Topic: Preferred Onboard Cameras?
Hello,
Just wondering what onboard cameras everyone uses and their thoughts on how well they work.
Currently we're running a GoPro Hero Sessions 5 mounted on the cage facing forward and a Garmin Virb (the old hotdog one) mounted on the cage facing backward. The mounts we use are the GoPro-branded cage mounts (these seem to work well enough).
Settings:
GoPro Hero Sessions 5 - 1080p, 30 frames/sec, 128gb card (not big enough for an entire day, upgrading to 256gb for next time), color enhancements turned off via the phone app (I'd tell you exactly which ones but the camera doesn't like to connect to the app anymore)
Garmin Virb Hotdog - 720p, 30 frames/sec, 64gb card (plenty big for a whole day)
Review:
GoPro - the color quality is lousy and the built-in enhancements don't help much. I use free software to saturate the colors to be more true to life (I turned off the color enhancements in the camera to leave "room" to saturate later). The image stabilization is pretty snazzy and truly the only reason the camera gets to face forward. The camera itself is tough. It was used for a couple of years in rallycross and withstood the dust and gyrations. Last year the mount gave way and it and the camera were literally run over a few times. The mount was thrashed but the camera just needed new glass.
Garmin - I love this camera. The on "button" is an on "switch" so there is no confusion whether it is recording or not. The GPS stuff is mostly gimmicky and stopped working some years ago but I've never minded. The battery is old and only lasts a few minutes (a moot issue as both cameras are plugged in the entire time). The color saturation is amazing compared to the GoPro. Vibrant colors everywhere. Hilariously, even after saturating the GoPro colors via software the Garmin still looks better/more true to life.
Been seriously considering buying the newest Garmin camera but probably won't until one of our current cameras dies.
Anyone use the cheapo action cameras now available? Are they any good?