redridinghood
Member
Not my video clip. Just wanted to share the goodness. 
GoPro 3
- Thread starter Kilby
- Start date
Hero 3 has arrived!
My Hero 3 black edition arrived late yesterday, by the time I charged the battery and got the hang of the setup menus it was too dark to do anything with it. Just a few minutes ago I gave it the first test flight strapped to the front of TBS Discovery #2 using the 1080P 60fps mode, the resulting video is simply stunning! 60fps is IMO the minimum speed needed for smooth video from a multirotor, especially on turns and panning, 30 fps is just too notchy as the view can change so much as the multi rotates. The problem is particularly noticeable at higher resolutions making 1080p on the older GoPros next useless for what I do with them.
Well I'm happy to say I'm no longer stuck with 720P 60 FPS, the Hero 3 does great with the 1080P 60 FPS and the colors are a lot more vibrant as well. It also deals with changing light conditions much, much better than the old HD Heros, I can fly towards the sun without the scene being totally washed out by the bright light and then turn 180 degrees and the Hero makes a nice smooth transition where before it would be almost like turning a light switch on and off in a room.
Only thing I need to do before I can post some video is head over to Best Buy and pick up a class 10 micro SD card, the class 4 I have cuts off recording a bit before 2 minutes due to its inability to keep up with the data flow from the camera, forget about trying to use Protune with this card.
I'm really pleased with what I've seen so far, I'm going to try and get a new memory card and do a flight or two before the end of the day, time and workload permitting.
Oh, and the other nice feature is the wifi remote that mirrors the LCD display of the camera when connected. Nice to be able to push the button on the remote and have it start recording and be able to see that the camera actually is, no more having to go and press the camera shutter button on a powered up multirotor then walk back to the TX and get ready to take off...
Ken
My Hero 3 black edition arrived late yesterday, by the time I charged the battery and got the hang of the setup menus it was too dark to do anything with it. Just a few minutes ago I gave it the first test flight strapped to the front of TBS Discovery #2 using the 1080P 60fps mode, the resulting video is simply stunning! 60fps is IMO the minimum speed needed for smooth video from a multirotor, especially on turns and panning, 30 fps is just too notchy as the view can change so much as the multi rotates. The problem is particularly noticeable at higher resolutions making 1080p on the older GoPros next useless for what I do with them.
Well I'm happy to say I'm no longer stuck with 720P 60 FPS, the Hero 3 does great with the 1080P 60 FPS and the colors are a lot more vibrant as well. It also deals with changing light conditions much, much better than the old HD Heros, I can fly towards the sun without the scene being totally washed out by the bright light and then turn 180 degrees and the Hero makes a nice smooth transition where before it would be almost like turning a light switch on and off in a room.
Only thing I need to do before I can post some video is head over to Best Buy and pick up a class 10 micro SD card, the class 4 I have cuts off recording a bit before 2 minutes due to its inability to keep up with the data flow from the camera, forget about trying to use Protune with this card.
I'm really pleased with what I've seen so far, I'm going to try and get a new memory card and do a flight or two before the end of the day, time and workload permitting.
Oh, and the other nice feature is the wifi remote that mirrors the LCD display of the camera when connected. Nice to be able to push the button on the remote and have it start recording and be able to see that the camera actually is, no more having to go and press the camera shutter button on a powered up multirotor then walk back to the TX and get ready to take off...
Ken
kloner
Aerial DP
i'd get the sandisk ultra class 10, looks like this
http://gopro.com/camera-accessories/32gb-microsd-memory-card
it is different. put that in your hero2 as well and try the newest firmware with protune. it's not notchy and the color is similar. if there all hero1, SOL
http://gopro.com/camera-accessories/32gb-microsd-memory-card
it is different. put that in your hero2 as well and try the newest firmware with protune. it's not notchy and the color is similar. if there all hero1, SOL
Too soon to tell, I've recorded a whopping 1:57 of video with it so far but what I've seen in that short time looks amazingly good! I'm going to charge up a battery for the Cinestar and mount it to the AV130 for a test flight. The layer lens for the older GoPros doesn't fit the Hero 3 so I'm a little hesitant to just rubber band it to the front of one of the TBS and do a flight, the test flight was with it in its case mounted upside down and jury rigged to the front of the Disco. Wound up with a fair amount of jello from the hack mounting, time to get it in the air on a good solid platform to see what it can really do. I'm paticularly interested in seeing what comes out of it in the 4k and 2.7k Cinema modes, testing all the different possibilities will take some time.
Don't see a way to do live feed other than by Wifi which is fairly short range. At some point I'll download the app to the old iPad I have and see if the wifi feed is at all useful while in flight, I suspect it won't be for anything other than hovering and slow flight within 100 feet or so, definitely a no-go as an FPV camera.
Just picked up the exact same card at Best Buy for $27.99, now I just have to find some time to get the camera in the air. I have plenty of full size SD cards that are class 10 and 16/32 GB, not having anything that uses the micro SD all I had was a 2GB that I used in my last phone, too small and too slow for HD video.
Ken
P.S. the 30 FPS still shot burst mode is interesting, I've never seen a camera capture stills that fast!
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kloner
Aerial DP
you can capture stills while your recording video too
this cam and the new firmware in the hero2 need not only class 10, but that min write 30mbs... standard class 10 are min 4mbs and will not only be glitchy pans, but will constantly crash the new protune firmware even with protune off. hero1 doesn't support it at all. i can't remember what all you got
this cam and the new firmware in the hero2 need not only class 10, but that min write 30mbs... standard class 10 are min 4mbs and will not only be glitchy pans, but will constantly crash the new protune firmware even with protune off. hero1 doesn't support it at all. i can't remember what all you got
I made sure to get the 30mb/s card knowing the Hero 3 Black needs all the throughput it can get. I just did a 5 minute flight with it on the Cinestar forgetting to flip the video right side up again before taking off! Trying to watch it upside down gives me a headache, time to let the software turn it around...
Just turned Protune on, as soon as another pack is charged I'll go try it again, this time right side up :0
I think I'll try one of the higher resolutions this time, the default of the Hero 3 is 1440 @ 48 fps, seems like a good compromise. Also want to try the 720p 120fps, that should look killer on the smoothness scale.
Ken
P.S. another thought I just had, a camera about the size of the Nex 5 with interchangeable lenses and the same features as the Hero 3 would be killer if it could be made and sold for $1000 or less
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Hello RTRYDER,
Did you order the Black directly from GoPro? (Via the forum link of course)
Preordered direct from GoPro on 10/17, received shipping notification on 10/30, arrived via UPS on 11/5.
Yesterday while I was at Best Buy I noticed they have the Hero 3 in stock so if there's one nearby you might try there and save the wait time.
Ken
I posted a raw 1080P 60 fps video to Youtube but their compression dulled it down quite a bit, doesn't look nearly as good as it does full size on my 22 inch monitor. I did the flight late in the day when I know that the older HD Hero would have been severely challenged by the shadows and low/changing light...
I also posted a clip recorded at 1440/48fps, best to watch this direct from Youtube fullscreen at either 1080P or original resolution setting...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoQ4WLGWdhA
Ken
I also posted a clip recorded at 1440/48fps, best to watch this direct from Youtube fullscreen at either 1080P or original resolution setting...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoQ4WLGWdhA
Ken
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No, 2.7K is the next step up from 1440. Both 2.7K and 4K have Cinema and non Cinema modes though I'm not sure exactly what the differences are yet, still exploring the resolutions. You can adjust the framing of 1440 in Cineform by zooming in which gets rid of most of the distortion around the edges and if you then run it through a standard NLE app then you can export into 1080 or 720 format and it looks perfectly normal. I just looked in the menus and I can't see any way to change the mode to medium or narrow in 1440, there is a button for it in the menu but it goes nowhere. Maybe if I turn Protune off it might allow me to change it, have to try that and see.
I have flown it on the Disco and it works just the same as a normal GoPro except the resolution and light metering are much better. Originally I had intended for this to be mounted more or less permanently on Disco #2.5 but after seeing what it can do on a good gimbal I'm thinking I have other uses for this one. I guess I'll just have to get another one when funding permits which right now will be after the Christmas season. The other thing is I don't want to fly it naked on any of the FPV quads, I at least want a layer lens of some sort to protect it a bit, using the big plastic case really isn't an option on the Discos or even the QAV500 for that matter. I might have to go out in the garage and see what I have laying around for useable Delrin stock and carve something up on the mill.
As for the Cinestar, nothing special about it, just a run of the mill APV hex with a Photohigher gimbal on it. It's the most stable of the fleet for video although the Droidworx AD6 with the older AV130 on it comes in a close second, the limiting factor there is the V0.5 AV130 with the old Hyperion servos. I have all the parts to update it to current specs, just haven't got around to doing it yet, a winter project most likely...
Ken
P.S. the LCD backpack and battery backpack for the older GoPro fit right on the Hero3. With the LCD mounted the whole package is only slightly larger than the bare HD Hero without anything mounted on the back, this thing really is smaller and lighter.
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kloner
Aerial DP
cinestar, av200, nothing special....... na dude, that's bad to the bone
when theres no option to change FOV, it can't be changed. protune shouldn't matter. the hero2 has that only in 108op and only had medium and narrow, the rest were blank in the menu. they should call it fisheye or not..... the gimble especialy as nice as yours hides it great from not rolling the horizon across that part. if the legs weren't in view, i'd of probably never known
the cinema part is the wide format like a movie is made with.... super wide
Can't wait to get one. flat broke this month,,,,
when theres no option to change FOV, it can't be changed. protune shouldn't matter. the hero2 has that only in 108op and only had medium and narrow, the rest were blank in the menu. they should call it fisheye or not..... the gimble especialy as nice as yours hides it great from not rolling the horizon across that part. if the legs weren't in view, i'd of probably never known
the cinema part is the wide format like a movie is made with.... super wide
Can't wait to get one. flat broke this month,,,,
Macsgrafs
Active Member
Superb Ken, nice flying skills as well. I caught sight of an airliner in the first video just past 3 mins...very nice. I did see some stuttering during the pan in the first video...but that could be youtube causing it? Any chance next time you fly this cam that you do a really slow full 360 pan? You really have got your CS6 & gimbal setup lovely.
Well done mate, great work.
Ross
Well done mate, great work.
Ross
Thanks Ross! Yes, that was a somewhat low airliner lining up for approach to Logan airport in Boston, wish I could have tilted the cam up a bit to get a better shot when it was closer. You can actually see the Boston skyline just over the hills the CS6 is pointed at in that vid, or at least I can on the big monitor I've got here, the fine detail tends to disappear after uploading to Youtube. The stuttering in the pan is a Youtube feature, I just watched the original and it's not there.
I'll do a nice slow pan with it next time out, when that will be I don't know, just took the dogs out and found a coating of snow in the backyard and it's blowing a gale out there as well. Weather report is on the tele right now and they say it will hit 65 degrees on Sunday, crazy weather in this part of the world...
Ken