Using GoPro Hero cameras & software

Ratbag

Ratbag

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Gidday All

This is a re-post of a post I made in the picture forum. Being completely new to GoPro cameras (and their like), I thought it might be useful to share my (lack of) experience here. Please feel very free to contribute and correct my misunderstandings about this incredible little beast.

Any and all tips welcome :iconwink: :ebiggrin:!

Well, holding the two (generous) JB HiFi vouchers my bro-in-law kindly gave me for Xmas 2012 & 2013, I headed down the street this morning and bought one of the last GoPro Hero3 (Black version) cameras in captivity. This model is superseded by the Hero3+ and the upcoming Hero4.

But for the reduced price (stock sell off) and the vouchers reducing my out of pockets to under $240, I probably wouldn't have bothered buying such an expensive toy

I would rather have got a camping fridge and an Ark Pak, but the gift vouchers were for JB HiFi, not Ray's Outdoors ... :lol:.

Personally, I don't even need the facilities that the Hero3 offers, but I wanted to get the remote.

It seems that the best way to get a view back for this camera is to buy a Samsung Tablet - just IMHO ... :iconwink:.

So far it has taken me about 4 hours to work out:

  • How to unpack the bloody thing ... :(
  • Charge both the camera and the remote.
  • How to set the date, etc.
  • How to get the camera and the remote unit to talk to each other.
  • Update the firmware in the camera (don't even think about using IE or Opera - GoPro's web site doesn't like either of them - I eventually succeeded using Firefox).
  • Install GoPro's editing software on my main PC after downloading it from their web site.

I mean, how difficult can these things be?
I'm not exactly ignorant about any of this stuff, but unpacking it was like doing a Rubik's Cube ...

It appears that the GoPro editor is somewhat less capable than the Avidemux editor in many ways. But at least it is also free.

At least they give you a printed manual with it. That's got REAL rarity value, these days!
 
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Gidday NL

Hero 3 Black version (I've edited my OP to include that - thanks).

At $240 it was like stealing.
At $400+ it would have stayed there!

Gorgeous little thing.

I look forward to much help and guidance :poke: :poke:. While a pretty dab hand at still photography, the video I made last week is my first ever serious attempt at movies/videography.

What do you think about this: The pissy little car mounts they give you with it are all well and good, but I reckon that putting some 20x20 mm double sided tape on the packing box part and then sticking that to the top of the dash glovebox would work a lot better. It would certainly spread the forces over a much larger footprint. Your thoughts?

I have set it to Protune/ 1920x1080/ 48 fps/ with a narrow field of view. Any thoughts on these settings?

How narrow is the narrow FoV?
Have you tried it?

The Ultra Wide setting is very, very wide (and with serious barrel distortion). I am really only interested in having much the same FoV as my phone camera has; i.e. the road ahead and the immediate road sides in the FoV.

At around 1MB/sec memory card use, it will sure use up a 32 GB Sandisk class 10 card I bought pretty quickly. Seems that the battery will run out before the card does though :lol:. I suppose 3.6 GB per hour isn't all that bad.
 
I use a Sony action Cam, i think they all come with the intention that you spend more money :lol:

I use mainly an Olympus TG-2 it covers everything i want to do in the field and in the car, i use it everyday just about, the Sony just sits there.
 
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Gidday Tony

I agree mate. Lots of people/companies seem to have quite unrealistic expectations about how much money is in our bank accounts, and even more unrealistic ones about how much of it should be in theirs ... :rotfl:

However, I don't have any decent camera that takes video. So a dedicated unit will be of some benefit.

Even when I get an E-M1 (much) later this year, it still isn't really suitable for in-car use.

That's why I went for the Hero 3 Black, because it comes with everything I need or want. No flaming expensive "extras" necessary. The Samsung tablet is on my radar later in the year anyway, so I don't consider it an extra.
 
I just use the standard sticky mount, but its not a great fit & can make a clicking sound on very rough stuff. I've been meaning to stick some tape in there to make it a firmer fit. You may not have this prob on your flash new Hero3 black (mines an old Hero2 lol)

Best is a suction cup mount...brilliant! Also allows you to mount the camera almost anywhere. Also, the higher you can mount it the better, so from the dash you may not see the road at all. I have mine at the top of the windscreen.

I tried the narrow FOV but didnt like it.

Cant remember why but I was recommended to keep Protune off...I think it was for prof processing.

So you got it for $240??? Thats amazing!
 
G'day again mate

From what I have read, the Protune option uses a lower compression ratio, and therefore more data per second. i.e. better image quality. I will have to see how it plays out. Using 1920x1080 instead of 1920x1440 should give a little of the performance loss back (the data stream is reduced by about 33%).

This will also put a load on the computer during post-processing. My laptop cannot playback the uncompressed 1m 28s clip from my phone without the application crashing ... The laptop has a single core, 1.5 GHz Pentium Mobile processor with 2 GB RAM. It gags at about the 45 second mark!

I hear what you're saying about the height of the unit above the dash. I will look at the range of suction cups available. Such a mount would make it easier to remove and chuck into the glovebox too. Don't want to encourage the "What's yours is mine" crowd too much ... :biggrin: :lol:.
The ones on our Garmin GPS units are just a tiny bit smaller than they need to be ... :(.

Don't drool on the dash - the $240 was after the $180 of gift vouchers ... :rotfl:

Can't understand why you haven't used your remote yet. I doubt that I will ever not use it!
 
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Ratbag said:
I hear what you're saying about the height of the unit above the dash. I will look at the range of suction cups available. Such a mount would make it easier to remove and chuck into the glovebox too.
Click to expand...

I got mine from HarveyNorman for $40. So versatile. Its also rated to something stupid like 200kmh :rotfl:

Don't drool on the dash - the $240 was after the $180 of gift vouchers ... :rotfl:
Click to expand...

Thats still a good price, but not so heart stopping lol

Can't understand why you haven't used your remote yet. I doubt that I will ever not use it!
Click to expand...

No need. I just reach up & push the button :iconwink:

It will be indispensable when I mount it outside the car though...
 
Your right that setting uses a lot of space editing will be a nightmare if you haven't got a lightning fast computer
I use the phone app to operate the Gopro it's so much easier to change settings quickly
I love the video quality i use 1080p

Jan
 
Hey mate, I am an avid gopro user and tech head so I might be able to help!

You seem to be on the right track, I would avoid the narrow FOV though because you will get better quality with the wide. Long story short the narrow FOV uses a smaller part of the sensor which is then "blown up" to the correct size, this is useful if you don't want the "fisheye" effect where the corners of the image are slightly curved, with the wide FOV the image does not get stretched and thus is a bit clearer.

For car stuff I can't recommend the suction cup mount highly enough, it is rated for 150mph (apparently). I stuck mine to my desk and actually lifted the desk off the ground without it coming unstuck, so I trust it on the car haha.

EDIT: If you want to read up on your gopro in depth I bought this book and it helped me heaps with the tech jargon: https://projectgo.pro/ - worth the read if you want to know the thing inside and out.
 
Gidday Jan

yarney said:
Your right that setting uses a lot of space editing will be a nightmare if you haven't got a lightning fast computer
I use the phone app to operate the Gopro it's so much easier to change settings quickly
I love the video quality i use 1080p

Jan
Click to expand...

That's fine if you use an Android (virus filter ... ) or an iPhone (let's not go there ... ;) ). I have a Blackberry, because it works extremely well as a phone ...

Thanks for the input, and I will experiment with the Protune and see how much of a hit it makes on my main workstation.

Gidday Sam

A warm :welcome: to the ORS forum, mate.

TasmanSam said:
Hey mate, I am an avid gopro user and tech head so I might be able to help!
Click to expand...

Thanks :).

You seem to be on the right track, I would avoid the narrow FOV though because you will get better quality with the wide. Long story short the narrow FOV uses a smaller part of the sensor which is then "blown up" to the correct size, this is useful if you don't want the "fisheye" effect where the corners of the image are slightly curved, with the wide FOV the image does not get stretched and thus is a bit clearer.
Click to expand...

I can see this. I have an ultra wide angle zoom for my dSLR (actually, 2 of them ... ). Both of these are ultra-rectilinear if used 'properly' (i.e. not for the distortion effects that they are capable of producing). De-fishing can introduce its own (serious data loss) problems.

I think that after a bit of experimenting, I will probably settle on the intermediate (Medium) setting. However, 5 good MPx is better than 12 crappy ones, IMO. I can print to 22 x 17 " from my 5 MPx dSLR on fine art papers.

The GoPro should also hammer the 5 MPx phone camera for IQ, no matter what! Considering that the phone cam video IQ is pretty acceptable, I reckon that I should be happy with that of the Hero3 Black.

For car stuff I can't recommend the suction cup mount highly enough, it is rated for 150mph (apparently). I stuck mine to my desk and actually lifted the desk off the ground without it coming unstuck, so I trust it on the car haha.
Click to expand...

Which suction cup mount is this? NL mentioned it earlier, but it is more than hard to tell just by looking at one ...

EDIT: If you want to read up on your gopro in depth I bought this book and it helped me heaps with the tech jargon: https://projectgo.pro/ - worth the read if you want to know the thing inside and out.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that link. I am pretty savvy with tech stuff of all descriptions, and cameras/photography in particular. I also have this idea that reading TFM helps :poke: :iconwink:. Books are a basic gold mine of info. Shame that more people don't seem inclined to buy or read them ... All of our knowledge as a species is locked up in books (whether printed or electronic).
 
Cheers for the welcomes guys! I will have an introduction/trip report up once my NBN gets fixed :)
 
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