Equipment GoPro Hero 3 Black Review

[Djayness]

Finally did a review of the GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition and included much of my original test footage which includes sharks, fireworks and...Brisbane.

How to use Cineform: http://youtu.be/Vupj2vIi5e4

GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition Shark Diving: http://youtu.be/5umzeCzfLkw

GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition Sydney Fireworks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UCu_...e&list=UUn7lM4...

[Cheap Mod Wannabe]

Really nice video

By the way Cineform is also available to GoPro Hero 2 owners.
Update your firmware (if you havent) and play with it!

Another little tip.
Cineform Studio is BY FAAAR the easiest way to make timelapse videos.

[Djayness]

Originally Posted by Cheap Mod Wannabe

Really nice video

By the way Cineform is also available to GoPro Hero 2 owners.
Update your firmware (if you havent) and play with it!

Another little tip.
Cineform Studio is BY FAAAR the easiest way to make timelapse videos.

I actually colour grade and encode footage from my Canon 60D in Cineform, its impressively good.

[Cthippo]

I tried Cineform, but it doesn't work with the files from my Fuji cameras and I couldn't see using two different programs for editing.

We use a GoPro Hero 2 and three Fuji XPs for shooting our kayaking (and other) videos and the GoPro is awesome, but it has it's limitations. The extremely wide field of view makes it hard to see anything at a distance and adds a lot of distortion.

[Djayness]

Originally Posted by Cthippo

I tried Cineform, but it doesn't work with the files from my Fuji cameras and I couldn't see using two different programs for editing.

We use a GoPro Hero 2 and three Fuji XPs for shooting our kayaking (and other) videos and the GoPro is awesome, but it has it's limitations. The extremely wide field of view makes it hard to see anything at a distance and adds a lot of distortion.

With the Hero 3 you can change the FOV to narrow, medium and wide in all resolution modes

[dynamis_dk]

Does the Hero 3 change the actual FOV or just digital zoom like the Hero 2?

[October]

Just downloaded Cineform to try it out, I shoot on a Canon but I've been looking for a way to convert my footage to something a bit more colour correction friendly, this looks like it could be the very thing...

Couple of quick questions though;
I know there are a couple of different Cineform codecs available, which one does this use when converting?
I don't seem to have any in/out controls in the import window how do they get there?

I've actually just answered my last question which was where is my avi...so there's no high quality avi export AFTER any correction done within Cineform Studio?

[dynamis_dk]

As far as I can tell from my limited use its MP4 output only.. I've never found any settings to play with. I've got a 7D so I'm having a bash at recording Protune on the GoPro and straight 24fps/1080p on the 7D to see how well I can join the footage.

[Djayness]

Originally Posted by dynamis_dk

Does the Hero 3 change the actual FOV or just digital zoom like the Hero 2?

I'm actually not sure.

Originally Posted by October

Just downloaded Cineform to try it out, I shoot on a Canon but I've been looking for a way to convert my footage to something a bit more colour correction friendly, this looks like it could be the very thing...

Couple of quick questions though;
I know there are a couple of different Cineform codecs available, which one does this use when converting?
I don't seem to have any in/out controls in the import window how do they get there?

I've actually just answered my last question which was where is my avi...so there's no high quality avi export AFTER any correction done within Cineform Studio?

Cineform codec 444.


I've done a tutorial on how to use Cineform although some of these features are only available to GoPro footage.

[October]

Yeah I watched it after I read that first post, downloaded Cineform after that and it's now part of my workflow! Well, on more important projects anyway, I'm trying to learn DaVinci Resolve at the moment so it'll be good to get my footage into a more workable format.

[Djayness]

Originally Posted by October

Yeah I watched it after I read that first post, downloaded Cineform after that and it's now part of my workflow! Well, on more important projects anyway, I'm trying to learn DaVinci Resolve at the moment so it'll be good to get my footage into a more workable format.

Yeah it's an extra bit of pain to convert and reconvert the codecs as it adds plenty of time to what would otherwise be a simple edit. The results though, speak for themselves.

[October]

Originally Posted by October

I've actually just answered my last question which was where is my avi...so there's no high quality avi export AFTER any correction done within Cineform Studio?

So I've since answered this question, thought I'd update because Cineform is freaking AWESOME!

Basically any colour adjustment done in Cineform Studio is instantly applied to your Cineform AVI file, it works through metadata so there's no need to re-export. Or render. Yeah. No rendering. Now this in and of itself is pretty awesome, but it seems Cineform have released FirstLight for free now as well as Studio. FirstLight is a full primary colour correction suite, very powerful although it has no masking or power windows. This doesn't really matter for simple grading though, you could certainly use it for far more than a simple colour balance.

Anyway, you can have a file open in Premiere (/FCP/Vegas etc) and be working away on a cut, have FirstLight open at the same time and tweak colour while you edit, just switching between the two windows.

This is pretty revolutionary for me as I've been colouring with Magic Bullet, which takes absolutely ages to render sometimes. With FirstLight it's literally instant, flick into it and do whatever changes (while the file plays in it's own browser, if you want) and then flick back to Premier, refresh the frame and the changes are there.

You can overlay realtime scopes, have it display metadata, add 2.35 bars and a whole bunch of other stuff, all of which is persistent until you turn it off in FirstLight, which you can do at any point. Bearing in mind this is all working on 10-bit HD video.* In real time.

I honestly can't get over how powerful it is. I don't think it'll fully replace Magic Bullet for me, as much as it can do there are a few things it can't, but for balancing and adding a look without any special stuff (vignettes, flares etc) it's absolutely perfect.

My work flow is now
-transfer my card
-roughly go through and pick out the usable shots (to save on transcoding time, but only getting rid of actually useless stuff)
-transcode to Cineform
-edit in Premiere
-balance all the shots I've actually used and start grading in FirstLight
-if necessary, do a further grade in Magic Bullet

The only thing I'm not sure of at the moment is how to work Denoiser into the equation. I know it should be the first in line when it comes to colour work, not sure how it'll play with stuff I've graded a bit in FirstLight as it'll be working on the graded image... I'll come back when I know more...

But yeah, definitely a time saver. That turned out a bit longer of a post than I intended, I just can't get over how good this is. No rendering!!

*Cineform is a 10-bit codec, so you're automatically working in a 10-bit colour space. This can't fix stuff lost when shot in 8-bit but gives a lot more latitude in colouring what you do have, smoother gradients, more latitude before introducing noise or blowing out highlights etc etc.