These ubiquitous little cameras are pretty much the video darling of extreme sports. And after founder Nick Woodman introduced GoPro to the world in 2002, people have since been finding new and innovative ways to show off their skills and rare adventures. But how much do we really know about GoPros, and could there be some hidden tools we’re not aware of? Here are some of the features you may not know your action cam has available.
Pair Your GoPro With Your Phone
GoPro launched an app back in 2012 with the capabilities to control your GoPro from your phone, and it’s only gotten better. When you install the app, a GoPro folder will appear right in your photos with your other albums. From there you can view all of your photos and review your videos—all of it synced with your favorite social media apps for easy sharing. Not only that, but you can use your smartphone as a remote control for your GoPro. You can start/stop recordings, switch modes, check your battery level, and even adjust the camera settings. There’s also a live view option right on your phone, so you’ll be able to change your camera angles on the fly in case you see something you don’t like. It’s a really handy app, and would be a great addition to your GoPro experience.
Protune
Protune is basically a software update the people at GoPro introduced to meet the requests from their professional community. But don’t let that discourage you because Protune isn’t a feature strictly for pros; it’s just for people that are familiar with post-production. And anyone can learn post!
But what does it do exactly?
First and foremost Protune ups your image quality. It essentially turns up the bit rate to make your image crisper when doing something in fast motion. And after turning it on, it unlocks a whole list of features. For example, Protune allows to you mess around with everything from white balance (there’s an auto function that works well with this) to ISO, sharpness, color profile, and exposure. If you haven’t noticed, all of these features are basically the same ones you would find using manual mode in a DSLR, but on your GoPro.
And before you get concerned after you switch it on, Protune will immediately make your videos look a little less sharp and the color a little blander. This is because you are expected to tweak the settings to your liking in-camera before you start filming. You can then to do the same in post to really get what you want out of your video. But don’t let the feature intimidate you with all of this tweaking! Just use it as an excuse to get better at post. It’s definitely worth it in the long run.
Hero4 Black’s 240fps Mode
What’s the significance of a 240fps mode? Slow-motion, that’s what. Hero4 Black’s new feature allows you to record ultra high rate video to give a smooth slow-motion playback for the people who love watching gnarly tricks performed super slowly. And not only is this a cool little feature, but it’s also relevant if you’re attempting to perfect a technique—being able to watch your form more intently could help you determine what you may be doing wrong.
Until now, the Hero4 Black wasn’t able to do super slo-mo and HD at the same, but their most recent firmware update took care of that. Check out this video below to see it in action. Simply beautiful.
Time Lapse
In addition to slow-mo, you are now exempt from the duty of combining hundreds of pictures together to make a time-lapse video. The new Time Lapse Video mode takes care of all that for you, slicing all of your pictures together in-camera to create great looking time-lapse videos—all while saving you extra time in post. All you have to do is set your interval, choose whether you want the image 2.7k or 4k lossless, and you’re good to go.
Go ahead and give time-lapse a try if you haven’t already. It’ll add a whole new element to your GoPro game.
GoPro Hero+ LCD
The GoPro Hero+ LCD is another addition into GoPros growing entry-level line, sure to please those of us that aren’t willing to shell out big bucks for their Silver or Black editions, but still want some of the perks.
The Hero+ comes with a LCD screen, capable of shooting at 1080p60 video, and features WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities—which we’ve mentioned above, will allow you to connect your GoPro to your smartphone for a plethora of handy remote features. They cost roughly $299, about one hundred less than the newest Silver edition, and two hundred less than the Black.
But something this camera has that the others don’t (yet) is an in-camera video trimming feature, allowing you to shorten your videos in-camera to more easily share your escapades via social media through your smartphone. Something I’m sure will get a lot of use.
Looping
Our last feature we wanted to talk about is looping videos with your GoPro. Looping is a great way to save yourself from looking through hours of boring video when you get home from an exciting day of adventuring.
Say you set your GoPro’s looping feature at five minutes. This means your camera will start recording, and once it hits the five-minute mark it will start recording over the first minute, essentially eating footage like an ouroboros until you press the shutter button. Once you press the shutter button, the GoPro will then save the five minutes that are still available on your card and immediately start recording a brand new five-minute loop.
This comes in handy in case you are attempting to perfect a skateboard trick or anything that requires practice. Now you won’t have to constantly stop your camera after you mess up in order to avoid a ton of footage, or in case you do let it run, pilfer through a bunch of video just to find your best performance.
Another prime example of what you can do with this feature is turning your GoPro into a dash cam. Without the looping feature you would be recording endless video to and from your commute or on a long car ride. But now if something interesting happens while you’re driving (meteorite, anyone?) all you have to do is click the shutter button and your GoPro will save your five-minute loop to your card, instead of piling on the footage!
If you don’t have a GoPro but are thinking of getting one, rent a GoPro on CameraLends! There are a lot of different GoPros for rent with some top-notch video capabilities and specialties. You won’t be let down.
