GoPro Motorsports HD Hero Review

Digicam — By Ricky on November 25, 2009 at 5:00 am

An excellent camera which offers a great deal of flexibility in terms of usage, mounting and resolution options.

Sum and Substance

Thumbs Up

Good photo/video quality, large number of mounting options and replacement parts, shockproof, waterproof.

Thumbs Down

No viewfinder, tiny LCD display, two button interface menu, bad performance in low light conditions.

Inside the Trunk

Included Accessories – Suction mount, Mounting hardware, Helmet mounting kit.
Cables Included – USB cable, A/V cable, Component video cable
Carrying Case Marine case – Polycarbonate

The Whiz Kid Speaks

Resolution
5 megapixels, CMOS optical sensor, video format MP4, H.264, Still Image Format JPEG, Supported Flash Memory – SD Memory Card, Lens – F/2.8, Focus free, Min Focus Range 23.6 in, Lens Aperture F/2.8, Max View Angle 170 degrees

Underwater Depth
Up to 197 ft

Additional Features
USB charging, Audio recording, 1080p Full HD movie recording, Shock resistant, USB 2.0 compatibility, Water resistant, Interval shooting mode

Supported Battery
1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery – 1100 mAh (Included)

Connector Type
1 x USB, Component video output, 1 x Composite video/audio output

Operating System Support
MS Windows Vista, Apple Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later, MS Windows XP SP2 or later,

Razzle Dazzle

GoPro Motorsports HD Hero camera is quite similar to the previous generation Hero 5 camera. It has a 170-degree ultra-wide-angle lens, features the same two-button interface (mode select and shutter), and it displays data on the same one inch monochromatic LCD display.

Waterproof housing comes along with every GoPro camera. The polycarbonate shell is custom fitted to the HD Hero and seals with a strong plastic clamp. Once shut, the HD Hero is waterproof to 180 feet and shockproof. So you can take this camera along with you under water for capturing videos and pictures.

Inside Dope

go pro motorsports hero review GoPro Motorsports HD Hero is a successor to GoPro Hero. The latter was a good camera but it had some serious issues in it like battery problems, standard definition video quality. And there was ContourHD which had give GoPro Hero a stiff competition.

GoPro are back with a new product, GoPro Motorsports HD Hero and the newer model is better than the earlier one and many of out grievances have been redressed, this camera can now take HD videos at 720p as well as full HD resolution of 1080p. Not only this, the video quality has also improved and other improvements include rechargeable battery pack and HeroBUS add-on port, with which you can the functionalities and performance with BacPak modules.

The camera is little bigger than its predecessor and the increase in size is due to a larger battery. The GoPro Motorsports HD Hero has 1100mAh lithium ion rechargeable battery behind a removable door. A bigger battery will give you a better life; it has enough juice to keep the camera alive for about two and half hours. You will need two hours to fully charge this device through the mini-USB cable, you can charge by using a computer or any other USB powered port. If you choose the use a power adapter (sold separately) to charge the device, it will take only an hour.

You can store the videos and photos that are on the memory card of the camera by connecting it to a computer. GoPro Motorsports HD Hero supports SDHC cards of about 32 GB, which may seem a lot, but it is not since you can capture HD quality videos. It is funny that the battery lasts for about two and half hours but the card can store videos from four to eight hours depending upon the video quality you choose. If you are in the middle of shooting, you may run out of battery and you will probably run looking for charging ports. But you can always power the device through continuous power source and while shooting.

There is a collection of flat and curved adhesive mounts for semi-permanent attachment to helmets and other surfaces, a three-way pivoting arm for aiming and positioning and a pair of quick release buckles for connecting to the adhesive mounts which gives users a fairly wide variety of mounting options out of the box.

If you want to connect the device to a television you can do so with the given set of composite audio and video jacks (the white, red and yellow ones) for standard definition and component video for high definition video. Both these cables are bundled along with the camera.

There is no viewfinder on this camera but its place has been taken by HERO Bus, which gives options for connecting optional Bakpac. Bakpac can be anything like Battery Bakpac which doubles up the battery life of the device or LCD Bakpac for preview and playback of the videos and photos that you have captured. We didn’t receive any Bakpacs for testing and we’ve heard they are ‘coming soon’. Each Bakpac will come with a replacement door to allow it to fit within the confines of the waterproof housing.

There is no dearth of options for shooting video and photo on the GoPro Motorsports HD Hero. For video there are five modes the maximum being full HD 1080p, the camera captures up to 30 fps and in this mode the video is cropped to only a 127 degree viewing angle.

720p capture which gives a resolution of 1280X720 uses the 170 degree wide angle with 30 fps or 60 fps. There is a tall HD mode which is the only mode to give the 4:3 aspect ratio and the lowest resolution is 848X480 pixels. Both this resolution offer 170 degree wide angle feature. Videos will be saved with H.264 and compressed as MPEG4 files. HD Hero supports stereo audio output but it only captures monaural audio from its single microphone, it is run through AAC compression and then rolled into the MPEG4 video.

There is no such option for resolution in the photography department and you get only 5 mega pixel feature. But there are multiple shooting modes: single-shot mode captures one photo per shutter press; burst mode captures three photos in rapid succession; per second mode captures photos at user defined intervals from 2 to 60 seconds and a self timer mode that delays the capture of a single shot.

There are various package deals for purchasing the GoPro Motorsports HD Hero. There is the HD Surf Hero package which subs an FCS Plug-compatible mount for surfboards, HD Helmet Hero package which includes a pair of helmet straps, in place of the suction cup mount or if you are on a stiff budget or don’t need these accessories then you can buy just the camera without any of these goodies.

One thing that frustrated us was the two button interface, its microscopic icons and cryptic menu structure is quite perplexing. It’s better to set up the camera at home before you go out so you won’t have much head scratching moments.

The LCD display is too tiny and it features near icons representing the camera’s various modes of operation and functions, and you will have to refer to the reference manual for many of them. Some functions are similar and it is difficult to tell them apart. Resolution is shown by a number in the lower left corner, for example 2 is 720p at 30fps. You will have to refer to the manual time and again for such code language.

When you go into the settings menu and you get odd three-letter abbreviations of functions, for example selecting ALL formats the SD card, something that you really don’t want to do accidentally after a day of shooting.

The camera is waterproof and shockproof when you use it along with the bundled equipment. Shockproof feature means that you can use for mounting the HD Hero to the exterior of a vehicle using the PanaVise suction cup mount that is included. We tried doing this and the results were great.

GoPro Motorsports HD Hero has a good quality, both for photo and video. We tried recording while in vehicle and the camera stood up to all the challenges that we threw in front of it and came up with good quality videos. The problem with shooting in vehicle is the audio of the engine and other noise of outside the vehicle is recorded too. The video quality will be good as long as you properly aim the HD Hero to ensure that you’re metering for the right subject when in spot metering mode.

The camera is better in day light as compared to low light areas. We tested the camera in low light areas and we found the quality was not as good as the day ones. When capturing video at dusk, there are amounts of visual noise in the video which might frustrate you.

Other accessories include articulating arms, specialized mounts or straps and replacement waterproof housings and lenses which can be purchased separately for easy repairs or expansion.

Nitty Gritty

GoPro Motorsports HD Hero has a great video and photograph quality. There are lots of mounting options and is shock proof and waterproof. Buy it if you don’t mind the tiny screen and the two button interface.