Camping and Backpacking GEAR thread

Make sure your wool is Merino. Not all wool is... Merino has a high lanolin content (it's the same ingredient in hand/body lotions) and is what makes it 'glide' better.

 

Damn right. I should have specified that. Merino wool for every piece of clothing.

 

Well, I splurged yesterday and picked up the new GoPro Hero5. I'm super excited to make it my new trail/outdoors camera. Here's why I bought it just for that (and also for wheeling):

• 2" color touch-screen LCD on the back, built in. No more LCD add-ons and no more guessing what you're filming
• Auto-rotate so you get pics/vids upright even when it's mounted upside down
• GPS tagging on photos and supposedly videos, but confirmed for photos thus far
• 4k UHD video at up to 30fps
• 2.7k video at up to 60fps
• 1080p video at up to 120fps
• Protune feature gives you lots of manual adjustments now to camera and video settings like low light (best low light I've seen from GoPro yet), exposure time, ISO manual adjust and min/max in auto, white balance, and more.
• Waterproof/shockproof all by itself. No need to put it in a case anymore unless you're taking it underwater deeper than 30' or if you want some extra physical protection.
• When turned off, hit the power button and it automatically boots up and starts video recording.
• When turned off, hold down the power button for 3 seconds and it starts shooting still pictures in fast sequence until you let go.
• Quick on-screen review of video/photo and even some on-board editing and clipping of videos. Trim the crap off of the ends of your videos in the field and save SD card space.
• Linear mode for videos and photos - get rid of that fish-eye lens look to your footage. It crops the sides by about 10%, but it takes nice straight footage in this mode.
• Digital image stabilization - it works really well. Some vids on YouTube showed it side by side with 2 Hero5's recording the same view, one with it turned on and the other with it turned off. I was sold. Not available in some resolution settings though.

All were the exact reasons I felt it was a good buy for hiking. It's tiny, doesn't need a bulky case to keep it safe, and I can see what I'm doing. I bought an $8 clip-on mount that is low profile and allows me to mount it horizontal or vertical onto a pack strap with ease. Could double as a hat brim clip mount, too. Comes with a USB-C cable.

If you get one, get a really high speed SD card. In 4k video mode, this thing writes to a card at up to 70mbps, so you'll need a card that can do that or more. I picked up a 128GB Sandisk ExtremePlus card that writes up to 95mbps, and I haven't had a single glitch with recording at even the highest settings. That card handles high speed sequential shots and records them without a pause. And I mean hundreds of them at the 10/sec setting. That card shows I have just over 4 hours of recording time on the full 4k UHD setting at 30fps with a bunch of Protune settings at max. Not bad when I'm usually just filming 20-30 seconds here and there.

Best Buy had a bundle that gives you a free 32GB version of the same card. I usually don't shop at BB, but I'll take a $50 value. I'm thinking I'll need up to 2 of the 128GB on long hikes.

 

Does it still break files into 4gb pieces? If so I'll start looking for sales on the Silver 4's to fill out my collection.

 

@Seabass I didn't end up hiking secret canyon. We were ~5miles down woods canyon instead. Sorry!

 

I have a Hero 4 Silver with a lot of accessories but I find myself not using it much because I carry a DSLR. It's a conundrum.

 

You know what sucks? Buying expensive CF cards. I bought a 64GB 800x card and it was 48 freaking dollars.

 

Try buying CFast cards! I just paid $200 for a 64g!

 

Good lawd!!!

 

No worries! Springtime is best for good reliable water at SC anyways. Just curious how it was up there in the fall when we've been relatively dry down here.

 

That's a good question. I'm about to find out.

 

There was none in woods canyon so i bet up there its the same story.

 

Which Woods Canyon are you referring to? There are a few.

 

Nice. I need to get up there and hit some trails more often. Holler if you're planning something.

 

Me too, especially when it gets a little cooler. Same, if im not working I'm usually down to go out and do something.

 

I work M-F normal man's hours. I need some winter training for next year's JMT hike, so anything with any kind of distance and altitude is good.

 

Well, my two test files were just under 7 minutes and were at about 3GB. I'll run another test with a longer video and see what it does after 4GB.

 

I work most weekends but I usually get one a month off.

 

Get a real job! J/K