Optical zoom comparison - Both have a lens of 170 degrees angel - neither have one that zooms
3D recording option - Gopro2 has an option of adding a second camera and a kit to make it 3d - Sony does not
Mega Pixels comparison - Gopro2 = PHOTO RESOLUTIONS: 11MP, 8MP, 5 MP, VIDEO: HD Resolutions: 1080P 30 FPS, 960P 30 and 48 FPS, 720P 30 and 60 FPS
Sony = A 1920 x 1080 high definition resolution, Capable of 30p recording and playback via HDMI® and compatible HDTV, SteadyShot® image stabilization with Active Mode delivers stunningly smooth video from wide angle to full telephoto shooting. In addition, innovative 3-Way Shake-Canceling adds electronic roll stability for even smoother video capture. Photos 2 megapixels
Ability to zoom while recording - Neither
Battery life at 1080p recording - Gopro looks like on average = 2 hours - Sony - couldn't find this - camera doesn't come out till 9/19/2012
Hardwiring power option - Looks like Randall found an option for the Gopro to do this - Sony doesn't appear so
External mic input - Gopro yes, Sony built in mic
Waterproof - Both yes
I've looked for gopro issues about the battery life and getting to hot, this thread seems to have found a way around it by updating the firmware manually
I queried about the battery draining problem on this thread a while ago. I spent quite a while to learn more about this problem and finally I was able to correct it by manually updating the firmware. It seems that the firmware update via the automated software is flawed in some way.
Get the firmware from there. I used the latest one as the firmware itself is not flawed. I had a link to an site that listed all the available versions, so you could install an older version for example that doesn't have a support for the wifi backpack but this should be the latest one:
http://software.gopro.com/Firmware/HD2/HD2-firmware.binGet the firmware to the card:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek3NzsjWqNUAnd here is the process on how to flash it. Works the same on the Hero2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzzgXJZb5pkSo I can't really say too much about the Sony I guess since it hasn't been released. and the gopro2 while nice on paper appears to be flawed, but maybe that firmware update really does work. Do we have any alternatives other than these two?