Chest mount for Gopro

[TheArchitect]

I just picked up a Hero6 Black to replace my Sony action cam and I was thinking about trying the chest mount for the Gopro. I'm not a fan of the Teletubby look on the helmet and the chest mount has the added feature of being able to turn it on and off by pressing the button directly. Anyone using the chest mount and have feedback?

 

[Coach13]

Anyone experienced a fall with one of these? A friend of mine took a hard fall with his GoPro in his chest pocket. He broke a couple ribs.

 

[Josh Matta]

unless you upper and lower body separation is in top 1 percent, the video from a chest mount will look awful. Most people look down the hill though and the helmet works well, in fact I prefer helmet for following people, but I prefer chest for filming solo.

 

[Seldomski]

I used a chest mount a few years ago. You have to ski with a very upright chest for it to work and good angulation. I have a bad habit of bending at the pelvis for steeper stuff so the videos I took were mostly garbage on steep and OK on blues. I also incline some in turns... so like @Josh Matta says, you have to ski with very good form for the video to look good/stable. I also agree that the video looks better - you can see your hands in frame sometimes and for deep pow it's more impressive looking since you are closer to the skis/snow.

The chest mount is pretty inexpensive, so if nothing else, give it a try. Angle the camera up a lot so you get some good sky in the video... you can also check the video to see if you are skiing with separation or not.

Edit to add: I don't ski with a gopro anymore. I borrowed one for a while but found that dealing with all of that footage afterward was annoying. If I was to try it again, I think I would get one that is handheld/pole mount. Or maybe get a stick for my phone.

 

[Josh Matta]

the trick to chest mount is is the mount the camera upside down faceing up and fix it in post.

Skiing with an upright back isnt good form. If you mount the camera right side up no one skis that upright or should skis that up right.

 

[Seldomski]

the trick to chest mount is is the mount the camera upside down faceing up and fix it in post.

Yep, forgot about this trick. I did do this, but in post processing discovered that I did not angle the camera up nearly enough. Partly due to insufficient angling of the thing and then my own bad form.

@TheArchitect - in any case make sure you play with it before getting on snow ... if you haven't used a gopro before, be aware the lens is REALLY wide angle. It can see stuff in frame that you wouldn't believe. Not sure if the latest models have a narrower FOV or a way to make it smaller in post processing/settings.

 

[Jilly]

I've got one and it works great. You need to be sure where it's pointed. Especially for us ladies!! Chesty mount is what it's called.

 

[TheArchitect]

Thanks for the replies. A number of the comments are things I've been wondering about. The thing about angulation is ironic given my recent posts in the Ski School forum

@Josh Matta , the manual says that you can set the Gopro to auto-rotate so when it's used upside-down it will film correctly. No need to fix in post anymore.

@Coach13 , that's one of the things I was wondering about. I rarely fall on my chest but it could happen.

Anyway, I just got back from Best Buy with a Chesty mount. I'll give it a try and I'll put a mount on my helmet as well in case I don't like the footage while I'm on my trip.

 

[TheArchitect]

Yep, forgot about this trick. I did do this, but in post processing discovered that I did not angle the camera up nearly enough. Partly due to insufficient angling of the thing and then my own bad form.

@TheArchitect - in any case make sure you play with it before getting on snow ... if you haven't used a gopro before, be aware the lens is REALLY wide angle. It can see stuff in frame that you wouldn't believe. Not sure if the latest models have a narrower FOV or a way to make it smaller in post processing/settings.

The manual says there's a linear mode along with wide and superwide. You can also zoom the FOV. I'll play around with it. Thanks for pointing out how wide it is.

 

[Josh Matta]

As wide as possible

 

[KeithAndLindsey]

I just picked up a Hero6 Black to replace my Sony action cam and I was thinking about trying the chest mount for the Gopro. I'm not a fan of the Teletubby look on the helmet and the chest mount has the added feature of being able to turn it on and off by pressing the button directly. Anyone using the chest mount and have feedback?

We have been using a Hero 7 Black with a Stuntman chest mount with great results! You can see a video of our setup here:

 

[Primoz]

Personally I don't like neither helmet nor chest strap. Helmet video doesn't show anything, except what you see when skiing, and while it's fun to see that during skiing, it's super super boring watching that on tv or computer screen. Chest mount is a bit better, but still not really something nice. But 2 days ago, when I went just for quick early morning skimo to top of nearby mountain, I think I figured out pretty much best mount when skiing alone and you don't have someone else to follow and shoot you.
Currently it's still just try out, but I used my carbon monopod, which is nice 6 section one, so when not needed it's short enough to be completely in my ABS backpack, then I attached small piece of light wood on top to prevent it from rotating once camera is attached on bottom part of monopod. And it's stuffed in my ABS backpack upside down and extended as needed. This one was pretty much 1 section only, so only about 10 or 15cm above my head. A bit shi*ty to turn camera on and off, as ABS backpack should be fitted a bit better then normal backpack if you don't wanna die from it, and camera is too far away, or I'm not flexible enough , to reach it while having backpack tight on. But position and point of view is pretty much best I have tried until now.

 

[Tom351]

I sometimes just attach my Hero6 black to my backpack chest strap (when wearing one)- here is a sample clip:
video mode is 2.7K 60fps widest FOV (Superview) with stabilization turned on: