Best settings for GoPro Hero4

Hi,
I searched but didn't see any recommendations on the best settings for a GoPro mounted inside on the side of the canopy. I have a swivel mount that rotates 270. What suggestions does everyone have... I know I've watched some excellent video from lots of you, and Bruno and Balleka...

Thanks for your time. I'll show some video results when I get them!

Steve S9

On Monday, May 18, 2015 at 6:54:09 PM UTC-7, Stephen Michalik wrote:
Hi,
I searched but didn't see any recommendations on the best settings for a GoPro mounted inside on the side of the canopy. I have a swivel mount that rotates 270. What suggestions does everyone have... I know I've watched some excellent video from lots of you, and Bruno and Balleka...

Thanks for your time. I'll show some video results when I get them!

Steve S9

I can't help picking which glider to purchase as your first glider, but I sure can help with Go Pro video questions...

The Hero4 Series is GoPro's adventure into the realm of 4K video.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when trying to choose a resolution for shooting video.

* Do you care about 4k video (i,e,, do you want to shoot at the highest resolution possible, even if most of your audience probably won't be able to appreciate that resolution)
* What size flash cards are you using?
* What speed flash cards are you using?
* What is your desired end user platform? Youtube sharing? Facebook? Family movie night on a hi-res video projector?
* What are you using to edit your video?
* Do you care about slow-motion effects?

I would say start with 1080p as your resolution - and if you don't plan on doing any slow-motion shots or don't have a super high-quality flash card, then go with 30fps framerate. 60fps will be quite a bit smoother, but really easts up your recording space pretty quick.

As far as the FOV (field of view) - play around with different settings. Ultra wide is gonna give you that fish-eye typical GoPro look -while medium is wide-angle, and narrow is probably somewhere around a typical 50mm focal length. Try different settings at home.


So for starters go with 1080p, 30fps, Ultra Wide and branch out from there.

Steve, I found this video from GoPro to be usful explaining all the
different sizes and frame rates. https://youtu.be/HLH5LhGjRLc
Webby

save yourself some headaches: you need a Class 10 SD Card for a go pro, and a 64gig card (largest available) is a whopping $30

On Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at 12:35:27 AM UTC-4, Johnny T wrote:
* What size flash cards are you using?
* What speed flash cards are you using?

$30 for 64 GB at that size. And you're complaining? Or did I
misunderstand the use of the word, "whopping"?

On 5/22/2015 6:25 AM, Bob Pasker wrote:
save yourself some headaches: you need a Class 10 SD Card for a go pro, and a 64gig card (largest available) is a whopping $30

On Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at 12:35:27 AM UTC-4, Johnny T wrote:
* What size flash cards are you using?
* What speed flash cards are you using?

--
Dan Marotta

On Friday, May 22, 2015 at 12:54:25 PM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
$30 for 64 GB at that size.* And you're complaining?* Or did I
misunderstand the use of the word, "whopping"?

Dan, I am sure he was being facetious when he said "whopping". The
price on these high capacity, class 10 cards has come down dramatically in the past year.

That's what I suspected. I recall spending literally hundreds of
dollars for a couple of hundred MB. Hell, I have a 2 GB USB stick that
cost my company (when I worked) $80 and I thought that was cheap at the
time!

On 5/22/2015 7:20 PM, Soartech wrote:
On Friday, May 22, 2015 at 12:54:25 PM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
$30 for 64 GB at that size. And you're complaining? Or did I
misunderstand the use of the word, "whopping"?

Dan, I am sure he was being facetious when he said "whopping". The
price on these high capacity, class 10 cards has come down dramatically in the past year.

--
Dan Marotta

On Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at 4:54:09 AM UTC+3, Stephen Michalik wrote:
Hi,
I searched but didn't see any recommendations on the best settings for a GoPro mounted inside on the side of the canopy. I have a swivel mount that rotates 270. What suggestions does everyone have... I know I've watched some excellent video from lots of you, and Bruno and Balleka...

Thanks for your time. I'll show some video results when I get them!

One thing I think few others do:

I use my old GoPro Hero 2 in "960p" mode rather than 720p or 1080p. This mode is the same number of pixels wide (1280) as 720p, but is 960 pixels high, thus giving a larger vertical field of view which I find useful in gliding videos (see the ground near below! See the clouds above!).

It also uses the entire sensor chip, which is 4:3 aspect ratio, not 16:9. The 720p and 1080p modes letterbox the sensor and simply throw away a lot of the pixels. The sensor is actually 3840x1260. 720p and 960p average a 3x3 block of pixels into a single pixel. 1080p averages a block of 2x2 pixels into a single pixel.

If you shoot in 960p you can always letterbox it to 720p yourself later if you want to.

I don't know whether the same possibilities exist in later models or whether there is perhaps an equivalent "1440p" 4:3 (1920x1440) in later models.

A sample frame from a 960p movie from Hero2: http://hoult.org/bruce/carol.jpg