GoPro 3+

Looks like GoPro have launched a new camera shipping today.
The cynical part of me assumes that they couldn’t fix the problems with the previous model so they’ve released new hardware.

Other than that it seems to follow the usual thread of improvements:
Smaller/lighter/sharper, although I guess the 30% battery life improvement is significant.

http://shop.18bikes.co.uk/news.php?articleid=121

– 20% smaller and lighter than Hero 3
– High resolution, high-frame rate 1440p48, 1080p60, 960p100 and 720p120 video modes. 4Kp15 and 2.7Kp30 enable ultra high-resolution, cinema quality capture.
– 12MP stills at up to 30fps, plus time lapse and photo burst modes
– New Superview wide mode
– New auto low light mode
– New sharper lens
– Improved audio and wind noise reduction
– 30% longer battery life
– faster (up to 4x) wifi connection to the GoPro app
– Social media sharing

It also has a SuperView mode.. Records in 4:3 and squashes it to widescreen. It has a Auto Low Light mode too. Battery capacity slightly bigger, but same size as the H3.

List of features/improvements here.

I won’t be upgrading, no real major improvements.

Where’s the obligatory accompanying GNARR! advert?

Never fear it’s here:

Interesting that they move away from just sports in that video. I know broadcasters have been using it for ages (since HD 1), but they’re obviously targeting more than just the Red Bull audience now.

I still think their videos are bordering on false advertising though – they must post-process sooooo much.

One thing that amazed us last year (with the Hero 3 launch) was just how many different people were buying them. We’d assumed a real bike focus, especially with it being distributed by a bike distributor, but we were selling to other sports people, a film company, motorsports etc too.

this make the black cheaper, which is already more camera than anyone bar superpros need anyway.

they must post-process sooooo much.

Care to elaborate? More than just cutting and stitching several camera angles together?

They colour grade(correct) all videos. This can take a long time on its own. Not to mention, sharpening, getting rid of fisheye, crushing blacks n whites (they do that on a lot of their vids) and probably a lot more things too. Possibly use plugins like Twixtor for the slow-mo stuff.

Care to elaborate?

I know what he means, the footage redbull etc put up is way better quality than I can get out of vegas

Assuming its coming from the exact same cam I’m using (at whatever revision release) then there must be something else going on

Turn on Protune, Colour Grade, Sharpen, etc. Export at 45mb/s. Means your left with 1gb upload for 3mins of footage tho, but you can get decent quality.

*Full disclosure; I own the Gopro3-Black and an original HD.

While product development/improvement is great, Gopro are a right pain- they bring out endless products, which while great have so many annoying bugs (Cameras freezing, picture artefacts, usability problems etc etc) which NEVER get fixed, it’s just onto the newest greatest product with a new set of problems.

If I’d realised just how bad the battery life on the black was I’d have never purchased it, I was just getting bored of corrupted videos from the HD1 despite the latest FW and no end of different SD cards (All of which Gopro themselves had recommended at some point).

Wow that’s less than a year since they released the 3 isn’t it? Pretty aggressive sales to replace a model within a year. They’ve only just fixed the 3 too, the latest firmware doesn’t seem to suffer from the freezing problems.

Its about a year, my H3B has been pretty problem free since new, couple of freezing issues initially but only occasionally, the firmware updates addressed pretty much everything. Battery life hasn’t been that bad and looks like we can get a bit more out of the new batteries. Might buy a new case as the actual camera is the same size.

Pretty aggressive sales to replace a model within a year

and they made it smaller not bigger. fools.

Might buy a new case as the actual camera is the same size.

that’s very extravagant! will the buttons still line up?

The low light performance is the only thing I’d like from the new + version, its pretty bad on the 3 silver.

that’s very extravagant! will the buttons still line up?

haha, I know! high roller here! the physical design is the same as the previous one.

I’ve been looking at the specs on these and have done a little commentary – http://www.unsponsored.co.uk/press/?p=9648

Have you worked out what superview is yet?
I mean – does it offer a choice of viewing angles for 720p for example?

I thought the most interesting thing was the fact they’ve called it the 3+ – that made me think they’ve got a bigger improvement in the works for a ‘4’ 🙂

Superview as said above. Records the full sensor (4:3) and then squashes it to widescreen, 1080p/720p. I think it will be just as wide as the 1080 wide setting, but you will get more top n bottom in the frame.

Source here

Sill don’t get it – how can it do taller and still as wide without just distorting?

Alex I said it squashes it, so it does distort. 😉
Records 4:3 > Squashes it to 16:9… Unless I am getting confussed, quite possible as I haven’t had my Litre of Coffee yet. 😉

I don’t see why that would be useful for anyone.
I’m thinking it’s a wider angle than previous, but because there’s so much distortion, they’ve made it an ‘option’ rather than default.

Superview does indeed take a 4:3 video (using all the pixels on the sensor) and turns it into a 16:9 output. It captures the same view width ways, but extra pixels on the height.

This actually seems a very good feature to me for MTB use as you will capture more of the trail, rather than a choice of front tyre view or upcoming trail view.

Ok this is how superview was explained to me, 4:3 is a square and gets in full height but has the sides missing(black lines on your tv) 16:9 gets full width but is missing the height. If you put the two pictures on top of each other you get a large screen with the corners missing, fill in the corners and this is the superview screen.
The default setting for 720 and 1080 is 16:9 and these are the 2 resolutions using superview as an option. 960 and 1440 are 4:3, the superview option drops the frame rate options

First look at the Hero3+ – http://www.unsponsored.co.uk/press/?p=9678

Here is a description of the new features from the guy that does the promo videos, rest of his blog has lots of useful info also. http://abekislevitz.com/whats-new-with-hero3plus/

can someone please explain to me what protune does please??

cubemeup – Member

can someone please explain to me what protune does please??
Even though I haven’t seen it described in this way, my take on it was that it’s a bit like shooting RAW on a still camera (but not quite as flexible).
It basically records more info (more than double the data rate afaics) so that in post processing you get more leeway to do things like:
Pull out shadow detail
Pull out highlight detail (which would otherwise look blown)
Match colour profiles from other cameras (they specifically mention RED, Canon, etc.)

However, without using post processing grading, the footage doesn’t look quite as punchy as normal (flatter).

I think it may also have been the first time you could record in 24p too – which is the frame rate most feature films are shot at and very commonly used on DSLR video, etc.

This is the blog by one of the team responsible for protune – blogging at the launch:
http://cineform.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/protune.html

They still look a bit too cumbersome for helmet mounting IMO.

Reading the article from rs above, it looks like Superview basically captures 4:3 then stretches the sides out to a 16:9 ratio.
So a bit like the stretch mode on many 16:9 TVs for showing 4:3 content. The centre is left relatively unchanged.

This will be ok for some types of scene, but the distortion will be pretty obvious if you have people at the sides.