Hacked GH2 or Gopro for long recordings?

[sgreszcz]

I'm going cover a live event this autumn and I'm looking to get a couple of unattended cameras to cover wide shots of a plaza to allow cutaways from my main camera shots.  What would people recommend for this type of shooting?  The GH2 or something like a GoPro, or something else?

My main camera will be the LX100/GX7 or maybe a Olympus EM5-II for the IBIS when running around.

Thank you!

[johnnymossville]

The GH2 with a 7mm lens would be fantastic for this with a better image than the gopro,  keep in mind the battery will only last about 1.5 to 2 hours unless you have external batteries. 

[Christina Ava]

go pro is useless at night, if its day, then hook it in a battery bank 10.000mah and let it roll but check on it, also i advise to tape it with grip tape, because it can move very easily from my own experience

 

[sgreszcz]

Thanks for the suggestions.  The main ceremony will most likely be bright Spanish sunshine, morning or mid-day, although the fiesta takes place day and night.  I guess it depends on what is going on and how much filming I can do.  

I think I'll pick up a used GH2 on eBay and test against a used GoPro including using with shots from my primary camera.  I'm going to need ND on the GH2, and will probably need to figure out what to do with the GoPro as I've never used one.

[cantsin]

It's a bit comparing apples & oranges. A GoPro is a fully automatic no-brainer camera that you can just mount/tape somewhere and remote control via GoPro's smartphone app. Codec quality is decent if you use the more expensive Silver/Black models with ProTune, and if you set it to ProTune log and dial out sharpening. It's very robust and designed in a way that operation and setup errors are very unlikely. 

However, there's no comparison to the image (and sound) quality of a GH2 with a good lens. The GH2 will require you to be behind the camera and manually focus and expose at least once before you shoot. There's no remote control via smartphone apps, no remote viewfinder, and no possibility to remote control a group of cameras simultaneously. 

I would make a pragmatic decision. If you really want to use a number of wall-mounted/taped cameras, and if you don't have a crew for controlling them at least once in a while, I'd go for the GoPro as the safer choice. Worse quality footage is still better than no footage from a camera operation error.

If you are one-man crew, you need to have your mind free to not be distracted from your a-cam work. Having to deal with a non-robust set-up of unattended cameras on top of your main camera work will be a logistic nightmare, drive you crazy, and in the worst case ruin your material.

[sgreszcz]

Thank you for all your input.  I'm going to test with a used GH2, and a used gopro that supports protune.  I might just end up using them both in the end.

[Escapist]

GH2 would also be easier to work with, as you have an LCD to double check exposure and everything. Or do new Go Pros have a way to see this?

[peterwhite]

Thx for the suggestion, and GH2 it is.

[j.f.r.]

I disagree 100% with the suggestions , A GoPro shooting at 4k will look much much better than a Hacked GH2. Not only that there are several other benefits of shooting 4k, if you have a GoPro that shoots 4k that would be my #1 choice.