THSCC Forums

I want to get a GoPro for the car. Any advice on which model would be best for autocross improvement purposes? Thanks!
Michael

I am sure you will get a bunch of differing opinions but ...

My take is that you should get a cheap one in the $100-200 range. You don't need fancy. After using cameras for my autoX the last 6 seasons my opinion is that the only thing a camera can teach is the relationship between driver input and car position. Of course that is a HUGE GIANT ULTRA MEGA IMPORTANT thing to learn but paying up for features that don't really improve on achieving that one goal are wasted money (unless the camera will have other uses in your life, then make a decision based on the sum of the camera's intended uses.)

PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE if you have only one, position the camera so that you can see yourself and a fair amount of the course in front of you, either high along the driver side B pillar or mounted behind your right shoulder. Bumper cams and roof cam angles are fun but are secondary or for entertainment, mainly because a viewer can't see the driver, which is the most important thing in the video! if it doesn't come with the right mount then Buy one that provides this viewing angle--when you show your videos to good drivers you will get useful actionable advice.


Edited to add: use your savings from the cheaper camera to attend a Phase One Evo school
http://www.evoschool.com

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

The GoPro Hero session is fairly cheap ($200) and supports wifi and bluetooth.

I think in theory you can link several to one remote and set off recording on several at once. Then using RaceRender you could do picture in picture editing after the fact to edit the footage into one video.

Some of the apps can also set off recording on GoPro cameras via wifi, so you could trigger it from there too.

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2013 Scion FR-S 10 Series - Solo Spec Coupe
Sold: 1999 Mazda Miata DD & CSP - viewtopic.php?f=25&t=15327

If you are going for "fun" footage with the camera mounted on the side of the car, mount it above cone height.

Ask me how I know

Also mounting it on the side behind the front tires tends to kick up rocks and chip the lens and such.

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2017 Autocross Chief of Tech

2000 E Street Miata
2015 Focus SE EcoBoost 6 speed
2015 Fiesta ST (Wife's ride)
2012 Yamaha FZ1 sorta crotch rocket? All I know is 150HP and 487 lbs is fun!

I was the one that pickup the cone and the camera and it was still working.

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Patrice
1973 911 former track and AX car.
2016 VW GTI
2002 Nissan Sentra (Olivier car)
2012 Nissan Juke (Kathy car)
2010 Suzuki Kizashi (Audrey car)

In my defense, I had pretty good car placement I don't know If I would have hit that cone otherwise. The GoPro held up just fine, I got lucky and the lens portion of the case didn't hit the ground.

Thanks for the advice. Ended up with the Garmin Virb "auto racing bundle."

I'm not a video guy generally (so did not need the more general functionality of the GoPro) and this has some very cool features that will hopefully help to improve my times or at least give me a better idea of what I'm actually doing out there