Action Cam or Osmo for vehicle shots (and other stuff)?

[Josh Bass]

Hi. A friend and I have a band and plan to do a music video shoot sometime soon-ish, probably by ourselves. We would like to do shots with a camera mounted on a bicycle, facing the rider, outward (bike POV), maybe something cool like mounted low near a tire, helmet cam stuff would be nice (there are rigs that stick out from the helmet that allow you to see the rider's entire body, or nearly so). Perhaps some follow/tracking stuff as well. Also camera mounted on a car hood facing windshield (maybe outward/front as well, not sure yet).

We have the ability to procure EITHER a Go Pro or an Osmo for free (he has access to gear), not both, unless I buy one of them, not sure which is more appropriate if we can ONLY get one. Can you mount an Osmo to vehicles, helmets, etc.? I know the Osmo is literally designed to move and be steady, on the other hand there are some Go Pros with IS built in.

What about other action cams? Seems a lot of people think Go Pros are overpriced and there are many equal competitors (Yi, some others).

Any thoughts? I have never messed with this kind of stuff (action cams, gimbals, mounting, etc.) so I just don't know a lot about it.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

They’re fundamentally different one is an action cam the other is gimbal with a built in camera. The osmo has better stabilization because it’s a gimbal. The gopro obviously is more compact and durable with better video quality. The osmo is primarily used as hand held walking around or mounted on a car it really gives phenomenally smooth shots see youtube videos, you can also pan and tilt. The gopro 5 added internal stabilization and the 6 has improved it but it will always be inferior to a gimbal. The gopro 6 also is expensive $500 + accessories.

[Mark Watson]

I have the GoPro Hero 6 and five Sony FDR-X3000 action cameras. Just for comparing the IS, the X3000 wins. It's a small form-factor, slightly larger than the GoPro, but they managed to put the sensor and lens onto a stabilized gimbal. It is highly effective. I did some testing with the Hero 6 and the X3000, walking around the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong during the day time and again at night, comparing IS and low light. The X3000 excelled at IS and also low-light. The low light test was with default settings on the Hero 6. I thought I had uploaded these tests to Vimeo, but I see that I never did that. Will try to get them posted soon. The main drawback for the X3000, is that it doesn't have the built-in LCD screen, so you're aiming it blind unless you get the little remote control with LCD screen that lets you operate the camera and see what it sees. This setup didn't work reliably enough for my uses at the drift track. Found it very frustrating to have the wireless dropout so often and take awhile to get reconnected. I have now bought the Zacuto EVF and connect via HDMI cable to set up the camera aim point. Also, the X3000 will overheat if ambient temp is around 90 deg. F. That's with it in the waterproof case. You can mount it on your car or bike without the waterproof case, but that case adds lots of protection if the camera should hit the ground. GoPro vs X3000 image quality.... It's very close in my opinion, but you do get more options for adjusting the exposure settings on the Hero 6. If I set the X3000 to "VIVID" mode rather than "NEUTRAL", then they match pretty close. I think overall, it's too close to call. Neutral is a flatter image.

I find myself using the X3000 and the GoPro 6 sits on the shelf or comes along on shoots for "just in case" I need another camera.

With the X3000's excellent image stabilization, I don't have to spend time running the footage through stabilizing software in my NLE, which is one of the most resource hungry special effects there is.

I did post a comparison of the Hero 4 Black Edition vs the X3000, attached to the hood of an SUV. The side-by-side footage can be seen at Vimeo here:

Sony FDR-X3000 Test Drive #1 on Vimeo

If you'd like a specific test done, let me know, maybe I can accommodate you. Battery life on the X3000 is 41 minutes with GPS on and Bluetooth off. With Bluetooth on, it drops to about 25 minutes IIRC.

Mark

[Josh Bass]

Thanks. It's not client work so quality doesn't have to be amazing, would be nice if it were nice, though. I will look into that Sony. Yes, I have specific framings in mind so I don't want to "fly blind." Having at least something to see the image as we're setting up, even if the signal is lost after that, would be good. Some Go Pros have the built in IS as well, from my understanding.

[Mark Watson]

When the wrist-mounted LCD remote works, it's pretty useful, and I can switch among up to five active cameras, checking their video and going into the camera's menu system to make changes to any settings is handy. At drift events, sometimes there's this small window of time to mount a camera just before the car heads out onto the track. I had connectivity problems and just went to a wired remote LCD to resolve that issue.

GoPro image stabilization is done electronically, which is inferior compared to the mechanical gimbal & gyro method used in the X3000. I need to correct my statement about low-light, however. The Hero 6 and X3000 were fairly close in that regard.

[Josh Bass]

I understand but The Sony is more than I want to spend as a purchase and my buddy only has access to Go Pros where action cams are concerned (at least I believe so). I saw a comparison on Youtube between a Go Pro with the stabilization (older model...Hero 4 or 5) and without...digital or not I thought it looked quite nice.