Hey Ryan,
Had the original Gopro and after 4 hours of use it just stopped working. Returned it and it was replaced.
Fitted an LCD bacpac to the replacement and the backpac failed twice... had 2 further replacements, the second came with a New Gopro 2
Latest Gopro 2 worked for a couple of days on the trip with the bacpac, then the bacpac just stopped working.
I wrote to Gopro again about this 4 weeks ago and to be honest I just cannot be bothered to do the whole "returns thing" again(all at my own cost) to receive a "new" camera that also fails.!! (oh and it takes about 5 weeks to return)
Using the Gopro without a screen, when fixed in the car facing forwards is pretty near useless anyway, as you cannot see if the darn thing is recording or not. I lost so much video footage as I thought I was recording but it was off. On 2 separate occasions, I didn't realise it was recording and had stopped, hours later when I switched the thing on the battery was flat so no recording for the rest of those days!
If you want to strap it to your helmet/surfboard/skiis and press the start button each time for a particular run then fine... but to use it in the manner I need, in the truck and ready to record quickly, then without a screen its rubbish.... in fact even with a screen its pretty crap as the on off button is on the front of the camera and you have to push the front button wait for it to fire up, then push the top record button.
Ok if you can see its on... but many times I pushed the on button, only to switch the damned thing off, because it was already on, I couldn't tell and so lost the moment!
Can't fault the actual quality of the recordings though, they are proper HD.
The Sony seems to have taken all of the good bits, engineered and designed a better more intuitive UI for their camera. Big start/stop button on rear of camera that flashes red when recording, Simple and effective. Can also view what your recording through your smart phone if you choose, so no need to connect a screen.
