Best affordable simulators

[ErikIngram]

I'm interested in getting a golf simulator at home and I was wondering if anyone has any experience with them and if so, the ups and downs of the models. I'm particularly looking at the optishot2. I'm a scratch golfer who lives in Ohio and I want to be able to practice at home to get to the next level. Thanks! Erik

[RandallT]

I'm interested in getting a golf simulator at home and I was wondering if anyone has any experience with them and if so, the ups and downs of the models. I'm particularly looking at the optishot2. I'm a scratch golfer who lives in Ohio and I want to be able to practice at home to get to the next level. Thanks!

Erik

@ChrisWev & @Nosevi - either of you have some quick thoughts. I know there has been some talk recently about your setups.

Here's a few threads discussing sims:

A couple older ones:

(no replies to this one)

[nevets88]

I wonder if anyone has ever thought of instead of consumer analyzers/launch monitors, setup a space w/really good lighting and two good 240+ fps capable good in low light cameras fo and dtl. Maybe even four. Posterior and overhead?

You can get a decent idea of path and face from the dtl view and aoa from the face on view no? The big problem to solve is how to sync all those cameras up.

[RandallT]

I wonder if anyone has ever thought of instead of consumer analyzers/launch monitors, setup a space w/really good lighting and two good 240+ fps capable good in low light cameras fo and dtl. Maybe even four. Posterior and overhead?

You can get a decent idea of path and face from the dtl view and aoa from the face on view no? The big problem to solve is how to sync all those cameras up.

@Lihu is setting something up himself with high-res dual synched cameras. Sorry OT, but there's something about that in his My Swing thread. Maybe he'll start a business!?

[Ernest Jones]

@ErikIngram

I've looked into this a bit as I'm planning on building something in my next house.

If you want to keep the price within reason you're pretty much looking at OptiShot or P3Proswing.

From what I've read the tradeoff is:

Optishot has way better graphics and courses but not as good for swing analysis as it has less sensors and does more "guessing".

P3Pro has clunkier graphics and not as much course selection but far superior for analysis as it has more sensors (65 sensors vs the 16 in OptiShots)

P3Pro is also a little ore expensive. So it comes down to what you want, a cool video game or tool to work on your swing. I'm going with the P3Pro, I already have a playstation and Xbox of I want to play a game with great graphics.

http://www.p3proswing.com/site/

I'm hoping to get all set up with P3P, projector, net and mat for somewhere around $2000.

[Nosevi]

Hi all. I use a high speed camera but tbh it's not really a substitute for the GC2. Great to use in conjunction though and if you don't have access to a launch monitor I think it'd help. I've just spent a couple of hours in my 'swing studio' with the GC2 and high speed camera with a guy who just got back from playing in Russia on the European Tour. He uses my kit from time to time as do a couple of other pros. If it's good enough for them....... In fact we all use the GC2 both inside and outside. Even outside it has advantages over a doppler based radar system for training due to the way a doppler radar based system handles spin axis and therefore calculates club face numbers. I can go into details but it'll get a little geeky. I've worked with and tested doppler radars that are far more accurate, complex and expensive than radar launch monitors (by a factor of about 1,000) and I chose a GC2 for training. Systems like Optishot are great as a fun system and do a fair job of giving an idea of where the ball would go (I started with a P3Pro which is similar) but there are limitations of what they can tell you. As a rule of thumb any system that asks what club you are using when working out ball flight will have some fairly large 'assumptions' built into the calculations. Still good fun to use over the winter when you can't get out on a range though.