I've had a GoPro for a coupla years. It is VERY limited in its capabilities; basically a "turn on and go" video camera. It's great for any kind of action/constant movement shooting and can produce some gorgeous footage. Keep in mind that in order to get any meaningful or useful footage you'll have to do a lot of desktop editing. The footage shown in the marketing is HEAVILY edited.

So you're saying that turning it on and off as the situation calls for is not an option? By the way, glad you chimed in on this. I

needed someone with experience. What model do you have?

Hero3 Silver, I think. Was just in on a seminar for GoPro. I forgot to mention that 3's and 4's have Bluetooth capability, which is pretty cool: use your smartphone as a remote control and monitor. Other than that, you have to see the control display to know your modes/settings. That's pretty hard when it's mounted on a helmet/headstrap.
I've done a lot of professional still photography and I'm used to having the camera in my hand and immediately seeing the settings, so this might just be a personal bias.

We were thinking along the lines of the Hero 3 Silver ourselves. Any gimmicks on the 4 that makes it worth the extra hundred or two

hundred dollars?

I definitely think it is what you are using it for. Definitely not a trail camera or anything this is meant to be in hand or on a mount in your control.

The new wifi ability to me is the real upgrade. To have my phone or pad tied to a tiny camera on a stick or monopod means I can reach and look into things I can't otherwise and in our case we are using it with a ground based drone unit for some special survey work we have.

I couldn't do what this can does with any other on the market.

The difference in 3 and 4 is mostly the megapixel on the cam and/or the video rate/ability.

For the extra couple hundred for the lay user I'd not spend the extra.

They are making more tools, apps etc. to help edit but on any camera we have even our 7D we have to edit in
iMovie or another platform.

I know what Dave is saying though it would be nice if it came out perfect immediately. I have seen untouched photos and video though from folks with little experience that are crazy good!

Low light is what kills us. Using led add ons with our remote unit to increase footage...

Justin


(We bought he 3 white which has lower mp but still 1080p video which is what we wanted and still has wifi.)

Thanks again, Justin and Dave!

There are similar units available also. Don't know squat about 'em, but Vivitar makes one. Also look into the eyeglass cameras: complete camera & memory storage in an eyeglass frame, looks wherever you look. Paul Ellsworth showed me some perfectly suitable footage he got of his daughter's first turkey kill from his eyeglass-cam.
If you need movie-grade footage of stuff, GoPro seems to set the standard. Most of us ain't shooting for Animal Planet.