r3 or r5 for GoPro Diving Vids?

[samcraig]

So which does everyone prefer? I'm about to take my first series of videos using the GoPro. I have the flat lens installed which means at 720 (r3) I see some vignetting. At 1080 (r5) not so much. But I like the idea of shooting at 60p as that enables less jello effect and allows for smoother slow motion.

thoughts? what are best practices and what are people using themselves?

-C

 

[hellhole]

in all sense...

r3 mode is good for moving video. ie. u carrying it and moving it around ... quickly
r5 mode is good more stationary video. ie. u put it at a stationary point and take video of motorsport or something.

so uw... it will all depends really..

if you are slow and steady.. r5 mode can give u good results.. till u try to move fast and chase some fishes ( come on.. u koe u do that )

 

[Marty Cerven]

I mostly prefer r3 especialy if I headmount the cam the higher fov and faster frame rate means less blur, also a big advantage is that you can slow this video down to 50% and still keep 30fps which can come in handy at times.

R5 is good at times but the lower fov means you will find it harder to frame your subject, also if you dont keep the camera very still it will get a little blurry. I also have noticed more noise in the video when the light is a little lower in r5 over r3 probably due to the higher data rate per pixel in r3.

Its best to try both modes for yourself and work out which works best for you, but if you have a flat fix that vignettes you most likely will use r5 to avoid this. The main advantage of the vignette free fixes is that you have the choice of more modes where as the 1080p ones force you to use that mode only.

 

[ozzydamo]

I mostly prefer r3 especialy if I headmount the cam the higher fov and faster frame rate means less blur, also a big advantage is that you can slow this video down to 50% and still keep 30fps which can come in handy at times.

R5 is good at times but the lower fov means you will find it harder to frame your subject, also if you dont keep the camera very still it will get a little blurry. I also have noticed more noise in the video when the light is a little lower in r5 over r3 probably due to the higher data rate per pixel in r3.

Its best to try both modes for yourself and work out which works best for you, but if you have a flat fix that vignettes you most likely will use r5 to avoid this. The main advantage of the vignette free fixes is that you have the choice of more modes where as the 1080p ones force you to use that mode only.

You shoot R3 becuz its easier to make it look fluid and steady, blur isn't an issue if you flow, your motion of camera slowly and dont buck around with your movements(nice soft flutter kick with short flexy fins on, like my mares full foot pocket super channels')
Yes, Marty but why not 960p r4???
I will be shooting this' r4 this weekend! 960p is what the 19" screen was made for!
1080p is perfect if your good, use 720 a while so your got something you wanna watch, then you will see how you can improve your action and motion.
R5 is where you wanna be- on the FHD big screen plasma showing the terrestrian on lookers, what happens "below the surface"!!!!!!!*
*vodka martini in hand'
Cheers, fellow aquanauts,
Damo'ps- Queensland is where u wanna be Marty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ozzydamo]

So which does everyone prefer? I'm about to take my first series of videos using the GoPro. I have the flat lens installed which means at 720 (r3) I see some vignetting. At 1080 (r5) not so much. But I like the idea of shooting at 60p as that enables less jello effect and allows for smoother slow motion.

thoughts? what are best practices and what are people using themselves?

-C

Leave the camera for a while is my advise, just enjoy diving and workout thru your skill sets, especially SMB deployment, finning steady and going neutral bouy'o' in the water.

 

[ozzydamo]

in all sense...

r3 mode is good for moving video. ie. u carrying it and moving it around ... quickly
r5 mode is good more stationary video. ie. u put it at a stationary point and take video of motorsport or something.

so uw... it will all depends really..

if you are slow and steady.. r5 mode can give u good results.. till u try to move fast and chase some fishes ( come on.. u koe u do that )

U don't have a Klue do U?

 

[Marty Cerven]

You shoot R3 becuz its easier to make it look fluid and steady, blur isn't an issue if you flow, your motion of camera slowly and dont buck around with your movements(nice soft flutter kick with short flexy fins on, like my mares full foot pocket super channels')
Yes, Marty but why not 960p r4???
I will be shooting this' r4 this weekend! 960p is what the 19" screen was made for!
1080p is perfect if your good, use 720 a while so your got something you wanna watch, then you will see how you can improve your action and motion.
R5 is where you wanna be- on the FHD big screen plasma showing the terrestrian on lookers, what happens "below the surface"!!!!!!!*
*vodka martini in hand'
Cheers, fellow aquanauts,
Damo'ps- Queensland is where u wanna be Marty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you see my blurfix comparison video you will notice as the camera pans the objects blur a little in all the 30p modes but in 60p you don't notice this motion blurring due to the higher shutter speed. So the 60p video will always look better if the camera moves around a bit.

In theory the lower frame rates should allow more light and have better low light video but I don't think this applies to 1080p on the gopro as the relatively low data rate for 1080p30 produces more noise then 720p60.

1920x1080x30=62,208,00 pixels per second
1280x720x60=55,296,00 pixels per second
max data rate for both is 15mbps so r3 will get more data per pixel meaning r5 is more compressed and will show more noise/artifacts due to this.

The conditions we get here in the Bass straight 90% of the time it doesn't matter what fins you've got on, if there is a 5m+ surge your not going to keep the camera still unless you mount it on a rock lol, you Queensland guys don't know much about that though in your tropical calm waters.

I think r2 and r4 in pal 25p should produce best results in low light but I haven't done much testing in those modes yet.

I will try some R4 filming but I don't have any 4:3 screens so I prefer to shoot all video in 16:9 formats which fill my displays without any black bars on the sides like the 960p mode produces.

My 50 inch Panasonic 3DHD plasma looks great in r3 with fast moving video and pretty good in 1080p if there is not much camera movement, I found r5 is best if the camera is kept stationary as any movement does have a bad effect on the video. I personaly prefer watching back my videos in 60p over the 1080p30 as its so much smoother and more lifelike most of the time, if there was a gopro with 1080p60 with a data rate around 40mbps I would film everything in that mode

 

[samcraig]

Leave the camera for a while is my advise, just enjoy diving and workout thru your skill sets, especially SMB deployment, finning steady and going neutral bouy'o' in the water.

Thanks - but I'm a confident diver. And I'm now ready/wanting to start underwater photography/videography.

 

[ChiroManta]

Hi Marty. I just got GoPro HD with Blurfix and color correction filter. Do you hand held your camera or is it mount to some thing. Just watched your video on SRP diving in Thailand. Nice work. How do you fix your camera. Do you do any post production on your videos? Do you use any lights?

 

[Marty Cerven]

Hi Marty. I just got GoPro HD with Blurfix and color correction filter. Do you hand held your camera or is it mount to some thing. Just watched your video on SRP diving in Thailand. Nice work. How do you fix your camera. Do you do any post production on your videos? Do you use any lights?

The Thailand videos I posted were just handheld camera in hand, not the best method as it was a little shaky. I do have a custom handheld pistol grip type setup I use at home for handheld shots but its a bit heavy so I didn't bring it with me.

I did shoot a couple of headmounted videos also but didn't take enough care setting the angle so its a little low missing most of the cool stuff. I normally set the angle for headmounts with a protractor but forgot to bring it with me also. I havent posted any of theses yet and nearly all video was shot in r3 720p 60.

I didnt do to much in post just some software white balancing mostly in the shallower sections as it was all shot with a UR pro cyan filter. The snorkel video has the most work done with colours as the cyan filter ends up too red in shallow waters. I have re done this video and theres the newest version on vimeo, I have the shallow water filter now which wpuld have been best to use when snorkeling.