GoPro3 Black Edition or a Digital Camera.

Adam Senior · 16 Jan 2013 at 14:15

Ok so here goes. My wife wants to buy me a Camera for our 1st year anniversary. I have to say I love the idea or the gopro, its functionally ect but after reading reviews I am just not 100 percent sure if its what I want.

I would Imagine that I would use it too its full about 30% of its time. Either scuba diving or skiiing, one thing i know the results will be amazing (apart from the very short battery life)

The annoying thing is that my CanonS95 seems to have died so I have also been looking at replacements. The thing is, after getting the LCD & Extra battery pack for the go pro it will be getting on nearly 600$...for this I know I can get a nice compact camera.

So due to the fact I find it very difficult to make a decision I was wondering if you guys/gals could shed some light on this little pickle I seem to be in, maybe you own a GoPro3Black & A Camera, or you just have a thought on it.

Please feel free to go nuts below! DANKA!

Russinating · 16 Jan 2013 at 14:37

They're two completely different things so I'm not sure how you can even compare the two or how people are supposed to offer advice?

Raikiri · 16 Jan 2013 at 16:11

Why do you need the black edition?

The Hero 2 is a more than capable and costs a fair bit less, should leave you enough money to buy both that and a half decent compact. Keep in mind that they're two completely different things.

Nexus · 16 Jan 2013 at 16:16

Yeah, I wouldn't want to take the GoPro over a regular camera if stills is your aim. I've barely used the camera feature and I've owned three of them!

pingu666 · 16 Jan 2013 at 18:31

theres a sony gopro clone that has image stabisation and some other nifty features

Nexus · 16 Jan 2013 at 19:33

pingu666 said:
theres a sony gopro clone that has image stabisation and some other nifty features

It didn't review as well as people had hoped:
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/10/sony-action-cam-review-not-as-awesome-as-we-hoped/

Regardless though, it still doesn't help when the OP is trying to decide between a traditional stills camera and an action sports cam, largely designed for video. They are totally different kettles of fish.

geuben · 16 Jan 2013 at 19:39

Don't get a GoPro for photos. I have the Hero3 Black and it is amazing for what it is designed for but for photos it's pretty pants. No way to frame anything and there is a lot of lag between pressing the button and it taking the photo.

Adam Senior · 17 Jan 2013 at 20:56

Thanks for the responses. I guess I need to figure out what I want to do more, action videos or a digital camera.

One question, what is this like for general video shooting, I am looking at helping a friend with a support page on google and wanted to film some tutorials ect. Would be general video stuff. Would the gopro be fine for this in your opinions?

Hamish · 20 Jan 2013 at 10:05

Adam Senior said:
Thanks for the responses. I guess I need to figure out what I want to do more, action videos or a digital camera.

One question, what is this like for general video shooting, I am looking at helping a friend with a support page on google and wanted to film some tutorials ect. Would be general video stuff. Would the gopro be fine for this in your opinions?

The video is decent quality but the lense is very wide angle which means that anything more than a metre or two in front of the camera will be too small, and also all videos have the fisheye effect distortion which doesn't really look good.

pingu666 · 20 Jan 2013 at 19:54

You could look into the 808 spy cam, you have to get the right version tho

11 or 16 I think