Having used both the Sony and GoPro over our Hokkaido trip, I now have some more thoughts on these two cameras and how they stack up against each other. GoPro feature set wise wins. Their WiFi remote is very useful, much more than linking up a smartphone. How often in -10C with winds blasting enough to almost knock you over and snow swirling in your face are you going to dig out your smartphone, take off your gloves in order to use the phone, wait for the app to sync, then browse through it to change settings or start the camera. The GoPro allows full access to all functions while in the waterproof case, although in use the only setting I changed in the field was the inverted setting. The Sony once it was in case only has the start/stop button, which ended up being fine. And it’s a nice big button that makes it glove friendly.
But the Sony has only one tiny impossible to see record indicator LED on the back, I could never see it in the field. The start tone is too soft, again impossible to hear through layers of neckwarmer, helmet ear muff, blasting snow and wind.
Mounting system wise it’s a toss up. Standard tripd of Sony vs proprietary GoPro. The GoPro is lighter, but has a tendancy to slip. Standard tripod you can find some burly solid mounts, which are correspondingly heavy and bulky. GoPro has a tripod adapter so you can use any of those, but you still end up with one GoPro style swivel joint that you need to crank down until your fingers turn blue. I don’t know what Sony was thinking puting the lanyard loop on the top of the camera right above the lens. If you use a safety lanyard, which I highly recommend seeing as how the cameras went flying off their mounts three times on this trip alone, it’s a pain to keep it from dangling in front of the Sony lens.
The Sony audio door does allow more sound in under snow conditions as long as you’re not moving. In snow you wouldn’t want to run the GoPro with it’s open door, negating the GoPro 3’s improved audio advantage.
Video quality is up in the air, I’ll have to review more footage. The GoPro I shot at 720, 60fps to reduce “jello”, the Sony I ran at 1080, 30fps since it’s IS algorithms seem to counter the jello fairly well.
There was one aspect that the Sony clearly out did and flatly beats the GoPro. That is battery life. The Sony lasted almost twice as long, it lasted almost the entire day of shooting. Recording only when going down the slope, turn off during the lift rides up and breaks in riding. The GoPro would require a battery change, which again is a pain in the snow, even if you wait until you’re in the gondola ride up. It’s near impossible to avoid introducing any moisture into the case, and you inevitably drop and loose the GoPro anti-fog chalk strips. And yes those strips start to break down releasing chalky dust.
If GoPro were to improve it’s battery life to anywhere close to the Sony, then it would have no peer. But this one single advantage has made me reconsider my opinion of the Sony. In actual field use, this battery life is a great advantage. Being able to set and forget it and just grab it and go works. If Sony were to fix some of the quirks like indictors, all its rattles (after my DIY post I also cardboard shimmed the battery, it still rattles, seems it’s the cam to waterproof case interface somewhere), and did something about wind noise, it’d be a serious contender. It’d be nice if they improved the wifi app, but it turns out that in the field I’m finding that less usefull. The GoPro remote is great and much more usefull, but I’m sure that is a big battery drainer since the wifi is sitting there listening in standby even when the camera is off. I guess I could bite the bullet and put the extended battery pack on the GoPro, it might be worth the bulk and weight.
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