UKC

I've got a very cheap action cam that was a birthday present a few years ago but the battery life is barely 30 minutes and the mounts that came with it are hopeless, so it's a bit rubbish. My family are starting to ask about Christmas presents, so could be an opportunity for an upgrade.

Are GoPro still the best - they seem to be the iPhone of the genre, in terms of accessories/mounts - or are things like the Garmin Virb any good?

What's the sweet spot for bang for buck and what should I be looking at in terms of features?

My only niggle with the GoPro is that they use their proprietory mount and I've already got a couple of 1/4"x20 tripod style mounts that I bought for the one I have and also use with a normal compact camera, so could be a pain to keep swapping around.

It'll be used for road and mountain biking, surfing and kayaking.

Thanks in advance.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

I have no knowledge of other styles of camera but i swear by my gopro. Have used it for diving, sailing, go-karting etc and its always been spot on with the image quality etc.

there is the ability to get a thread mount adapter which i only used on a time lapse device but still worked fine for costing a couple of quid.

Hope its been of some use

In reply to LastBoyScout:

APEMAN A65 - worth checking out.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

There are some much cheaper and almost as good copies from China about that I would look at first as they are in the region of £30(for a good one)

In reply to LastBoyScout:
The new Virb Ultra is reckoned to be as good as the new GoPro with the additional benefit of inbuilt GPS for overlays on videos.

Have a look at dcrainmaker.com for loads of reviews.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

From the reviews I've seen and posted picture quality, GoPro is probably still the best. However, that's not to say GoPro is good, and the cheap Chinese alternatives appear to be catching up.

I've found mine (a Hero 3) to be pretty useless actually: crap picture quality, awful battery life, unreliable bluetooth remote, and generally so prone to failure that I don't bother with it. Most of the helmet mounted footage I collect is not much fun to look at anyway, and the fisheye lens means objects reasonably close appear as mere dots. For any camera work (entirely paragliding related) I've reverted to using a Nikhon digital point and shoot camera. It cost about half as much as a GoPro and does a far better job in every respect except for not being as compact.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

i like the bullet cameras, they seem way more compact/ low profile. personally i hate the way go-pro's mount to hlemets and stuff, they stick out too far.

i have the old version of the Replay mini and its been great, 4 years of climbing, caving and motorsport and its still working fine. the picture is not as wide angle as a go-pro but it distorts the image less which i like.

http://www.replayxd.com/products/camera-systems/

In reply to LastBoyScout:

Best bang for your buck is probably the Mobius Actioncam, I have two of the originals but the Mobius Actioncam 2 has just been released.