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GoPro question

2K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  LostPawn 
#1 ·
So I got a new Hero5 for Christmas, but when I tried it out at Buttonwillow this month the results were disappointing.

I mounted it with the GoPro suction cup on the back window of my Elise (I don't have a harness bar and wanted to capture both what I was doing with the wheel, and, obviously, the track ahead, so I could see my line). The main problem was that the footage of the track was really white/washed out, and I wasn't able to correct it with the editing software (though that could be due to my inexperience).

I figure I must be doing something wrong as I see lots of in-car videos from the track in which you can see in front of the car pretty clearly.

What resolution and fps do you guys use at the track? I'm pretty sure I had it on the default settings (using protune?).

I should add that it was foggy and overcast which may partly explain the poor quality of the footage (but I did a test drive on the road this week and it was also not great, despite the weather being better).

Is it possible that the camera on the rear window is too far away?

One other thing - in the pits the footage out front looked much clearer until I climbed into the car and the camera seemed to go out of focus (so that the pit lane asphalt became blurry). It seemed as if the camera changed focus to my helmet?

Sorry for the long post; and thanks in advance for any help.

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#3 ·
Play with your field of view as well. I think I use "medium".. One of the options makes the dash look like it's 20' away (not good).
 
#4 · (Edited)
Yes spot meter set to on. I made the same mistake my first track day with it and got the same grainy footage. With spot meter on it will measure light outside of the window instead of at the lens.

Sent from my Samsung GS7 using Tapatalk
 
#5 ·

Here's what I normall do:
Skeleton mount, not the standard waterproof mount so you can hear clearly without the insane rattle noise GoPros are usually associated with. Attach furry things if you want to cut down some wind noise or external mic hidden out of wind. If you plan to mount it externally and hit 100+mph, then waterproof mount.
Resolution - 2.7K at 60fps (will show up at 1440p60 - 2560x1440) - I rather like higher fps because anything less looks to me like a blurry/choppy mess. Gopro's 1440p is actually 1920x1440 so you're squishing square-ish image into widescreen. Some like being able to see more top and bottom image and added fisheye look, but not my cup of tea.
FOV - MEDIUM
Spot Meter - ON
Low light - OFF unless filming at night.
Leave Protune to GoPro or OFF unless you want to do color correction in post.
 
#6 ·
Thanks, all! I didn't even know there was something called a spot meter.

Will make the necessary adjustments and go for a canyon drive tomorrow to test it out:smile2:
 
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#8 · (Edited)
Thought I'd follow up re this. So it turns out that the new Hero 5 doesn't have spot control. Instead, it has something called exposure control. You tap the new touch screen display and a square appears which you can then move to the part of your view that is not exposed properly (so top center of the FOV if the camera is in the car behind the driver). You can lock the exposure control in place.

Tried it on a canyon this week and it worked really well, even though it was bright and sunny outside. The only problem is that the inside of the car is now darker (I assume because it's exposing/focusing on the outside). I also need to fiddle with the camera placement as where I had it on the rear window gives you a great view of the rear view mirror (maybe time to get one of the smaller aftermarket mirrors?).

Hope to try it on the track sometime this spring.
 
#9 ·
Found this:

If you hold down on the back screen in any location a box around your finger will pop up where the camera will now auto expose to. You can move this box around by tapping in other spots on the screen or by dragging it around. From here at the bottom you can either choose to lock the exposure at your desired spot, or let it auto expose from this spot. Once you set the location of the exposure, it’ll keep it there until you either turn off the camera, switch modes, or hold down your finger once again to bring up the dialogue. You can press the X instead of the check mark to go back to normal exposure settings. This function has replaced the spot meter setting, since spot meter essentially told the camera to expose in the center of the frame

I don't have a Hero5 but might in the future, let us know what ends up working.
 
#10 ·
Thanks for posting the detailed write up, but didn't I just let everyone know that the exposure control works in my last post?
 
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