Last Christmas, Santa brought Gascan and I a cool new toy: a GoPro RC Hero waterproof video camera. It's a compact, lightweight digital video camera in a bulletproof Lexan box, that is pressure-rated to 30m/100f. Most important of all, it's got a wide-angle 170-degree field of view, so that in a short-range brawl, you can actually see ships instead of a full screen of somebody's shot-ridden hull. It includes a number of quick-release mounts that are great for turret-top mounting on Big Gun battleships, and can record an hour of video on a 2gb SD card. Since getting the RC Hero, Gascan and I have used it in three battles. Here is what we filmed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j915nYKJ8Ts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mqPnhHbe1s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehkb_9VBxeg The good: The camera does a great job recording action from a first person perspective. The wide-angle feature makes for a better view than any other onboard camera I've tried, and the video quality is simply amazing. I use a 4-gb SD card with mine, which gives me enough time to film all of a day's battle plus some wreck-diving. Its large lens makes it much more resistant to splashes. Previous cameras could get half or more of their view blocked by a single drop of water, but as you've seen from my youtube films, it takes a lot more than that with the RC Hero. The waterproof case works great. It easily survived a dunking at 8 feet, and I expect it to survive many more. The bad: The RC Hero, despite being a very compact and lightweight device, still requires a large, stable ship for mounting. I ran one experiment with it aboard a Lutzow's forward turret, and got seasick watching the footage. As a general rule of thumb, don't put it on any vessel under 20,000 tons. One other downside is the sound. Because it needs to be waterproof, the RC Hero doesn't record sound very well. Not much motor noise, not much pump sound, no servos, and only a little of the bang. Underwater it is better, but still not what I'd call satisfactory. The ugly: The nice part about the RC Hero is its large lens and wide-angle view. The corollary to that is that, being a large target, the lens is more likely to get shot. What they don't tell you on the website is that the lens, unlike the case, is glass. In the last battle, our camera's lens got hit and shattered. The camera itself was fine, and I've already ordered several replacement lenses (they are fairly cheap, and very easy to replace at 2 for $20). Still, I do plan to build a protective covering for my lens in the future. I am also discussing "camera boat privilege" with my local club, to allow me to pull my boat to remove the camera in case the lens gets damaged or the camera start to come loose. Overall: I absolutely love this camera. Still, the glass lens is an issue, so I can only rate the RC Hero four-point-nine stars out of five. It's great, but it isn't one of those must-have items like batteries, bilge pumps,and bbs.
Wow. HD in a package that small. I wonder if I can fit 3 in the Moose for next Nats. Add some HD footage to Bob's movies!!
Do you have any pictures of that cover? I'd much rather have a cover on the outside cracked, than let the watertight integrity be compromised when the glass breaks.
He also used a water bottle over the top of it. The cut off the top and a hole on the side to slide over it. It was cool.
I just came back from the IRCWCC NATS with my GO PRO HERO Surfboard Camera. I recorded 11 sorties as one of them I pulled out because I thought I was having radio issues in the 2nd sortie. I seen the vids so far mounted on the boats but though it's great it still has a limited view from the deck or directly from on the boat. However my mounting system gave it a better overall view of the battle from having it mounted 13 inches up off and away from teh deck at an angle that allows a birds eye view. What you get is this.. : Ships approaching aft on both quarters, or midships or forward up to the camera mount base as far back as the eye can see. BB splashes and any sound beyond the ship can be heard. : Impact shots both from the model sidemounts stern sidemount and stern can be seen. Belows can be seen. : Deck and Superstructure detail can be seen being shot off and landing wherever. irection can be observed clearly. Wash from props in reverse and forward and speed can be seen. : Rams and the effect clearly seen. The camera shakes as if your watching a scene from the bridge of ship being hit. Camera shudders and records without losing the scene. : Sound: Not sure how you have your sound setup but I got the sound from my engine. Other ships cannons , bbs impacting my hull and vice versa and the sound of my cannons and pump activating. Also sounds from the shoreline or in pit area when teh camera was on. : Go Pro Safety. No bb touched the camera. Pump sprays did wash over the camera but ran off no problem. Camara perfored well in the heavy rain as well. The system I have I can mount another camera back on the stern or quarter deck and mount 1 0r mount a platform holding 2 or more of these cameras to cover any angle. The mount is very very strong but superlight. Because it has hollows built into it ,it has very little topweight. Cameras need a platform that is stable midships and wide. Narrow ships won't work well with this mount system at 13 inches but the mount can be chopped to make it work at half the height. I may mount another camera at the stern and have both a bow and stern camera to record the action next time. Bismarck is a great platform for this. Yamato or a Roma would also work as well. Anything with a fat beam and squats nicely with room on the forcastle or quarter will work . I sent a DVD unedited copy of the Go Pro Vid to Fred Elwell for editing and music additions or he may just leave as is with the sound. Fred will make copies and hope to post them to Youtube for viewing. The camera's sound can be adjusted so that it will recorded the sound at a higher level. Mine is set to high as it is up off the model more than a foot. I was quite surprised at the sound quality. Curt
I have been using this camera for some time It even spent a week on the bottom when my boat sank in 15 feet of water no issues, had it at spring regionals also, lots of fun http://ontarioattackforce.multiply.com/video/item/14/Sp_Rg_5_Tirpitz_Boat_and_battle_cam_with_sink.flv http://ontarioattackforce.multiply.com/video/item/4/The_Bismark_Sinking_June_2009_Short.wmv http://ontarioattackforce.multiply.com/video/item/5/Bismark_Battle_and_sink_June_2009.wmv yes it is BB-prof
The Go Pro Hero comes in a WP housing, this housing is BB proof and water proof to 100 feet, so I just put on one of the helmet clip mounts, and use elastic bands around the hull or turret to secure the camera to the boat, and ty a float to the camera base just in case it were ever to fall off, but works great, and so small does not change how your boat works, so a win win. this is camera and housing in my hand:
Every time I see this title, I think of Guitar Hero, and imagine someone with a battleship holding it like a guitar. =]
Bryan, the case is BB-proof. Unfortunately, as Carl mentioned in his review, the lens cover is not. Ours got shot last month and shattered. It's not too expensive to replace, just annoying. That's an amusing image, Keri. When I first heard the name of the camera, I thought of a RC Superman flying high in the sky...
Typically I mount the Camera above my "C" turret on Bismark or on the bow facing back toward the super structure, most guns have been firing well below these marks but i understand what your saying, how much was the replacement cover? Maybe i should consider keeping a spare with me.
