GoPro question

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Ramprat75

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Nov 4, 2014
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17
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Dallas, Tx
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Display name:
Delta75
Hello everyone,
I just bought a Gopro camera about two weeks ago and having two problems already. First problem is that I fully charge the battery but when I go to use it for my flight training it only records up to 40 minutes and then shuts off. My second problem is that when I view the video after my flight I cannot see the outside only the inside, I have the camera behind me facing the cockpit and I tried to adjust the meter but that did nothing. Any help from someone who use a Gopro?


Thanks
 
40 minutes sounds a tad low, I think I got at least a solid hour out of a full charge but it's been a long time since I had it running for that long (only did that during training). I'm not sure if having the camera set to the highest definition setting eats more battery life or just takes up more space, but u might try a setting like 720 instead of 1080. however, LOTS of known battery issues with the gopro's, do some googling.

assuming you're using it during day flights, I never had a problem seeing both inside and out of the plane on the videos, can't help u there.
 
Standard GoPro batteries only last about an hour to an hour and a half if you're lucky. At least on the ones I have. Playing with the record settings might get you more time, but the only real way to make longer videos is with one of the bigger batteries.

Which model do you have? Most of them have a center or spot meter function. something like that I cant remember the name exactly. It helps with shooting from inside, but if the camera is behind you and it's sunny out you're either gonna get the inside of the plane and bright light through the windows, or a clear view of the outside, but everything inside will be dark. You can't have it both ways.
 
StinkBug said:
Standard GoPro batteries only last about an hour to an hour and a half if you're lucky. At least on the ones I have. Playing with the record settings might get you more time, but the only real way to make longer videos is with one of the bigger batteries.

Which model do you have? Most of them have a center or spot meter function. something like that I cant remember the name exactly. It helps with shooting from inside, but if the camera is behind you and it's sunny out you're either gonna get the inside of the plane and bright light through the windows, or a clear view of the outside, but everything inside will be dark. You can't have it both ways.
Click to expand...

Sure you can!! With one of these!!!

Put the dark side up, and it'll do a good job lessening the lighting contrast between the panel and the outside.

$(KGrHqJ,!ogFHwGUiT9HBR9MDgmVKw~~60_35.JPG
 
eman1200 said:
40 minutes sounds a tad low, I think I got at least a solid hour out of a full charge but it's been a long time since I had it running for that long (only did that during training). I'm not sure if having the camera set to the highest definition setting eats more battery life or just takes up more space, but u might try a setting like 720 instead of 1080. however, LOTS of known battery issues with the gopro's, do some googling.

assuming you're using it during day flights, I never had a problem seeing both inside and out of the plane on the videos, can't help u there.
Click to expand...

I'll try changing the setting and see if that will help.

Thanks!
 
beestforwardspeed said:
Sure you can!! With one of these!!!

Put the dark side up, and it'll do a good job lessening the lighting contrast between the panel and the outside.

$(KGrHqJ,!ogFHwGUiT9HBR9MDgmVKw~~60_35.JPG
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. At this point I'm willing to try one these items, where can I purchase this?
 
Battery life is reduced ALOT when you activate the Bluetooth connectivity and watch it on your smart phone.....

I can get 3-4 hours out of a full charge running 1080 , 60 FPS ultra wide lens setting and NO bluetooth running...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
 
Spot meter to fix the seeing out the window problem, shutoff wifi and set cam for 720/30 to help with the battery. You can also add a neutral density filter to get rid of the prop artifacting.
https://youtu.be/jlnX5ySOO0U
 
NFlightcam.com sells filters and audio cables. They work great. Get yourself a GoPro BakPack which will get in about 2 hours of flight time. I use the extra battery and filers on all of my flight..

Example-
https://vimeo.com/138586640

Both have been worth while investments for me.
It's good to see who lousy I do on the radios. The queue mic button is a short circuit to dumb.

Just a student pilot trying to get my act together.
Benjamin
 
Bman. said:
NFlightcam.com sells filters and audio cables.
Click to expand...
They are really proud of them too.....

I got the audio cable from them and it was worth it, for filters I got an adapter on ebay that standard filters fit and I buy them elsewhere for MUCH cheaper.
 
ytodd said:
Spot meter to fix the seeing out the window problem, shutoff wifi and set cam for 720/30 to help with the battery. You can also add a neutral density filter to get rid of the prop artifacting.
https://youtu.be/jlnX5ySOO0U
Click to expand...

I tried the Spot meter and it did not work, also I don't have the Wi-Fi on. I think I'll try getting a the Bacpack battery.
 
Ramprat75 said:
I tried the Spot meter and it did not work, also I don't have the Wi-Fi on. I think I'll try getting a the Bacpack battery.
Click to expand...

The only thing Spot Metering will do is give you a more selective area that you can aim at for the GoPro to expose properly, but it will not help with exposing both the dark cockpit and the relatively much brighter outside.

The difficulty you are most likely having is that the cockpit is much darker than the bright light outside the cockpit. Because the difference in lighting between the inside/outside is so great, it exceeds the dynamic range of the tiny gopro sensor. As a result, your camera can either expose properly the dark side of the cockpit, and then the outside will look totally washed out (like way too bright where all the detail is lost), or, the camera can expose properly for the bright outside, but then the cockpit will be totally dark.

A few people already explained this and recommended a split filter: after you mount the filter over the lens, rotate it such that the dark area of the filter covers the area that will record the brightest part of the image. (some split filters might come with different levels of dark area/light area, pick one that's like 3 stops or so, if you can).

But sometimes you don't need a filter: try flying on a high overcast day (don't be busting rules) when the difference in the light outside is not too great between the light inside the cockpit - then the camera's sensor dynamic range will expose properly for both inside and outside. In such a case you can try using matrix metering and the camera will do its best to average the exposure.

But don't let any of this mumbo-jumbo this get in the way of preflighting the plane though ;-]
 
Do you have the Hero 4 Black? I had to send mine back for an exchange after it would consistently shut down after only 40 - 45 minutes of shooting... regardless of where it was located (indoors, in the case, out of the case, dash of the plane, etc).

These cameras are _very_ sensitive to heat and will shut off if they get too hot. The Black makes it worse if you shoot @ 4K... even the replacement I just got (which is according to GoPro a brand new camera) will still not exhaust the battery + battery bac-pac. So it looks like I'll be stuck shooting at 1080p when I have the cam on the dash of the 172SP I fly.

Definitely shoot with a filter - either the graduated one posted earlier or a 2 or 3-stop ND filter... that helps a lot to minimize the prop movement in the video.
 
To get both bright and dark in still images turn on HDR. However, I don't know if GoPro can do that for video.
 
Ramprat75 said:
I tried the Spot meter and it did not work, also I don't have the Wi-Fi on. I think I'll try getting a the Bacpack battery.
Click to expand...

Something doesn't seem right. I have a GoPro brand and a generic brand battery and can get over an hour easily on either one.
 
DeckardTrinity said:
Do you have the Hero 4 Black? I had to send mine back for an exchange after it would consistently shut down after only 40 - 45 minutes of shooting... regardless of where it was located (indoors, in the case, out of the case, dash of the plane, etc).

These cameras are _very_ sensitive to heat and will shut off if they get too hot. The Black makes it worse if you shoot @ 4K... even the replacement I just got (which is according to GoPro a brand new camera) will still not exhaust the battery + battery bac-pac. So it looks like I'll be stuck shooting at 1080p when I have the cam on the dash of the 172SP I fly.

Definitely shoot with a filter - either the graduated one posted earlier or a 2 or 3-stop ND filter... that helps a lot to minimize the prop movement in the video.
Click to expand...

Yes, I do have the Hero 4 black camera. I'll make some adjustments and try it again next time I fly, if the problem continues I will have to return it.
 
Hi Delta and everyone.
Hero 4Black is not ready for production release, in my opinion.
It has Sound problem, overheat problems, short battery life, especially in the high fps mode, play back in high fps, above 1080 and or 90fps is jittery, and the low light is not much better than the 3+Black. I did not have any of these problems with the 3+Black.

To test your Sound issue, enable WiFi, connect to your phone or tablet, go in a quite room, and record without any speech / sound, just quiet. Play it back and listen to it. You will likely hear a low freq, 100Hz, hum, like a helicopter rotor sound.

I had the 4 black connected to the USB power and after about 40Min. it turned itself OFF. Under the same conditions the 3+ Black would operate until the mem. card was full.
The setting that may work best, it does for me, is 1080 / 30 W, but it still turns itself off randomly.

A couple of improvements, in the above3, are in the Set up function, using the side button, and battery access.

[FONT=&quot]You should be able to test it in your car, turn the AC off, before you take it flying. TV[/FONT]
 
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