John Phillips

Just recently I used one of my GoPros as a locked-off camera on a drummer on stage in a live music broadcast I was working on. The way the stage was set up we could not get a good shot of the drummer so the GoPro was the next best option. The video quality completely held up to the quarter-million dollar HD broadcast cameras we were using on the show. Earlier this spring I worked on the Red Bull Crashed Ice championship broadcast and as they were a RB sponsor, we were using the Sony Action Cams as POV shots on the course. Compared to a GoPro, they looked abysmal up against the same broadcast cameras. There's a reason why GoPro has a massive market lead in this field. As for "removing the fish eye lens" that is not physically possible as the lens is fixed to the camera body and not removable. You can, however use the GoPro Cineform software (free download) to correct the fisheye effect however bear in mind that this is a form of digital processing. Any digital manipulation or sizing of the picture will result in reduced quality of the original images. There are three different lens "wideness" settings available in the GoPro. Medium or Tight. Both do not have the fisheye effect to the same degree as the Wide setting abd it's easily to change between settings. As for a viewfinder... none of the GoPro cameras come with a viewfinder. You can add a back module to them to give you a small viewfinder but it's not as useful as you'd think. If you really want a viewfinder just download the GoPro App (free) for your phone and you can hook into the camera's Wifi signal and get a streamed picture on your phone (about 4x the size of the optional GoPro viewfinder and way more convenient). Remember you'll have to buy all new protective cases for your GoPro(s) if you use the viewfinder back. The phone app also gives you better control of all of the camera's settings than using their on-camera LCD menu screen. It tends to be a bit cumbersome to navigate. When I'm flying I just aim the camera by eye and lock my magic arm in place (see my previous email reply to the forum which has details on the Magic Arm) and I can usually get it pretty close. I don't recommend using a camera while flying with zoom controls an such unless you're not the one flying the balloon. Too distracting. The GoPro has a specific purpose and that's as locked-off a Point Of View (POV) action camera. For what it is it does it extremely well. If you want to caputre more technically perfect shots from a photographic perspective then have someone else fly and take up a better camera so you can concentrate on getting better shots, in my opinion. Three quick tips from both a balloonist and someone who works with GoPros on a regular basis in broadcasting and in flight... 1. Shoot in the highest possible resolution you can. You can always make footage worse, you cannot make it better. 1080i is the best choice for now as there are very few TVs out there that are capable of 4K yet and 4K sales aren't taking off as fast as they'd like. That said, shooting in 4K is better but you'll have a hard time watching the files as there's not a lot of 4K hardware out there yet so you'd end up having to convert your footage to 1080i. With that in mind, my original statement about not making footage better still stands and shooting in 4K will let you enjoy your videos long into the future. If you shoot in 4K you can edit your footage and output your final edited product in 1080i. This gives you get a LOT of ability to digitally zoom into things in the shot with minimal degradiation in the picture quality since the 4K picture is roughly 4x the size of a 1080 picture. Since the GoPro does not have a zoom lens this can be a bonus. 2. Best mounting system, bar none is the Manfrotto Magic Arm & Manfrotto Super Clamp. They're not cheap - $128 from B & H Photo in New York - but they're worth it. There are two versions - one with a lever quick lock and one with a knob lock. I use the one with the lever but both work fine. The super clamp lets you clamp the thing to uprights or a burner frame. Both are rock solid in flight and quick and easy to re-aim or level. We use both all the time in broadcast applications to hold POV cameras for live wide venue shots and to hold monitors and such. They're seriously bulletproof. 3. As for software for "processing" (editing?) the video, you don't actually "need" anything... you can run the video on any computer raw as it comes off of the camera's card. The GoPro generates a Quicktime .mov file that will play in Apple's Quicktime player (although I don't recommend it if you're running a PC 'cause it's very slow to load and operate) or Windows Media Player. Most other video players will play a .mov file with no problems. If you want to edit and have no experience with editing, Windows Movie Maker or Apple's version of it (I'm a PC guy) both work fine. If you want more editing power then Adobe Premiere is excellent but you'll have to buy a monthly subscription from Adobe to use it. John Phillips Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada