This article groups the questions that come up most often in comments or emails on CameraOnBoard.fr. A FAQ to answer questions sometimes simple, sometimes more complex, but where often we do not find a clear answer… update regularly!
- My video files are unreadable after crashing or putting it into SOS mode
It is possible to save your video files, provided that the camera has actually recorded. Read here the article that explains the file recovery process.
Be careful, 64 GB cards are the cause of many data losses. Use 32 GB cards instead.
- What mode to use to shoot with a GoPro?
You can read here a complete article that explains, mode by mode, the settings to be made according to the activities practiced.
- What is the difference between the different models of GoPro?
GoPro has posted a comparison table on its website to identify the differences.
- Can I zoom in with a GoPro? What is the difference between wide, medium and narrow mode?
No. There are different viewing angles: wide / medium or narrow but no zoom.
It is a hybrid process. In itself, the lens does not move, so it cannot be said to be mechanical. In medium and narrow mode, the GoPro saves the image to the center of the sensor. Since the sensor is 12Mpx (4000×3000) the raw file has a resolution greater than 1080 but at recording the GoPro lowers the resolution to that of the chosen mode. The narrow and medium mode therefore appear a little less sharp than the wide mode, nevertheless they remove any distortion. So it's really not a digital zoom that would greatly degrade the image quality of the final file, but a rescaling of the image. If the GoPro cropped like a digital zoom in the sensor, we could not have resolutions of "true" 1080 in wide, medium and narrow because it would be content to go and cut in the image and then electronically enlarge the resolution of the image in 1080 but clearly losing in sharpness / image quality compared to a "real" 1080. This hybrid mode allows you to have different fields of view at equivalent resolutions but without a big loss of quality as it could have been the case on a digital zoom.
In photo, if you select the 7Mpx or 5Mpx mode of the Hero 2 or 3, the GoPro, does no more and no less than crop the image of 12Mpx, so you might as well take in 12 Mpx and cropper then yourself in Photoshop or any other photo editing software.
- How not to have the fish eye / deformed effect on the GoPro?
By switching from wide mode to medium or narrow mode, but therefore the image will necessarily be less wide angle. The wide mode is 170° while the medium is 127° for example. It should nevertheless be borne in mind that the GoPro is made to be fixed as close as possible to the heart of the action (nose of a surfboard / wake …, harness for mountain biking, Kart, etc …) and it is the "Wide" mode that gives this impression of "being there".
You can read this article to learn how to correct this effect.
- What is Protune mode for?
Protune mode is a "cinestyle" that can be enabled or disabled in the GoPro to shoot a less contrasting, less saturated image to optimize color editing in post-production. You can find more information in this article, which describes the effects of Protune.
- Why are GoPro videos jerky/not smooth?
There can be 2 responses depending on the "jerks":
– Either it is not jerks but tremors of the camera during the shooting and therefore that it was not well enough fixed or that it moved a little too much, in this case, if the rush trembles too much, it will be necessary to make a cross on it, if it is minimal, try to stabilize the plane with warp stabilizer in After Effects for example , Smooth Cam in Final Cut…
– Either it is a computer configuration problem that is not powerful enough to read the files. A video editing requires a lot of resources from a computer, an entry-level computer can sometimes be a little fair to play GoPro files in 1080/2.7k or 4k.
- What computer configuration (PC/MAC) does it take to edit a GoPro video?
There is not really a "typical configuration" of a computer. Personally, I use an Acer Z5751 with a large Home Theater screen, useful for editing videos, with an i3 CPU processor 3.07Ghz and 4 Gb of ram and I have no trouble running Final Cut, Premiere Pro or After Effects.
Overall, I would lean towards a recent configuration (PC or MAC) with at least one Intel Core i5 2.5 Ghz (quad core) and 4 or 8GB minimum of RAM. It is not impossible to mount with a less powerful configuration nevertheless, I do not guarantee that there are no jerks, that the preview is smooth etc … I haven't been able to test any configurations other than these. Insufficiently powerful entry-level laptops are desperate to process videos properly.
- Why don't my photos/videos render like the official GoPro videos?
It must be said that ALL official GoPro photos and videos are edited in software and are never published as is. Don't shout scandal, for all pub photos it's the same, it's not cheating, it's just optimizing the photo as we saw it or want to see it. To retouch photos, there are many tutorials on the internet but Photoshop and Lightroom are my two favorite software. There is also Aperture, Gimp (free) you just have to get started, learn how to handle the software and the color / contrast rendering will come.
For videos, it's the same, they're all edited, and it can take long nights without sleep, it's work, but the rendering can really be very nice. For color retouching: Magic Bullet can be a good base (to adjust according to your tastes) to learn colorimetry, and to see further After Effects or Davinci Resolve Lite 9 are really racing beasts and are used by the GoPro team to adjust the rushes of their video, but can be quite complex to handle.
To design videos with templates from GoPro, read this article.
- What is the difference between NTSC and PAL on a GoPro?
The Wikipediaarticle on the difference NTSC and PAL will explain the difference very well.
The difference in GoPro is only on the framerate: the NTSC has more frames / second (fps) than the PAL. When the 720 has 120fps in NTSC it has "only" 100 in PAL. The PAL standard is at 25 frames/seconds, while the NTSC standard is at 30 frames/seconds. On the other hand, the NTSC is the American standard while we in Europe, we are in PAL. In any case, if it is to publish your videos on Vimeo, YouTube or Facebook, it does not matter, you will have no problem, where it will get tough it will be to watch your video on a TV, in this case, the easiest will be to connect your TV to your computer it will save you a long and tedious job of converting from NTSC to PAL.
- How do I fix my GoPro? What are the best accessories and how to use them?
There is an important family of accessories to make your shots. Discover in this article the accessories used for the realization of cameraonboard.fr videos
- How do I make a timelapse (accelerated movie) with a GoPro?
The GoPro benefits from a timelapse mode, it's up to you to choose the interval between each photo: 0.5 – 1 – 2 – 5 – 10 – 30 – 60. Then you just have to import your photos into your video software and compile it into a video sequence by conforming to the number of frames per second you want (24 frames per second minimum to have a smooth final rendering) and voila.
- Which memory card to use for a GoPro?
Plan a large capacity minimum 16GB in my opinion, personally I use several cards of 32GB because timelapses, plus videos with Protune and photos, it can fill up very quickly. So you need a class 10 micro SD card, the card often recommended by GoPro SanDisk Micro SD 32GB Class 10 works well, but can sometimes cause problems with freezes of the GoPro according to Abe Kislevitz.
Be careful, 64 GB cards are causing systematic data loss and fatal crash, with data erasure. Be careful not to use them if you don't want to have bad experiences.
- How to make a slow motion video / slowmotion with a GoPro?
I have explained in this article all the steps to follow in this article to do it simply with the Cineform Studio software.
- What software to use to edit/edit a video?
assembly. GoPro has released a simple and consumer-oriented editing software, find my presentation article to learn more.
The most successful to date are Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or Avid for editing itself, they are very powerful but expensive.
The free software to get started is iMovie (mac) and Windows Movie Maker (PC) but are very (very) limited as soon as you want to go a little further in video editing.
The intermediaries would be Adobe Premiere Pro Elements, Final Cut Express or Sony Vegas Pro, also paid but more affordable.
Color grading. Red Giant Magic Bullet (for a fee) has many presets that can then be customized to create your own rendering: to use finely.
Adobe After Effects (paid) has really huge possibilities thanks to masks and curves (this will speak to you if you are already familiar with Photoshop)
Davinci Resolve 9 (free in Lite version, paid in Pro version) it is a software used by large film productions in cinema, it is ultra powerful, on the other hand, it requires a lot of resources from the computer and requires an already advanced level in terms of video colorization.
- What is the minimum focus distance of a GoPro?
Anything that is more than 60cm to infinity will be sharp, anything less than 60cm from the GoPro will be out of focus.
- My videos lack speed effect when shooting with a GoPro
What is essential with a GoPro is to always fill the frame of the camera, you always need a hero who fills a large part of the image. at 10m or even 5m it's already almost too far. And if you film with the harness for example you need a first shot such as handlebars, ski poles, etc … because the eye attaches itself to these fixed points to watch the video and everything that scrolls behind this foreground gives the effect of speed. If you're filming with the GoPro on the headset but there's no one in front of you except the scenery, you'll feel like you're going very slowly. You must always keep someone who fills the frame, it is essential, it is he who sets the tone of the sequence and the effect of speed comes by following him closely.
- My GoPro is covered with fogging during immersion or when exposed to a temperature change
When immersion of the camera or its passage from a hot zone to a cold zone (and vice versa), it is possible that fogging forms in the box on the lens. Your images are then veiled, even blurred…
This article provides you with some ideas to limit the formation of fogging.
- How do I maintain my GoPro?
The GoPro camera is quite rustic, and requires little maintenance. However, it is necessary to take some precautions to maintain its performance and extend its service life.
This article provides you with some ideas to maintain your GoPro
Still have questions? The comments are there for that!
For questions related to data loss and recovery of corrupted GoPro files, be sure to read this article and use the proposed method.
The FAQ is updated according to the questions asked in the different articles.