GoPro Pro-tune firmware released

[Juan Alberto Soto]

I got one hero an drown in 30 ft of water


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[Marty Cerven]

Comments Marty or others?

I dunno if I'm willing to risk my perfectly good operating camera, with a buggy software update. The WiFi and a streaming live video feed to a smart phone would be way cool for remote live shots, but...........read this.

Latest Firmware Updates are not working via Cineform on Win7 PCs for Hero2 or for WiFi bacpac | GoPro Forums

There have been some issues with firmware updates, and I have had one myself with one of my hero2's having bricked after this update which is not a good thing and they are looking into what is causing that to a small number of users, GoPro are replacing the camera but as I need to send it to the US I will be without it for a couple weeks. Weather has turned to %#$% again anyway so maybe not a huge loss to me but its something that really shouldnt happen in the first place. I cant say what made it happend and it seems GoPro dont know what is causing these rare issues in some cases, I used the same process in my HD2's and one was having stability issues until it ended up dying on me, the others were fine.

It looks like a hardware fault was in that camera which somehow activated by the update so there is always the risk of something going wrong during a firmware flash, I have done many firmware flashes with many GoPro cameras and this is the first time I have ever had an issue. But on out Goprouser forums there are about 5 or 6 other people that have had a flash go wrong since this update was released. This is from over 50,000 members at the forum so its still not a huge number and a good percentage of those will have HD2's but not all would have update already. There have been a few more issues with the last 2 firmware updates and the WiFi bacpac has had more issues then most for still unknown reasons.

The end video quality will be better especially anything in motion and in reality most underwater footage is in motion so it should benefit, we rarely setup static shots and most are handheld with lots of things moving in the frame along with some camera movement. Its also mostly for use by those that want to do some work in post to the colours as the protune update eliminates all the in camera colour correcting and noise reduction so you get to work with a more raw image at a higher bitrate, applying those settings yourself as needed and not needing to fight the camera's settings before applying your own.

There may be a 1 in 100 or 1 in 1000 chance that something may go wrong in the update but it will be fully covered under warranty as GoPro have never tried to avoid any warranty issues. They also do have a habit of helping out when an issue may be caused by the user if they do say how something came about honestly if its something they have done.

Here is what Abe Kislevitz said about Protune, he is the GoPro head editor.

>>>>>>Just a note about Protune -

Protune is simply a mode in the camera that bypasses all of the in-camera settings that are added to the file to make it look pleasing to the 'consumer' out of the box. The other big addition it gives is the high bit-rate. This you'll only see an advantage in complex scenes or high motion. No it won't make a static shot look better necessarily (unless you're keen to less sharpening), it also won't do anything to rolling shutter - that's a product of the CMOS frame speed and vibration.

Why is it noisier? In-camera noise reduction is turned off, also the shadows are brought up to give more detail incase the user wants it..in standard color curves in the camera, lows are crushed to black so you never see the noise.

All that said, for the pro trying to utilize the camera in a PRO workflow, it will do heaps in matching to the other cameras being used.

Biggest uses I've seen are mountain bike, snow, and surf - all of which are complex scenes with high motion, high highlights, and dark low lights.