anyone playing with gopro3 black?

[monkeyhatfork]

took mine out for the first time this morning. i haven't tried video yet I've been shooting lots of pics on my 2 so thought id do the same to compare. in all the day was a bit of a wash despite great opportunities for epic shots nothing came out super great. it does seem to perform better at low light than the 2 which was one of my main interest in getting it. my 2 performs amazing in well lit water say down to 10ft maybe 15 but when i would dive down with dolphins say 35-40ft it would be fuzzy and washed out heres a pic at 38ft was pretty happy with it for a low light pic. the next pic is what it looked like surfacing completely washed out-would have been a beautiful shot as i would have shot it with the 2. I believe my problems were the setting. I wanted to try out the new burst/conitnual shot functions. i was shooting at 5 pics per second and i think it was too hard for the camera to adjust underwater exposures that fast. it think its gonna be an amazing camera but i think a bit of a learning curve cause there are so many new variables on it for professional use. the close-up shot is also around 35ft i didn't like the background so blocked it out a bit in photoshop but u get an idea of how the low light is working. I think it will much higher quality at a slower rate. or maybe i just have something else set wierdd
that I'm not noticing yet. anyway love to see stuff or here from anyone else using them. anyone shooting video on the pro tune setting? also it seems to have a deeper field of focus stuff that was farther away had more detail

 

[nostres]

I should receive mine in few days. I was told You must update firmware first thing after opening, did You do that?

Peter

 

[monkeyhatfork]

yeah did the update. im pretty sure i was just using a setting that wasnt appropriate too what i was doing. also not sure what effect having protune on has on the photo modes i should be in the water with it in the morning so ill try some different settings and maybe some video.

 

[monkeyhatfork]

ok so shot video today @ 1440hd with the pro tune setting and its amazing sorry no video sample It'll be a week or so before i have a full video up. the detail was amazing u could see fine detail in the algae growing on a turtles back when breaking the surface houses and palm trees almost a half mile away on shore were crystal clear with amazing color. need to find an efficient way to edit that doesn't compress too much. don't know if I'm gonna shoot more at 1440 my screen and most peoples televisions only go up to 1080hd so I'm not even seeing the full benefit. tomorrow I'm gonna try the 1080 @ 60fps. Ive been wanting to shoot video but have been having fun with stills so heres my rig for tomorrow. the gopro3black will shoot video and the go pro2 will shoot stills at one per second simultaneously. The added weight and counterbalance feels like it will make the video smoother and more stable seems like it cuts way down on any kind of handshakes or wrist movement

 

[Kars]

Nice!

I'm looking forward to the video, it sounds very promising.

Indeed adding some weight and grip will help to make the video more smooth. I think smooth(er) video looks much better, sharper. Actually my biggest gripe with homevideo's is the unwatchable, distracting shakes.

Adding sling around your neck attached to the camera can also help to smooth the video. It will help to connect your upperbody to the cam, so your camera and body rotates together.

 

[monkeyhatfork]

im gonna try tucking the pole mount under one arm a strap would work but i don't want to add anymore to what I'm taking out. in fact i really need to start forcing myself to go out without a camera a few times a week and just enjoy free diving. but this is gonna be an issue with the new cameras cause they are so much smaller than the already small originals so handheld is gonna be trickier with video

 

[monkeyhatfork]

ok shot video again today-amazing. shot photos too at a slower setting simultaneous to the go pro 2 and pics from the black edition were garbage again I'm pretty positive now that its the pro tunes setting throwing off the photo stuff. i black edition has a setting were u can hit the shutter anytime while shooting video and it will take a still and it won't even let u turn that on if pro tunes is on so ill do a test with pro tunes turned off not that it matters I'm gonna use it mostly for video but i wanna know how the camera works

 

[monkeyhatfork]

ok so shot stills with pro tune turned off. still garbage. shot video at 240fps absolutely amazing hopefully ill get a video up soon. still a few more things i could try with the still mode but why bother video is what it does best so ill use it for video and take stills with my other camera

 

[monkeyhatfork]

ok finally got some decent pics with the black today. my hd2 leaked so had to drop it on shore so more time just messing with the hd3 no dolphins showed so tested stuff out with bubble rings. so far best luck with spot meter on pro tune off everything has to be ambient or front lit forget about anything backlit or pointing the camera anywhere close to the sun or complete washout i think thats the tradeoff for the better lowlight function is that its oversensitive to bright light heres one of the pics posted some others in my free dive stories thread

 

[marginatus]

my hd2 leaked so had to drop it on shore

have you tried saving it?
What to do when your GoPro Gets Wet | HD Video Camera

 

[monkeyhatfork]

the camera seems to be fine got it out off the water before the housing got much in it it appeared that the anti fog insert acted as sponge didn't see any debre in the oring hoping its not leaking on one of the buttons my thinking is either a salt crystal on the oring that dissolved or the anti fog insert slipped as I was closing the door and got pinched in the oring I've seen that happen before but usually check better and catch it.

 

[marginatus]

I had a dive housing (gopro) that opened itself (when the housing is compressed the latch is too loose) underwater...
The new housing (hero3) seems to take that into account

 

[monkeyhatfork]

yes the new housing is much better, never had a problem with the others till now but then again I'm going a bit deeper and staying down longer than i used too. the fact that the latch moves at all on the old version isn't great

 

[grantl]

Pleased to hear you're getting better results with stills from it. Can you post a few samples? My underwater still camera has died and the GoPro3 may be a good replacement?

 

[monkeyhatfork]

Grant it is an amazing video camera quality is unreal. unfortunately can't post any quick sample of video without them being super compressed crap so it'll have to wait till i have something finished. as for the still I've started to get some decent pics but still a bit disappointed in it as a still camera when they come out they are good but conditions have to be perfect i get constantly better pics off the hd2 certainly wouldn't replace an slr type camera with it. it well worth it tho for the video the size is nice to almost half that of the already small go pros if you rig a wrist mount for its like u don't even have a camera with u. not sure why the video can be so superior to almost anything else out there but the still function seems to struggle with exposure,focus slower or still movements work the best such as the bubble ring pics or a dolphin that has stalled out or moving slow but fast moving fish a pic where u and the subject are moving allot it usually fails. there are a few pics on my free dive stories thread.

 

[monkeyhatfork]

heres an out of water still from the blackedition

 

[marginatus]

very "black" indeed
Have you messed with the post while using protune?

 

[monkeyhatfork]

pro tunes works amazing on video, but havent been using it cause it can cause random delays and stoppages when filming but often still use the pro tune filter in cinaform when doing ruff cuts, heres a few screen grabs off video i shot this morning

 

[Salehthefish]

Hey buddy you got nice pics there Dolphins u r Lucky!!!


These are some pics i got from my gopro 3 black... Note that i got it stuck while video in the sea on the first use while it was loading the video mode after the battery shut down i charged it and i took the pics (Not video shots) in the pool.

for resolution i love it but hope that camera stuck is one time thing and will never happen again...

All best

 

[marginatus]

both of you have the last firmware?
Any idea why it happens?