GoPro Launches Hero8, Max 360 Camera, & Bolt-On Modules
GoPro have today launched their Hero8 camera that includes a range of upgrades to make it superior to the Hero 7 plus some hardware bolt ons that will make shooting a whole video, not just action, a lot easier.
When it comes to video, Hypersmooth 2.0 seems to be the big selling point. This takes the supposed gimbal-killing Hypersmooth tech from the Hero 7 and apparently improves it. This should be beneficial for mountain bikers who want smooth footage through rough terrain without wearing an Inspector Gadget-style contraption across their chest. Hypersmooth 2.0 can now also be used across all frame rates and at all speeds.
The Hero 8 will shoot 4K footage at up to 60 frames per second, including at 100 Mbps bitrate for the first time ever. It will shoot 240 frames per second at 1080p for super slow-mo footage. The Hero 8 Black can live stream at 1080p, up from 720p on the Hero 7 Black. On the photo side, the Hero 8 Black captures 12-megapixel snaps, and users can now shoot RAW photos in time-lapse and burst modes instead of just in regular photo mode.
The other big new features are the bolt-on mods that can be used to turn this action camera into a vlog friendly set up. Three features that really stand out are: a shotgun microphone for improved audio, a small light to help in dim conditions and a flip-up screen, allowing self-shooters to frame themselves. The camera body has also been redesigned to incorporate fold-out "finger" connectors - allowing it to be bolted to a mount without having to first be put in a case.
All of these bolt-ons should help vloggers and social media creators who normally have to take a DSLR for self filming and a separate GoPro for filming action when they go on shoot. If they can only take on camera and have all their footage in one place, it should make life a bit easier. YouTube has apparently been a massive driver for GoPro sales, so the company are hoping this latest iteration will make them stand out from the competition that includes DJI's Osmo.
The Hero 8 will cost $399, is available to order today and will start shipping on October 15th. The Hero 7 Black now costs $299, the Hero 7 Silver will round out GoPro’s lineup at $199, while the Hero 7 White is being discontinued. We'll be doing a head to head comparison of the Hero 8 and Hero 7 soon.
GoPro Hero 8 Black + Max
Alongside the Hero 8 comes a new 360° camera, the Hero 8 Black + Max. 360 video hasn't ever taken off in the way many thought it would but GoPro have persevered and this new camera supersedes the Fusion that came out in November 2017.
While Fusion was pretty much 2 GoPros in 1 case (and even required 2 memory cards), this is designed from the ground up for 360 video. It's much smaller than the Fusion, features a touch screen and the editing process should be much easier thanks to a new app. All the features from the Hero 8 carry over to the Max but apparently can be even experienced to an even greater extent. Max HyperSmooth, Max TimeWarp and Max SuperView all use the extra video caught by the 360 lenses to improve the functionality. The Max also has 6 in-built microphones, which GoPro is claiming will make the audio as good as having a shotgun mic. However, it's worth noting that the Max isn't nearly as comprehensive as the Hero8 in shooting modes and resolutions for regular video.
The Max goes on sale today at $499, which is $200 cheaper than the Fusion at launch. It will ship on October 25.
More info here.
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I remember an old Ben Cathro video where he was testing various set-ups/cameras/angles/gimbals and I seem to remember him settling on something that showed a bit more judder and bounce because it preserved some of the gnar feel in the footage. That was quite a while ago though and I think now everyone has just gone with as much stabilization as possible these days.
But its always going to be hard to convey steepness and difficulty with a 2D camera. You have to go through extra steps to help provide perspective, such as how chest cams that show the rider's movements communicate a lot more than a handlebar cam.
The “GoPro Effect” comes from the fisheye or ultra-wide angle lens used on POV cameras. We can agree that what makes a route steep how much vertical distance you drop over a short linear distance (in our case the trail). The steeper the trail, the shorter distance you cover for the same vertical drop.
Fisheye and ultra-wide lenses get their insane field of view by distorting the perspective (and light) which exaggerates distance. This why they work so well for making a gap jump or drop appear much larger than they really are. The downside to this is it lengthens the perspective distance of the trail and unfortunately makes it look alot mellower than it really is.
You can mitigate this a little by using a narrower FOV lens (Or in the case of a gopro; Linear mode). The downsides to using a narrower FOV is camera shake will be more pronounced, frame rates and resolution options are limited in linear mode (on my hero5 its only in 1080), it might not work for every mount angle, and you have to be much more precise in setting up your angle because of the narrower field of view.
GoPro would have to hire legitimate software engineers, instead of farming development out to India (which is what they currently do). No credible software engineer in Silicon Valley actually wants to work at GoPro lol (go read Blind, Glassdoor, look at a 5yr chart of $GPRO stock, etc.)
Check out Davinci Resolve. It's more intuitive and powerful than any of the GoPro offerings, it's also free for non-commercial use.
Then there is the echo audio, I'm sure it's a matter of settings but why would you want to add reverb to audio? It seems like a way to enhance the horrible audio...?
I was looking forward to upgrading from my Hero 2 (!) to the Hero 7, partly due to the rapid, mobile editing promised by the Quik/GoPro apps. Whilst I can eventually sort of get what I want out of it, my experience has been that it's both painful and slow to use, a far cry from the slick and intuitive experience advertised.
The worst offence has been the lack of option for the app to store the enormous files to external storage on Android (SD card), this resulted in me having to purchase a new, high speed SD card, reformat my phone and change the setup to using the SD card as extended internal storage rather than as external which I like to use as it's much easier for file transferring. This is quite a lot for an app to force onto you!
youtu.be/YoHfg_MiG-A
I just hope that DJI gets more serious about their gopro competitor as I'm sure that gopro needs a good competitor to keep them honest.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljj4igLlssI&t=118s
just an example...it still is not perfect, but waaaaaaaaaay better than my initial tryouts. still, working on those exporting settings, tho.
@Bflutz625: im well aware... my comment was sarcastic towards the person who believes that its YouTubes fault his videos look like garbage
so explain to me how tons and tons of Youtube videos are viewed in stunning 4k quality? my only point is, its probably not Youtubes fault your gopro footage looks like garbage, you probably aren't recording/editting/encoding/uploading correctly.
No matter how good your footage looks on your computer, you can't fully get around that fact as a free user. You can only mitigate it slightly.
more bitrate = larger files, do you think anywhere in the web you get large sums of storage without limits for free?
Especially considering youtube has no real data limit. A standard user officially should upload 8 Mbps 1080p video. Vimeo supports 20 Mbps, but with a free account and 500 MB limit you basically can't upload much with such a "high" bitrate.
You can be sure a company like Gopro wants more than 8 Mbps (that wouldn't even look good straight after encoding on your device) to sell their stuff and is gladly paying for that.
Yeah, most users probably do make mistakes concerning encoding, but it's also not rocket science. Even if you hit the sweet spot for youtube's algorithm it will never look nearly as good as the same compressed file on your device.
when you guys say it'll cost USD470 - is that with taxes ?
because in europe we'll be paying 430e ( with taxes, USD470 )
and wondering if we still get the shaft because.... europe...... or how exactly that works !?
when you guys go to the shop, how much will you be paying for the camera !?
ok - so let's say you'll pay taxes on that - how much do you pay in total for that USD399 purchase ?
Online sales are even more complicated as some states mandate tax rates based on the store's location and others mandate it based on the buyer's local tax rate
In other words, its a mess!
Good luck getting a great image in a wet forest shooting at 1600 iso and a shutter speed of 1/250 second to freeze the action.
In fact a Go Pro and a phone can't do such a thing .
.......... You can put out a fire with ketchup...... It'll be messy..... But you can.......
Obviously if that's your job, you need the right tools. But for most of us who are just taking shots for fun a phone or a gopro is plenty good enough.
Also, do another Session!! One with hypersmooth would be fan fracking tastic.
Hero 8 .. no thanks
The top end models have many features aimed at content creators who earn income with their footage and has an appropriately top end price
@Rubberelli I'm not talking about the auto-off feature I mean when you are recording and I'm also not talking about wind noise.
You can get much better quality video with something like Samsung S9/10, Google Pixel, iPhone etc and newer crop of smartphones have ultra wide angle cameras in addition to regular wide angle and telephoto unlike the the cropped mess that is Gopro's "zoomed" video.