GoPro cameras

[OneSelfLost]

I saw a buddy of mine have his contour hd lens blown apart by a paintball.. Walked off the field with a hand full of parts. That looks like a pretty stellar setup you've got going on, I like it.

[dahoeb]

Here it is! Tested it and it works pretty well!

[dahoeb]

Good advice, Bow, I'll keep that in mind.

[bowcycle]

Paintball will be the main focus for it starting out, but I can definitely see it branching into other things, like family get-togethers, fishing trips, shooting at the range etc., and I think it's also something that my wife and kid would find a million uses for too.

We use my Ion a lot on family vacations and when rock climbing.

I found that if you take a ball cap with the grommets on the side and ziptie the camera to it facing bacwards (wear the cap backwards), it doesn't get any of the hat or your face in the shot. And with the adjustable cap, anyone in the family can wear it and still help keep the sun off your head and neck at the same time.

[dahoeb]

What are your intended uses for the camera outside of paintball? Like others have said, paintball footage can be hard to tell what's going on unless you're bunkering someone. When I bought my camera there weren't many viable competitors out, but I'd probably go GoPro again because their waterproof cases are rated to 197 feet and most of the competition is less than 30 ft.

I use mine for skiing, SCUBA diving, paintball, dirt bike, and kayaking videos. IMO there are better cameras suited to each of these respective uses but if you're only going to own one none works better than the GoPro.

Paintball will be the main focus for it starting out, but I can definitely see it branching into other things, like family get-togethers, fishing trips, shooting at the range etc., and I think it's also something that my wife and kid would find a million uses for too.

[paint magnet]

I have the original GoPro Hero HD. It's clunky but the video is still excellent quality for what I do. The main pluses of that platform are the availability of cases and mounts; if you have the current edition then every surf/skate/paintball/motorcycle/outfitters/gear shop will have mounts and accessories for it. A friend of mine broke the mount for his JVC helmet cam on a motorcycle ride last year and we stopped about four places looking for one...every store sold GoPro stuff but nothing for his camera.

What are your intended uses for the camera outside of paintball? Like others have said, paintball footage can be hard to tell what's going on unless you're bunkering someone. When I bought my camera there weren't many viable competitors out, but I'd probably go GoPro again because their waterproof cases are rated to 197 feet and most of the competition is less than 30 ft.

I use mine for skiing, SCUBA diving, paintball, dirt bike, and kayaking videos. IMO there are better cameras suited to each of these respective uses but if you're only going to own one none works better than the GoPro.

[bowcycle]

look forward to seeing it

[dahoeb]

I ended up going with a used Sony Action Cam Mini. I saw some youtube examples and the video looked great. Another nice advantage is that you can adjust the image to reduce the "fish eye" affect that makes nearby things appear far away....that should help me see targets a bit better.

I had a mount constructed specifically for the Grillz in a 3D printer, it's pretty cool. I'll post a pic when it all gets in.

[Rambo]

From watching youtube videos I feel like the best way to do it is to have a camera on your gun and a camera on your forehead, normally the forehead camera is preodominant, but when you get into a static firefight, you can switch views to the gun cam and kinda slow mo it down when you get hits.

This is expensive and also requires a lot of annoying editing though.

[PaintballSmurf13]

I have a GoPro Session (which can be picked up for only $200)
with an Inception Designs barrel mount and it's actually amazing.
I have it set to 1080p Wide View so that you can see everything clearly. Considering the relatively small investment, I'm extremely happy with it.
When mounted, I don't notice it on my gun at all during the game. It doesn't obstruct my field of view whatsoever. The audio is clear and you can see the stream of paint out of the barrel.

I haven't mounted it yet to my head yet, but I've seen a lot of people mount it to their forehead with a GoPro brand head strap, so the camera sits just above the lenses.

I'd strongly recommend going with a company like GoPro just because of the immense support you get and the endless supply of mounts and features that you can utilize outside of paintball.

Hope this helps, good luck with whichever option you take.

[Justus]

I use a ContourHD1080 (original version I think, way before all the ROAM business) and record in 720p 60fps mostly. I mount it to a V-Force Grill mask too. I can put the visor on, but if I do you can see it in the videos. It doesn't block a lot, but it's noticeable. So I just run the mask with the visor off.

I used some small machine screws and nuts and just hardware-mounted the thing to the right side lens clip. It holds as steady as you have your mask on your face - not much in the way of wobble at all. You can get extra/replacement lens clips for pretty cheap too, so it doesn't have to be a permanent modification.

Here's a few videos I made with that setup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmFVl5CdKbo (shows running at the end with a little wobble)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAQhm_aGXKU (shows some editing for dialogue and fast-forwarding)

EDIT: I'm not sure if YouTube supports uploading at 60fps now or not, but it certainly didn't back when those videos were first uploaded. So shooting in 30fps may make more sense if your primary purpose is to upload to the interwebs (and why not?)

[bowcycle]

I need to apologize for the Tippmann. I used my mag for most of the week, but switched to the tippmann for saturday in order to put it through its paces. I wanted to see how I felt about a dedicated FSR marker and then see how it worked with a hopper pouring paint.

Also, if anyone likes playing scenario games with a very hard-charging group that doesn't get involved in the politics, but just goes out to slay bodies, hook up with the MEK at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1058MEK/

[BLachance75]

I was using an Ion Air as well and I really liked the big record slider. It was really easy to tell if you were recording or not by just feeling where the switch was. I had the mount zip tied to my mask and used one of the 90* bends so I could adjust the angle easily.

[bowcycle]

As mentioned before, I just ended up ziptie-ing my Ion air to the side of my mask. A friend told me to angle it up just a bit and that made a huge difference. Most vids you see do not give you a good view of the field. That's because most of us tend to tilt our heads down a bit when playing. So if you tilt your camera up, it compensates and gives you good vids.

This is a highlights vid from our unit at OK D-Day this year. When there's a green mask in the vid (like the first clip), that's my Ion air. The guy with a trilogy cocker is using a newer contour. The rest are various versions of gopros.

[Nobody]

There are benefits and hiderences to any camera and mounting system. So to a point, what works for one, might not be the best fit for you. I would play around with a few ways to find what works for you. It goes from guns, masks, barrels or cameras and where they mount.