Feedback: GoPro or iPhone 5s

[eyeseeyou]

Shooting 4K video is not a requirement.

Any reason to choose a gopro over a 32gb 5s to use for casual video blogging and possibly an action cam?

 

[ColdCase]

Some examples, none of which may be relative to you: You can get waterproof housings for the gopro. You can shoot hours of video on a single SD card and battery charge, and it has batteries and memory cards that can be swapped out. The gopro is much less fragile, mine has been through... a lot. The gopro has a wide angle mode. The gopro can be mounted remotely and controlled from your phone (or iPad). Losing or damaging a gopro doesn't have the same impact on your personal life as losing your only phone. The gopro is easier to repair.

 

[eyeseeyou]

Some examples, none of which may be relative to you: You can get waterproof housings for the gopro. You can shoot hours of video on a single SD card and battery charge, and it has batteries and memory cards that can be swapped out. The gopro is much less fragile, mine has been through... a lot. The gopro has a wide angle mode. The gopro can be mounted remotely and controlled from your phone (or iPad). Losing or damaging a gopro doesn't have the same impact on your personal life as losing your only phone. The gopro is easier to repair.

Thanks for the reply. You've brought up some good points.

Losing or damaging a GoPro doesn't have the same impact on your personal life as losing your only phone. The GoPro is easier to repair.

• This 5S would actually be used more like an iPod touch meaning it's not my main phone. I just found a 32gb 5S for $100.
• I don't plan on losing but if I did... find my iPhone lol

You can get waterproof housings for the GoPro.

• They have relatively cheap waterproof cases for the 5S now that it's an old model

you can shoot hours of video on a single SD card and battery charge

• This may be the highest selling point of a GoPro
• I think a 32gb iPhone 5s with no apps installed gives you about 27 Gb's of free storage. From what I've found it's about 10gb's per hour of 1080p footage, so 27GB's equals roughly 2.5 hours total on a 32gb iPhone 5s, maybe, even more, shooting at 720p.

it has batteries and memory cards that can be swapped out

• I have a few external batteries that I already use when traveling for my personal phone to re charge the dedicated 5S if/when needed. Yes, a GoPro can swap out SD cards and an iPhone cannot.

The GoPro is much less fragile

• Considering this would be used as a dedicated camera and most likely more for family footage its being fragile is less of an issue but either way you're right. A lot more glass to break on an iPhone vs a GoPro.

The GoPro has a wide angle mode.

• I think the wide angle lens you can buy for these phones is super cheap?
• Either way not really a requirement

The GoPro can be mounted remotely and controlled from your phone (or iPad).

• I have a gorilla pod laying around with a phone mount that came with a selfie stick to mount the phone in awkward places if needed
• There are Bluetooth controls(I probably have one laying around somewhere) for the camera functions available if that's what you're thinking?

GoPro is easier to repair.

• I'll assume this is true.

Honestly, if I didn't already have accessories to cover the situations you've mentioned and if it was more than $100 for a 32gb I wouldn't even consider it.

I think the smart features and relatively cheap accessories for the iPhone is what has me interested including the automatic back up to icloud, lenses, wireless file transfer to other idevices, video editing apps and more apps.

I actually have even noticed there are some off brand gopro cameras that offer most of what you mentioned for less than $100 including waterproof housing and batteries and can shoot 4k. I might actually look into that now thanks!

 

[eyeseeyou]

Ok found a 64gb 5s for about $100. I've seen a lot of really good 1080p videos on youtube and vimeo. Too bad the ios imovie app doesn't provide video stabilization. It really does make a difference.

The procam app actually lets you shoot in 4k if I really want to eat up the memory.

Looking at "action cases" but not sure how much I'd actually use them.

Also looking at wide angle lenses that do not distort the video quality noticeably.