GoPro Hero 3 camera on the Bennington

TomS

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I recently bought a GoPro Hero 3 waterproof camera to use for various sports - boating, cycling, kayaking, etc. I'm just learning about it but I thought maybe some of you would be interested in how it works with a boat. The camera itself is very tiny, clamped inside the clear plastic case. Most often it is attached to the person in motion as it is wearable - a wakeboarder's helmet, skier, tuber, etc. I chose to start out by attaching it to the ski pylon with a 3/4" RAM roll bar mounting. It works great that way! I've used it to video tubers to the rear and just the boat in motion to the front as shown in demo videos below. The ball mount makes it easy to point it wherever you want. I also have a super suction cup RAM mount for the kayak which works great as long as the surface is smooth. Probably the hottest use of GoPro's right now is in personal drones - small and light quadcopters such as the DJI Phantom, which works nicely as long as you don't fly it into the water.









I also published videos for the first time on Vimeo so these are something of a test for me, about 1 minute each in 720p HD. The first is just an acceleration run to about 40mph. As you can tell, my new puppy was less than impressed with this exercise when I trimmed the motor up at 00:33, but he's getting the hang of it now. If I accelerate too quickly he slides on the Seagrass to the back, so I went easy on him.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/73948755If you have any questions about the GoPro I'll try to answer them. So far, good fun!
 
Thanks for sharing,,,,,I use one almost every day during the Winter....
 
Very cool. Our dealer started selling them earlier this year. They have become very popular.
 
Very cool. Our dealer started selling them earlier this year. They have become very popular.
Yes I actually bought mine at my dealer too and I even got a discount not available on Amazon!
 
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Great videos Tom! I'm dying to get one of those and start making some videos!
 
Very Cool Tom, thanks for posting
 
Very nice Tom! My daughter just bought one before her trip to Hawaii................. She has super HD video of her and her cousins surfing on the North Shore w/it attached to her board and of it attached to her helmet skydiving from 12000 ft.................. Haven't "borrowed" it for the boat yet but I'm sure I will....................
 
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I've been nagging the wife for a couple boats now to get one! Haha yup, since our 2 toon back in 2010! I wanted to video the water under the boat, she could care less. Now I realized a new strategy and said, "just think we could mount it to the tower, and if we got the "black" version, it has a little remote, I could just turn it on all the time when people were being towed." her response.......Well why didn't you say that in the first place!! Guess i know what I'm getting for Christmas!! Haha
 
I've been nagging the wife for a couple boats now to get one! Haha yup, since our 2 toon back in 2010! I wanted to video the water under the boat, she could care less. Now I realized a new strategy and said, "just think we could mount it to the tower, and if we got the "black" version, it has a little remote, I could just turn it on all the time when people were being towed." her response.......Well why didn't you say that in the first place!! Guess i know what I'm getting for Christmas!! Haha
Yes I've done that. A couple of things to note though. There is no zoom function so it is what it is, nice wide angle. The remote works on a local wifi network, and there are apps for iphone, ipad, android, etc. which include live screen preview, so I don't even use the GoPro remote. Wifi also sucks down the battery big time, like double the normal rate. It's easy enough to get extra batteries, but changing them on the water is a little risky.
 
Not hijacking here, but if you are on a limited budget, you might check these out too. I have an earlier version, and it works great.

Kodak is still surviving ... almost died, but is making a comeback. I am glad, because as a kid, I grew up with Kodaks ........

http://kodakcamera.j...iveCam/spz1.php
 
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We did use one of that style before, I can't remember if it was Kodak or not, but we had bought it for my dad and took it out. I took video under the deck with it. It also had a little wrist strap that was attached to it, so I hooked it on to my fishing Rod leader and dropped it in the water when we weren't moving, it was pretty neat.

As for the wifi, I guess I'll just have to get up and hit record the old fashioned way! I like that you can add the little lcd screen to it as well.
 
Tom...........Forgot to tell you in my earlier post.............love that electric bimini! Nice feature!
 
Tom...........Forgot to tell you in my earlier post.............love that electric bimini! Nice feature!
Thanks, we really like it for getting in and out of the lift. For 2014 it has curved uprights too, very classy!
 
Not hijacking here, but if you are on a limited budget, you might check these out too. I have an earlier version, and it works great.

Kodak is still surviving ... almost died, but is making a comeback. I am glad, because as a kid, I grew up with Kodaks ........

http://kodakcamera.j...iveCam/spz1.php
Kodak is coming out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and are out of the camera and film business. They sold many of their patents and now concentrate on high speed inkjet printing for publishing houses. They have gone from 145000 employees to 9000.
 
Yeah they have a licensed agreement with another company to produce cameras under their name. Still backed by Kodak, just built and marketed by another company. Kind of like Dodge being "owned" by Fiat ..... If I remember correctly.
 
Great videos. Just an FYI to everyone. Get the float attachment for the camera. I didn't. And when I was thrown off the tube, well, I'm sure it made a great video of descending to the bottom of the lake!
 
Good tip Tom!!!! Definitely will add that to "Santa's Wish List"!!!
 
Just another FYI if you do get the float for your camera, depending on what you are using for mounts, and if the mounts come off with the camera it will still sink. I always tie a parachute cord to mine for extra security.
 
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