GoPro Hero 7 announced

Looks like it is getting better but I wish they could get rid of the fisheye look. Maybe on the version 8. But it looks like a solid camera for $399
 
So is hypersmooth basically the steadXP kickstarter technology built into the GoPro? Looks like they might be using gyro data to perform the math live and straight to footage?

I wish they'd work out a few other key things for v8 - electronic VND, variable aperture lens (to help remove the overly high shutter look if desired); better lowlight/high ISO; better video dyanmic range. Higher bitrate 10-bit 422 codec to make sure that slow motion stays quality.
 
Almost all of the features you mention filmguy are aimed at pros, consumers don't know or care about any of those features generally. Even though the name is Go Pro, there is nothing professional about them. I own three Hero 4s, a 5 and 6 and just used them heavily for a year on our documentary. Captslomo nails it, we have not been able to reliably shoot 4K 60p with the 6. It has overheated and shut down. To be safe, we have mostly been shooting 2.7k 30p, even 2.7k 60p can be problematic for our applications. We use the Re-Fuel 6 hours battery cases, they have been good but operating a Go Pro for a 4-5 hours recording in salt water, on boats is very hit or miss. Also, if you want some real research entertainment, go to the Go Pro website and try to research the exact micro SD cards that are guaranteed to work with the 5, 6 or probably the 7. Most of the cards they approve either have been discontinued or are priced ridiculously. Also, even though 256GB micro SD cards are on the market, no Go Pro is certified to work with any of them so you are stuck with 128GB cards. When you try to find the cards they recommend, they are long discontinued and there have been two or three new models since then. Do the new cards work as well? Who knows, we have Samsung, Sandisk and Lexar cards and it's a crap shoot as far as which cards will work best with which Go Pro.

The 7 looks pretty good to me after researching it and Go Pro is doing a trade in deal for $299.00 so I'll be picking up a couple, I'll give them a couple of my barely working Hero 4s in trade. But I won't be shooting 4K 60p with the 7s because reliability is more important than 4K to me. We did tests and the 2.7k scales decently to UHD and we will be on a UHD timeline and master. The fisheye thing is nothing, you just buy the $30.00 de-fisheye plug in for your editing app. Low light is worse on the 7 than on our 6 but I don't use Go Pros for lowlight much because we all know they are terrible for that. The streaming capability would have been really nice for our shooting we just completed, we streamed FB live off the chase boats but being able to stream from the racing boats with the Go Pros would have been super cool.
 
I'm done with GoPro's. "Had" to use three on a shoot about two months ago. It was an absolute disaster. Every one of them malfunctioned(They shut-down by themselves multiple times and re-set the FoV on at least one of them, and one of them lost at least one entire clip[corrupted/not closed properly]) AND there was no one in the vehicle except talent. I was in a chase vehicle and the producers were flying down to the hotel instead of one of them riding with the talent in the vehicle while the shoot was going on. Fortunately we had the audio recorded seperately into a 664 and we were riding in a chase vehicle shooting b-roll so they could cover the driving shots with exteriors of the vehicle driving and "riding down he road" shots.

DO NOT TRUST a GoPro 6 with anything important.
 
So much competition these days, how many of the direct from China cameras can take their place?

I had a first version HD (preorder purchase), that was enough for me to draw the line and never buy another. Not sure what I would do if I needed 4k or UHD, but it almost certainly wouldn't be a GoPro.
 
I hear DJI are coming out with a GoPro 'killer' before the end of the year. Hate that word, but wouldn't be surprised if they retaliate for GoPro's ill-advised attempt to break into the consumer drone market by stuffing their core business with a superior product.
 
I recently acquired a gopro hero 6 to shoot some specialty nature shots. I was not happy at all with the 4K 60p image quality and sold it. The Hero 7 would have to be a vast improvement to win me back. The DJI camera that was mentioned by Liam might be promising.
 
Liam Hall said:
I hear DJI are coming out with a GoPro 'killer' before the end of the year. Hate that word, but wouldn't be surprised if they retaliate for GoPro's ill-advised attempt to break into the consumer drone market by stuffing their core business with a superior product.
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I hope they do, and add a bunch of actual pro features...
 
Guess I'll be the Guinea Pig, I am ordering two of the 7s for a current project I am shooting involving test vehicles on the road. I tried a Yi but to me the images and color didn't look as good as the Go Pro. I have played with the Sonys too, they look great but I don't think anyone is making a case/extended battery like the Re-Fuel 6 hour cases we are using. I did notice on Amazon's Grand Tour (Top Gear), they no longer use Go Pros for the in car shots, they are apparently using some kind of in-car mirrorless camera, I havent seen a clean shot of the cameras but at a glance they look like GH5s or A7s?
 
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I'm thinking of getting a 7 mainly to use on my Crane Rider M gimbal that I want to mount on a vehicle. It was designed for the Hero4 but I saw how to use it with the newer GoPros. I have a bunch of Sony Action Cams but no GoPros yet. 4K 60 is what I'm mainly interested in, but I am skeptical about it working reliably. Waiting until black friday and some hands-on real world reviews to see how good the 7 is.
May have to wait longer if it's not too good.

With all the issues these little cameras have, one does have to admit it's pretty amazing what they can do. And hopefully they will keep getting better.
Just 10 years ago I had to rig up bullet cams with cables, recorders, batteries etc in order to get these type shots and it was still only 480i and often difficult to cut footage with a proper video camera.
 
puredrifting said:
Guess I'll be the Guinea Pig, I am ordering two of the 7s for a current project I am shooting involving test vehicles on the road. I tried a Yi but to me the images and color didn't look as good as the Go Pro. I have played with the Sonys too, they look great but I don't think anyone is making a case/extended battery like the Re-Fuel 6 hour cases we are using. I did notice on Amazon's Grand Tour (Top Gear), they no longer use Go Pros for the in car shots, they are apparently using some kind of in-car mirrorless camera, I havent seen a cleanshot of the cameras but at a glance they look like GH5s or A7s?
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They were using GH4’s, not sure what they’re using at this moment in time.
 
firehawk said:
I'm thinking of getting a 7 mainly to use on my Crane Rider M gimbal that I want to mount on a vehicle. It was designed for the Hero4 but I saw how to use it with the newer GoPros. I have a bunch of Sony Action Cams but no GoPros yet. 4K 60 is what I'm mainly interested in, but I am skeptical about it working reliably. Waiting until black friday and some hands-on real world reviews to see how good the 7 is.
May have to wait longer if it's not too good.

With all the issues these little cameras have, one does have to admit it's pretty amazing what they can do. And hopefully they will keep getting better.
Just 10 years ago I had to rig up bullet cams with cables, recorders, batteries etc in order to get these type shots and it was still only 480i and often difficult to cut footage with a proper video camera.
Click to expand...

I have the Rider M. The idea behind the Hypersmooth in the Go Pro 7 is that you don't need to use a gimbal, the Hypersmooth is pretty great. FWIW, the one time I used my Rider M in a car shot, it did this weird floating panning look that was not good. The instructions about how the settings on the Rider M seem to have no bearing on how the thing actually responds. I will be shooting some car footage with the 7s. I'll let you know how the Hypersmooth works shooting in cars.
 
Samuel H said:
This test is super impressive: the image stabilization alone is probably worth the update for most users, and it could easily convince me to go for this instead of a Chinese alternative if I had to buy again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1NASU0kCXY

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Yeah but it's really bitrate starved, with only 78Mbps at 4K 60P it's really hard to get pristine looking footage. With Yi 4K you can get 250Mbps with firmware mod.
 
Wow that stabilization looks impressive! Too bad the best mode is only at 24p.
I'm curious to see how this works mounted on the outside of cars.
Thanks for sharing, guys!
 
firehawk said:
Wow that stabilization looks impressive! Too bad the best mode is only at 24p.
I'm curious to see how this works mounted on the outside of cars.
Thanks for sharing, guys!
Click to expand...

I shot some hyperlapse and regular footage with the 7 on my car hood last weekend, the footage looks great. The only thing I didn't like is apparently when you are using the app on your phone, if the Hero 7 loses the connection, it stops the recording. This happened several times with me on that shoot. I finally had to pull over, shut off the app and just manually record. With the older Go Pros, if you are recording with the app and your phone loses the connection, the Go Pro just keeps recording. Not with the 7 apparently, which sucks. I need to shoot some car to car footage and without the app, I can't see how the shot is framed when I am trying to drivie side by side with the other car. It's weird because my phone was in my phone holder literally 2' away from the Go Pro on the hood, not sure why it kept dropping the connection?

I agree, all of thes new generation small devices like Go Pros and the consumer drones are data rate starved. My Mavic Pro only records UHD at 60Mbps, not nearly enough data to make clear, sharp images. Even the Mavic Pro 2 and the P4P are only 100Mbps, they really should be double or triple that. Same with the Go Pros. But consumers would complain if they only got a few minutes of 250Mbps 4K on their 16GB micro SD card. Remember, Pros are not the audience for Go Pros, consumers are.
 
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