Go Pros and Red Dot sights.

[himurax13]

Hello all. I recently got my toes wet after a 15 year hiatus. I was hoping to get help with using Go Pros and Red Dot sight setups on a marker that can survive paintball hits. More specifically on a Tippman 98 Platinum with the newer Flatline barrel and a cyclone hopper.

Thanks in advance.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[Cyberpyr8]

Deciding where to mount the camera is key. I tried barrel mounts and I found that I tilt my gun most of the time and filmed mostly window and door frames. I went with the HK mask mount and it was much better in terms of what you could see. Plus, for me I could tell how much my gun was up and what I was looking at. If you barrel mount and you put your gun down to run or if you don't keep your gun up most of the time, you will miss a lot. I used some old GoPros for a while then went to an Ashok camera which looks just like a GoPro but would film a little higher quality. I needed aluminum cases or a direct hit could break the camera in a plastic case. If I bought a new camera today, I agree with PinnaclePOV, go with a DJI.

Here's an old clip I did with a GoPro3 head mounted. You can see the action and who I am shooting at. This is with minimal editing. I could have slowed it down and zoomed in but that takes time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1QjdVbOSas

[Matt Drown]

You need to decide what you want to show. And where you are playing (woods/speedball). Center mount cameras produce a lot of hoppers, barrel mounts produce a lot of editing. I've just dabbled. I mounted a gopro hero7 (without case, but with the screen impact thing, from gopro, not a sticker, and not a dive case), off to the SIDE (left and right) of my mask for this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukgu5RdxTpk - but you'll notice you can't really see what i'm shooting at. So two cameras makes for better video. Also remember, if you expect anyone else to watch it, you're going to have to edit a lot of it.

The Inflicted had a bunch of great suggestions, you can search his posts for a lot of help.

[Twisted G]

F*** go pro. Their cases suck ass. Brass eagle didnt make plastic this brittle. After less than 10 opening and closings the door would split right down the hinge. Maybe the paintball oils weaken the plastic idk. Contour still make the roam series cameras? No case needed and you can put zoom lenses on them. .

[BrickHaus]

Contour is long dead also. They also break on the battery door hinge eventually. I have q roam 2 limping along yet.

[The Inflicted]

You need to decide what you want to show. And where you are playing (woods/speedball). Center mount cameras produce a lot of hoppers, barrel mounts produce a lot of editing. I've just dabbled. I mounted a gopro hero7 (without case, but with the screen impact thing, from gopro, not a sticker, and not a dive case), off to the SIDE (left and right) of my mask for this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukgu5RdxTpk - but you'll notice you can't really see what i'm shooting at. So two cameras makes for better video. Also remember, if you expect anyone else to watch it, you're going to have to edit a lot of it.

The Inflicted had a bunch of great suggestions, you can search his posts for a lot of help.

Thanks!

And yeah, mine experience is that when it comes to making watchable paintball footage, 2 cameras is way better than one.
1+1 = 3.
A camera with good anti-shake functionality like a GoPro 7 (or above) or DJI Action 2 on your mask is the more important of the two. A lot people run these things unprotected on their masks but every other month there's someone on the Paintball Reddit who shows their new GoPro 11 that's been wrecked by a paintball hit, so I've always run some kind of case. Overheating becomes a problem with the plastic watertight cases but drilling ventilation holes can help. The only way I was able to get my GoPro 8 to stop overheating on sunny days was to go to an aluminum cage that acts like a big heat sink and glue the plastic lens-protecting front to it.



Even with a good head camera, your viewers are going to want to see what you're shooting at so a second, zoomed-in camera mounted above your barrel is key. I don't think that unmodified GoPros with their stock wide-angle lenses are particuarly suited to this since your target is going to be such a small part of the image. You can swap the lenses on these things but it's a bit of work to do so and the resulting form factor is terrible.

https://youtu.be/bv36Y6i7qos

If you've got the scratch, the RunCam Scopecam 2 4K and Foxeer Legend 4K are both excellent cameras for this purpose, and my Scopecam 2 has taken at least 4 direct hits to the lens and lens area with no problems.

Like Matt said though, editing becomes your big task at this point, since out of 6 hours of playtime in a day you've probably got enough footage to make 5 minutes someone would actually want to watch.

F*** go pro. Their cases suck ass. Brass eagle didnt make plastic this brittle. After less than 10 opening and closings the door would split right down the hinge. Maybe the paintball oils weaken the plastic idk. Contour still make the roam series cameras? No case needed and you can put zoom lenses on them. .

If you're going to be using a GoPro case for paintball, you can remove the watertight gasket to put much less stress on the hinge.
Drilling holes for ventilation, and right above the microphone ports for audio transmission helps a lot too.

https://youtu.be/-DAi7KAMrsE

[alpha_q_up]

What aluminum cage and plastic lense protecting front did you use to make yours, I got a go pro hero 11 for free and figure I might as well dump some money in protecting it since I didn't pay for it

[The Inflicted]

What aluminum cage and plastic lense protecting front did you use to make yours, I got a go pro hero 11 for free and figure I might as well dump some money in protecting it since I didn't pay for it

I don't remember exactly but they certainly weren't name brand. I think I just searched for "GoPro 8 case aluminum" on eBay and sorted by cheapest. Like a lot of off-brand camera accessories you'll often find the same product being sold with minor (or no) variations being sold under several different names.

Also, I want to say that GoPro hasn't changed their form factor in a while, so cases made for the 9 will fit the 9, 10, or 11. Not 100% sure of that, though.

[alpha_q_up]

Gotcha I have an eye on a few aluminum cases and mounts, I am more interested in the plastic lense pretection part

[The Inflicted]

As for red dot sights, I'm a big fan of both cheap powered red dots and the unpowered OEG sights from Armson and 32 Degrees. The nice thing about the OEG sights is that it doesn't matter if there's a camera (or a feedneck) in front of them and they can take a paintball impact from pretty much any direction and survive.

Chaper red dot sights from, say, Westlake will actually function as OEGs if you obscure the view in front of them but it's never felt "right" to me. A paintball impact will easily blow out the lens on these and even splatter can often get on the emitter optic and mess with the sight until you can clean it with a Q-tip. Of course, you could buy 3-4 red dots for the price of one Armson.

[Drcemento]

I have had an adco mirage sight on my gun for 20+ years. Even with todays “crappy” paint (its really just small, allot is crappy but you can always find a good batch) I take the time to dial it in and learn the paint. Not to toot my own horn but I am frickin Lethal with my phantom when the paint is shooting good and the sight is dialed. It’s the best feeling in the world when you put that dot on someone’s head and Turn it yellow. Or ding the tiniest bit of elbow sticking out 4 trees down. Highly recommended. You gotta commit and spend some time and paint to get used to it.