Please teach me about the current status of GoPros and knockoffs

On our race team we had one guy who took care of all of our camera and radio stuff.  He is no longer participating on the team.  As such, we now no longer have that stuff.  

I literally know nearly nothing about this stuff.  GoPros are the name brand, and are durable and whatnot.  They also are still selling about 8 different versions and they are not cheap.  There are lots of chinese knock offs, but as we all know that sort of thing has highly variable quality. 

Basically, I need a camera to put in the race car.  That's its job 95% of the time.  If we had one then possibly we will use it for something else like on the boat or plane or who knows.  The race car has a go pro mount and clear plastic case and we have a large external battery to use to power the camera.  

So, what should I be looking for?  Anyone have any experience with the knock offs that was either good or bad?  I'm OK to buy once and cry once if the quality is worth it and a good value, but also OK to use the 80% as good for 40% of the cost option as this is not mission critical.  

Picture for attention, this was our best video from racing, a deer was bounced over the top of our race boat while I was driving by the race leading Alfa, none of that is made up or altered in any way.  

https://youtu.be/0TS0Ve1sUL8?feature=shared 

I have used a GoPro Hero 7. 7 is now an older version, so not expensive. 

Every time I try to use the video I recorded with it, I HATE it.

It requires me to sign in to an app on my phone, then it puts the video in a hidden proprietary format that I need to convert and download to a different folder to use outside their app. The GoPro video editor is 'great' if you want to make Influencer type music video clips, but awkward to use if you want to select and assemble portions of a lap or race.

Maybe I just stuck at it, but I like nearly every video editor I have ever used except for theirs.

Takes great quality video, but there's a lot to learn to make it work well. For most purposes,  I prefer a cheap Action Cam that shoots a standard format or even a cellphone.

I was holding off replying since I didn't want to start off with a negative post about GoPro cameras. 

I bought one of the knockoffs first, it would overheat and shut off if the sun hit it. I then bought a Hero 4, which was when the hero 5 was the newest GoPro.

The 4 would not reliably work, often couldn't get it to record. I would be so distracted by trying to get my camera to record that I wasn't able to focus on my driving. 

I ended up with a Garmin Virb Ultra 30, which has a toggle switch that will activate recording every single time. Unfortunately, they're not in production anymore. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I have to replace it. 
 

The Garmin isn't flawless, but it never fails to get video as long as I switch it on.

SJCAM makes some good knockoffs (although they've made a few turds as well), if I had to buy a newish action cam right now I'd get an SJ8 Pro.

Right now I'm using Hero2s because that's what I have...and the reliability of them is pretty good.

For endurance racing, whatever camera you end up with you're going to want to have external power for it. I've never seen anyone have good enough luck with the knockoffs to feel it worth trying, and I'm generally pretty cheap. I had good luck with a GoPro hero 2, I only moved on because it was becoming increasingly difficult to find reliable batteries and it was a bit of a pain to review video quickly (between autocross runs). Now I have a hero 8; on paper it doesn't really do anything better (well it's capable of much higher resolution but I still run it at 1080p to keep file sizes reasonable) but it's a decade newer and just generally nicer and more user friendly. Still fairly old at this point and able to be had relatively cheap as a result. I've had decent luck with the app for quick review, but for your use where you're probably just downloading the video after the race is over, you can still go the old fashioned way and pop the sd card out or connect with USB. The only one I would specifically recommend staying away from is the hero 9, those have a really bad reliability track record and that's the only one I've personally witnessed have a failure.

I bought a fifty dollar knockoff a couple of years ago and it worked great, up until I lost the remote for it and no replacement was available.  Plugged into my laptop and transferred the video files.  No issues except with me remembering to make sure the GPS was on, starting the track timer, the video, etc..

I have not tried any of the more recent offerings, but every GoPro or knockoff I've tried eventually (and by eventually, I mean quickly) became unreliable.  They were also a PITA to start/stop without some kind of remote control, which added it's own issues.

An external power supply is a must for track recording, IMHO.  Batteries always seem to fail, and available replacements, especially when the camera is not the latest version, are of dubious quality.

My best results came from a Mobius Mini ActionCam that I had originally used on RC aircraft.  It was set up to take external power, and  programmable to start/stop recording when power was applied so it was easy to set up with a toggle switch on the dash.  Worked great until it also became unreliable... I'm not sure if it was the camera itself, or the power supply (12v->5v converter) that crapped out on me.  I don't know if current versions have the same features, but they're under $100.

Talking to other folks at the track, the only drivers I found that were consistently happy with their setups were using the AIM cameras.  They are stupid expensive, but since I'm rewiring my car with an AIM PDM anyway, and the integration is easy, I broke down and bought one.  I hope it's worth the $$$$.

I've tried a bunch of knockoffs. Bad video quality and unreliable. Using a GoPro Hero 10 and it's been great. Bulletproof, easy to use and great video quality. If you have their subscription they are great with customer service and replacement parts. Yea a little more expensive but you get what you pay for, and in this case much less than the Aim cameras. 

Another option - slightly cheaper than GoPro, but by no means a cheap knockoff - are the DJI Action camera. I have both their original Action camera and an Action 2, and both are reliable in a way that my GoPro wasn't.

Yes, some people say that the image quality of the comparable GoPros is slightly better, but given both my own experience and too many YouTube people going "crap, GoPro lost my footage again", I'll take the DJI's reliability.

I still use a Hero2. I like the older style case. Video quality is plenty fine for racing video.

My bigger issue with the GoPros is the mount - it creates a lot of noise in the videos - sort of a constant plastic squeak that's hideously annoying. The other issue I had was with the wind noise....even when using their filters. I bought two - so I could shoot forward and back, and the difficulty of turning them on, short battery life and the mount noise meant that I sold them about 2 weeks later.

I had the best luck using my old Canon point and shoot, I made a proper mount for it, the batteries easily last thru one session and I later added a power source to fix that too. I used a small piece of duct tape over the mic openings and that knocked the wind noise down a lot, but a remote mic would be even better.

These days I would prefer to use my phone, but those aren't allowed usually.....

In reply to MiniDave :

They make these foam wind noise reducers for a lot of action cams, for example this one: https://www.amazon.com/VGSION-Windslayer-Housing-Noise-Reduction/dp/B08KXMXPFY

I have a similar one for my Osmo Action and it works very well, at least when I use it on my motorcycle.

In reply to MiniDave :

Is that with the clip in mounts? I've never had any issues with any of the solid mounts. Good sound (on any camera) really requires an external mic anyway.

BoxheadTim said:

Another option - slightly cheaper than GoPro, but by no means a cheap knockoff - are the DJI Action camera. I have both their original Action camera and an Action 2, and both are reliable in a way that my GoPro wasn't.

Yes, some people say that the image quality of the comparable GoPros is slightly better, but given both my own experience and too many YouTube people going "crap, GoPro lost my footage again", I'll take the DJI's reliability.

+1 on the DJI camera. I don't have any personal experience with a GoPro, but I bought a used DJI Osmo action camera earlier this year and have been happy with it. The forward facing screen is a nice feature. If you need something even cheaper, the Akaso Brave seems to be a popular cheapo option on Amazon.

Relevant to my interest. My old ReplayXDs finally died, so I bought a couple of old GoPro Hero2s as they will trigger from my equally old TraqMate data system.  But the video is just bad. The car is an old Van Diemen FF, so lots of buzzy vibration. I could gamble and buy some used ReplayXDs off EBay, as I have all the accessories (nice that can be wired to start / stop from a switch in cockpit). I could get a newer GoPro, a GoPro 10 new is about $250.

But like others, I've seen lots of these recovered by corner workers over the years. I wasn't too worried about a $25 GoPro Hero2.

Hero7 white is what I have right now. Mounted on an open wheel car it overheats on sunny days, so I have to put something over it while not moving and even then frequently pulls resolution due to heat. The app to control it is laggy and not confidence inspiring.

 Im open to hearing better options.

Are dash cams any better quality ?

They are made to work all the time when cars are driving and over bumpy roads, so hours and hours,

Downside is most do not have an internal battery.

californiamilleghia said:

Are dash cams any better quality ?

They are made to work all the time when cars are driving and over bumpy roads, so hours and hours,

Downside is most do not have an internal battery.

I suspect that most dash cams do not have image stabilization, which would likely be an issue if using it for racing footage.

Go Pro 360

click the link to see video

In reply to Apexcarver :

Can that camera record at normal speed also?

We switched from a few of the knock off cameras to a Go Pro Hero 10 and its night/day better in nearly every way possible. 

We run the pass through battery door and have a feed from a switch panel on the roll cage. Switch it on, tap the button before every driver stint and its flawless. The biggest gripe is the lack of human awareness during panic pit stops to remember to hit the button again to begin recording another session.

In reply to kevinatfms :

With the Hero 10, can you USB to a PC and directly access the video outside the GoPro app?

In reply to kevinatfms :

That's the answer I've been looking for. Something that is activated with a switch. Is it a commercial accessory, or did someone put it together themselves? I would love some details. 

Earlier this year, I searched for a replacement for my go pro hero 4 and hero 2. 

I wound up with a Roadkeeper system. It's a low end product from race keeper that is like a dash cam with basic race cam/data features. 

It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it overall. 

Cons:

1080pVideo quality is just ok, not as good as my hero 4, nowhere near a modern gopro. 

No battery, so need a usb power source. 

Not ruggedized or waterproof. 

Pros:

Starts recording with no user interaction required.

No charging/battery management needed. 

Memory card is easily accessible /swappable. 

Front and rear cams can easily be viewed with speed and gforce data on a laptop with no manual syncing required. Way better than having to sync f and r, and data, then render it out for viewing. 

In reply to akylekoz :

OK, that's pretty cool how the GoPro 360 followed the "action", how does it do that? How does it choose what to focus on?

Thanks for the link on the mic socks, BoxheadTim.

DPS214 - that was with the mounts that came with the camera, a series of plastic bits that all fit together to allow you to mount it to the windshield or clip it to a bar of some sort.