First Ride With New GoPro Camera
Catching myself in the mirror as I set out on my first GoPro ride.
Our street is snowed in again but there were a few days there when I was able to get out, and I did. One thing high on my list was to try out the new GoPro Hero4 camera I got for Christmas. I stuck the mount on the top of my helmet, let it sit for a day, and then went for a spin. Nothing much, just out and over the Cherry Creek Dam and then back. So much to learn about using this thing.
For one thing, unlike any other camera, the GoPro does not have a viewfinder. The only way you can see what the camera is seeing is to install the GoPro app on your smartphone and then sync the phone and camera via bluetooth. Of course, all I had was a little flip-phone so I ended up going out and buying a smartphone. Technology is like that: you get something new and you have to upgrade other stuff in order to use it.
First thing I had to do was figure out where to mount the camera. I’ve seen these guys with the cameras sticking up on top of their helmets and that has always struck me as stupid looking. I was thinking of attaching it on the chin piece of my helmet but when I scoped it out I found that that would have had the camera angle looking right through the windshield on all three bikes. Not gonna do that.
Long story short, I put it on top of the helmet. But I also stuck another mount on the fairing of my Concours. That won’t have the benefit of being able to point the camera at a specific point, the way I can with in my helmet, but it should have its own benefits. But on this first ride I just stuck it on top of the helmet. Then I synced up the phone and camera, adjusted the angle, and was ready to ride.
Of course, before I could get going I managed to nudge the camera and knock it out of alignment, and rather than go through the whole hassle of syncing things back up again and readjusting I just nudged it back a bit and hoped that was good enough. If you view the video you’ll see that in fact it’s still pointed down a bit too much. Oh well, I’ll get the hang of it.
Afterward I viewed the video and decided which parts to cut out and which to keep and then used the software that GoPro provides to make a few more adjustments. When you’re ready it lets you pick what venue you’re going to post it on (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) and I figured it would then optimize it specifically for that venue. I chose YouTube and I’ve got to say, if it optimized it it’s hard to tell. This is an 8 minute clip and it is taking about 171 minutes to upload to YouTube. That’s right, “taking,” because while I’m writing this it’s still uploading. There has got to be some way to upload something without it taking anywhere near that long. As I said, I have a lot to figure out.
OK, hours later, I found I was uploading the wrong file. Probably the raw video file, not the edited MP4 file I should have been. Once I figured this out the upload took seven minutes and processing afterward took another eight.
So anyway, here it is, my first GoPro video. Nothing special, just a short ride, but it’s my first.
Biker Quote for Today
I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn’t work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness. — Emo Philips
Tags: GoPro camera
February 22nd, 2016 at 12:22 pm
[…] the great weather we’ve been having I’ve been out. The first test I did was a simple ride over the top of Cherry Creek Dam, with the camera mounted on my helmet. Next I decided I wanted to try it with the camera mounted on […]