I am testing this GoPro out to see if it'll last for a long time. The
main issue I had was related to it not working like past an hour or so.
It makes sense because the battery only lasts so long, but
it shouldn't totally fail on me when I'm using it.
At the very least I want it to stop.
I've got the GoPro Hero 9 with
the Backbone modification, so I have a direct tripod connection 1/4th-20" which is nice!
The negative is that I won't be able to easily switch out the media mod.
For now I'm gonna leave it stock.
Got the AW1 with the 10 millimeter f/2.8 I do have a lens filter on that I've been using.
It's good enough and also I'm going to go into aperture priority, simple.. simple..
With the AW1 to change the focus you just press ok button and it can easily move it around. That
inner box is where the phase detect area is. So if you're outside of that you're going to
get contrast based which isn't necessarily great but it would still work most likely...
With the new firmware so far it's working okay. I did a few tests beforehand
with the Sandisk cards and I've had issues with those definitely.
And they did work! Maybe around 50 something minutes per and then it stopped
the camera. Didn't have a full failure! As long as it saves what I've recorded
up to that point then that should be good enough at least.
They are convenient. They have benefits. The stabilization is great!
It's hard to beat that. I mean probably if you get a really nice expensive
camera. Maybe an Olympus micro four thirds, which apparently has some of the best stabilization...
But with the GoPro it seems good enough and the focus is relatively close. It is fixed focus
like the Osmo Action of course, but this one's a little better in that case and it's wider.
So the GoPro definitely has some benefits of its own compared to similar cameras.
Although syncing audio is a hassle which right now I am doing lapel microphone stuff.
Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to take another shower. I always do this. It's nice taking
a shower in the morning, but then I do things like this that... feel pretty gross afterwards.
Of course you can get different lenses for cameras that allow you to change the lenses, but
you're not going to find something this wide very easily and cheaply.
One nice benefit of rain or the chance of rain is that you tend to get less people around,
so having equipment that doesn't have an issue with that is nice.
I do wonder why GoPro hasn't tried to release their own
replacement mount. Because you just take four screws out and that's it. It's not
super difficult. Thankfully backbone made their thing and it works for the most part.
Maybe it'd be nice if it were a two-piece thing
as long as it were really stable. That way you could have something in there
and then still put the media mod on, take it off, and then attach the secondary piece.
But that would kind of not necessarily make it better
because you have a failure point there. I do look at forums, I did see someone mentioned that the
TG-6 from Olympus has better image quality than this,
which I do wonder... but I don't know if I would spend that much money to get one and try it.
Let's talk about quirks.. things I've noticed with the GoPro. One is with the lens cover. If you take
it off at least once chances are it's not going to be tight enough to prevent mist and things getting
in there between that and the lens I noticed it with going to a Japanese garden in the area
that it wasn't tight enough and I was getting blurriness on the side, which wasn't great.
I do think it could be because the max lens mod is really tight so that might have actually
removed some of the metal of the mount in the back so that the differences between the two
is enough that when you put the actual cover back on the standard cover for the
lens you might have too much play and then air gets in there.. moisture.. whatever!
With the official charger it does not charge the batteries 100 percent. You get maybe 95
to 98 charge and that's it. If you want to fully charge your batteries with the GoPro
you have to charge it in the GoPro itself to get that 100 percent number on there.
With version 1.6 firmware the touchscreen is significantly better. I do have a cut up
screen protector from a phone, which I've never had huge issues with those. They work okay.
Of course it's not going to be as good as not having a screen protector, but I like
having them on there just for peace of mind and if I do ever resell it it does help with value.
But it does work significantly better with 1.6, nice!
At least now I can use it without having huge frustration based on the touch screen.
One thing related to the batteries and the camera itself. It gets really really hot!
The last few tests I did indoors there was cold air being blown on it from
the air conditioner but even so it lasted maybe 53.. 54 minutes.
I took out the battery it was really really hot, so that's not good!
But at the very least version 1.6 firmware
seems to be smarter now that it will cut itself off when it needs to.
I had probably mentioned this before, but with the GoPro 2.7k 30 frames a second
is not possible in the standard video mode. That's irritating because I do like that mode
for certain situations where I don't want huge file sizes. It's a little better than 1080p.
It gives me some room to crop-in when I want to, but of course smaller files than 2.7...
smaller files than 2.7k 60 frames a second or 4k.. 30.. 60.. whatever.
Would be nice if with that we're in there. Why they don't have it in there,
who knows? It's strange but you do get the 60 frames a second at least.
I will be curious to see if the GoPro is any better when syncing audio. Because I
do have the lapel microphone and a recorder and I've had issues with syncing based on...
You sync one clip which the GoPro, and the Osmo Action actually, they split the
video files into pieces. Four gigabyte chunks even if your memory card supports larger file sizes.
It's supposed to be a safety feature, but it doesn't work obviously with the GoPro
failing as it has in the past. With 1.6 firmware
it might work this time, who knows! Which is why I'm here while I'm trying it.
49 minutes and it's down to yellow, interesting.
I have been tapping the screen a few times
which uses more power of course both screens. No, just the front screen.
See if it keeps going. In this case the camera is getting more air
because like I said is relatively.. code.. cold... coode!
The main thing I'd like with an action camera is built-in
time code. Being able to sync it through bluetooth or whatever.
That way I can have an external recorder it doesn't need to be wireless
audio, it just needs to be able to have external recorder with time code support. So I can easily
sync up the two. But wireless is okay too maybe it inputs wireless microphone which
one of the insta360 or something that does it, but I don't know how well it does it.
That would be really nice.
Besides being really rugged, decent sized, not huge anyways...
Anyways, I'm Scott of Photography Banzai.
I'm still gonna let this record until it stops hopefully it doesn't destroy my recording,
but so far so good!
All right, low battery warning... turned off. Good! That is good!
One hour 14 minutes. See if I can get closer there, okay. One hour 14 minutes!