With cameras Dick, people follow the herd and only tiny proportion of what's really available are ever tried and recommended for aviation and airsports use.
I'm here so the huge range of alternatives are discussed with a quick overview and some recommendations.
First of all Technical:
The vast majority all use a Sony sensor of 12 megapixels - the outlier in the market is a smaller group of of Action Cams adopting a Panasonic 16 megapixel sensor.
Neither is CCD and none have global shutters which means 'bent' props and jello effects can be masked but never really cured with CMOS sensors. There's a lot of snake oil poured on these effects but the simple alleviation is a neutral density filter to drop the effective 'shutter speed.'
Active vibration control is the key and offered by Yi, SJCAM and Sony, missed by everyone in aviation and offered at prices that have given Go Pro a year from hell, a collapse in their share price and heavy layoffs at the beginning of 2016.
Processors: Ambarella is the key player with the A7 and the newer A9 offering top quality imaging output, widely used and respected. Novatek tends to dominate the lower division of super low cost models.
Finally on processors, Sony gets a mention again. Their very well developed Bionz processor line is used in various iterations across it's huge line of still and video products. The processor also gets a mention because it is key to the remote control facilities offered in the upper range if their action cams which move up into the Go Pro price range. An economical wrist controller allows you to monitor and operate up to 5 Sony action cams at once for very simple multicam set ups. It has a screen so you can check the output from each cam and that they are running.
Even better, the controller image synchs every sensor being used so editing and cutting between cameras is just like being in a studio. They are all synchronised together to create an electronic clapperboard system.
Pricing: Simply the rug has been pulled out from Go Pro and all the other cams mentioned in the posts above. They all use the Sony sensor but use a variety of lenses. Go Pro lenses are simple plastic barrels glued in the mounts. It is no accident that there's a thriving niche market in alternative lenses for different fields of view. Break free from the glue and insert an alternative from the security camera industry. Test, rotate until desired focus achieved and then glue. Check You Tube to see how it's done.
Budget Cams: An amazing number available starting at a tenth of the Go Pro Hero price. Generically known as No Pros but as you move up to 30% of the Go Pro 4 and 5 price bracket you will find models with genuine physical lens stabilisation working effectively. Yi and SJCAM are punting out 6 axis stabilisation at incredibly low prices.
That lens stabilisation is at a low price point for a reason. Any higher and they are on Sony's turf. These cameras are Chinese, work well, use the Sony sensors and Ambarella processors but, theres always a but. The Chinese have not yet understood the concept of western customer service. Solution? Buy from Amazon, the prices are so low it makes a 4K multi camera set up very attractive.
For more than a year now Sony have had models on the market at 50% of the cost of the Go Pro 4 but have a completely stabilised lens unit that cost more to produce than the entire Go Pro. The Go Pro 5 model is trying to counter that.
Check out the base model Sonys at 50% of GO Pro prices. Sony AS50 Action Camera at 168 USD. HD, flat bottom for mounting and the fully stabilised lens.
You were expecting that stabilisation by now but I was saving one item up. Like all the Sony cams this, the cheapest, has has a Zeiss lens. Still interested in that Go Pro at twice the price with a security camera lens glued in??
At Go Pro 5 prices look at the Rolls Royce end with cams like the Sony FDR-X3000 if the wrist controlled potential for multi cam set up appeals.
I do have a full set of tried and tested recommendations which I'm happy to share for those who feel able to step away from the herd who just buy what the other bloke's got. I can show you the Chinese super cams with full 4k and even the monitor screens produced with Corning Gorilla Glass. There's new breed of Japanese super tough cams from Olympus and Ricoh but I'll finish today with a special recommendation for Dick.
Dick - Entrepreneur, electronics ace, film maker of adventures and besotted by supporting Australia. His possible future camera is already being made in Oz right now.
As Dick has done the hard yards in producing his films I know he'll have a critical eye for quality and there's a super strong, magnesium bodied, ultra high quality TV broadcast camera being made in Australia by a company called Black Magic.
Think Go Pro on steroids and an interchangeable lens mount for pro glass from Olympus, Panasonic or, my recommendation, SLR Magic. All the cams previously discussed have a sensor smaller than your little finger nail. The Black Magic has one far bigger and records in RAW or the main Pro Res TV and film editing formats. The camera comes with the most widely used editing software in the world which is also owned by Black Magic and totally dominates Hollywood. It doesn't autofocus worth a damn for remote mounting but the wide lenses never needed that as GO Pro proved and why I belaboured the glued in lens business.
Interested? Here's a review:
RedShark News - The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera: "A great addition to anyone's arsenal."
Happy to return if there's any call for more information. I've been doing this remote mounting stuff since 1977
Regards
Rob