Action Camera Footage

Anyone who knows me knows that I get bored - especially in Winter. It's not bad right up until the second week of December putting together custom orders for Christmas. Lots of collages, calendars, clocks and other various products once the racing season ends. Then everything just crashes. Not much editing, not many orders, not many new projects until Spring. This year business was really good to me compared to past years and I decided to invest more in it for the future.

One of the coolest parts of the 2016 racing season at Bear Ridge was the arrival of Kyle Smith from 949 Productions. Kyle is a lot like me....but he is capturing the races with GoPro's and a very cool drone. Check out his videos and you will see why it got me excited. So....I decided that I want to play with some "action cameras" myself. I am definitely NOT planning to give up my dSLR or shooting from the infield. I am just looking to supplement what I do now with new options in hopes that I can create even cooler results. Maybe I will suck at it. Maybe will be a waste of money. Won't be the first time I have flushed money down the toilet (figuratively, of course).

I have to admit that one of the things that make these cameras so exciting to me is that I developed some pretty significant issues with my shoulder over the past year. Physical Therapy hasn't done a lot of good and all I keep hearing is that as long as I keep using a camera as I do, it won't really heal. Well, that's not very good news. I also had a bit of a scare, spending a couple days with test instruments stuck in my eye looking for bad things. Testing came out good (except for cataracts in each eye) but helped to remind me that options might be a good thing to have.

So.....I am brand new to this whole thing. I will try to share what I learn, my successes and my failures. I've been doing a LOT of reading and watching YouTube videos. One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give (and I DO give this advice often) is that if you want to learn something, do YouTube searches. It is amazing how vast the collection of tutorials, unboxings, reviews and advertisements is. Equally cool is the fact that very often someone else has looked for exactly the same information that you are looking for. Just do a search in regular terms....and then go from there. I'm going to focus on the equipment that I use and why I decide on it.

I went back and forth for quite a while trying to decide between the Garmin VIRB Ultra 30 and the GoPro Hero 5 Black. Click on this to check out one of the comparison videos that I watched (numerous times). I went with VIRB Ultra 30 for a couple main reasons: I love the G-Metrix stuff.....this video gives some awesome examples of this technology in use on the Ultra 30. The audio seemed better with the Garmin as well.

Garmin VIRB Ultra 30

Click the photo to see one of the reviews that convinced me to buy the Garmin VIRB Ultra 30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlS0b9pc6pE

Here's another great video review. Let's be honest, I probably won't be tearing

through the woods on a Mountain Bike anytime soon, but it's great to know how

well this camera would perform if I did. Click the photo above to check it out.

Here is a sample look at one option of displaying the G-Metrix info.
Click the photo to watch a video of it at work!

Check out the Owner's Manual for this camera by clicking above

Garmin VIRB X

Some of my plans include making short films. Not sure how to differentiate that from "short videos" but...I want to eventually (once I get comfortable with both the recording AND the editing processes to get the results that I am looking for) create some short, scripted films. Think "Blair Witch Project" with a better storyline. That will require multiple cameras, for sure. With that in mind, I purchased a Garmin VIRB X from a seller on eBay. I got a good deal and the sale included a wrist remote. I will cover accessories later.

One of the cool things that Garmin's are capable of involves syncing. This camera can be set with the Ultra 30 so that when one begins recording, or begins taking photos, so does the other. I am imaging some of the cool results that this could provide! Staggered cameras from different angles showing the same split second of action. How cool is that?!?

I also bought a Garmin VIRB X as a secondary camera. Click on the photo to check out some info

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkAE0ZNGFmM

Click the photo above to check out some awesome Motocross action shot with one

of these!

https://static.bhphotovideo.com/lit_files/248653.pdf

Check out the Owner's Manual for this camera by clicking above

GoPro Hero 4 Session

Click the above photo to find a YouTube review and unboxing

See how small that camera is? Click on it to watch a cool video shot with it.

Impressive specs for this thing can be found here

http://cbcdn2.gp-static.com/uploads/product_manual/file/620/UM_HEROSession_ENG_REVC_Web.pdf

Check out the Owner's Manual for this camera by clicking above

GoPro Hero

I also bought an original GoPro Hero. Not entirely sure why haha I bought it cheap the week before Christmas so figured it would give the seller a few bucks toward holiday shopping. I expect that I will likely use it here and there but definitely not a lot.