All Things GoPro

[trayson]

Ok GoPro "pros", I'm pretty sure my wife is getting me a GoPro for my bday next mouth. The question is which one do I want? All the spec stuff on them is over my head. Is the saying "bigger is better" ture with the GoPros, meaning get the HERO+ Black Edition and don't look back? Or would I be just as happy with one of the cheaper ones? I just plan on pictures and videos while out on the boat for now. Of course with that said I'm sure I will do more with it once I start playing with it. I have skimmed through the post but not read everyone of them, so I apologize if this has already been discussed. Thanks of your advice and help in advance.

I think that my post from today addresses some of your questions. See below.

The 3+ Black edition comes with the waterproof wifi remote control. I have to say that the remote is completely awesome. It's super easy to mount the gopro at the rear corner of the boat and control it from the drivers seat. You get an LCD display that shows you everything you'd see on the LCD of the camera. and you can change any of the settings on the cam with the remote. The remote runs $60 if bought seperately. And there's a $100 premium between the silver and the black.

That said, the black also has the ability to do higher framerates as well as the new "superview".

So, the sensor on the gopro will capture video in a 4:3 aspect ratio. When you're filming in 16:9 widescreen, the camera is literally chopping off the top and bottom of the picture to make the widescreen recording. you can also record in 4:3 and fully utilize the sensor, but then you get vertical bars when you watch it on a widescreen TV or monitor (like we pretty much all have these days). So what gopro did is offered up a "superview" on the 3+ black. it gives you the full height of the image and it leaves the center of the image in tact, but takes the left and right edges and stretches them to turn the 4:3 into a 16:9. basically the parts of the image that are on the outside aren't all that important and you're already used to having a little bit of a fisheye effect from a gopro anyway.

The advantage of superview is when you are shooting somewhat close to the subject (like camera mounted on a board, or maybe even filming wakesurfing) where it would chop off the head or feet if captured in widescreen. with superview, you get that full height of your recording but it makes it so you still fill the 16:9 frame. Obviously, this is something you can do with video editing, but gopro gave it to us as a setting we can choose.

I'll admit that I'm super lazy and just puke my vids up onto youtube without editing, so I like this feature.


As far as the remote, some might say that you can just use the app. The app is awesome for giving a video preview of what you'll be seeing. I started yesterday with the remote for the first few sets. Then I actually connected the app and realized that I had my cam tilted to far to the side and my videos were shot at about 15 to 20 degrees off a level horizon. Oops. But the app does seem to suck more battery and tends to lose wifi connection more often. Also, it requires you to be pressing all the stuff on the phone. I know my phone goes into sleep mode and I don't want to be swiping to unlock it to start/stop videos. I do have a car dock that I use in my boat, but I still find the simplicity of the remote best.

I was also super stoked to see that the gopro has LED's on the front and back to let you know if it's recording. As a rider, I could tell and sitting in the back of the boat I could tell.

The price difference between the 3+ silver and 3+ black is $100.

The cost of the wifi remote is $60 if you buy that seperately. The 3+ black has a couple different shooting modes that I'm a fan of since I like shooting boardsports where how much image you can get vertically might be important.

So I went with the 3+ black. I figure they are gonna keep getting better and I might as well get the best so tech won't leave it in the dust quite as quick.

I really like the remote control for reasons outlined above. I think it's worth it in a boating environment so you can mount the gopro and still operate it remotely.

Basically if the extra $60 to $100 is a big deal, then you could get by with the 3+ silver and use the gopro App and only be missing the superview recording mode.

I'm happy with my 3+ black.