Can you take still shots with a GoPro?

[cayal]

Personally I just use the stills from my video. I simply scroll to a decent part, and then use Media Player Classic to save the snapshot. Works for me! I suppose once you've got the Hero2 the stills would be much better than video snapshots, but on the normal Hero it's not worth yanking my camera off my head and switching to photo mode...

So the Hero2 has the capability of doing both at once?

 

[flareside]

So the Hero2 has the capability of doing both at once?

No. Taking a still out of a video is entirely different than taking stills with the camera. Stills from a video are nothing more than a frame grab and the image is 1920x1080 (at best). This is only a 2MP image compared to the 3840x2880 11MP still images taken by the camera.

 

[cayal]

No. Taking a still out of a video is entirely different than taking stills with the camera. Stills from a video are nothing more than a frame grab and the image is 1920x1080 (at best). This is only a 2MP image compared to the 3840x2880 11MP still images taken by the camera.

Ahh sorry, misread your post.

So best way to have both done is to have 2 cameras at once.

 

[avigulf]

GoPro Hero has max. res. 5MP on stills, and Hero2 has max. 11MP on stills. If you want to shoot stillshoots there are better cameras than GoPro...

 

[cayal]

GoPro Hero has max. res. 5MP on stills, and Hero2 has max. 11MP on stills. If you want to shoot stillshoots there are better cameras than GoPro...

True, though I don't think I could video and take photos at the same time and I'm stuck on which I'd rather do (plus I need to get my buoyancy under control before I consider that).

 

[runNEOrun]

It isn't ideal but I typically keep my Hero2 in video mode and once I'm in a situation that I actually want to take some photos, I need to press a couple buttons before to make it happen. It isn't nearly as fast to switch over compared to my other DSLR but for the price, you can't beat it!

 

[SHiBBY]

It all depends on the quality and type of the photos you would like to take. If you're looking to get into macro or another special shot, you'll need a proper photo-primary camera that supports that feature as the GoPro obviously has no flash and a minimum focal range of about 2ft/60cm. Thus, even in photo mode, you won't be able to take close up's of Nudi's and what not.

If, like me, you're only looking to take general photos of fellow divers and sites in general and do not require additional lighting, then the GoPro will do the job. Furthermore, if you would like to be able to crop photos without sacrificing quality when it comes to uploads, you should use photo mode and look into the GoPro2 (11MP) rather than the GoPro (5MP).

And last but not least, if you do not wish to crop your photos, you might as well use the snapshots from the HD video and spare yourself the trouble of fiddling with buttons under water... I've attached a comparison. The first is a 300KB snapshot, and the second a 2MB photo, both taken with the same GOPro HD Hero in a dive housing.