Art and Photography

GoPro Alternatives?

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May 4, 2006
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GoPro Alternatives?

Hi All,

I recently found the GoPro @ Bestbuy for about $160 but read how everything is enclosed, meaning if something goes wrong its all gone.

Therefore, I was wondering about any alternatives that people might know of with say replaceable batteries etc? Anything cheaper but durable?

Thanks,
Riz
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24 replies
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May 22, 2005
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There are replica's, I think its called somehting like SJ1000, and then there are other brands like Contour (which may be dead atm) and Sony action cams.


I have one for sale right now, feel free to take a look.
Sr. Member
Nov 12, 2012
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Calgary
Garmin VIRB is available on Costco.ca for $199 batteries are removable/replaceable.
Deal Addict
Mar 8, 2009
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My GoPro has removable batteries.

A friend of mine has the Garmin camera and it's pretty awesome.
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Jun 29, 2008
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North York
The $169 entry level GoPro Hero cannot be taken out of its housing so you cannot replace the battery. You can replace the batteries on all other GoPros.

IMO, I would stick with GoPro for its system. It's the best in the market. Go get yourself a Hero 4.
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Mar 22, 2007
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Sj4000 can be had for about 90$ I believe.

Some goon is selling it on bst right now
Newbie
Nov 24, 2012
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TORONTO
Try the SJ4000. Do a search. You can get it for about 100 bucks and it's comparable.
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May 4, 2006
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Thank you all for the suggestions .. will do some more research but looks like GoPro Hero4 is the best to save up for :D :)
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Nov 12, 2012
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Calgary
Hero3 is a perfectly fine camera if you don't need/want 4k resolution.
Banned
Jan 14, 2015
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I see the SJ5000 is now out too, which is more powerful and at a fraction of the GoPro cost
aldiceman wrote: Try the SJ4000. Do a search. You can get it for about 100 bucks and it's comparable.
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Dec 15, 2007
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springy wrote: I see the SJ5000 is now out too, which is more powerful and at a fraction of the GoPro cost
Be careful with the SJ5000+, lots of complaints (lots of bugs, low light is super grainy).

I had ordered one during pre-sale. Was suppose to ship 10-14 days. Thankfully a month and a bit later it wasn't shipped so I cancelled and bought the gopro 4.
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Sep 26, 2007
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paid $99 for the Sony AS20 on boxing day...still haven't field tested it yet but the value alone (1080/60 + Zeiss Tessar lens + up to 2 hours removable battery) blows GoPro's out of the water.
Russell wrote: We come here looking for deals. We use the savings on the things we buy to justify buying more things, thus filling our homes with tons of unnecessary consumer products. Such is the key to happiness.

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Jul 21, 2005
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twitchyzero wrote: paid $99 for the Sony AS20 on boxing day...still haven't field tested it yet but the value alone (1080/60 + Zeiss Tessar lens + up to 2 hours removable battery) blows GoPro's out of the water.
I looked at the sony action cam and almost bought it myself, but on youtube there are many comparison videos and I liked the look of gopro video the most. My wife got my a gopro hero 4 silver just a week ago, we used it on our trip to Yellowknife, it's fantastic, the quality is so crisp. I too looked at alternatives and decided that gopro is probably worth the cost. When in Yellowknife, I was able to find two shops that carried batteries (no battery last long in -39...) and they had gopro batteries, but nothing else, so if you are in a small town and in a bind, you may want to go with something mainstream. The sheer amount of mounts as well is very nice, I picked up the head mount and a suction cup mount and used them on my snowmobiles out there and stuff, pretty great.

If you can't decide on what to get, I would go with the 4 silver over the black, the introduction of the touch screen on the back of the 4 silver is fantastic and very easy to frame your shot. Silver can do 4k at 15frames, and 2.7k at 30 frames, while the black can do 4k at 30 frames, but has no screen, so it's a trade off. At 1080p things already look pretty gorgeous so you would have to decide if you want the screen or the 4k resolution out of the box. You can get a screen attachment for the black, but it makes it more bulky, and on top of all, its about $100 more expensive for the black, and another $80 if you want the screen.

At the end of the day, I think sometimes sticking with the industry standard has advantages. I wasn't paying for mine so I don't really care, but if I was, I would save up rather then buy something less common.

By the way, gopro hero 4 silver is ~2 hour battery life as well when not in fidget temperatures.
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most of the GP mounts out there work for sony as well...just requires a mini adapter. The Sony has better colours from the exmor sensor but GP's fisheye effect isn't as harsh.
I dont want this to turn into a GP vs Sony thread but here are the decent comparsion videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvJuutU5sNs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJubL_cFuzc

My only real complaint so far with the Sony is the menu buttons on the protective housing are very stiff to press. Again, for the price that I paid for a brand name cam this is a very minor flaw.

i'd hate having to buy batteries in a bind! I got my two spares + charger (Vivitar brand so not shady ebay knock-offs) for about $20
Russell wrote: We come here looking for deals. We use the savings on the things we buy to justify buying more things, thus filling our homes with tons of unnecessary consumer products. Such is the key to happiness.

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May 31, 2005
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I'm not really impressed with SJ4000. Video quality is ok, it shows a moderate amount of compression artifacts. Still photo is just awful, not really usable. It's not a bad camera for the price. I used it mostly as a dash cam. Sony AS100v on the other hand, has far superior image quality recording @ 50Mbps. Videos look stunning even in low light. Highly recommended.
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Dec 11, 2003
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There this one from MonoPrice as well -> http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=1 ... 1&format=2.

The shape of it looks like the GoPro and the price is $176.88 + shipping + taxes in US currency. No idea how much shipping is though. I suppose with the Canadian dollar being so low you may not want to buy this one. But if you do let us know how it is.

I agree with everybody else that the GoPro is the industry standard and it's usually better to just go with the standard if you can afford it. Otherwise, this one from MonoPrice looks like a decent substitute.
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why not just go for the $130 hero if you're gonna spend $200 on a non-reputable product?
Russell wrote: We come here looking for deals. We use the savings on the things we buy to justify buying more things, thus filling our homes with tons of unnecessary consumer products. Such is the key to happiness.

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I really like the Sonys, mainly because they are more suited to mount on helmets on the side, and the image stabilization works well. Quality wise, very comparable to the more expensive go pro 3
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Will be using any of these types of cams more in the summer when we go swimming and biking but am wondering how these fair for still photos and small videos of the family?

I picked up the Sony HDR AS100VR with the wrist LCD for $299 since it was almost sold out on Bestbuy.ca (which it is no longer :( ) but didnt open it yet as I am still debating, money is not a huge concern. Getting the right one is .. I am debating the Hero 4 with LCD as well .. been viewing videos on Youtube and feel I am getting more confused LOL! :D

Anyhow regarding my question above please advise .. BTW I do have a DSLR for still photos already but this would be for the times when I cant take a DSLR with me and spur of the moment shooting of almost anything ..

Does the SONY suffer big time from fisheye? Is there software that fix this?
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