GoPro camera
Tisdale - Sunday, November 4, 2012
Video by: Matthew Shire
images from: CBC The Rick Mercer Report
The GoPro Hero is the most popular and widely used camera in this rapidly growing market of HD personal point of view video cameras. All of its competitors are essentially copies of the GoPro emulating its durability and features.
In the spring Matthew and I were talking about the camera and he had decided to buy one. I asked his older brother who is in the movie and video making business what he thought about it and he was less than enthusiastic. He said it was a consumer product and brushed off my inquiries. Then when I pressed him further he said they had three of them at his video support company that they rented to movie companies when they needed a camera for those special shots and where the camera might be damaged.
From the image at the top of the page you can get an idea of how small this camera is. It is little more than the size of two wood matchbox boxes and is used in a weather proof clear plastic case. In the first image you can see both Rick Mercer and NDP leader Thomas Montclair have one in their protective cases attached to their hard hats. There is an underwater version of this case and the accessories include time lapse and remote control operation with a huge number of mounts for using the camera on everything from surf boards to roller coasters.
The camera shots video that is indistinguishable from CBC’s outdoor cameras and works with WiFi and can be controlled with an iPhone, iPad or it remote control device. The video is recorded to regular camera memory SD cards and can be edited on an iPhone, iPad, Mac or PC computer.
Below is a video that Matthew created on Thanks giving day at a farm eight miles north of Gravelbourg. Because the camera is an extremely wide angle its video gives the illusion of extremely high speed movement.