seems to be pretty much what it says in the manual for me. I definitely see the need of the extra batter pack and charger for days on the water where you are turning it on/off all day.
This is really made for shorter video clips not long videos. Managing these mega files will be challenging. It is still cool though.

It gets pretty hot in that case too. I swiched over to the skeleton back door and it was still pretty warm. If you have that door on there is a lot of wind noise.

My battery life seems to be pretty much what it says in the manual for me. I definitely see the need of the extra batter pack and charger for days on the water where you are turning it on/off all day.
This is really made for shorter video clips not long videos. Managing these mega files will be challenging. It is still cool though.

Air temp will shorten battery life, keep them warm when not in use.

I got a battery charger AC/DC (handy for home/car/boat) and 2 batteries off Amazon for <$25.

I also picked up the LCD back screen. Comes with 4 new case back plates! Seems useful for trial runs to see if everything OK and easier reading/adjusting of the camera settings. Has its own on/off switch so minimal impact on battery life.

Maybe the temp is what did it in. Its was about 3 degrees at the summit. Ill def go out and get the extra batterys.

I am going to be consumed!!

TrollPro ® - Troll Pro Underwater Trolling Housing for the Go Pro? HD Video Camera (http://trollpro.com/)

Tuna & a white marlin attacking the dredge on the PUMPIN HARD - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRvybj6bCHM)