GoPro advice. Never owned one.

[SVT THUNDER]

As the title says, I’ve never owned any type of GoPro. I’ve watched amazing cast to catch videos for many years now. I never got into the GoPro thing when it started. As time passed, new mounts and better picture quality had me curious for awhile. Finally, around the time the Hero 3 came around, I started looking into buying a setup. I was sorta lost. So I never pulled the trigger. 

FF to today and I’m just looking for advice on what I need realistically to get good quality, first person videos. I don’t need the latest and greatest GoPro. Just a good one that’s not too complicated to upload videos. Also, what seems to work better...chest rigs or head rigs? Cameras are just not my thing. I know little about them. I’ve been on a bait buying frenzy for over a month now, so I can’t buy anything soon. But I thought I’d ask for a little advice so I can look at what’s out there so I will have some knowledge for when I can buy one. Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

[Tony_x18]

Batteries I would say at least 3-4 for a day trip. Are you fishing from a boat or shore? If a boat I say no to the head or chest rig and mount it on the boat. 

[swimbaitrookie]

Don't buy a hero 7 - they are known to have overheating issues which makes them shut down and despite trying all the fixes gopro, and the gopro community recommend, mine still shuts off when it decides to.

If you're looking to save some money to get started, the hero 5 is a good unit.  Spare batteries are available low cost, and you will need spares, as well as accessories.  If you want to spend more and get more features, the 8 is a great unit and the 9 is even more badass.  Chest mount are ok, but your hands/rod will block the view at times.  Hat mounts are ok but you might get tired of wearing that weight all day.  Like posted above, boat mount is best, if you have a boat  

[danthefisherman]

I have a Hero 5 Black on a chest mount and it's great for my needs. Decent audio and has way more features than I'll ever use. I'm not much into editing footage too much anyways. My brother has the Hero 4 Silver which seems to be just as good video quality except the audio is pretty terrible if you're using the waterproof case. It takes a bit of adjusting to have a camera on your person, but after whacking it a number of times on a hookset you get used to it.

Both have the video looping feature which is great for saving card space and still getting catches on film. I keep an external battery with me to recharge when my one battery is spent. It's great to be able to go back and review catches, and I learn a lot by watching myself fish. Don't share much footage anymore because I don't want to have to deal with spot-burn police, but it's nice to have it for yourself at least. Keep it simple and don't let messing with the camera distract you from going out and enjoying yourself!

[willlliw]

I have a Hero 3, so its a bit older, but both mine and my friend's Hero 8 do very poorly in the cold, probably not as much of a problem for fishing but just a thought. 

[SVT THUNDER]

3 hours ago, srboostjunkie said:

Batteries I would say at least 3-4 for a day trip. Are you fishing from a boat or shore? If a boat I say no to the head or chest rig and mount it on the boat. 

Thanks. I use to fish tournaments and guide full time. But I seldom put the bass boat in the water anymore. Degenerative bone disease in both knees and my back. I was told in 2010 by my Dr. that if I caught one big roller wrong, I could be paralyzed from the waist down. I couldn’t quit cold turkey. But I stepped away from that world in 2011. So 90% of the time I fishing from the bank now days. Appreciate the battery info. 

[SVT THUNDER]

3 hours ago, swimbaitrookie said:

Don't buy a hero 7 - they are known to have overheating issues which makes them shut down and despite trying all the fixes gopro, and the gopro community recommend, mine still shuts off when it decides to.

If you're looking to save some money to get started, the hero 5 is a good unit.  Spare batteries are available low cost, and you will need spares, as well as accessories.  If you want to spend more and get more features, the 8 is a great unit and the 9 is even more badass.  Chest mount are ok, but your hands/rod will block the view at times.  Hat mounts are ok but you might get tired of wearing that weight all day.  Like posted above, boat mount is best, if you have a boat  

I seldom go out in my boat anymore. I primarily beat the banks now. Appreciate the advice on the different GoPro models. 

[SVT THUNDER]

3 hours ago, danthefisherman said:

I have a Hero 5 Black on a chest mount and it's great for my needs. Decent audio and has way more features than I'll ever use. I'm not much into editing footage too much anyways. My brother has the Hero 4 Silver which seems to be just as good video quality except the audio is pretty terrible if you're using the waterproof case. It takes a bit of adjusting to have a camera on your person, but after whacking it a number of times on a hookset you get used to it.

Both have the video looping feature which is great for saving card space and still getting catches on film. I keep an external battery with me to recharge when my one battery is spent. It's great to be able to go back and review catches, and I learn a lot by watching myself fish. Don't share much footage anymore because I don't want to have to deal with spot-burn police, but it's nice to have it for yourself at least. Keep it simple and don't let messing with the camera distract you from going out and enjoying yourself!

Thank you. I’ve read about the looping and I understand that aspect. I have a dash cam that I used to use when drag racing. But it’s really simple compared to the GoPros features. 

[SVT THUNDER]

42 minutes ago, willlliw said:

I have a Hero 3, so its a bit older, but both mine and my friend's Hero 8 do very poorly in the cold, probably not as much of a problem for fishing but just a thought. 

Thank you. Didn’t even consider temps. 

[rwp]

I have 2 hero 8 blacks. They are on sale for $299.

Then you need a minimum of 1 battery per hour of fishing (at the lowest resolution). $20 each

You also really need the 2 bank battery charger, or a few of them. $50, they come with a battery.

The chest mount is $40, and pretty nice.

To record a full day on the water (again at the lowest resolution) you'll need at least 128gb sd card. That will get you about 6 hours. Bring 2, sd card failures are common.

The hyper smooth stabilization is really good.

The bad, and there's a few things.

If you plan to film and just upload without any editing, it's not going to happen. You will at the very least need to trim and splice the clips. (The gopro will split up the recording into different files as it records).

The audio is pretty bad, it pics up everything, 360* around you.

4k at high fps will eventually overheat the camera.

The date and time constantly resets on mine, so every clip has the same date, which makes organizing the files tough.

They don't focus up close. About 4 feet is the minimum.

[SumoNinja]

Get an external battery. Lasts all day 

I just started using a gopro too. At first it kinda sucked because it's an extra thing you gotta prep and carry. Then it takes time to get the video ready to share and post. 

But u get used to it and it just becomes part of the routine. 

One of the best advice I can give u is this....after a c2c or release or after u recorded something cool, stop recording.  Then record again when you're ready to let the gopro continue. That way if u have several videos from that day you'll know the footage u want is at the end of each recording. 

It will save u tons of time. If u don't stop recording, you'll find yourself at home looking for a 1 minute or so footage in the middle of hrs or recording 

[SVT THUNDER]

1 hour ago, rwp said:

I have 2 hero 8 blacks. They are on sale for $299.

Then you need a minimum of 1 battery per hour of fishing (at the lowest resolution). $20 each

You also really need the 2 bank battery charger, or a few of them. $50, they come with a battery.

The chest mount is $40, and pretty nice.

To record a full day on the water (again at the lowest resolution) you'll need at least 128gb sd card. That will get you about 6 hours. Bring 2, sd card failures are common.

The hyper smooth stabilization is really good.

The bad, and there's a few things.

If you plan to film and just upload without any editing, it's not going to happen. You will at the very least need to trim and splice the clips. (The gopro will split up the recording into different files as it records).

The audio is pretty bad, it pics up everything, 360* around you.

4k at high fps will eventually overheat the camera.

The date and time constantly resets on mine, so every clip has the same date, which makes organizing the files tough.

They don't focus up close. About 4 feet is the minimum.

 

13 minutes ago, SumoNinja said:

Get an external battery. Lasts all day 

I just started using a gopro too. At first it kinda sucked because it's an extra thing you gotta prep and carry. Then it takes time to get the video ready to share and post. 

But u get used to it and it just becomes part of the routine. 

One of the best advice I can give u is this....after a c2c or release or after u recorded something cool, stop recording.  Then record again when you're ready to let the gopro continue. That way if u have several videos from that day you'll know the footage u want is at the end of each recording. 

It will save u tons of time. If u don't stop recording, you'll find yourself at home looking for a 1 minute or so footage in the middle of hrs or recording 

Thank you both. Excellent information. 

[Dirty Diesel]

I have an older hero 3 like stated above you need tons of batteries or maybe external battery. Also if you plan on editing long videos probably better to have a real decent computer and not a laptop I learned that and I haven’t done anything with my videos because I don’t have a way to edit them. Another little bit of info that took me a long time to learn my camera used to stop recording for no reason you have to reformat your SD cards periodically with the camera not on the computer. I lost a lot of good footage because I thought my camera was recording when in fact it quit because the card wasn’t cooperating.

[rwp]

26 minutes ago, Dirty Diesel said:

I have an older hero 3 like stated above you need tons of batteries or maybe external battery. Also if you plan on editing long videos probably better to have a real decent computer and not a laptop I learned that and I haven’t done anything with my videos because I don’t have a way to edit them. Another little bit of info that took me a long time to learn my camera used to stop recording for no reason you have to reformat your SD cards periodically with the camera not on the computer. I lost a lot of good footage because I thought my camera was recording when in fact it quit because the card wasn’t cooperating.

Windows 10 can edit gopro videos with the "Photos" app. Pretty much any laptop or desktop can handle that app without too many issues.

Before the photos app, you are 100% correct, it was a nightmare to edit any videos from a gopro.

[SVT THUNDER]

Just wanted to thank all of you who took the time to give me great advice. I sincerely appreciate it. Now I know how my parents felt when I was young and had to ask me about everything electronics before they bought. I’m officially getting old lol.