Garmin VIRB Elite Camera/GPS

Thanks I will give it a try.

Best

I'd just like to say thanks to all of you, with a special thanks to Emmbeedee who started and has mothered this thread....it's been a great help to me in learning about this new device and I find new challenges each day when I read the recent posts.... Good Job to all of you!

Thanks for the feedback. It's good to know this is useful to others.

So I started trying out the Remote app on my gps with the two cameras, one set as Main, the other Extended and the damn thing didn't seem to work at all on the gps until I remembered that the 78S is not a Touch Screen!

Doh! You have to use the Enter and direction toggle arrow to make the menu work on the 78S. Then it worked beautifully.

I plan to try this out at different distances between camera and Remote asap, to see how far apart a setup can be.

If we're going to have yet another Winter storm, I might as well video it...

Cameras came in.....now I can start contributing to this thread once I get some basics down.



Considering mounting options.

I would love to get by mounting on the bike vs. helmet. How many of you avoid helmet mounts successfully?

Hey EmmBeeDee,
I believe you have the Garmin Monterra, as do I. It has a GPS track that can be imported into the VIRB edit software. Lots of other stuff too (tempe, ec). The ANT+ interface is used for most. Who knows, maybe the VIRB can add the GPS info from the Monterra. Certainly the remote control should work. So what functionality would I lose if I got a VIRB instead of a VIRB Elite?

BTW, you are a valuable resource that I am sure is greatly appreciated by many. Thanks for being there.

Not to steal Emmbeedee's thunder, but if you open the manual PDF and search for 'Elite', it does a pretty good job of calling out the features that are available to Elite only. Basically, Dashboards, leveling options, Auto Start/Stop Recording, Auto setting of the clock, internal Tracks, and Wifi-based Remote Control (i.e., from a cell phone).

Thanks for the feedback, Chazbo.

Re the Monterra and the VIRB. I could be mistaken, but I don't think the Monterra has a ANT+ Remote application to use for the VIRB. The VIRB Android app actually works via WiFi.

Who knows, Garmin may release an ANT+ app for the Monterra/VIRB Remote, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that. One of the other real drawbacks of the Monterra (or Panderra, as I call it) is that it does not connect wirelessly to the Montana or any of the other Garmin units with wireless transfer capabilities. I don't see Garmin fixing that either, in the near future.

What the lack of ANT+ Remote capabilities means, with regard to the VIRB, is that you'll need to get the Elite if you want to use the Monterra as a remote.

But there's not a huge difference in the price between the Basic and the Elite, so I think it's false economy to go cheap if it's your one and only VIRB. In fact I've already thought I should have got a second Elite instead of the Basic one I bought this week.

Oh well...

Gotta say, helmet mounting removes engine vibration from the equation... But you should try to arrange options - the same shot all the time gets kind of boring anyway.

I think you need to experiment with mounting the camera to the bike and try each location out while it doesn't matter if the video turns out badly. Then you won't ruin your holiday videos.

Easy for me to suggest multiple mounting points. I can set them all up beforehand.

I so far don't use helmet mount and I think I it works pretty well.
But I still may mount on my helmet.
I think the key to a good video is to use a few angles and not limit yourself to just one.
My. 02

Fred

Lost Rider's videos proves conclusively that a bike mounted VIRB can produce outstanding results, though he said he used two cameras and did not specifically say where the VIRB was used or where or how they were mounted. If there ever was an example of multiple angles producing a good video, his videos are the benchmark for excellence.

I agree he is good.

Fred

Wow your collection is growing....so is mine.

Fred

Do you have a pic of how you mounted the camera for this angle?

I saw this earlier vid showing the front fender, tire and fork gaiter and wanted to try it. I thought the camera was mounted on the front reflector bracket so I mounted a ball there. I couldn't get the same view, but I'll leave the ball for future angles. You can see the splash on the fork tube is getting high enough to hit the camera lens. If I rotate the camera 180* (down and back), it hits the oil cooler when turning right. Maybe the left side has enough clearance. Regardless, that will put the camera upside down so I'll have to set 'this side down'.

If I leaned forward, I could see the VIRB's LED and could actually see the view finder's image well enough to know when the camera shifted down a bit, recording too much pavement. With the remote on my wrist, the camera stayed on standby for 3-1/2 hours, not shutting off. (not a lot of video, probably less than an hour)

That's close to how I had my camera mounted except I used a long arm and had it go down to the GP camera which was upside down, hanging off the bracket.

That gave me this kind of view.

Got it, thanks.

These are the spares.

I have one last GoPro mount in the box, just to remind myself of what crap they are.

The one thing I really hate about the basic VIRB is having to set the date/time manually.

Just thought I'd get that off my chest.

So true, but after trying to sync the gps data from my Edge bicycle gps with my Virb Elite video I dont know what to say about the clock in the elite. It must be off 10 seconds or so.
Which is kinda strange since my experiments with iPhone video and gpx travk was dead on correct in Virb Edit.
But, geotagging and auto sync of the clock is main reson my next virb would definately be an Elite model as well.
Today we are spoilt when using phones to take pictures, time is allways dead on as well as location.