GoPro HD vs HD2 (low light)

bennett_346

Basically i'm ready to buy a gopro again. I used to have the old SD one and it was simply put, crap quality. Low light foresty type places? May as well not of bothered turning the camera on.

Now i can get the old HD for £150 or the HD2 for £225

For darkish forests, it it worth the extra £75 for the better overall quality and is low light performance significantly better? I want opinions from people who have actually used these, not someone telling me it's newer so must be better!

Thanks guys.

The Northern Monkey

On the Contour, you can alter the exposure/contrast/metering/sharpness depending on what ride you're likely to do or what sort of ride its going to be.
I have a few different setting files saved on my laptop. I check the weather beforehand and put the most suitable on.

Not sure if you can do the same on the GO-Pro?

bennett_346

Good shout. I'm not sure if you can do that on the gopro!

arigold

stabilizer on the contour is poor, I had to use Video editing software to smooothen the clips and yes I've tried all sorts of mounts

oxocube1

I picked up a HD Hero 2 from my recent visit to the States (got it for $150 due to a discount my brother got me ) and the exposure adjust and quality is superb. The camera adjusts really quickly and accurately when riding from light open areas into dark forestry trails. It also has a 'Spot meter' function that can be enabled to have the camera adjust for filming from a dark place (the inside of a car) to a lighter place (outside the window of the car).

I have the helmet, chest and bike mounts for it and found that the chesty is generally the best for POV riding as the helmet mount does not give a very good concept of trail steepness or speed. The bike mount works really well on the seat post front and back, as long as your shorts do not get in the way of the lens whilst filming forwards but is not too great on the stem for the same reasons as the helmet mount.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPT3M9G3Ni4

That's a video using the Hero 2 Helmet mount. Having that little extra weight on your head for 2 hours really does make you neck ache!