GoPro for motorhome or general use

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I never had a need for a go pro. Given the advances in cell phone cameras i am not clear on why i need one. I use my cell phone camera since i already have mounts for it. When i was taking videos from my motorcycle i bought a nikon waterproof point and shoot in a ram mount on my handlebars. Worked great and cost a lot less than a go pro.

What are you planning to do with it that is making you want a go pro?
 
I'm thinking of a forward facing camera for the motorhome. The primary purpose would be for recording accidents. It would also be used while out hiking and biking.
 
I use a fairly basic $100 dash cam I got at costco. Some are quite involved with auto uploading, triggering and such but unless you know you have a need for certain features, just one that fires on and off with the ignition key is about all you need. It has an app you can run on a phone to download files and do remote configuration but I find it's just as quick and easy to pluck it off the window and copy any files I want off the SD card. I primarily use it 2 different ways - real time video while travelling, with oldest files getting automatically overwritten and time lapse mode. In time lapse the files are much smaller and it's easier to go through them later to pull still/scenic photos out of. As a side function I didn't anticipate doing with it, it will run from a phone power battery bank for quite a while and I've used it as a "campsite cam" pointed out a window or sitting on a table at some item of interest. It streams the image over wifi and is good for about 50 feet. For pedestrian use you're pretty much going with a gopro kind of thing, dash cams don't have batteries and at least mine wouldn't be suitable for outdoor use.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
assuming you would mount in inside on the dash you wouldnt need it to be waterproof. Something with antivibration would probably help with pic quality. Sounds like you will be dealing with lots of video so expandable storage and an easy way to transfer large files would help. My preference would be a slot for ssd or micro ssd cards. You could buy enough of them for how long you want to keep the footage and simply swap in a fresh card for each trip. Even having 2 would avoid having to manage memory between every trip and it makes it easy to store, label, and organize.

I used this instead of a go pro. Unfortunately nikon doesnt make anything like it anymore but aside from some tiny control buttons it was a great camera for video

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I cant help with go pro features cause i never owned one. They might be your best option but i would consider other brands too
 
Maybe i am becoming a luddite in my old age but i prefer physically moving a storage device than wirelessly transferring video. You kind of have competing requirements cause you probably want higher resolution for general us than for capturing video in the event of an accident. Higher resolution and quality images mean larger filesizes and video is already big.

if you value simplicity then something you can pop into your laptop or whatever computing device you will use to review, edit etc, and read without a 3rd party app would be appealing. One of the hassles i now have in moving to a mac is getting files off my android phone. On windows i could plug the phone in and they were there i could copy, move, delete all with native windows. Mac doesnt natively support android files so i have to use another piece of software to see the files and there are a series of steps i have to use in that software to do what i want to do.

The older i get the less time i want to spend dealing with all that.
 
The Dash cam is what I want. The wife has many cameras for hiking. Still I thought a GoPro might be a nice addition to her collection. So really looking to combine two. The problem with most of her cameras is weight and size. Two Nikon SLRs with some large lenses, two Nikon Super zooms, a Nikon cool pix, and probably the best, at least with respect the glass, is an old Olympus that's probably 20 years old.
 
go pros are decent and they do take nice video. If you are collecting that wouldnt be a bad add to your current collection.

Before the nikon i used an olympus. Liked that camera. Bigger more intuitive controls so it was easier to use when riding the motorcycle than the nikon.

For any externally mounted camera make sure it is in an enclosure. I think a lot of the go pros come with them. Any stone or bug that hits the camera could cause issues.
 
I have a nice canon DSLR with a few lenses. I don't think I've had it out of the case in over a year. Same could be said for my nice point and shoot. Their image quality and features have been pretty soundly outweighed by convenience. When I'm out hiking or sightseeing someplace, I don't want a five pound turd hanging on my neck. A cell phone can take pretty good pictures, undoubtedly without the speed or flexibility I can with a real camera, but my pictures aren't headed for the Ansel Adams gallery. Even back in my film days (and the darkroom to go with it) I recall reading an article that asked some famous photographer what the best camera was, and the guy said "the one you have". If I'm on a serious photo shoot like a family wedding or graduation I'll bring out the big iron but capturing that scenic vista while on a hike or group photo at a lunch gathering the cell phone checks the box. I think my dash cam is 4K which isn't remarkable and it's shooting through glass which doesn't help but it does a pretty good job catching scenic shots as I go, and anymore that's plenty good enough. In a frighteningly short period of time nearly all the photos I've taken in my life will be in the bit bucket so I've grown less and less concerned about their degree of perfection.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Or, just repurpose an old cell phone that isn't worth trading in

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GoPro’s are vastly overrated and over-priced. For use in dashcam service, there are dozens of cameras just as good as a GoPro, at half (or less) of the price of a GoPro.

GoPro’s also have a bad rep for overheating and shutting down. If you are driving and the sun is on the camera, there is a good chance it will quit working.
 
I've got 5 GoPro cameras. There was a day I used them but haven't seen the light of day in years.

I use a VIOFO Dashcam which works well. Has a wireless mode that lets you monitor & record to a smartphone.

If you use a Dashcam I highly recommend Dashcam Viewer. I stores video as you travel that you can play back on a PC with their app. Most impressive, when you load the video into the app you get a map showing your the route you've driven. Click on any point of the map to jump to the video for that segment. Also records, speed, altitude, etc.

There's usually a couple of interesting "events" along the way that are recorded and you can view that video on your computer just by clicking on the map at that location. Great app.
 
VIOFO is one of the dash cams I've been looking at. Rexing is the other. One review rates VIOFO a bit higher than Rexing. Both have pluses and minuses and their features differ a bit. For now, it looks like VIOFO is only available through Amazon. We use Amazon frequently but I prefer to use the big box stores. Do you have any experience with Rexing?
 
We have dash cams in the truck and the motorhome - Rove 2R-4K. Easy to use, decent night vision, normally just records on a loop, but automatically saves file after a bump/crash. They go on sale frequently. I also have a GoPro that we mostly use on the side by side. Kevin rigged a nice stable mount, and I control it with a remote on my wrist. To me the two devices are for different purposes.
 
garyb1st said:
Do you have any experience with Rexing?
Click to expand...
Nope. The VIOFO was just one choice between many different brands. I spent a fair amount of time looking around at site such as the Dashcamtalk Forum. The VIOFO was actually my second dashcam as the first one (can't remember the model) died.

Compatibility with the Dashcam View program was important but it looks like most of the models out there can work as well.

Just browsed through the video from this last 4 hour drive to the site we're at now. No cinematic award winners this trip, but always interesting nonetheless. :)
 
Picked up a Rexing Apple carplay and Android Auto Display with 4K dash cam. Not sure how I'm going to secure it since it sits on the dash. Ours has a tendency to bounce quite a bit on rough roads. The screen on this one is just under 7". Won't be opened before X-mas so if anyone knows anything about Rexing or a combo camera like this vs a typical dash cam, please let me know.
 
The navigator decided a dash cam is a bad idea. A Forum member she was talking with said a dash cam could be used against you in the event of an at-fault accident. I think that's a stretch but I've found it's not always productive to argue with the navigator.

I'm still thinking I'd like to have a go pro or dash cam so I'm back at the drawing board. I'd really like to have a combination GPS/dash cam with a high end 10" monitor if anyone makes such a thing.
 
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