Action Cam or Osmo for vehicle shots and other stuff?

J

Josh Bass

Veteran
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 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, 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. I Google but only get articles/blog posts which I am always skeptical of. . .I like message board threads which (ideally) no one has agenda in what they say they like. If the cam was $80 or something I could probably buy it.

Any thoughts? I have never messed with this kind of stuff so just don't know a lot about it.
 
With a need for multiple mounting points, I'd go with a GoPro over an OSMO. Shoot it in Protune and drop the chroma and sharpness down, then you'll have a better image to play with in post. Also test with shooting in linear mode, which is not quite as wide, but removes a lot of the GoPro fish eye look. Unless you want that, of course, and then you can use superview for everything.

For mounting on a car, get a Fat Gecko 2 or three suction cup model. You'll also need one of the little tripod adapter mounts that converts the 1/4-20 Gecko thread into a GoPro mount. Always clean the hood or glass before mounting. BTW...I've found the 2 suction cup Gecko to be the most adjustable, inside or outside the car. The three cup is super strong, but, for instance, cannot be used on the car door and rigged to see up through a window. It mostly works on horizontal surfaces.
 
Thanks. This is all still very up in the air so may go with Osmo after all and just track alongside car or bike, etc. (they will not be racing/speeding).
 
#1 there are plenty of other cameras out there besides GoPro, and most are a lot cheaper.

#2 are you going to do 4K or HD resolution, this again could make a huge financial change in your gear, HD stuff is cheap.
 
Good comments above. I've done this sort of thing (multiple cameras on a bike) several times and will be doing it this spring a bunch more. Briefly...

-I'd go action-cam rather than OSMO. Action cams are easy to mount (and lots of mounts are available for not much money), and you're talking about rather stable situations: A bike, a car hood, a bike rider.

- I'd go GoPro rather than generics because ProTune is a nice feature (or are some of the cheap alternatives now offering similar image tweaking?). Same with previewing angles on a smartphone (really helpful; if a cheap camera offers that, good) Also, for your first adventure into this, using the "standard" will help when you turn for help; lots of people will know exactly what settings you need to change, etc.... That's useful when your time is limited.

- Think about getting a couple tiny ND filters for the cameras, especially the forward-facing ones; can make for a nicer image with less specular noise.

- Consider using a Hero4... Are the new features in the 5 and 6 worth it? A couple friends who do a lot of GoPro rigging feel that they aren't (and checking GoPro news, seems others agree with them. Sigh). Read up online to confirm, but that could save you some bucks...

- RENT! You could get a couple/few cameras for not much money ($50/week or so) and then go all multicam if you want (ie- experiment with more angles.
Heck you could rent a GoPro AND an OSMO for a week for like $120... plus some extra for more batteries, mounts, etc...but you'll want extra batteries anyway.

One online source:
https://www.borrowlenses.com/gopro

Have fun and let us know how it goes!
 
We probably wouldn’t rent (0 budget, not client work) but a hero4 is cheap enough (esp. used) I’d consider buying. As I said he can procure the Go Pro OR Osmo, not both—he works at a rental place. What all mounts are out there and what do they cost? I did look some of this stuff up but it gets overwhelming/confusing quickly.
 
Mounts for GoPro are wide and diverse, think of a situation and very likely someone made a mount for it. That's one of the good things about choosing that type of mount on a camera.

For HD, one of my favorite cameras is the JVC Adixxion line. Not a lot of features compared to a GoPro 5, but good looking image and fairly jello resistant. I only have Adixxion 1 (first version) so the version 2 should be even better. The first version can be had for under $100 and takes full size SD cards.

The Panasonic cameras are generally soft, trying to decide what to do with my HX-a100 camera. Probably pull it apart again and see if I can focus the lens better (or ditch it). The HX-a500 was similar in the near focus and generally soft image, makes me wonder why they put 4K in it.

Cheap Mobius (version 1), makes decent pictures at reasonable bit rates, some decent tweaking through the software. Cheap Mobius 2 (and Mobius Mini) look good in general use and have a nice high bit rate, not as much tweaking can be done because they seem almost orphaned by an as yet to be released newer camera. But small and light, works for my racing motorcycle for now ('til something better comes along, size is an issue here).

I feel I'm leaving something out, maybe I'll add to this. And all of the above is for HD (1080 and 720) only, I have no need for 4k right now as I don't use these professionally. For professional use, Panasonic just came out with a camera head and DVR pair that I would probably look at. But this is not in the same league as GoPro or other consumer action cams, the price is considerably higher than a few other action cameras combined.
 
Ok, thanks. I will look into those other cams. It would be nice, if I were to buy, to be able to use the cam professionally, and have 4K, so that is a consideration (not that HD isn't "professional". . .still never had a 4K shoot), but the video will be released in 1080 or 720p.
 
Mount wise, I most use:

1. Fat Gecko 2 suction cup mount. Hood, roof, windshield in and out, car door.

2. Goose neck mount. Not great for high vibration locations.

3. Grab bag of bicycle and pipe mounts. They are a clamshell type of clamp. Make sure you use the rubber pads to help dampen vibration. A bag of 90 degree adapters is also handy with these mounts to customize camera alignment.

4. Chesty strap.

5. Helmet mounts with arched extenders for face shots.

I use the Gopro app to check framing, and then turn off the wifi if the camera is going to be running a while. Get plenty of extra batteries!

Couple of other suggestions: A hero4 black used (or available at a discount) is a good start. If you are shooting something like bike stuff or bouncy car, shooting at 2.7K instead of 1080 and framing slightly loosely can give you some screen space for motion stabilization or pushing in during editing. 120 fps at 1080 gives some really nice slow motion, especially if your base frame rate and timeline are 24p.

Also, I've had some good results using the EVO handheld stabilizer. It costs less than the GoPro, but it works really well.
 
Fat gecko double: $71
BAg of 4 tripod adapters: $7.99
Gooseneck: $49
Roll bar mount and couple angle adapters: $10
Handlebar/seatpost/pole mount: $29 ($9 for the cheap little one)
Chesty: $39
Helmet mount extension arm: $8

There are also some generic grab bags of miscellaneous parts and mounts if you poke around.
 
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