Gallery of pictures taken with the HERO 5mp cameras. Images in popup windows are 800x600.
Actual image size is: 2592x1944. 
Here's a full size sample (opens in separate window. note your browser may shrink it to fit the browser window. 
Look for the magifying glass on the cursor).

             
           
             
             

    Video shot with the HERO 5 camera. 
    This is actual raw unedited footage (avi format). Launches in a separate window:

                     
                      20MB.  35 sec.                25MB   45 sec.             5.5MB   10 sec.             12MB  20 sec.

SDCards: We recommend ONLY using name brand SD Cards.  From our own experience, off-brand cards may work fine under normal circumstances, but will fail most of the time in extreme conditions such as vibration, heat, cold or large file size.  The issues you may run into include: Camera freezes during video taping with the red light staying on and not able to turn off camera, corrupted files (not readable, missing from disc), slow save speed.

Some off-brand cards also have a loose sliding lock on the side which can be really frustrating when it keeps locking as you put it in the camera.  Think of the SD Card as your roll of film.  You wouldn't buy a cheap roll of film from some company you've never heard of.  It's the same with SD Cards only more serious.  You may get completely corrupted files and have nothing to show for it.  Spend the ONE TIME extra cost of a few more dollars for peace of mind.

From our experience, camera problems are most of the time related to SD Card issues or batteries issues and rarely the camera itself.

Here's a list of some of the name-brand SD Cards: Kingston, SanDisk, Panasonic, Delkin, Kodak, Lexar.

List of off-brand SD Cards: Elite Pro, OCZ, PQI, ATP, PNY, Crucial, Centon, LG Electronics, Corsair, Pretec, Ridata, Transcend,  Patriot(? not sure about this brand).  

If using a 4GB SD Card, make sure your camera has the firmware upgrade supporting a 4GB card.  A camera without the firmware can use a 4GB card, but you risk corruption, usually at the worst possible time.  With the firmware upgrade you can also use an 8GB card, however there is a 4GB file limitation.  So when the camera reaches 4GB (110 minutes video), the camera will automatically stop and save the file. You can then start the camera again to begin a second file.

Batteries: For normal circumstances, you can use any batteries you want.  Alkaline, rechargeables or Lithiums.  HOWEVER, if you are using the camera in extreme conditions such as excessive vibration, extreme cold or heat, you should ONLY use lithium batteries - other batteries will fail most of the time or battery life will be shortened.  Note that rechargeables and lithiums go out abruptly and usually will not show a 1/2 battery icon before quitting.  This is because they maintain their voltage until the very end.  Alkalines slowly loose voltage as soon as you start using them which is how the battery inducator senses the status of the battery.

In order to help you make an informed descision on which camera to buy or if you already have a camera and want more technical knowledge, Eye Of Mine has provided the below technical information.

Lens Comparison test:  It's hard to visualize how drastically different the normal and wide-angle lens cameras are, so we put together a comparison chart.  You'll have to trust us when we say the camera's were in exactly the same spot.  You're eyes will tell you different.

We've notice with the wide-angle lens camera, distortion happens when there are horizontal lines across the screen.  The distortion is very obvious as in the pyramid pictures below.  However when the subjects lines go away from the camera or are vertical, the distortion is minimize or even non-existent. Look at the pathway below (second set).  Practically no distortion because there are no horizontal lines (planes) in the image.  Red brick wall has little distortion because any horizontal lines are far from the camera (white wall).

     NORMAL (standard) angle lens HERO camera                        WIDE-ANGLE lens HERO camera                                        

                           

                           

                           

                          

                           

                          

Removing wide-angle distortion: There is a free program that does a good job of removing some or all of the distortion caused by the Hero wide-angle lens.  It's called GLM Undistorter.

Photoshop users: It IS possible to reduce or even eliminate the wide-angle distortion in Photoshop by using a filter in CS2, CS3 and CS4.  It's: filter/distort/lens correction.   Below are a few extreme examples.  It seems to give you wide format for free!  Here's a PDF for Photoshop users on how to use this filter effectively.

                      ORIGINAL IMAGE:                                  AFTER PHOTOSHOP CORRECTION:

Editing Software:  Well actually it's a trimmer, but it's really cool and free.  It's called Solveig Multimedia AVI Trimmer.  If you simply want to trim up the beginning and/or end of your AVI video to get rid of unusable footage, then this is the free software for you.  We're impressed- and it's fast!  But beyond that, say you also have a section in the middle that you don't like and another section in another spot you want to cut out.  No problem.  It will cut out as many sections as you like and when you select RUN, it will splice out the bad places and you'll have 1 new video file with only the good parts.  There is also a Pro Version of the trimmer that supports more formats (according to company they do not yet support MP4 files.  Will be 3-4 months).

And there is a Windows Media Player plugin for Solveig that does the cutting right from the Windows player, but alas, it's trialware you need to buy it after 21 days ($39).  

A robust video conversion program is called MPEG Streamclip.  Don't let the name fool you.  It converts anything to anything (Mac and PC).  AND IT'S FREE.  If it says you need Quicktime Alternative, you can find it here.  An added benefit for this converter is you can designate a new start and end point for the rendered file, getting rid of dead spots at the beginning and end of your camera video.

Video Player: A great program for playing back ANY KIND of video file is VIDEOLAN, and it's FREE!  (PC and Mac)

Resolution: 5 megapixel (2592x1944) photo, 512x384 video

Sensor: CMOS

Video Format: MJPEG, 30 fps, saved as .AVI file

Optics: glass lens, f/2.8 aperture, with ultra-wide 170º angle of view

Modes: video, standard photo, photo every 2 or 5 secs, 3x photo burst sequence, self timer, upside down photo/video flip

Exposure Control: auto

White Balance: auto

Self Timer: 10 seconds

Microphone: built-in with adjustable recording/input level

Audio Format: 8kHz, mono

Memory: 16 MB internal, expandable to 2GB with SD card (not included), expandable to 4GB with SDHC card (not included) via free software download from GoPro website—available soon

Capacity: 56 minutes video (incl. audio) or 1,945 photos with optional 2GB SD card. 1hr 52min video (incl. audio) with optional 4GB SDHC card—available soon

Power: 2x AAA batteries (not included), lithium batteries highly recommended. 3hrs. video recording with lithium, 2hrs. with NiMH

TV Out (with RCA cable): NTSC or PAL

PC Connection: USB + RCA combo cable

PC Compatibility: Windows ME, 2000, XP, and Vista; Mac OS X 10.2 and later

Waterproof: rated to 100 feet/30 meters

Dimensions: 1.75" x 2.30" x 1.25"/4.45cm x 5.84cm x 3.18cm (H x W x D)

Weight: 4.9 oz/139