I'm often asked to recommend a good action camera. I've only used GoPro's so far. So I really can't say much about other brands.

But I have some thoughts about action cameras when it comes to recording long distance motorcycles trips. Do you really see yourself editing GB's of video footage in a video editing software? It's a pretty boring and time consuming thing to do. I often see people with GoPro's stuck to their helmets all day but rarely see any videos posted on social media. Unless they are editing the videos for their private collection. But my guess is the footage just lies on the SD card only to be overwritten by the footage of the next motorcycle ride.

Action cameras are good for short activities, like skiing, white water rafting, sky diving and similar. At the most you will need to trim the start and end of a video clip and you are done. But if you want to create and publish videos of your day or week long motorcycle ride you need to really make the time to edit huge amounts of footage. I'm still editing the GoPro footage of my Nepal ride which I did three months ago. As you can imagine, this takes a respectable amount of dedication and perseverance.

So if you really don't see yourself doing all this, then maybe you should ask yourself whether you really want to spend all that money on an action camera. Instead you may want to spend the money on your motorcycle or some nicer riding gear.

Another thing. You need to stop your motorcycle to change batteries, swap SD cards, charge all the batteries at night and do whatever you need to do to keep that action camera alive and recording. If nothing is going to come out of it then you might as well sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. Maybe someone else in your group will take the trouble of recording the trip and editing all the footage.

Just my two cents. :-)

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Deelip Menezes
www.deelipmenezes.com

Hi Deelip. It's not just action cams either - you can generate video footage from a whole raft of sources - phones, regular cameras, other peoples cameras etc. If you're going use all of that to produce an end product that someone can (or would want to!) watch it's a lot of work for very little reward. It's a bit like writing the book of the trip as well - spend six months tapping away at the keyboard and then what do you do with the manuscript.

When we did our across the USA trip 18 months ago I tried to put some effort into filming but to do it on the fly is almost impossible. You video what you think will be interesting and then try to make sense of it all afterwards at the editing stage, but of course you've left stuff you need out, made a decision to get drunk rather than film something etc and there's nothing really to hang the clips you do have together. If you're going to do it well - research stuff, storyboard it, have a shooting schedule, interviews, pieces to camera etc it stops being a bike trip. That's that problem - film it well and feel guilty about losing the essence of the trip, film it badly and feel guilty about wasting the opportunity.

Until recently I had one GoPro and two Chinese GP copies but one of the copies ended up lost in a snowdrift when filming skiing some months back so now it's just two. The copies got the high risk assignments (like being fixed to a ski boot or on a suction mount on a bike) as they're cheap enough but compared to the GoPro they're lacking in flexibility. GoPro's free editing software is great for quick and dirty, just slap the clips together editing. If you've spent months staring at a Final Cut Pro screen and getting nowhere the simplicity of GoPro Studio is great.

One side effect of the availability of all this stuff is the amount of bits and pieces you need to take with you - chargers, cables etc. Below is a picture of about half of the electronic stuff we took on our recent Canada trip. Keeping this stuff serviced - charging batteries, checking cables, finding places to store it etc became a real issue. Do we prioritise charging the intercoms or the camera batteries overnight, that kind of thing.



I'm sure some will say just junk it all and enjoy the trip but without the GoPro I wouldn't have got stuff like this to look back on:

The best action camera is somebody else's barely used GoPro, because you almost certainly know someone who's got one sitting useless in a desk drawer, and can probably buy it off them for half price.

I'm a moderator on reddit.com/r/motorcycles, which means I'm one of the people keeping an eye on the stream of posts there. Yeah, loads of people take the time to edit together their GoPro footage. Sometimes you get genuinely great travelogue videos, equal in enthusiasm if maybe not in production value to anything from the likes of MotoGeo. Mostly though, it's vanity stuff like motovlogging, or using them as dashcams for proof in the event of an accident.

This is true. Getting into a good workflow helps; if someone happens to be a competent video editor & director, and also a moto enthusiast, they can make the process much more efficient. For example, I am a big fan of the Canadian internet comedy troupe Loading Ready Run, and one of their people has now started doing rapid-fire vlogs about his day. But he's been a video director and editor for years, so he knows how to be fast with it.

Again, true, but action cams have gotten a lot cheaper. I spent about $400 on my GoPro 3, but that was many years ago, and overall I think I've gotten enough value out of it (but not enough to invest in a new model). A GoPro Session or a Chinese knockoff that's Good Enough(c) is a hundred bucks. That's within toy range.

Yup, battery longevity is the main problem (especially for people using their GoPros as dashcams - there is a loop recording mode that makes SD card space a non-issue in that usage). One option is to use an external powerbank, requires some fidgeting to run a cable into a waterproof housing, but can be done. Hell, I have the same problem with my helmet Bluetooth system, so on long rides I have a powerbank in my pocket with a wire running up into my helmet for my Sena 3S's charging port!

And this is the greatest wisdom of all. I've been looking at mirrorless cameras or even intro-level DSLRs to replace my old beloved Olympus XZ-1, but haven't been able to bring myself to drop the cash, because at any event where I would get the benefit of a really good camera, there will already be friends who have much better gear and much better skills than me!

My 1st helmet camera was a Contour HD. Long story short it never worked. I got it replaced. The new one worked for about a nanosecond.

The few minutes of footage I had were disappointing and rather boring to deal with. Life is too short and I have nothing to sell, or money to make via a blog, youtube videos etc...

I then got a Drift Ghost Cam, back in 2015. I tested it on holidays that same year. As discussed above, it was a pain to go through footage and try to do a video. I did not bother. But I quite like the fact I can take pictures while riding. So I used it as a photo helmet when we rode across Russia and Central Asia last summer.

The plus point: you can take photos on the move, no need to stop, remove helmet & gloves, try to find you camera and usual circus of a photo stop!

On the minus point the photos are not that great, no matter how I place my head, it is always a bit too much road, but it gives an “on the go” feeling. The remote button(totake photos) died very soon.
Oh and the battery lasts about 2 hours!

So in conclusion, not sure I will bother again. I don’t want video, but it would be nice to be able to take good photos on the go.

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

GoPro isn't doing well any more. They really haven't managed to have proper evolution since Hero3+, tho 3+ is only a little better than the old 3. The sad part is that new GoPros feel very overpriced.

I'd guess that Sony's ActionCams produce the best quality now, tho the cheap alternatives are more than good enough for most people.

Cameras for photo. I've started to downsize my kit as it's easier to pack and also lighter. Currently my favourite is the Sony RX100 series. Very small in size and packs more power than most people will ever need. Tho not very cheap.

Technically action cameras are ideal for very specific uses. Long recordings are a nightmare for both amateur and pro editor. Tho the latter would just scroll through the video hoping to spot a good moment.

But I do like the timelapse function on action cameras. The only good long term recording mode, sadly the Hero3 goes through the battery quite fast for even that mode.

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Frank

I used a TomTom Bandit on a 3 month trip last year. I was happy with the footage and it was easy to grab what i needed every couple of days on a cheap notebook using Moviemaker.

I regularly flick back through clips (and have put on u tube). The key (for me) was keeping it to 90 secs or so max each day, based upon 5-10 sec clips.


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Yeah that is an issue ! I have managed to get to the stage where every thing is charged from usb either on bike or from 1 mains tranformer. It works well when we take our own bike as it is setup for it all. It does become a slight problem on hired bikes at the "low end of the hire spectrum..." Still we manage.

Trying to make a video for consumption after the trip does take a great deal of effort. I started doing them about 4 years ago and it was ............well crap to be honest. I made lots of mistakes but you do get better as time goes on. My most recent effort is worlds apart from the first. Some of the improvements are down to better editing, but the biggest gain is in the filming angles and content. It can take over if you are not carefull, and sometimes anoying when something happens and despite having 5 cameras you miss it! Well actually 3 cams, 1 phone, and now a flamin drone, it is getting out of hand.

Sometimes I do wonder if it is worth it, but for me and I think my wife too, it is great to look at from time to time as well as the 1000's of photos. Even some of our friends like to see them, but some really don't It's not normal you see

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Regards Tim

Learning my craft for the big stuff, it won't be long now and it's not that far anyway

I have to say though, one legitimate use of a GoPro is to keep it mounted on your handlebar etc. but not turned on (on a long exploratory ride, let's say). Then when you get to a good road... it's a quick move to turn it on and get it to play. You can do it blind with one hand and quickly if you're used to the thing.

This was me seeing "Tourist Road That Way" and reacting in time.

I have Garmin VIRB Elite x 4. Originally a Go Pro 3 but I was frustrated by the very poor battery performance so swopped. It's lower profile a
and robust , waterproof and great quality footage and considerably cheaper......the hard part is the planning and where and whether you will change the position of the camera during the trip to make it interesting and THEN the editing!! If there is plenty of variation, you build the jigsaw and becomes and challenge to stick it all together. I have been down the single position camera and it bores me to death, so how can I expect someone else to like it!! The other significant benefit is it tells a story in the unfortunate circumstances of a catastrophic event.........
360 cameras? Excited me, but as the viewer it's exhausting to keep panning to get the full benefit and not miss something. I think the teller needs to lead the viewer to tell the story.
So I am a fan, but that not to say I haven't been down the same path. But I get immense enjoyment watching other people vids especially in far flung places.


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Interesting thread, and comes at a good time for me. I've been a keen photographer for years, and have a website the length of a thick novel, but it's mainly for myself and I realise very few people are interested to read a travel account. So I'd like to move into video making as well. Like the website, it will again be predominantly for myself, as a proper record of my trips, but it would be nice to share interesting places with others.

I'm making two trips across Russia in the next year; one will be this summer / autumn and will be fairly standard, very early next year I shall return on ice roads and the trip should be pretty spectacular and not the average trip report.

I rarely read other people's websites but I do like to watch some trip videos on YouTube etc. Some are quite thoughtful and have obviously been planned rather than just cobbled together, others are doing something which is unusual or interesting in itself. I don't watch television but I imagine some would be broadcast quality with bit of professional editing. The worst type are long sequences from mounted cameras, especially if some annoying music is played over it. I have no idea why people share these. I think what is important is to know something of the place one is travelling through and give some narration of the footage, be it pieces to camera at the time, ghost narration put in afterwards or a mixture of both. This however seems to be remarkably rare in travel videos; most people seem to have no real interest in the places they pass through and one gets a series of mispronounced names and myopic observations. I remember watching one motorcycle video where the rider was passing through Almaty and remarked what great views he had of the Himalayas

I guess however this all takes a lot of effort. And perhaps I have watched too many Mongol Rally videos.

I'm currently planning a storyboard for the first trip. I'll be travelling with a professional photographer (as a friend, not someone I've hired, and not a videographer for that matter either!) and we'll take a Mavic Pro drone to get some nice aerial action shots too I think. I can see that it will be a lot of editing work, but frankly I think I'd find this quite enjoyable.

I'll be using a Nikon D750 as the main video camera, but also a GoPro for a mix of dash-cam or truck mounted perspectives, or for multiple-perspective shots.

My main question right now is which GoPro to take? I don't need 4k video and it seems (from Amazon reviews predominantly) that the newest cameras are plagued with problems, and lousy customer service from GoPro. My choice right now would be, as AnTyx suggested, a used GoPro for cheap. I was thinking a GoPro Hero 3+ Black.

Any other GoPro recommendations? As it will only be an auxiliary camera, I don't want to spend too much on it.

Cheers

EO

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

And the best thing then is that you actually have photos were you appear!! I am an amateur photographer and always bring my DSLR to every holiday/trip, etc. But I am pissed at looking back to all the amassed photo library and I only appear in the lonely shot we asked some stranger to shot where my head or feet at cut off...

Regarding action cameras, got a GoPro Hero 4 from a friend this week. Would have loved to have one when I did my two cross-europe trips. Anyway I agree if the resulting video is not short or properly edited no one will watch it, not even yourself in the future. My 2 cents...

I also did a lot of research to find a suitable action camera. I settled for the Sony FDR-X3000 because it was one of the two 4K mechanically stabilized cameras available. The amount of stabilization is just amazing. Moreover, I can use the watch LCD screen for framing and recording.

Some initial test footage: https://youtu.be/pD4xeEu7yvQ

All in all, I am very happy with it and I always wear it without the diving case, because it is splash and dust proof.


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BMW F650 GS Dakar -- South Africa to Europe starting February 2018 -- https://rtw.to -- https://facebook.com/rtw.to

Bought one of these intending to take video of my other sports, but after trawling through others' vids I found I was zzzzzz..!
Video is a personal interest thing I find, apart from the odd 'vision-bite' or 'lesson to be learned' thing, if you know what I mean... but the Mission does take stunning still pics. I find it easier to stare and dream with a good quality still rather than endless moving pictures (I'm old and boring).
The Mission is also tiny and easy to carry and mount.
Great weekend at Enniskillen.

Does anybody know where to buy (or already own) one of the Sonic bullet-style helmet cams that Charley and Ewan used on Long Way Down/Round?
I've searched and searched; even emailed Sonic (with no reply)!
I like the style....small and streamlined. Aerodynamic.
That's the problem I have with the go-pro....like wearing a house brick on your head.
For on-bike recording, I have a barely used Sony Handicam which I'm going to rig up to sit behind my screen.


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I've been thinking of getting a small helmet cam as well, not so much for entertainment purposes, but as a 'dashcam' to record the behavior of other drivers.

I do my best to stay away from bad situations, but every now and again I encounter an aggressive or otherwise moronic driver, and having a video recording might prove useful...

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250