Advice Needed: "Capturing" a really long ride on "Film"

[XtrPickels]

So- I have this big ol mountain bike ride across Portugal coming up.
I want to capture some images to share the experience with others and eventually relieve my glory days.

I can certainly whip the ol' cell phone out of my pocket for a few snaps - and that's great for some landscapes.
But I want moar.

I'm thinking about using a GoPro on a timelapse function - but l'm not sure if there's something I need to consider about this.
Each ride day is between 5 and 8 hours. GoPro obviously won't last this long- So I'll need to take multiple batteries.

Does this work? What else should I be considering? Are the picture going to be junk and not worth it?

[climberevan]

I believe you have no choice but to use 2 GoPros on your helmet, one on your body, and one on your bike. In combination with a DSLR and follow drone you MIGHT be able to document the trip adequately for the youth to grasp it. Don't plan on more than 20 miles a day, what with all of the fuckery.

Of course you'll need 100ah of lithium batteries to keep all of that shit charged, so you might as well pull a trailer too.

A buddy tried to GoPro one of our Baja moto trips a while back. It only lasted like one day bc the thing would always fuck up and the batteries were never charged. We spent what seemed like more time messing with it than riding. I gave up on serious picturing many years ago. I enjoy the experiences and take a few shit photos as reminders. I'm doing it for myself, not for the people who didn't come.

In all seriousness, though, I hope you have an amazing trip!

[Supermoon]

IMO just timelapsing your ride every day isn't going to end up with much that's ultra interesting. I would instead just pick the parts that are good and video those pieces.

If I was in your position and wanted the easiest way to capture on-bike footage, and use my phone to supplement it with video and photos off the bike, I'd get a 360 camera (GoPro or others) and then you don't have to worry about framing, you get multiple angles, etc. It'll be more of a pain in the ass to edit later, but you'll get the best coverage for the least amount on work on the ride. You'll definitely need a couple/few batteries and a handful of SD cards along with the camera.

[Dantheman]

Just hire Bjarne to film the whole thing.

[muted reborn]

Sounds like a pain that will take you out of the moment. Just enjoy the trip. You can consider a 360 camera so you don't have to worry if it's pointing in the wrong direction. Mount it in different places everyday, turn it on when you are biking through some cool shit, don't worry about constantly turning it on/off, and have fun going through endless footage for a few seconds of good stuff. There are external batteries so you don't have to swap them constantly.

[toast2266]

Every picture is a reminder of what a good time you could have been having if you weren't stopping to fuck around with a camera all the time.

But seriously, the only way to come away with good pics and/or footage is to have a person who is more dedicated to the photography mission than the ride.

[grskier]

If you go 360, i've been enjoying the insta360 x3

[evdog]

Are you bringing a larger camera like DSLR or decent point and shoot? I mostly take cell phone pics but having a camera with decent zoom is usually worth carrying. Some of them take pretty good video.

Can confirm go pros are a pain in the ass. I have a hero 8, it bricks on me one or more times each day I use it (battery randomly goes dead and camera won't turn back on). Only way to get it to work is to put a different battery in it. Go pro has its place and sometimes you can capture stuff that photos don't do justice, and with helmet/chest mounts they are easy to carry and use. The photos they take are not great though - quality seems far below what you'll get from real camera or even a cell phone - add to that being in motion, and go pro not being aimed at anything in particular, and I'd have pretty low expectations for the results of timelapse. Regardless how you use it you'll need capacity to re-charge batteries since they don't last long plus lots of memory to store the files until you can edit them (video files are huge!) Also don't underestimate the amount of time it takes to edit video. I pretty much only use mine to edit MTB descents and even keeping it simple as possible it takes a lot of time. Doing timelapse you'd be sifting through 1000s of photos if you do anything more than edit them into a generic timelapse vid.

I'd bring mine if I had one but I wouldn't go out and buy one for this trip. I'd just bring cell phone plus a decent camera. Take photos of the really cool stuff, and focus on riding the rest of the time.

[Canada1]

Gaper spirit animal biker. I have some ideas for stickers and many suggestions for where you can mount your go pros!!

[XtrPickels]

Man- It's funny how you mention a GoPro and people go overboard.

Was really looking for a simple alternative to have a GoPro on the bars snapping random shots, but it doesn't sound worth it.

[bagtagley]

It would be a cool record of the trip. It doesn’t have to be crazy. One GoPro shooting every few minutes. Don’t have to run it all the time, just during interesting bits. Pack a few batteries and if they’re running out too fast, shoot less.

[Supermoon]

Man- It's funny how you mention a GoPro and people go overboard.

Was really looking for a simple alternative to have a GoPro on the bars snapping random shots, but it doesn't sound worth it.

Honestly you could make it as complicated or simple as you want. GoPros are great cameras for what they are and if you are doing something cool in a cool place you'll be happy with what you come back with.