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Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

khall540

khall540

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Full Member
Minuteman
Apr 20, 2011
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Beaver Dam, WI
I have been trying to find some comparison and reviews between the GoPro and Midland XTC. I am looking at picking one of these up on a Black Friday sale this year. I am mainly going to be using it to attach to my turkey gun or bow stabilizer to record some hunts. I also may mount it to the tree to get a second camera angle looking back at the hunter/shooter. Does anyone have any experience with either of these? The GoPro is quite a bit more expensive, but is larger in size and the Midland XTC has a simple on/off switch to it and nothing more. Thanks for your thoughts.
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

I have used the GoPro and it is pretty amazing. Both in the underwater housing g while scuba diving and attached to my motorcycle. I have yet to put it one of my guns, but the quality is pretty amazing. In my opinion the extra money is well worth it and you won't be disappointed. Good luck.
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

Don't get either. Get a Contour. Same easy on off switch as the Midland. You can get a full waterproof one, with a deep drop housing for around 200 bucks. It's a self contained unit. Battery never comes out of the camera and will run for 5-6 hours straight. Best part is they make a rail mount for it to attach to a gun. Check em out, lots of rafting companies use em. Great cameras
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

I don't think the Midland is even in the same class as any of the others such as GoPro or Contour. I see that Sony just came out with an "Action Cam" that has some very nice features, it's what I'll be buying when I've got the money. If not that, then Contour. The form factor of the GoPro is just really bad, especially if you are mounting it on a gun.
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

I had one of the Burris gun cameras. While the video quality wasn't anywhere near as good as new stuff, the thing was the size of a large gun-mounted flashlight.

No stupid straps or random jerry-rigged setups to your hat, the thing cinched to a picatinny since that was ALL it was designed for.
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

We used a Go Pro on our last heli-hog hunt, on one of TNVC's ops-core helmets. Worked pretty good except, the height of the camera, for us tall guys. You had to decide your head was either out of the door, or in it, you had to duck to lean out. Picture quality had everyone going "oooh and ahhhh", very happy with that.

Winter project is to afix it to a pic rail for more thrills. I have seen one guy with one, looking at the back of his PVS14, for filming night hog hunts. He shoots looking at his laser, not thru the PVS.
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

The GoPro is my choice if picture quality is the top concern. For a lot of what I do, it is.

If low-profile is more important, then I use a Contour.

The Contour combined with a Strikemark mount is perfect for rifle mounting. It doesn't get in the way and you can shoot the shooter or the target.

The disadvantage of either is the sound sucks and they are not going to give you a real good view of the targets we usually engage with rifles.
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

Thanks for all the info so far. I'm definitely going to be looking into the contour some more. It looks like you can remotely activate the contour using a cell phone app too.
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

I'm using the Contour+2 now. It's bluetooth capable as well as gps. There are apps for android as well as iphones not on ios6.

It comes with the waterproof case, a couple of mounts, and cables to connect to tv or your computer. Also comes with a sd card and reader.

I've just used it on my bow thus far and am happy with it. You have two preset settings on the camera that can be changed either on your pc or via the app for white balance, speed and other things. The lens has the ability to rotate depending on how you have the camera mounted.

Like lonewolf said before, you won't be able to see impacts on rifle targets.
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

I'm not looking to see rifle target impacts. Maybe a lumenok arrow at 20 yards though. Or else I would like to mount it looking back at the shooter .
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

Because of the wide angle, looking back is usually the best shot.

GoPro Hero 2 in action on the AE MkII:
HD Video Link

Contour ROAM test:
HD Video Link

Bear in mind, both of these have been color corrected and in the case of the Contour some processing to reduce the noise has been added. The Contour ROAM is considerably noisier than the HERO2

Here is some head mounted footage of the Hero2. No color correction or processing. The audio is useable because the gray fuzzy thing stuck to the back is a Micover windscreen. If you don't have a windscreen then the "waterproof" back is what you want for shooting sports. Otherwise the wind noise will make you want to turn it off.

HD Video Link
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

Lone Wolf, thanks for the links. I was actually watching your first link of shooting the AI which is what got my head spinning with this idea. GoPro does seem to have a better picture quality but I'm not sure I wanna give up the more compact design of the Contour
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

I also see now that GoPro will be coming out with the wi-fi accessory for android this fall. From the sounds of it you can activate recording from your cell phone by using the app. Effective range is 600 feet...? Has anyone tried this with the iPhone yet? This would be really cool to use if you were bear hunting over a bait or something and set the camera up on the ground in front of the bait to get a close up of the shot hitting your intended target. Also I see the GoPro Hero 2 is 11 megapixels. That's a big plus!
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

I just installed the WiFi App for the GoPro on my iPhone. It's still a little buggy. I am not sure what kind of range I can get out of it. I mainly wanted it to verify my setup before recording. I had the WiFi backpack for a couple months while waiting on the App. The remote control is pretty slick if you don't need to see what the camera is pointing at.
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

Check out Replay XD, they blow away GoPro.

We run them on our Class 1 desert car, and they are the only cameras that hold up. One of the owners comes from a motorcross background, so he builds his stuff to be abused. They are so good that Robby Gordon was buying them for his trophy truck after he got tired of GoPro's taking a shit on him.
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

I returned my contour and kept my Hero2. I use the head mount because the footage is a lot less boring than gun-cam footage. Heres an example:

First part was taken with a Canon 5D mk3 to show the head mount. Then we get to serios tactical marksman stuff...

Oh and be sure to turn on 1080p.

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eYf9p4Ftmxo"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eYf9p4Ftmxo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: UNREAL HENRY</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I returned my contour and kept my Hero2. I use the head mount because the footage is a lot less boring than gun-cam footage. Heres an example:

First part was taken with a Canon 5D mk3 to show the head mount. Then we get to serios tactical marksman stuff...

Oh and be sure to turn on 1080p.

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eYf9p4Ftmxo"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eYf9p4Ftmxo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object> </div></div>

Your video is set to private...
 
Re: Gun Camera: GoPro or Midland XTC?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: BigBlue&Goldie</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Check out Replay XD, they blow away GoPro.</div></div>

They may be more durable than the Hero2, but there is a reason you see the GoPro cameras being used for professional projects (ever watch Dirty Jobs?). It's not because they can't afford a better camera. It's because there isn't any better camera that can do what the GoPro can do. However as I mentioned, the form factor doesn't fit everything and as you mentioned, they may not be as vibration resistant as other POV cams.

Now when you look at the new firmware update that was just released I now have an even greater dynamic range to play with. I am really looking forward to getting out and shooting some more with them.

I really do like the Contour when I need a low-profile camera for HD work and can deal with the grain or spend a lot of time in post fixing it.
 
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