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As I said in an earlier post, I am a newer diver interested in taking good quality underwater videos but also on a budget. I am now planning on getting a gopro setup but, as I am also new to videography, I was wondering what is the difference between shooting in the different video modes- 1080p at 30fps, 720p 60fps and so on. Will one give better fluidity while another give better picture quality? And are there specicfic conditions in light or visibility that would favor one over another? I also realize there can be some vignetting on some of the settings depending on the flat lense set-up used. Right now I'm still leaning towards the backscatter set up with the red filter. If anyone has comparable videos showing the difference between the different camera modes please share to show the difference.
I also had another question about using this camera. Several people have stated using a mount or handle system would be a good idea to give better stability while filming with this small camera. Has anyone tried filmign with a head strap/mount at all and how did that go? I figure bubbles may be a problem with this method while diving but I am doing a whale shark snorkel in July where I won't be blowing any bubbles and thought this may be a useful method for giving some stability and allowing my arms to be free, provided I can fit a head strap mount ok with my mask on. Any thoughts on this? I will be trying a lot of this stuff out early this summer after I get the camera but I just want to get any imput I can so I have an idea of what to expect and also to be sure I'm getting a system I will be happy with.
Alot of people like 720P @ 60 fps for higher action shots because it gives the ability to provide good slo-mo. For underwater filming, don't think its as much of an issue. I believe alot of people use 1080P wide for underwater work.
I'm pretty new to GoPro and filming too, so have been doing alot of reading on this forum and the ones I linked above. I've seen some video's with head mounts for diving, bubbles are something of an issue. I think they recommend you use a hood over top of the head straps to secure it, as it can pop off.
I only did one dive trip with the camera just after purchasing it, and I just held it in my hand the entire time. I tethered it off to my BC with a tool tether (elastic strap). I eventually will get some type of tray or mount for it, but I've already spent more money on it then I had planned heh. Just installed my blurfix this past weekend and am taking it skiing this coming weekend. For skiing I will be using 720P @ 60fps...hopefully get some cool shots to slo-mo though I'm only barely a moderate level skier.
I think its a good idea to try all modes for yourself and see what works best for you, I like to experiment and have tried all modes with most mount options and found that 720P60 will let you get away with a less stable mounting setup then any of the 30P modes.
The wider the FOV you use the more stable the footage will appear so reducing FOV and framerate will require the most stable mounting method to make your footage viewable. The 60P rate will allow you to slow mo footage to half speed which can be a benefit if its a little shaky to smooth it out but even played back at normal speed the higher shutter speed will reduce blur when the camera is moving around a bit. Any fast movements in 30P or less will cause blurring of the image so if using a head mount 720P60 is your best option as it wont have much blurring caused by motion.
Here is a head mounted video when I lent the cam to a friend of mine and I edited up the footage for him, he was looking all over the place so most of this edit is in 50% slow motion to try and get some more stable footage. All shot in 720P60 with a HD1 gopro and some attempted software colour correction but its nowhere near as good as using a good filter setup. Ignore the intro as I was just making fun of him
I prefer the wide angle modes most if I can get close enough to my subject but this isn't always possible so if your shooting something more then a few feet away you will be better off with the medium FOV in 1080P otherwise everything will look quite small in the video. The wide FOV is great as you can get very close to your subject but have much more in the frame so there is less water between you and the subject to effect the image.
The narrow mode is an option but unfortunately as this is simply cropping the image off the sensor, its not really a digital zoom as its not blowing up pixels just using a smaller part of the sensor with no pixel binning so less light is captured creating more noise then the other modes. This can work in good light but overall it will have some issues and you will be better off with the medium or wide modes underwater.
When it comes to mounting I find the best 2 options are a good handheld setup and head-mount for those dives where you want to keep your hands free. For handheld Ive tried all sorts of methods from basic camera in hand to using the new tray by SRP, the tray is by far the easiest to keep stable and when using this I can use any mode I like as stability isnt really an issue. Here is a video showing all the modes in a HD1 and HD2 camera, this was filmed with the tray but on a day with a fair bit of surge and its pretty shallow so its pretty smooth considering the water movement which can be seen by the movement of the plant life at the bottom.
Here is just some continuous 1080P shots using the tray on the same day
Here is a head mount shot with a HD1 gopro one of my first videos with it so its a little rough and no filters were used but the location is insane. It was 720P60 and the wide fov made the sharks look smaller in the video lol, but quite a few of them brushed along me so I couldn't get much closer .
Head-mount is great for dives like this scallop dive where you haven't got a hand free to hold a camera. Again older video before using filters so colours not great but shows the head-mount can work well on some dives.
Here is one basically holding the gopro in hand with a couple of head-mounted shots at Loh Samah Bay and Shark point, mostly all shot in 720P60, I didn't get a chance to get too close to many things here as they were pretty much guided dives where we did lots of swimming without much of a chance to stop and get a good look at things. Stability is pretty poor here so its pretty jumpy but as it was in 60P there isn't much blurring going on just stability issues.
I have also made my own pistol grip type setup which I have used in some of my videos and works quite well, its just a bit heavy and still needs 2 handed use for best stability so you may as well use a proper tray as one handed is just much harder to keep it still. You can use a pole mount which will keep the image more stable then basic camera in hand and also allow you to get much closer to fish without scaring them off or losing your arm lol, this does work well for many but isnt as stable as a proper handheld setup.
So go out and try all the modes and see what works best for you, along with a few mounting methods its always good to experimant a little, I will mostly be shooting with the tray or headmount from now on but will still try a few other angles along the way. With the headmont though you will need to make a chin strap or wear it under your hood as it will easily come off underwater with just the headband.
I've gone to the hand mount with the LCD back. I can see what I'm doing. I tried the head mount and as much as you try to keep your head stable the picture is all over the place. The other thing I found useful was to set the camera on the one-button on/off setting. You can take small segments. This reduces the editing process.
As for editing, GoPro has a FREE program called GoPro CineForm Studio on their website. You can rotate, zoom, pan horizontally and vertically, and even do some color corrections. The program says you can have 4 keyframes per clip, but in the 8 minute wrestling videos I'm editing with it I haven't found a maximum yet (about 10-15 so far).
I recently received a GoPro for free (CC reward points ) and have tried it out in my local gym's swimming pool with the following settings:
1080p Wide - BEST field of view but distortion is the worst. Everything will look further than it really is
1080p Medium - Decent field of view, "fisheye" distortion is not too bad
1080p Narrow - Lackluster, exactly as Marty describes it above
Photo Mode - Hit or miss really
Time Lapse Photo Mode - Hit or miss really
Conclusion: I think I will go with the 1080p Medium configuration when diving.
As far as mounting it is concerned, I will keep it simple and use the headstrap mount.
1. Be sure to tighten the housing to the mount to keep it from drooping.
2. Definitely put the mask strap OVER the GoPro headstrap, it will fly off easier than you think!
I recently received a GoPro for free (CC reward points ) and have tried it out in my local gym's swimming pool with the following settings:
1080p Wide - BEST field of view but distortion is the worst. Everything will look further than it really is
1080p Medium - Decent field of view, "fisheye" distortion is not too bad
1080p Narrow - Lackluster, exactly as Marty describes it above
Photo Mode - Hit or miss really
Time Lapse Photo Mode - Hit or miss really
Conclusion: I think I will go with the 1080p Medium configuration when diving.
As far as mounting it is concerned, I will keep it simple and use the headstrap mount.
1. Be sure to tighten the housing to the mount to keep it from drooping.
2. Definitely put the mask strap OVER the GoPro headstrap, it will fly off easier than you think!
For headmounting I'd suggest you try 720P60 for 2 reasons the higher frame rate will reduce blurring and the wide FOV will make it easier to get what your looking at in the frame. In medium FOV you will find the movement will be a bit too much at times and a wider FOV will stabilize this a little. Most likely what your looking at wont make it to your video unless youve done a very good job aiming the camera before hand, in wide mode you will capture much more in the frame but it will all look further away.
Its worth trying both methods but I stick to 720P60 for all my headmounted videos as they turn out much better. Playing it back in 60P looks awesome too unfortunatly sharing videos online on YT or vimeo only playback in 60P but going from 60P to 30P doesnt cause any issues.
For headmounting I'd suggest you try 720P60 for 2 reasons the higher frame rate will reduce blurring and the wide FOV will make it easier to get what your looking at in the frame. In medium FOV you will find the movement will be a bit too much at times and a wider FOV will stabilize this a little. Most likely what your looking at wont make it to your video unless youve done a very good job aiming the camera before hand, in wide mode you will capture much more in the frame but it will all look further away.
Its worth trying both methods but I stick to 720P60 for all my headmounted videos as they turn out much better. Playing it back in 60P looks awesome too unfortunatly sharing videos online on YT or vimeo only playback in 60P but going from 60P to 30P doesnt cause any issues.
Interesting...I will try out the 720p60 and see how that compares. I looked at your videos and they look pretty awesome in that mode. I think I underestimate how often I will be moving my head around when I will go diving, so this mode may be best.
Not to divert/take over OP's post or anything, but have you experimented with extracting "stills" from GoPro video footage?
Interesting...I will try out the 720p60 and see how that compares. I looked at your videos and they look pretty awesome in that mode. I think I underestimate how often I will be moving my head around when I will go diving, so this mode may be best.
Not to divert/take over OP's post or anything, but have you experimented with extracting "stills" from GoPro video footage?
One thing is that all the head-cam videos Ive posted were shot with the HD1 gopro cameras and the image quality of the HD2 in 720P60 is the biggest improvement over the HD1 in that same mode, the videos will look much sharper then my HD1 videos shot in that mode. 1080P between HD1 and HD2 doesn't have a huge visual difference apart from having the other FOV options and better low light handling.
Here are a some stills from a few of my videos showing all the HD2 modes. These were all shot with a blufix adapter and either a URPro cyan or shallow water cyan filter. The screen grabs can be ok as pics but they are a little noisy and low res compared to photos but the grabs below will show you the image quality and also they do show how each mode looks in the HD2.
480P60
480P120
720P30
720P60 these were both 720P60 grabs but the first was scaled to 1080P to fit in that particular video and the second is as is in 720P60
This is 960P30 it also show the vignetting level the Blurfix has in 960P with a HD2
960P48
1080P narrow mode
1080P medium
1080P wide screen grabs.
Some 11mpx wide photos also showing vignete level of the Blurfix and URpro filter.
Even the full 11mpx photo's themselves are a little noisy and dont come close to a proper still camera but can get the odd decent shot, I think the gopro is a much better video camera then it is a still camera especially in the lower light underwater like those above here.
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