GoPro

silver

silver

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Jul 10, 2008
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1,018
Location
Tathra, Far South Coast, NSW
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2005
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Forester
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Manual
Today i splurged out and bought a GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition. I was going to get a new camera like the Olympus tough or Panasonic FT3/4 or similar. The waterproof/ shockproof style of thing. They are about $380/400 and then you need to get a waterproof housing for serious stuff which are not cheap.
I was talking to my son who does a lot of spearfishing and wakeboarding and he has a Contour, which he has never been happy with and he suggested looking at the Gopro.
I checked it out on the Gopro site and saw that it came with a waterproof housing, wifi remote and other stuff so thought it would be a cool thing.
I happened to be in Merimbula and a Camera House shop was having a closing down sale and they had one Gopro left so i got it with a 8gb HCSD (class 10) micro card thing for $450 which i figured was not too bad.
Anyone using one of these and if so what do you think of them??
Any tips etc??
 
Work has a couple of these that our comms team use for recording time lapse images. I have no idea how they work but the images are good.
 
Wellll........i'm over it already!!!!!! Can't get the wifi to stay connected...took what i thought was a quick movie and downloaded it but it would not show ..... downloaded the stuff off Gopro and tried to play it but it was all jerky...i'm no good at this stuff and i will go and see the camera guy tomorrow. The only way i will figure it out is IF someone can treat me like a dummy and show me what to do.
aaaarrrrggggg!!! Gumtree here i come!!!!:yell::yell:
 
Unless your got a really current computer with a top graphics card the playback will jump every 5 or so secs. You can get round it by dropping the recording quality down. The quality is still extremely high and stills out of the video are still extremely clear.
As for the wifi connection ... Sorry no idea ?

They are a good bit of gear and once you work it out quite simple.
Have a look on YouTube at some of the tutorials on how to setup and how to use your gopro. I did that and found it helped heaps. I'm technically regarded and tend to give up when it gets too hard but if I can manage to use it then anyone should be able !!

Good luck
 
The Hero 3 black defaults to 1440p out of the box, which is a bit too much for most lappys/pcs to handle unless you've got a high end video card. It's like 720p x4!

I find the optimum setting for smooth playback on just about anything is 720p at 60fps, or 120fps if you fancy doing some cool slo-mos.

The sturdiness of your camera mount makes all the difference with these. I mounted mine on the front of my motorbike with the stick-on mount and the vibes ruined the footage.
 
That was/is part of the problem as far as i can figure. I mucked around with it and did a bit of searching and will adjust it tomorrow...once i figure out how to...which i think i can.
The other problem...again..as far as i can work out is something to do with it using MP4 for the video and Windows 7 not supporting this. I downloaded VLC and have sort of figured out how to use it. I managed to play the video i did quickly at the 1440 resolution and it played but was very jerky but thats a start.
It did seem to me that the battery won't last long and i was wondering if it would last longer recording at a lower resolution?
I think i have jumped the gun here and it will PMO having to charge it through the USB from the computer and will have to spend another $55 to get a wall charger.
I just cannot figure out how to get the wifi remote to work. I did have it going at one stage but it does not connect automatically when i activate the wifi on the camera which i assumed it would.
I'm also not keen on the 'fish eye' lens or WIDE as they call it but it is the default for some record settings.
I think i should have just got a new camera..my brain is not good at this stuff.
Might take a loss and flog it off. PM me if anyone is interested.
 
As i said before,i'm over it already. I've just made a sign up for the local notice board to sell it.
I'll get a NORMAL camera instead. Click and shoot...that's me!!!
Again...if anyone is interested ...PM me and make an offer...it WILL go!!
 
Welll...not so cranky now....i changed the resolution to 1080/48 and tried the medium and narrow lens settings and what do you know...easy as...it downloaded and played fine on Windows media player and looked pretty good. The sound was not bad either. ALSO got the remote to work properly!!!
I'll muck around with it a bit more.
 
Once you work it out they're very simple & soooo versatile :biggrin:

I'm still a GoPro newbie & havent figured out editing yet...I need to download an easy free editing program.

BTW, you got a good bargain :iconwink:
 
I'll give it a go. I do tend to get the s..ts a bit easy sometimes. All i wanted to do was press a couple of buttons and start taking movies/photos but i guess things don't work that way. Haaaa...my son gave me a raz and told me i was a cranky old bugger and i should stay with it as they are good fun.:lol:
I have not been fishing much the last week or so..been a bit cold.. but i might try and rig up a way to attach it to the Minn Kota under the water, that could be pretty cool.
I can see the point of the fish eye lens i suppose. Probably a good thing when you can't see exactly what you are aiming at.
When i get to a Gopro dealer i will check out the price of attachments like the LCD touch screen,battery pack and stuff. I think there is one in Bega.
Can i upload to Photobucket?? My son tells me to just put it on Youtube so they can check out my picks but i don't want everybody looking and posting stupid comments like they do. Can you keep Youtube private?? I'm just as happy to give them my Photobucket password and let them look that way if possible.
 
Silver, I got the giggles reading your GoPro post. I wondered if you might be able to use your GoPro to film something like this... (please don't click on the link if you are easily offended by swearing):

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DbUPjEbIvA"]The Angriest Guitar Player In The World!!! CRAZY! - YouTube[/ame]

Today (after much encouragement by our band).. I tried to learn a new song on the piano... it's only about 30 years since I've played anything much at all.

I didn't feel the same level of frustration as the fella in the video, but I had to have a laugh at myself and how impatient I have become!

Persevere with your GoPro. You will love what you can do with it :-)

Regards,
 
I spent some time reading the manual today....i know thats not what we males do....but thought it might have some useful imformation in it:lol:..and i must admit...if it does what they reckon it can it is quite an amazing bit of gear.
Stuff like...it can take photos at pre set intervals while recording a video,has time lapse up to 1 minute intervals, can take photos in bursts up to (i think) 60 per second, can record in video resolution up to 3840x2160 16:9, and many other ways of recording, special settings for taking videos from inside a car (darker to lighter) and lots of other stuff.
Anyway...below this....if all goes well is my first attempt to share a video. I am doing this through Photobucket and i think the same way i upload my photos to this site.
I just did a quick video from my porch to show my view. It's recorded in 1920x1080 16:9 @ 48fps in narrow view. That could mean something to somebody:ebiggrin:
He goes...wait.....wait.....seems to take a while uploading to PB.....wait....wait....wait...wait...too bloody slow for a 30 sec video....wait..apparently you can 'drag & drop' so i will try that if the video posts OK.

This is a video...click on it.

Ok. Lets see...
well that was VERY slow to upload,used 1% of my allowable storage so not really satisfactory.
I think i will have to learn about Youtube.
My question before was....can you elect to keep your youtube stuff private???
 
Last edited:
silver said:
....can you elect to keep your youtube stuff private???
Click to expand...
Yes you can.

There are 3 settings.

1:Public..... anyone can view.
2:Private... can only be viewed by people you invite.
3:Unlisted.. can be viewed only by people who have the link.

This link should explain it a bit more for you. Video privacy settings

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
Well thats good.
So when you post a video does it automatically scale down the size of video to suit youtube. What i mean by that is...i would like to take the videos at a high resolution for my own use...i'll get a more powerful computer later in the year....but it did take a long time to upload to Photobucket and used a lot of my storage. Does that make sense?? I don't want to spend a day uploading a 3 or 4 minute video.
 
Thats Probably the video format. You can easily make the file smaller by transcoding it to another codec (video compression, a good program is mediacoder, not very user friendly but i can make a preset for you to transcode video off your go pro to a format you can upload to youtube if you would like, I'll have a look i might be able to put together a drag and drop plugin for mediacoder you can use) which will take a shorter time to upload.

Another way is to render to a compressed file format out of a video editing suitt.

You'll loose some video quality this way, but wont have to spend all day uploading a video.
 
aaarrrggg. That sounds scary. As i said...i do want to keep the videos/pics on my computer at whatever resolution i finally decide on but ould like a quicker upload to say.. youtube. Is what you are suggesting meet my needs?? I am OK at stuff once i get used to doing it.
 
I use an Olympus Tough bottom of the range in the field, a great camera for getting wet and dirty, you dont need a cover for it, just as it comes, great pics and great macro, medium quality but good enough video, cost me $100, its a a TG310, i am thinking of a TG2 upgrade. I also recently purchased a Sony Action Cam, great POV camera, but it had a rattle inside it, not uncommon, so i pulled out the battery compartment and put the smooth side of some velcro in there and that got rid of that, but i shouldnt have to do it. Now there is a smaller rattle behind the LCD screen (apparently common) another easy fix, but i shouldnt have to do it. My $29 Video Camera sunnies from Kogan have really good audio, but the pic quality isnt the best but passable. I use all these cameras in the field for metal detecting so they have to take a big hit or 2, i dont think the sunnys will survive though.

I have many cameras for still and video, but they wont last 5 seconds metal detecting, my next purchase as a POV camera will be the a Contour roam +2 and that will go on the side of my headphones. I am still reluctant to buy the GoPro Hero3 Black, i felt the Hero 2 was a better video and audio quality camera and the camera doesnt suit what i want it for, but thats just my opinion.

At the end of the day each camera i use has a set function, and used within their limitations each present a quality of their own.

Ok back to YouTube and Ebay looking at cameras for the field, hide that credit card.. :surprised:
 
Originally i was going to get the latest Olympus Tough waterproof,shockproof thing that i think was the TG2 and was talking to my son who has a contour and does a lot of spearfishing and he was not happy with it and his mates were saying the Gopro was better and it happened that i was near a Camera House that was shutting down and i bought it on the spur of the moment.
Live and learn. First...my laptop is a basic affair and struggles with the result of the Gopro. Second...to get the attachments that would make the camera really useful is an added cost...eg you REALLY have to get extra batteries or a battery pack, a wall charger and probably a car charger a few different mounts...what about a 'floattie' back...etc...etc and i just can't be bothered.
I have put it up for sale on Gumtree and have some replies. It would have been much more useful to buy a decent fish finder for my tinny.
I'm sure they are good but i simply can't be bothered with it when i can just get a good quality camera and away i go.
Live and learn. Horses for courses.
It's only money so no drama.
 
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