School me on action cameras, aka GoPro

[Termite]

Here's what I want to do:

Be able to use it handheld for both standards pics, or videoing sports events, air shows, family gatherings, etc.
Mount it on my plane for videos of NOE flying, either alone or when several of us go out as a group.

Mounted on the nose of the plane, it will have to be remotely controlled, either by IR remote, possibly a cabled remote(although that presents other problems), or WiFi linked to a smart phone or tablet for control.

Or there any cameras that will do "all the above" at a reasonable price, or should I just get one of these and WiFi it to an Android-based tablet(which I will purchase shortly anyway)?

Input much appreciated, but I don't want to spend a fortune(tablet price not included, that's happening separately).

[Aesop]

The GoPro's forte is durability/ruggedness.
What you sacrifice is everything is in wide angle/near fisheye views.
Which makes it great for 1st person POV shots, and sucks balls for video of other things, like most of the stuff you mention.

You want to velcro a dashcam on your 'copter for a POV of a run to a Gulf rig, or on a private plane for inflight from some unique outside the cockpit location, same idea? GoProHero's your pigeon.
Want a vidcam that you can pack into a compact bombproof housing and strap to a BC for dive videos, mount on your helmet for your skateboard 360 loop, or epic moto-X jumps over boulders? GoPro, and ROWYBS.
Want to shoot action that's farther away from you than 10 feet, with essentially zero capability of zooming, guaranteeing videos that look like they were shot through a front door peephole from a mile away? Not so much fun.

Nothing does everything well.
If I were looking to video my epic skydives, flying suit exploits, and other X-games pursuits, hang on an RC copter/drone for wicked aerial views, or wanted to send the folks MICH-helmet cam clips from my patrols in Peshawar Province, that's where a GoPro excels.

If you're liable to want to zoom in or out, pan, and do anything up to prosumer-level personal vids, get a decent handicam instead, or in addition to.
Otherwise it'll be like shoveling hay with a table fork, and about as much fun.

FWIW, if you want personal vids that don't suck the life out of you and anyone you subject to watching them, on a handicam with the option (don't get one without it), monitor your sound with an earphone or headphones, and pay 50% of your attention to getting good sound, not just a good visual.
People will tolerate craptastic-quality video for an hour, but if the sound is ass, they'd generally rather have their balls pounded with sledgehammers than listen to more the ten seconds of it.
Me, I just want to kill the responsible party with excruciating levels of torture first.

BTW, mounted on the nose of the plane is way cool, provided you have a mount that'll do that at tornado velocities and several Gs reliably. That's what professional grips do on big-budget productions, most of the time: secure the camera safely.

It'd be a real bitch to pull a turn and watch your camera go sailing behind you from 8000' Somewhere Over The Bayou, and notably worse when it flies into an intake, takes out the windscreen plexi, or f**** up a control surface. As one of a number of rated pilots on the forum, you can better explain than I can the sense of humor the FAA and NTSB will show if you have to land your aircraft somewhere that isn't a runway because your toy put you into a constant turn, or some guy has to have your gadget removed from his daughter's forehead, and it has lovely video of you, your plane, and your N-number already recorded on the memory.

[g-man]

Current GoPro Hero3+ crop will cover the latter half of your requirements set. The WiFi setup on the 3+ Black I recently acquired is notably better than the setup on the 3, which was pretty darn good. They make a wifi remote (comes with the black model), but except for shooting while riding the motorcycle, I stick with the wifi app. The live view is very helpful for setting up the FOV for action shots, and you can change all the settings in-app.

I think where you'll find it somewhat lacking is in the 'shoot standard photos and video' bit. It does wide angle really, really well. I love mine for shooting rooms in a house for condition documentation. But for 'out and about happy-snaps', the not having a viewfinder is a bit of a pain. Granted, they do make a LCD back for it that acts as a viewfinder, so that might work. I just have no need for such a setup since I have a dSLR for photos and 'standard' video work.

A lot of the features of the black model are available on the baseline white model, and the HD video the basic unit puts out is quite good. It won't do the ultra slo-mo 240fps mode, but 720p at 60fps with good quality is very respectable. Don't overlook picking up a 3 model used since the 3+ came out and has driven used prices down a bit. I only upgraded because my dumb ass didn't double-check the mount when I put my 3 Black on the front of my bike one morning. Oh yeah, 2 more words while I'm on that subject: Dummy cord.

[Aesop]

Also, there's already hardware that would enable one to picatinny-mount a GoPro to one's go-to home defense firearm: for instance.
Or you could just Velcro it to your PJs.
And in a self-defense case, a touch-and-go video of the incident from a muzzle-eye view could solve a lot of legal problems for less than the price of your lawyer's retainer for the first hour. (Or for the idiots, guarantee a speedy trip to the hoosegow, which at least gets them out of the gene pool for our side.)

Anybody teaching CCW classes that doesn't cover this is a Neanderthal, and owes students refunds and one free shot at a throat punch.

[Erik]

I've been looking at action cams to use at the range. I've used a few, and seen a few others in use, but I've never personally used the GoPro. I pretty much agree with what the others said, but I do have a few comments.

First, a GoPro mounted on your head when running a stage? Too heavy according to those that have tried it, they feel the weight restricts their movements. Instead they mount them without the protective casing, which leaves them pretty exposed to damage, and cant be used in rain.
Second, in some cases I actually like them on a tripod. The fisheye view makes it possible to put them pretty close to the shooter and still get a lot of the stage on screen. You can simply set it up in one place and catch the whole stage without having to follow the shooter. Great if you want to shoot your stages and don't have a buddy to hold the camcorder. Set up the cam, and when you're on deck you press play on the remote. But of course, once the shooter is further down range you wont see much of what's going on. It's a trade off.

After using other action cams, I have found some necessary requirements. You need an easy way to turn it on, and to easily know if it's on or not. You need to have a way to see how much battery is left. You need an easy way to get the videos/pictures out of it. Those are things that really get annoying and prevents you from using it a lot.

Recently I've been looking at the Liquid Image Ego. It's lighter so you wont notice it on your head, it seems to be decently durable, and water resistant, and it's fairly easy to use. It's also a lot cheaper than the GoPro. I've been thinking of using it for a head cam, and then maybe get the GoPro later for use when weight isn't an issue. The local store didn't have one in stock when I was there last time, but I'm told they are coming in.

[Termite]

BTW, mounted on the nose of the plane is way cool, provided you have a mount that'll do that at tornado velocities and several Gs reliably. That's what professional grips do on big-budget productions, most of the time: secure the camera safely.
It'd be a real bitch to pull a turn and watch your camera go sailing behind you from 8000' Somewhere Over The Bayou.......

8000 ft? More like 80 ft. NOE means nap-of-earth. As in following a bayou @ 50' while keeping a sharp eye out for up-coming power lines and bridges, or "crop-dusting" the local soybean/cotton/milo fields @........ummm.....really low.

As for the FAA/NTSB....what sense of humor?

As for a helmet mount........fugetaboutit......

Regarding the audio: Aesop, I understand your point completely. So a good video of "bayou running" or "soybean field dusting" needs proper theme music. Pink Floyd, AC/DC. etc.

[Netpackrat]

Wagner.

[Aesop]

If you're going to do bayou-buzzing, +1 on Wagner, but you should play the Wagner outside the plane on loudspeakers.
It's more fun, and it'll make it easier to synch up with a studio cut in post-production.

[JohnOC]

In the R/C flying hobby market I pay attention to, theres been a lot of good words said about the Mobius action cam. Summarized as nearly as good pic quality as the gopro for much shorter money (generaly under $100 with accessories)

[JustinR]

I just saw that Garmin has an action camera out, but it does have a wide angle lens as well.