I’ve decided to go for Sony instead of GoPro Hero 3 to record my daily comute on the bicycle.<\/p>\n
A friend lent me his GP3 along with a very strong clamp for the handlebars – results: the GoPro video was all jelly. Running deshaker for each video is not fun thus … based on the comparisons on Youtube, I’ve decided to go for Sony as100v (with Live View).<\/p>\n
Since everybody knows the good parts already, I’ve decided to post a list of issues that I do not like about the camera. Currently it is still running version 1.0 of the firmware.<\/p>\n
a) GPS Overlay is nice, but it is very tedious to use. First, you almost can’t do anything with the videos from the camera, but to import them locally. 1 hour of PRO mode quality footage created a 31Gb file (out of the 64Gb SDXC card) which I first had to import locally before applying GPS Overlay. It took about 40 minutes to be copied (the laptop is an old generation i7 with Samsung SSD 840 PRO \/ USB 2.0).<\/p>\n
To add overlay to a 1 hour PRO movie while converting it back to 1080p @ 30fps took 7 hours! CPU was at 50% all the time and no other heavy CPU \/ hdd applications were running.<\/p>\n
b) The camera doesn’t seem to be very sharp at infinity even with Image Stabilization on. It seems it is in perfect focus between 1 and 10 meters, but the buildings far away (even if square) they don’t appear crisp. I think GoPro produces footage that looks sharper. However, between having a jelly GoPro footage (that looks very good when sitting at stoplights) vs having a not so sharp footage but more relaxing to watch – the winner is Sony.<\/p>\n
c) The marketing gimmick with SPK AS2 Waterproof case which can’t be used to crisply record Underwater! Due to the sphere shaped window – the footage won’t be crisp at all. You need to buy the old waterproof case (SPK AS1 + the flat window AKA RD1). Still, the combo is still cheaper than Go Pro (I guess).<\/p>\n
d) You can’t remove the videos from the Camera using PlayMemories software. It worked once, but now the camera is mounted read only, and I can’t remove them from Windows. I decided (since I had everything imported anyway) not to take the microSD card out, but format it using the camera.<\/p>\n
e) After formatting the card using the camera, I now realize that the camera splits the movies into 4Gb chunks. So instead of having a 10Gb file, you have to merge 3 files (2 x 4Gb + 1 x 2Gb). So now I have to format again. Given how SLOW it can be to apply the GPS overlay (point a) above) then I will probably give up on using PlayMemories all together and just manage the recordings via microSD card directly.<\/p>\n
f) After some poor reviews for the Sony Handlebar mount (being all shaky) I decided to go for the Drift Handlebar mount + a different purchase, the part that slides in the mount and you can screw the camera to. It is rigid – a recording here:<\/p>\n
[youtube]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5UvHUYnzO0k[\/youtube]<\/p>\n
g) GPS sometimes looses signal and you ride with 0 km\/h many minutes out of the city. Or, until it gets a lock, reports that you ride with 40km\/h when you just started. So the first 1-2 minutes, the speed is off.<\/p>\n
I will upgrade the firmware to 2.0 and review the issues …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve decided to go for Sony instead of GoPro Hero 3 to record my daily comute on the bicycle. A friend lent me his GP3 along with a very strong clamp for the handlebars – results: the GoPro video was all jelly. Running deshaker for each video is not fun thus … based on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rants-about-mobile-techs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hex.ro\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hex.ro\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hex.ro\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hex.ro\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hex.ro\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1515"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hex.ro\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1535,"href":"https:\/\/hex.ro\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions\/1535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hex.ro\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hex.ro\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hex.ro\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hex.ro\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}