Go-Pro Camera's

Bird Buster

Active member
So I took the plunge and just got one to use this upcoming season after seeing some footages taken with them last season. Question, what settings work best in the field and mounts are best for using while hunting? Any tips/advice is appreciated :thumbsup:
 
The best stuff that I've seen online various places is all head mounted. Gun mounts seem to blank on recoil.
Dave
 
Head strap, but unless they changed, you really cant see much very far away. I did some video of hunts and was very disappointed. Birds are invisible. Training with dogs up close you can see a little. I would love it if it had a wide zoom feature
 
Agree with the comments recommending the head strap.

A couple other suggestions/considerations....when pheasant hunting, you can't really leave it turned on all the time. You'll fill up your memory, run out your battery, and, have a whole bunch of footage of what it's like to burn up boot leather in between birds.

I put mine in the "one-touch" on/off mode. When my dog's acting birdy, I turn it on, and then back off after I've hopefully shot the bird, and, my dog's brought it back.

When you shut it off immediately after the retrieve, it makes the file editing much easier. Each time you turn it on and then off, you create a new video file, and, now you know right where to look in each file for the all action...ie. right before the end of each clip.

As mentioned, a little more zoom to the lense would be nice....on the other hand, it makes even the easiest of close-in shots look heroic :)
 
Head strap, but unless they changed, you really cant see much very far away. I did some video of hunts and was very disappointed. Birds are invisible. Training with dogs up close you can see a little. I would love it if it had a wide zoom feature

You have to narrow the field of view on the go-pro, that will let you see the birds farther out.
 
You have to narrow the field of view on the go-pro, that will let you see the birds farther out.

Steve,

Are you pretty sure of this one? My impression is that the "field of view" setting is just among a number of settings that affect the amount of data captured by the camera....pixel resolution, frames/second, and field of view.

But, I don't believe it's possible to change the focal length, it's fixed. So, even though the field of view is narrower, I don't believe it's zoomed in any.

I'll need to do some filming to verify, but, am curious if you have?
 
You have to narrow the field of view on the go-pro, that will let you see the birds farther out.


Been there done that. You may see pointed birds kicked up at your feet and shot close. But you aint gonna see a pheasant out 30 yards. Been filming with this thing for over a year now and I about gave up on it. Bow hunting I think they would work OK. When filming training the dogs look like they are a hundred yards away, in reality it is like 20-30 yards. I just have a hero hd. Don't know what the others do. But it certainly does nothing close to what they display in advertising.
 
I don't have one of these camera's but my take after reading this thread is that you might get some good shots if you hunt over a pointing dog but if you use a flushing dog the action is too far away to get good footage/shots. Is that the general conceits?
 
Been there done that. You may see pointed birds kicked up at your feet and shot close. But you aint gonna see a pheasant out 30 yards. Been filming with this thing for over a year now and I about gave up on it. Bow hunting I think they would work OK. When filming training the dogs look like they are a hundred yards away, in reality it is like 20-30 yards. I just have a hero hd. Don't know what the others do. But it certainly does nothing close to what they display in advertising.

No, you can see birds at a distance, the sharptail video above is a good example.

Narrow the fields of view will get rid of most of the fisheye look.
Its not going to be zoomed in, but you can see birds in flight at 30+ yards with no problem.


This is one without narrowing the field of view, everything looks farther away than it is. Note the fisheye look.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zMUaaHm6Z0

Narrow the field of view and you can see much farther.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T286hPM4lY4


But you are right, its easier to get video of the birds and the dogs when hunting with pointing dogs :cheers:
 
Here is some comments I put on another GoPro discussion in Colorado regional forum.

I have done quite a bit of filming and here are my tips.

1. I agree the above regarding the narrow the Field of view (FOV). Depending on which GoPro, you may be limited. I have Hero2 and the narrow FOV is only an option at 1080-30 so you can't do slow motion well. Don't know the FOV options on Hero3.

2. The quality of the video on Hero2 is greatly limited by decreased sunlight. If you notice on the GoPro website their vids are always middle of the day. Their vids turned out so good because they have several cameras and likely Many, Many repeat performances to get the quality they want. The Hero3 is supposed to be improved in low light conditions.

3. There are several ways to mount, gun, chest, dog, head. Head has the best view by far. Gun mount sound great but if you want to video others they will get a littler upset if you point your gun at them to film. Chest mount is obscured by the gun and Non-dominant elbow. Dog views, you need a lot of vid to get very few seconds of usable clips because of the shaking while they run. Head mounts give the best view but You have to train yourself to look around with your eyes not your head. You also have to learn to walk softly to avoid bounce. When a dog is on point, you won't remember. I have been thinking about belt mounts which may work well but is limited by the depth of the vegetation.

4. When the weather is cold or wet, keep looking at the lens on the cover. You never know when it gets frozen over or fogged.

5. Quail hunting with the GoPro will almost never turn out satisfactory because of the size of the bird and the backdrop. It is always difficult to see a bird with trees in the background. Pheasant on the prairie is the best situation for filming. Large birds, Usually sky in the backdrop as they launch up.

6. When uploading to Youtube, there is considerable resolution lost despite uploading in 1080p.

Below is my vid that I put up after my North Dakota trip. You can see the image issues in low light, fogging/freezing lens, fog in case. Just note The still pictures were taken with a Canon SLR so the quality is outstanding. When walking in the "field of gold" look at the little blips off the tip of my shotgun barrel, those are birds at the far end of the field. In the original vid they are clear as day, uploaded you can barely see them.

To give an example of the quality difference of video taken between Point shoot camera video mode and GoPro, The short clip where you hear "ROOSTER", that was shot with a Canon P&S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4flIs-TJps
 
Hero 2 works great except for the sound. App and wifi backpack work to see what you are looking at. I had a great day fishing where the camera was pointed too low.

Slow mo and pictures from video work well for me with movie maker.

Seeing misses on easy birds is probably the worst thing I can think of.
 
Here is some comments I put on another GoPro discussion in Colorado regional forum.

I have done quite a bit of filming and here are my tips.

1. I agree the above regarding the narrow the Field of view (FOV). Depending on which GoPro, you may be limited. I have Hero2 and the narrow FOV is only an option at 1080-30 so you can't do slow motion well. Don't know the FOV options on Hero3.

2. The quality of the video on Hero2 is greatly limited by decreased sunlight. If you notice on the GoPro website their vids are always middle of the day. Their vids turned out so good because they have several cameras and likely Many, Many repeat performances to get the quality they want. The Hero3 is supposed to be improved in low light conditions.

3. There are several ways to mount, gun, chest, dog, head. Head has the best view by far. Gun mount sound great but if you want to video others they will get a littler upset if you point your gun at them to film. Chest mount is obscured by the gun and Non-dominant elbow. Dog views, you need a lot of vid to get very few seconds of usable clips because of the shaking while they run. Head mounts give the best view but You have to train yourself to look around with your eyes not your head. You also have to learn to walk softly to avoid bounce. When a dog is on point, you won't remember. I have been thinking about belt mounts which may work well but is limited by the depth of the vegetation.

4. When the weather is cold or wet, keep looking at the lens on the cover. You never know when it gets frozen over or fogged.

5. Quail hunting with the GoPro will almost never turn out satisfactory because of the size of the bird and the backdrop. It is always difficult to see a bird with trees in the background. Pheasant on the prairie is the best situation for filming. Large birds, Usually sky in the backdrop as they launch up.

6. When uploading to Youtube, there is considerable resolution lost despite uploading in 1080p.

Below is my vid that I put up after my North Dakota trip. You can see the image issues in low light, fogging/freezing lens, fog in case. Just note The still pictures were taken with a Canon SLR so the quality is outstanding. When walking in the "field of gold" look at the little blips off the tip of my shotgun barrel, those are birds at the far end of the field. In the original vid they are clear as day, uploaded you can barely see them.

To give an example of the quality difference of video taken between Point shoot camera video mode and GoPro, The short clip where you hear "ROOSTER", that was shot with a Canon P&S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4flIs-TJps

GSP, great info and great video. I was going to get a go pro and then not after reading this post but even though you can't see roosters out 40 yards the POV perspective of the go pro vs. hand held camcorder is worth it. I will get one for filming my camps this fall.
 
Just ordered a GP3 from Best Buy. $199 bucks. Could not pass up and thought that was a fair price.

Got the 32GB card, extra battery and headstrap and was about $329 when all done.

Filming 6 UGUIDE camps in first 2 weeks of season so I think this will come in handy.
 
Just ordered a GP3 from Best Buy. $199 bucks. Could not pass up and thought that was a fair price.

Got the 32GB card, extra battery and headstrap and was about $329 when all done.

Filming 6 UGUIDE camps in first 2 weeks of season so I think this will come in handy.

You might want to practice a little first. You have to move your head pretty slowly, or the video is pretty jerky. Don't forget to narrow the FOV
 
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