Hi

Just got my first GoPro today, Hero 7 Black with some accessories (super suit case, Flymount mast mount, helmet front mount and Ion helmet, floaty, 2*128gb memory cards, secondary battery and charger, screen protectors) , mainly for recording my windsurfing progress. Assuming many use it or will use it, i believe this topic will help advanced users and starters like me.

Settings:
I checked some youtube videos about settings but there are different suggestions for watersports. Would love to hear some windsurf specific suggestions (especially protune part) for starters like me who has no idea about editing. Feel free to give advanced tips for others as well :)

Accessories:
Hero 7 black is waterproof for 10m, but i worried about scratchs due to salt and sand so got the super suit. Then i learned it makes the sound very bad. Can't decide to use it or not, which mic setting to use if i use it?
Planning to use it as helmet cam for most of the time, but olso got a boom/mast mount to be able to see my faults. Hope floaty won't be a problem. Any suggestions where/how to mount?

Some tips I learned by watching videos:
- 4k/60 doesn't have hypersmooth even though it says it has, its a bug.
- Shutter should be double the fps. But then you can't chose EV comp which is brightness i guess (?).
- Its best to keep white balance at native and color at flat if you are into editing colors
- High sharpness is too high for most, medium is better for action videos.
- 1440p (2.7k) has more vertical pixels, so better if you want to see what your feet are doing (not sure about that since it says 16:9 for all?)

Cheers

I bought this book on how to use Go Pro hero 6.It was very helpful. I assume he has put out a new one to cover the 7 ?
https://www.amazon.com/GoPro-How-Use-Hero-Black/dp/0999631004

Use the fly mount with a small GoPro extension to get the camera central on the mast rather than favouring one side.

Charge batteries the night before and take them too.

Do a test run around the yard to make sure it works and stays running.

Don't worry about the mic as we will want you to put a cool music score on your films.

I think best to use a 4:3 format instead of 16:9. there tends to be a lot of missed shots due to camera out of alignment and the 4:3 captures more of the view than 16:9. you can crop to 16:9 in post production but meanwhile - better chance of getting your shot. I use 2.7k 4:3 because my computer cant process the 4k codec. (960 and 1440 are lower res 4:3 resolutions available on my H6)

gopro ftg can look kind of 'different' due to how fast it can expose a frame. I sorta forget some of the more advanced cam settings because i set them and forgot them, but i use protune, image stabilization, and have locked iso at 400, and use a ND32, neutral density filter to slow the exposure down. this results in a soft blur of fast-moving stuff in frame, i.e., the water/spray. in google search terms, this might be referred to as 'cinematic blur' and is what we are accustomed to at the movie theater and part of the reason that gopro ftg can look kinda like 'stop-action' by comparison and is often associated with low quality finished video.

here are some filters that are used in place of the flat lens that is mounted to the outside of the cam hsg. www.polarprofilters.com/products/hero7-hero6-hero5-black-shutter-collection?variant=29268995401&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1ZnItsHC5AIVkorICh3WDQBlEAQYASABEgJ-UPD_BwE

since they create a seal to the cam housing like the original clear lens, there is no additional problems with fogging or waterdrops. otherwise, as far as that goes - best practice is to lick the lens before shooting to avoid spray drops sticking. but if they do, accept it as artistic and be happy.

I use a DIY clew view mount and helmet mount generally. here is a very decent clew view mount - www.chathamwindandtime.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=135

a user hack with the clew view is to extend boom farther than you need during rigging so as to capture more scene by moving gopro away a little bit.

if gopro is level, the horizon is straight. otherwise concave up or down horizon depending on cam's tilt.

I often use the gopro remote on a loop of string that my watchband goes thru. just enough slack in the string that I can swing remo up into my palm and operate with my thumb. I can hold it right in front of my face is the main perc. remo reduces garbage vid to scan thru later and saves battery and memory

I edit using gopro studio. no longer supported by gopro but you can still download from 3rd parties for free. intuitive interface and powerful editor with some nice extras

Thanks for the great tips.

Yes 4:3 aspect makes more sense to see what your feet are doing, but there is no decent option in terms of fps and stabilization for 4k then. 2,7k is good enough and i will use that.
Those filters olso look very nice, especially on higher fps/shutter settings, getting them too, accessories total cost will equal to the camera cost now :(

Ok, so i will keep the white balance "native", but how about color setting, is "gopro" colors good enough or should i use "flat"?

I found this in a comment a while back. The guy that posted it worked in the GoPro Marketing department for 6 years and was involved in creating their marketing videos:"We shoot pretty much everything (like 99% of everything) on ISO Min AND Max set to 100. Having ISO at 800 is way too high and you will get that unwanted noise; you'll notice our website footage is very clear with black blacks, and white whites. Sharpness Low. We shoot everything with Protune ON but with the GoPro Color profile, not the FLAT profile. Also, we NEVER use linear mode; it crops out way too much data. Shooting in 4K should help with the "action cam" look. Also, use optics comp in post or now premiere just offers "lens correction" for the GoPro lens and that is 90% to 100% as effective as going in and doing optics comp in AE but a bazillion times faster."

Settings In summary:
ISO : 100
Sharpness : Low (sharpen in post if needed)
Colour settings: Protune On / GoPro Color profile
Resolution: 4K/25 and down sample in software if needed
Lens Correction: Can be done in Premiere or FinalCut Pro X

Ironically the GoPro Hero 5 Session (the little cube) creates even better footage in 1080P straight out of camera with the default factory settings. I think that's why they dropped that product. It ate too much into their standard GoPro Hero lineup.

Further to my previous comment. This guy apparently started the media department at GoPro. I guess he must know a thing or two about getting good footage. Here his web site with tutorials:abekislevitz.com/?catid=5

Thanks for that Stehsegler

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Sea Lotus said..
Thanks for the great tips.

Yes 4:3 aspect makes more sense to see what your feet are doing, but there is no decent option in terms of fps and stabilization for 4k then. 2,7k is good enough and i will use that.
Those filters olso look very nice, especially on higher fps/shutter settings, getting them too, accessories total cost will equal to the camera cost now :(

Ok, so i will keep the white balance "native", but how about color setting, is "gopro" colors good enough or should i use "flat"?

fwiw - cropping 4:3 capture to become 16:9 finished vid is virtually automatic for me using gopro studio. during edit, my preview of the finished vid is in 16:9 and I just use the slider bar tool to adjust for 'vertical' framing. choosing a color profile is a personal choice and largely depends on whether you want to fiddle with color adj's during edit. personally - I screw color up during edit more often than not but do it anyway.

I think there is a cheaper source for the same type of ND filters now. mebbe ebay, not sure. not using the ND filters provides for still frames where each water droplet is frozen in time, and may be a desired artistic choice. but a little cinematic blur achieved by using the filters lends a quality of speed to the finished vid. after becoming used to noticing the effect, action vid without cinematic blur is almost painful to watch :O fwiw - I experimented with internal camera settings to slow the 'shutter' speed but personally, could not get dependable results. either of ND16, ND32 gets what I want outside without any additional thoughts of camera settings etc, but blocks so much light that it cripples the little cam if used indoors.

I 100% second the recommendation for Abe Kislevits info - it is more tangible than the manual since it provides some bit of general photography knowledge as context. sharpness - sounds great and is not necessarily a bad thing really, but it is a contrived thing of processor software and can sharpen edges between object/background so much that finished product looks like a hack cut and paste photoshop job. some restraint keeps it real ;)

some people become frustrated with gopro because its functionality and results are different from a regular cam. the important thing is to appreciate those differences and take advantage of them as strengths, not weaknesses. it is a powerful and useful little machine.

if used in combination with some good youtube 'how-to' sailing videos, it becomes a diagnostic tool that may reveal bad sailing habits you might not notice otherwise

*** prolly the most important tips - always make sure batteries are charged beforehand. use the screen lock function to avoid cam changing modes on its own when it is wet. keep using it until its use becomes transparent to the sailing experience

i'm gonna be that guy and say I don't think gopro works for windsurfing.

the focal length seems to be unable to capture the sense of movement, adrenalin and scale that windsurfing provides. watching gopro footage leaves me feeling a little detached.

i'd start there, forget about settings and find ways to change the perspective. figure out ways to get the camera as far away from your gear as you can. poles, drones, friends etc.

the reality with any type of film and photography is that if the composition is correct then the quality of image is less important..

Weather your camera just in case it gets a big knock

Don't forget, the Hero 7 Black also has gps. You can add live gps overlays to your video.

I'd been filming at 1.4k and 30fps. This let me zoom in digitally to capture other people's efforts while retaining decent quality.

Then, since not much is happening around here, I switched back to 960p and 30fps for smaller files and faster processing.

I usually let the Camera run the whole time until it's discharged. Save the interesting parts with GoPro studio.

Sometimes I hop off and turn off the cam to get some battery left for sunset or until the wind returns or something.

I can always increase quality and frame rate for a slow motion scene.

I always spit on the lense yes. So long as it's windy it's all good. We get good at figuring out angles and tightening screws so that it stays well locked in.

It's quite an art though for sure. Also a great tool for learning tricks and seeing (and let other people see) what we do wrong.

It's great when combined with footage from the shore.

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LNC said..
I think best to use a 4:3 format instead of 16:9. there tends to be a lot of missed shots due to camera out of alignment and the 4:3 captures more of the view than 16:9. you can crop to 16:9 in post production but meanwhile - better chance of getting your shot. I use 2.7k 4:3 because my computer cant process the 4k codec. (960 and 1440 are lower res 4:3 resolutions available on my H6)

gopro ftg can look kind of 'different' due to how fast it can expose a frame. I sorta forget some of the more advanced cam settings because i set them and forgot them, but i use protune, image stabilization, and have locked iso at 400, and use a ND32, neutral density filter to slow the exposure down. this results in a soft blur of fast-moving stuff in frame, i.e., the water/spray. in google search terms, this might be referred to as 'cinematic blur' and is what we are accustomed to at the movie theater and part of the reason that gopro ftg can look kinda like 'stop-action' by comparison and is often associated with low quality finished video.

here are some filters that are used in place of the flat lens that is mounted to the outside of the cam hsg. www.polarprofilters.com/products/hero7-hero6-hero5-black-shutter-collection?variant=29268995401&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1ZnItsHC5AIVkorICh3WDQBlEAQYASABEgJ-UPD_BwE

since they create a seal to the cam housing like the original clear lens, there is no additional problems with fogging or waterdrops. otherwise, as far as that goes - best practice is to lick the lens before shooting to avoid spray drops sticking. but if they do, accept it as artistic and be happy.

I use a DIY clew view mount and helmet mount generally. here is a very decent clew view mount - www.chathamwindandtime.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=135

a user hack with the clew view is to extend boom farther than you need during rigging so as to capture more scene by moving gopro away a little bit.

if gopro is level, the horizon is straight. otherwise concave up or down horizon depending on cam's tilt.

I often use the gopro remote on a loop of string that my watchband goes thru. just enough slack in the string that I can swing remo up into my palm and operate with my thumb. I can hold it right in front of my face is the main perc. remo reduces garbage vid to scan thru later and saves battery and memory

I edit using gopro studio. no longer supported by gopro but you can still download from 3rd parties for free. intuitive interface and powerful editor with some nice extras

I've got a smart remote but I only used it once. I like the idea but I don't like the way you don't know whether it worked or not...

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Gestalt said..
i'm gonna be that guy and say I don't think gopro works for windsurfing.

That's probably because 99% of all videos that cover windsurfing and use only GoPro footage are one of three angles: mast down, attached on boom or POV by attaching on body somewhere. Those types of shots only work for short cut aways. You be able to get away with footage that's more than a couple of seconds if there is a change in the action. But let's be honest the majority is just people straight lining it.

I am currently cutting together a 3 minute video of people foiling. It was captured via drone and land based cameras. In total, I have about 90 minutes of footage from different locations. But even then because the majority is just people going in a straight line it gets repetitive very quickly.That said I think filming yourself with a goPro while trying to learning new things can be helpful. It's one thing people telling you that you need to do this or that to stick a jump but it's a another thing actually seeing yourself on screen.

Go Pros are a vexed camera - they can work really well or be very frustrating. Water on lens, battery running out of batteries failing, no knowledge of if its on or not- vibration. And then add in the go pro angle fatigue that audiences have (and now actively avoid go pro shots)

For wave sailing they flatten the wave making a mast high wave look like its waist high

But there are some wins to be had

Half way up themast pointing straight down is a good angle- great for gybes, wave sailing turns. No good for jumps.







Facecam is nice but you need a bit of a rig to get it there - i use an old broken boom head with 2 ft of boom left on it and mount that above my boom on the mast. Got some great stuff of polakow with that at Gnaraloo years ago - and you see the track off the bottom turn going back up the face and being eaten by the wave.

Go pros are probably best when you are chasing someone else - especially with helmet cam - its a terrible angle for self shot footage.
see how bad the helmet angle is here -

In general they are super handy when cut in with nicely shot stuff off a tripod.

they are awesome for easy landscape timelapses - but you have to add in motion blur in post (or add an nd filter)



You can do some creative stuff with slow motion if you can handle the image quality drop



They arent too bad for shooting from the water (if you like dodging fins)



But then again - you can tie one to a rock - put it in the reef and get a great shot of yourself sailing or SUPPing over it.

Creativity yields results with go pros - but in mission critical shoots they seem to regularly let you down

the vibration was the final nail for me.

if only there was a good cost effective waterproof gimbal available.

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stehsegler said..

Gestalt said..
i'm gonna be that guy and say I don't think gopro works for windsurfing.

That's probably because 99% of all videos that cover windsurfing and use only GoPro footage are one of three angles: mast down, attached on boom or POV by attaching on body somewhere. Those types of shots only work for short cut aways. You be able to get away with footage that's more than a couple of seconds if there is a change in the action. But let's be honest the majority is just people straight lining it.

I am currently cutting together a 3 minute video of people foiling. It was captured via drone and land based cameras. In total, I have about 90 minutes of footage from different locations. But even then because the majority is just people going in a straight line it gets repetitive very quickly.That said I think filming yourself with a goPro while trying to learning new things can be helpful. It's one thing people telling you that you need to do this or that to stick a jump but it's a another thing actually seeing yourself on screen.

drone footage seems to be a winner for windsurfing and gopros.

look at the pwa and freestyle events. they are doing great things with drones.

iwt as well.

filming all depends on audience
for yourself or others

i gave up on editing years ago - do raw footage only

and people's attention now in a vid is NEVER more than about 2 minutes
unless it changes A LOT

ok, a case study video,..



I link the video to point out :

1) music drives a video for better or worse, but almost always for the better, even the cruddiest music tends to improve video. the music in this vid ROCKS, so crank it up! it is an instrumental edit of Van Halen, and FB allowed it to load directly (usually prevented with copyright music)

2) the pony ftg - a very small bit of B-roll (B-roll is something other than the subject (WS'g) that adds environment to the event/story). more B-roll is better. in fact - 95% B-roll in a finished vid will probly be appreciated more at a later time as far as jogging fond memories of a WS day.

3) this vid was filmed with helmet cam, and clew view using (1) H6 cam. took the helmet off while out on the water to get sweeping shot of WS'r jibing around me for one clip. prolly could have done it with the helmet on, but either way. i expect it was more clear to the other sailor what I was attempting to do, and worked.

4) sailing portion of the vid starts off with a post-production zoom of another sailor that pulls back to reveal the actual point of view (from the helmet mnt).

5) while editing, i had a shortage of clip to work with and sorta had to use a longish bit of straight-line hooked-in sailing. i cut that clip into pieces and turned it into multiple clips by post-production zooming in to different portions of the sub-clips. there's a zoom-in with nose of board in foreground and looking at other sailor, and zoomed-in looking at feet and tail of the board/spray.

4) the remo screen mirrors the cam's, so it is possible to see if the cam is recording or not. since my remo is swingably mnt'd to the watch on the hand that operates it, i swing it up into my palm and can hold remo as close to my face as i want, to see what is going on without turning my head or taking the other hand off the boom. i tend to look at remo when I activate recording to see if it makes the red blinking led, then verify the cam is recording by looking back at it to see if its red led is blinking. y, pita, not perfect but reasonably work-able.

Manuel turns gopro on and leaves it on, which i think is a good approach since less fiddling and thinking abt cam while sailing is good! that kinda stinks during edit if taking breaks while sailing, long waterstarts, or all the other non-action ftg or long straight line sailing. but kinda depends on how well your computer deals with initial review and editing i suppose.

hey great vid. some really interesting shots that would be very usable.

ultimately though for me your video hi lights the issues talked about in the above posts.

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Reflex Films said..
Go Pros are a vexed camera - they can work really well or be very frustrating. Water on lens, battery running out of batteries failing, no knowledge of if its on or not- vibration. And then add in the go pro angle fatigue that audiences have (and now actively avoid go pro shots) ,...

nice vids! :)

I agree with vexed camera comment. I try to laugh when I want to cuss, and put it away if it's getting the best of me.
for most part, using it goes pretty smooth now but it has a cpl tricks that never get old

I agree drone footage or a good cameraman on the shore are the best option but most of the time those options aren't available .
I really enjoy making little videos to tide me through the no wind times.
??
It's good to see your progress over the years and I can see bad habits I need to work on.

All my videos suck - mainly due to the distance of the camera from the rider (too close) and by youtube standards fairly boring footage

Main issue I have is mounting the camera (for no vibration and in the right spot) hopefully I'll have a solution soon (two versions - for personal use) that will enhance the fairly boring (for an audience) footage

A 360 camera is a good (expensive) option as you can get the best perspective - hope to get one of these soon as well

Sue & Reuben, I started with super 8 film in the mid 70's, then had them converted years later to digital and then did some edit, quality is crap, memories are awesome. I'll use some of the info from those wiser than me above, but honestly I'm very happy with the GoPro's quality, suits my needs.

DJI just released a waterproof case for their OSMO - so it is possible to get gimbal-stabilized shots on the water now with some clever rigging

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stehsegler said..
Further to my previous comment. This guy apparently started the media department at GoPro. I guess he must know a thing or two about getting good footage. Here his web site with tutorials:abekislevitz.com/?catid=5

There is some absolute gold on this guys page - a must read for anyone using go pros

Sorry - I can't find this as a video on YouTube / Vimeo - it popped up on their FaceBook page - but its awesome!!! (fast, stable, drone video)

www.facebook.com/PWA.World.Tour.Windsurfing/videos/590238438175365/

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Reflex Films said..
DJI just released a waterproof case for their OSMO - so it is possible to get gimbal-stabilized shots on the water now with some clever rigging

r u saying they have a gimbal or did you mean the software they use?

i had a look on their site but couldnt see anything.

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Reflex Films said..
DJI just released a waterproof case for their OSMO - so it is possible to get gimbal-stabilized shots on the water now with some clever rigging

I totally missed that they released that... If think if the moister munchers work properly this could be great. But if they don't this will work for Windsurfing for all of 2 minutes before it fogs up.Might have to pick one up next time they go on sale.

Super suit case finally arrived today, i was waiting for it to use the gopro, luckily next three days are 25-30kts :) But i found out that you need to take out the lens cover to use it, that means you can't use the nd filters with it :(