smartphone vs gopro

[Paulo_Andre]

I recently tried a friend's gopro and it got me thinking... Sometimes I want to do a timelapse video, or record some action video, so I would like to have a gopro too.

Then I looked at gopro prices, and it got me thinking again. Maybe a midrange smartphone or a refurbished iphone would have similar camera quality and be cheaper. The size advantage of a gopro is not significant for what I'm thinking. Water resistance is a must, but most smartphones are also water resistant.

I can't use my normal phone because I'm always doing things with it, so it would have to be a dedicated "new" phone, only for this.

 

Is there something I'm missing or would it actually be a good solution?

[mMontana]

After GoPro 4, the scepter for "best action cam in the market" as fallen from the producer.

Reliability, heat (then subsequent shutdown abrupt), file corruption, inconsistency with accessories are only few of the issues for GoPro line subsequent the step away from Ambarella SoC.

You cannot beat actioncams for compactness, weight, ease to manouver, some of them has quite bigger sensor than any smartphone. Currently the limit for Actioncam seems the "filming time", which cannot exceed (usually) 40-50 minutes with a single battery charge.

 

Also... action cam are usually far more impact resistant than any smartphone. For Water resistance of smartphone... starts with one IP index as new, but can lower during time, due to heat expand and shrink that could misplace some seals.

 

For both smartphone and action cam: cheaping out of MicroSD cards is an excellent way to create problems to yourself.

[Paulo_Andre]

I don't plan on testing the impact resistance, and compactness and weight also don't matter for what I'm planning to use.

The sensor... that could be an important factor yes. Is the quality really that better than, for example, an iPhone XS? I know it's an old model, but iPhones tend to have better camera quality and a refurbished iPhone XS is the only model cheaper than a current gopro.

[Needfuldoer]

Generic action cameras are all halfway decent these days, even the blatant GoPro knockoffs. You might even be able to find a used GoPro from a generation or two back for less than a phone would cost.

[mMontana]

19 minutes ago, Paulo_Andre said:

I know it's an old model, but iPhones tend to have better camera quality

Better software processing quality. I think is a bit more sticking to the truth.

In these days, sensors and software both weight quite hefty to the result.

[saintlouisbagels]

How long are you going to record your time-lapse?

From quick Googling you could use an iPhone (I probably would not go older than iPhone 8) but it seems like the final output will always be around 20-40 seconds long.

According to this site:

https://www.idownloadblog.com/2022/12/29/record-time-lapse-video-iphone-frame-rate-explainer/

Quote

Apple Camera app: Time-lapse frame rates

0-9 minutes: One frame every two seconds

10-19 minutes: One frame every four seconds

20-39 minutes: One frame every four seconds

40-80 minutes: One frame every four seconds

and so forth - you can record as long as the battery lasts and for however much storage space you have, but the final output will still be 20-40 seconds long. It will just do what auto-processing to select each frame interval. In classic Apple fashion you don't get a say in which frames lol.

[GDRRiley]

Without a 3rd party camera app iphone time laps suck. 
I'd grab a insta 360 RS 4k for timelapse, you get full control and they'd don't have the the overheating and issues like the new go pros