UKC

Has anyone any experience with go pro-ing a long (3 weeks), remote (NWT) trip. 6-8 of us are on for canoeing the Nahanni this summer and we'd like to make a good account of it.

Key issues I see are:

Batteries
Capacity for re-charging will be limited
Restricting footage (I'm thinking about half an hour of footage a day would be enough, filming key stages and sights and editing down to a half hour film in the end)
I'm thinking 3 go pro's mounted on head, hand held and fixed but inter changeable within the group

I have zero experience with this so if anyone has actually done it and can offer some advice I'd appreciate it.

In reply to Removed User:

Just one bump to see if any is out there whose done this?

In reply to Removed User:

I have not done it canoeing but I have on bikes.
I prefer the footage from a bar mount to a helmet mount.
The bar mount has a fixed view of the road and captures the ride but the head mount can be all over the place, the camera pan's around as you do shoulder checks etc.

Charging wise why not get a solar charger if you have room. Memory cards are dirt cheap and the more you record the more likely you are to capture that little spontaneous moment that makes the entire trip.

In reply to Removed User: I think you should be fine with a solar charger - from my limited experience the power demands to recharge a go-pro are very low. Having said that I can see that if you're canoeing by day when the sun is out there's a problem

And you'll need to take a lot of cards

In reply to wbo:


Some Powermonkeys and similar products have in-built batterys so you can charge things at night.

In reply to Removed User:

Not done them much... but indeed a few extra batteries per GoPro don't weight that much (perhaps one extra battery is enough). And then a solar charger (either charging a external batterypack or directly the batteries).

Indeed, get many (smaller) SD cards. In case you drop or loose one of the GoPro's, you won't loose all material from it.

As said above, helmet mounts are not the good and I also prefer a more fixed mount (for skiing chest strap or attached to the shoulder strap of the rucksack). Also get creative, GoPro is watertight, so strap to the the paddle, use a selfie stick and submerge the thing, strap it to the canoe and so on...

In reply to Removed User:

smatree make a little box you can charge 2 batteries at a time, although you'll need an actual power souce

i haven't done a trip as long as that, but a couple of USB battery banks should cover you and they don't have to cost a fortune. haven't used solar power yet so can't comment on that

In reply to Removed User:

No real advice to offer, other than to look at solar or perhaps wind powered chargers, spare batteries and memory cards and waterproof cases such as a pelicase. In case you haven't read it, a book I would thoroughly recommend is The Dangerous River, Adventure on the Nahanni by R.M Patterson - lone canoe exploration in the 1920s and 30s. It would be interesting to compare and contrast observations, equipment and experiences between then and now. Enjoy your trip, I'm quite envious.

In reply to Removed User:

Thanks for the replies so far. I like the idea of being creative with the mounting and I hear you all on the head cam.

I think solar power will be the way to go so I'll look into it.

Does anyone think I should consider an alternative to a go pro?

In reply to Removed User:

Having been on trips with a gopro I have the following observations:

The batteries are poor if shooting film (2hours per battery). Multiple batteries will mitigate this but you basically need a solar charger if you are off for more than a few days. I used a solar panel and battery pack. I would have thought you are wasting your time without taking a solar charger. I used the solar gorilla and power gorilla on my last month long trip. This kept the gopro, ipod, kindal, and ipod speakers charged fine and the battery pack smoothed out the periods of no sun.

Storage capacity, if you chose to take high definition footage you will probably find that 62GB micro SD storage is not enough for a long trip. I made compromise on latest jaunt to drop the quality and not take additional micro SD cards.

In reply to Brown:

Thanks.

I think I'm good now with what to take in terms of batteries, storage and solar charger.

Any other tips out there?

In reply to Removed User:
Still jealous of this trip...


I have no experience of Go Pro use myself, other than helping edit my friends films. However, regarding where you position the camera, agree that it shouldn't all be from the head. The problem with chest mounting is that your arms constantly come into view when you're paddling, blocking the view ahead, but careful positioning can work. I quite like the view point where some body positions it on a vertical stick behind the paddler(s). The only problem with this comes in places where the stick might get caught on something (as on many UK rivers) but on a big river like the Nahanni it could be good. Gunwhale mounted shots work quite well too sometimes.

A variety of positions would be my approach, and don't forget a few incidental shots of camp, the flight in, portages etc.

There was recently a video comp on Song of the Paddle - might be worth watching a few from that to give you ideas of where to put cameras and what shots work or don't; http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?47444-SOTP-Video-Comp...

Some are just basic amateur stuff, but the quality of a few is excellent. The finalists were in various categories:

http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?47711-Vote-1-Best-Pro...
http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?47714-Vote-3-Best-For...
http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?47715-Vote-4-Best-Ove...

As I say, I've never done much of this sort of thing, but it seems to me the best videos are those that are tightly edited, with short powerful sequences, not long sections of whole rapids. So you don't need to leave the GoPro on for extended periods.

Have fun! And do post up a link to the resulting video.

In reply to Mal Grey:

Thanks Mal.

Its still a long way off but the planning has started now in order to help get through the cold Saskatchewan winter

I'll be honest, the thing I'm most scared of is the editing and will likely need some help with that but your examples do show what can be done.

In reply to Removed User:

Hah. That's why I haven't gone "GoPro" myself! I edited an hour of my friend's footage from a run France, down to a 9 minute video. It took me 2 weeks, a few hours at a time, and every time I was having issues with computer speed etc. So, you really need some good software and a reasonably powerful PC. In theory, I'd like to do more, as I enjoy photography and writing trip reports/blogs, and video would supplement this.

Planning is half the fun. Currently working on our Easter trip to see if we can have as good a week as the one shown in one of those video finalists (Loch Shiel, not my video, but I'm in it in the solo boat). Trying to link together canoeing and portaging across wild bits of Scotland is fun to plan on the map, but miserable if you don't pick the right portage routes! Especially when we'll have kids in tow...shame we can't harness them to the canoes!