Don't get rid of your Hero2 just yet! Interesting comparison

[Interceptor121]

[youtubehq]yZvPBBHAuiI[/youtubehq]

Obviously those are land test but I struggle to see improvements between the hero2 and the hero3 silver
Also the black seems to be much darker than the other two in low light scenes??

 

[diver_dj]

One of their reps told me that there really isn't a technical difference between the H2 and the H3 Silver. It's basically size and firmware.

 

[Gombessa]

Re. the H3B, don't judge the low light solely by the exposure. It's very clear even in that video that the Black has extremely improved noise characteristics over both the H2 and H3S, so much so that I'm willing to take their "2x better" claim at face value.

 

[JamesK]

I have the 2 and 3B. I can tell you that the 3B is much better in low light. The reduction in noise is huge.

 

[Interceptor121]

Those are off the box I wonder how they compare if you use flat protune and the noise reduction is off?
Regardless the battery life of the new gopro is really short the reduced size and increased processing comes at a price

Another interesting one, colour in the hero3 better but image less sharp than hero2 this is with off the box settings

[youtubehq]svzfD1I9g8Y[/youtubehq]

 

[Gombessa]

Those are off the box I wonder how they compare if you use flat protune and the noise reduction is off?
Regardless the battery life of the new gopro is really short the reduced size and increased processing comes at a price

Another interesting one, colour in the hero3 better but image less sharp than hero2 this is with off the box settings

The video says the H3B is shooting at "1440-40fps," whereas the H2 is 1080-30fps. I recall from a technical description Marty sent in a separate thread that certain modes, including 1440-48fps, have some edqe quality and aliasing effects that are characteristics of those particular modes. These artifacts don't show up on other standard modes, such as 2k-30fps, 1440-30fps, 1080-30fps or 1080-60fps. So unless there is a need to use a particular mode, a better apples-to-apples comparison may be by comparing the same settings for each camera.

I don't know why 1440x48 would be the out of the box setting for the H3B, that's a weird one.

 

[Interceptor121]

it is a supported mode I guess this guy wanted a 4:3 format anyway does not matter just interesting
maybe someone posts a side by side comparison, all in all the hero2 was released 14 months ago some people just got on with the housing and now a new one comes up and you may rush into upgrade maybe you need not
If you have nothing than is different I guess I am saying if you got an Hero2 just few months ago don't be angry!

 

[Gombessa]

GoPro doesn't really go out of their way to advertise which modes have funky image artifacts and which don't (surprise, surprise). Though I'm actually surprised to see the apparent difference in sharpness in the video you linked, and would love to see test repeated on the same settings (or even 1440p-30).

Another possibility is if frame-blending is used to get 48fps down to 30fps in youtube, that will naturally result in less sharpness. That's not a drawback to the H3 at all, just a limitation on your choice of output (you can always shoot in 30fps native, use frame-dropping, or, if the H2 supports a 48fps mode, shoot in that as well and see how it fares with the same pulldown).

I'm still constantly impressed with videos people put up from the H2. If you shoot it and you like the output, there's no reason to go out and drop $400 on a new model. But I think it's worth being accurate about what differences and improvements do (and don't) actually exist.

 

[Marty Cerven]

Hero2 is just as good today as the day it came out another new model coming out hasn't made the hero2 any worse overnight. Same as the hero3 will get no worse when the hero4 comes out if your happy with what you have and dont see the new model as enough reason to upgrade then thats fine. They will keep making new models hoping you buy them but there is no rule saying you must buy every new product that comes out and makes your old stuff obsolete. The only people that really lose out on new models are the resellers that bought stock of 2's just prior to the 3's coming out as they will need to discount these in order to clear them because not many would pay the same price for a hero2 as they would for a hero3 silver that has more value at the same price point.

I also never understood why all GoPro's default mode was always a 4:3 mode having being 960p in all other cameras but thats not a real big issue except for the many first timers that have no idea about video modes and end up just using that because they dont know much about what they should be using. But comparing different modes with different frame rates will give different mixed results as higher frame rate will likely have a different binning mode and also faster shutter speeds so this will have a negative effect on the faster frame rate video.

The auto white balance on the hero3 black and hero2 are pretty much the same so both still quite inconsistent underwater in natural light and again this will give more mixed results but its still good to see how each performs in auto mode, pick the best mode in both and then compare and you will see the advantages in the black but it still wont be worth the upgrade for everyone.

The black is much better in lower light from my use and shooting, Also mixing 48p and 30p is a bit of a random framerate mix in a sequence if both videos are at 100% speed, this will cause some issues depending on what framerate this is rendered in so comparing them like this isn't the best choice IMHO.

Heck even the hero1 isn't that bad and still as good as it was when it came out

 

[Interceptor121]

I think the 48p comes from wanting a double frame rate for people doing production in 24p at 1440x1080 with rectangular pixels
They seem quite keen to offer 24/25/30 and 48/50/60 nothing wrong there