Best Action Sports Camera GoPro Hero2

12:17 AM    

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. Brent Rose from Gizmodo definitely noticed this when choosing the Hero2 as the best action camera: "In terms of image quality, the Hero 2 simply won out. It's about on par with the Contour in terms of sharpness, but when it comes to colors, the Hero simply dominates." 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.
What To Look Forward To:
Sony's got a serious contender in the action sports camera game, the HDR-AS10 and HDR-AS15. It has image stabilization, a carl zeiss lens, and up to 120fps for slow motion. It has a 60 meter housing and costs $200, or $280 with Wi-Fi, roughly $100 less than the GoPro Hero 2. It has straps for helmets, surfboards, etc. It hasn't been tested and won't be out until later this year in Europe only, but given Sony's image quality chops, it won't fail there. I wonder about its lowly 2mp image quality, lack of third party accessories (the GoPro has an entire cottage industry building it specialized mounts and cases). And, I worry a bit about its size (3x2x1 inches, but narrow when facing forward). But that price alone makes it worth consideration, after we see some tests. For now, we'll wait and see.

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, MicrophoneBattery:2.5 hours estimated

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
  6. Brent Rose, Gizmodo, The Best Action Camera, June 20 2011.