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24 Мар. 2015 г.Gopro hero 2The bottom of the camera is where you will find a new tiny on-camera mic; this is in addition to the one found on the top, although again you won't be capturing much audio from these without fitting the case door with the holes in it.Traditional photographers will struggle to line up shots and all of us habitually used to checking our images will feel like we've returned to the glory days of film. So for now, unless sheer image size matters, the 5mp wide makes the best Hero2 still images. While GoPro inexplicably so far has failed to alert divers to the underwater housing focusing problem, they did show an optional flat lens housing at the 2011 DEMA show in Orlando. Owners in PAL regions can switch the frame rate to 25, 50 and 100fps in the respective modes. Despite using the camera frequently over the past year I'm still yet to determine what all the hieroglyphic symbols mean. Camera Labs's base in Queenstown, New Zealand, is the perfect place to test the HD Hero 2. Now here's a headscratcher: we'd have expected the Hero2 11mp wide picture (right) to be the best and cleanest of all, but the 5mp Hero2 picture (left) is actually cleaner with fewer artifacts. If you'd like to see more still photos, check out my GoPro HD Hero 2 sample images page, or if you've already seen enough, head straight to my GoPro HD Hero 2 verdict! We explored the insides of a wreck to check low-light performance of the Hero2, and also how the white balance reacts. In lower resolution settings, the camera viewing angle is increased and the outer edges of the housing lens become visible in video and images. Indeed when you plug the camera into your computer after a day of shooting, it can often be a surprise to discover exactly what you captured on your stills. The left side has three ports - a standard composite video output, the USB interface that is also used to charge the unit, and, replacing the old component video output, a new 3.5mm external mic input. While the original HD Hero could shoot at 1080p, you were limited to a field of view of 127 degrees. The ready availability of mounting brackets and systems, combined with the small boxy form factor, meant that the GoPro camera was used in very innovative ways, which brought a lot of publicity, which made it even more popular in many high-profile applications. The Wi-Fi back is set for release soon and we're excited to test it when it does - watch this space. And many GoPros spend most of their recording time mounted on something, like a race cars or skateboard, where aiming isn't much of an issue. If you've not seen one before you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a toy intended for pre-school photographers. In early 2012 GoPro hopes to launch its new Wi-Fi BacPac and Wi-Fi remote control - see photo opposite. The HD Hero 2 now lets you enjoy 1080p at 170 degrees, and also offers two narrower field of views at 1080p: 127 or 90 degrees, although as noted above, the noise does become progressively more obvious as the field of view narrows. But while the GoPro is tiny, it isn't particularly elegant or high-tech, and compared to all those waver-thin compacts it's actually a bit stout. If you found this review useful, please support me by telling your friends and shopping below! Like its predecessor, the HD Hero 2 is fully automatic for exposures, so you're reliant on it getting it right under often quickly changing conditions. The latter allows you to slow footage by four times in a 30fps project, and we have a demonstration in part 2 of the video review above. For that, you'd need selectable white balance modes or some sort of setup setting, or the camera would need to know how deep it is (which would require a pressure sensor). The Hero2 does significantly better in low light, but it's really in the new video modes and when viewed on a big screen that the differences become noticeable. Suffice it to say there was a great deal of excitement around Queenstown when we started testing the HD Hero 2. The good news for owners of the original Hero is that at least in this small size, you really can't see much of a difference between the two. If you intend to use the camera in all of the recording modes, you need a fix that replaces the entire dome. Another change over the previous model is the selection of ports on the exterior of the camera. It's a precision-crafted aluminum adapter that leaves the GoPro housing's existing dome intact, but puts a flat-plate glass lens in front of it. Remember this is a camera designed for action sports - not for shooting architecture in Paris. It might not be Avatar, but it might be the easiest way to get your mum to go bungy jumping - or at least feel like she did. GoPro gets around this by supplying a second door that can be interchanged with the sealed version. To take the whole assembly out of the front half of the housing you need to open three more screws, one of them quite recessed. This is perfectly illustrated in the two shots below, and those in the HD Hero 2 sample images gallery. These cameras are made with blue sky and sun in mind, so pushing them into the shadows gets results that are mixed at best. While the old one was a 5mp Aptina model, the new one supposedly offers full 14mp resolution. These images can then be easily stitched together in a program like QuickTime Pro to create some pretty spectacular timelapse results. You can see in the side by side footage in the video review above, especially in the kayaking footage, that when the camera is dunked underwater it quickly changed exposure and then when it was back on the surface changed again. Yes, they're still not telling divers that the waterproof housing can't actually be used underwater without a third-party fix or the soon-available optional flat-lens underwater housing, but anyone who can't figure that out probably isn't GoPro material to begin with. Now you can see that the GoPro guts are quite complex, with three tightly packed circuit boards sitting on top of each other. Changing settings, though, is much improved with the Hero2 and you no longer have to have the instructions at hand to decipher cryptic codes as was the case with older Heros. We offered GoPro to test a preproduction unit on a December 2011 dive product review trip, but they could not make one available. Having resolved the blur issue with the EyeOfMine housing, we then took the Hero2 for a week's worth of diving to the Honduran island of Roatan. Anyway, with a solution at hand (the EyeOfMine housing), we took the original Hero on another dive trip to the Islas Coronados just south of the border in Mexican waters. GoPro, though, was kind enough to make a second original Hero available to us, and so we recorded a bunch of scuba 3D video. The back of the camera is home to the battery cover and accessory port - I'll explain more on those later. Scott Kennedy is a freelance Photographer, Filmmaker and Writer based in Queenstown, New Zealand. This is particularly handy when photographing your friend hitting a jump in the park or base jumping off The Eiger. You simply replace the stock lens with the one supplied by Mako that's supposed to be totally vignette-free in the 1080p R5 setting. Starting with surfing and paddling, auto racing quickly followed, and that required different mounting. RAM's been making mounting solutions for computers, cameras, GPS systems, etc., for many years, and their patented rubber ball and socket system is absolutely the best. On the new HD Hero 2, the coverage remains 170 degrees, but the resolution has shot-up to 11 Megapixels. While mounted in a chest harness, clamped to the bottom tube of a mountain bike or on the end of a ski pole - actually knowing when you are shooting is crucial. We then took the GoPro along on our next product review dive trip, this time to Cancun where we dove the wreck of the 165-foot C58 mine sweeper in strong currents. Whether you're into mountain biking, kayaking, snowsports, skydiving, automotive or virtually any other activity, the HD Hero 2 can capture ultra-wide angle stills and HD video of your favourite sport. That solved the power problem (but only to some extent; eBay batteries are notoriously iffy, and we'd definitely recommend to buy the real thing from GoPro). The challenge with shooting stills on the bare GoPro will always be the lack of a built-in screen or viewfinder. Previously when adjusting the mode, resolution or other settings on the original HD Hero, you were reliant upon deciphering a series of one or two letter codes. Fortunately, the Hero2 is similar enough that much of our original Hero review remains valid. The plastic housing prevents all but the loudest of sounds penetrating and the vibration, rattling and wind from movement is often the only transferred sound. And it creates the impression that as of now, for a company that is into extreme sports and makes a terrific product (AND advertises its housing for underwater use), GoPro is not very familiar with scuba. In an effort to push this camera to the limits, Camera Labs has gone to unprecedented extremes to put this new model into perspective. Perhaps most exciting of all is the upcoming Wifi accessory which will allow you to remote-control up to 50 HD Hero 2 cameras using a smartphone and even view their feeds on-screen. The prototype shown didn't looked particularly elegant, but we haven't seen the final version yet. We later found that the underwater housing that comes with every GoPro, and that GoPro says is good for depths to 200 feet, really cannot be used for underwater video. Sartek offers a full replacement housing with a elegant black replacement dome ring and a glass lens. On the outside, the Hero2 looks almost identical, but a closer examination shows a number of subtle differences. So we decided to have some fun and really put the camera through its paces by filming the best that Queenstown has to offer for the adventurous traveller. The camera also features a time-lapse mode where images can be taken every .5 (new), 1, 2, 10, 30 or 60 seconds. By sports photography I'm not referring to taking photos or shooting video of other people at play - GoPro's cameras are designed for the participants themselves to use. That's why cameras designed to be taken underwater usually have special underwater modes that compensate for the loss of color. With its robust construction, this is the sort of camera you don't mind leaving outside all day. Learning how to use the BacPac, though, still means memorizing which of the by now three buttons to push short or long. Gone are the mysterious codes and the need for the instructions stuffed into my ski jacket. The exterior hard plastic shell protects the camera itself but certainly won't win any beauty contests. The icon-driven menus are also easy to understand, simple to navigate and logically organized. This means a sealed air space that's potentially subject to fogging, but SnakeRiver guards against that by including a rounded groove for ceramic desiccant balls. Once that is done, you don't only have a very nice 2-inch display with decent viewing angles and brightness. There's also the Oculus flat lens; it consists of a flat plastic lens and a replacement dome ring. On a shallow, rocky dive site we were literally mobbed by curious sea lions, pups all, who darted all around us. Now the HD Hero 2 not only has the same light on the front but also three more small lamps on the top, back and bottom. The GoPro was certainly much more handy than the big and bulky camera and video gear we usually take along. The improved imaging pipeline in the GoPro HD Hero 2 has vastly improved upon this and tackled the issue head on. Snake River Prototyping offers the BlurFix adapter, the most professional looking solution of the lot. If you're into slow motion, a new 120fps mode at 848x480 will slow the action by four times. The HD Hero 2 shares the same dimensions as the earlier HD Hero, which allows it to share the same mountings and accessories, which in turn means you can attach the camera to almost anything. For example, colors disappear the deeper you go, and then everything starts looking just greenish. That's hard to measure, and of course image processing also plays a big role on the final image, but the bottom line is stills and video from the HD Hero 2 are much crisper than before. Through experience, that 2.5hrs is a standby time - actual shooting time is often much less than that. The LCD does need a new firmware version, which you can easily download from the GoPro website, put on a SD card, and then install. Just undo four tiny Philips head screws holding the top and bottom of the plastic case together. The name came from many a surfer's wish to "go pro," and "hero" stems from making people feel like heros when they could record and show their stunts. For this reason alone it was deemed un-usable by some commercial skydive operators for filming their jumpers. There's a mini-USB port, mini-HDMI, a composite jack, one for an external microphone, and a special Hero expansion port. I accept for full weatherproofing you normally need to sacrifice access to ports, but it could have been so much more useful if the external microphone port were on the rear and thereby accessible through the alternative door with the holes in it. You simply unscrew the dome on your housing, replace the stock dome lens with the flat one from AquaPix, and you're done. And since the BacPac shows the Hero2's hugely improved menu interface, setting up and using the camera is so much easier, and you also have playback. In what's widely regarded as the adventure capital of the world, we have access to some of the best outdoor activities from mountain biking to sky-diving, amongst some of the most stunning landscapes in the world.  Try and use the HD Hero as a normal digital camera for walk-around photography and you're likely to be disappointed, but jump out of a plane with one and you'll be delighted. One major change and improvement over the original HD Hero is the addition of several lights to the exterior. GoPro addressed this for the previous HD Hero with the optional LCD BacPac accessory which bolted to the back and handily came with a new rear door to keep everything weatherproof. Combined with the 10 shot burst capabilities the reality of both 'Bullet Time' on a budget and directing your own snowboard movie from the lodge in real time are a fun reality. Not specifically designed to be used underwater, the Hero2 doesn't compensate for the loss of colors down there. We analyzed everything, wondered what we might have done wrong, examined any possible settings, then tried again. For now, suffice it to say that 3D is not trivial, and though there are now a lot of 3D movies and TVs, it's far from certain if the technology will really catch on. Nothing else grips like it, and nothing else is as easy to adjust and versatile as the RAM mounts. You can also charge via any third party wall socket to USB charger with quicker recharge times of about 1hr. For now, a filter is your best bet, and some of the third party replacement case providers also offer filters. Standard waterproof housing is useless underwater because the curved dome lens makes for blurry video. Of course the exterior housing needs a window for the camera's lens to view the action, and this convex shaped part represents one of the improvements on the Hero 2. The Discovery Channel uses it for "Deadliest Catch" and "Gold Rush," and National Geographic and LucasFilm use it too, or you can watch incredible footage of a race car barreling up the Pikes Peak hill climb, setting a world record (see here), and so on. While the folks at GoPro offer all sorts of very clever mounts for the Hero and there are a good number of third party mounting options in addition to that, serious GoPro users should also look at what's available from RAM. GoPro likes to keep things simple, and so their claim is that the new Hero2 has twice the processing power, more than twice the image detail, and its glass is twice as sharp. The earlier model had just one red light on the front that would indicate if it was recording video or counting-down a self-timer. One of the first improvements previous GoPro users will appreciate is the new display, which looks the same when powered-off, but will delight as soon as it's switched on. When comparing the video from the HD Hero 2 against its predecessor you'd be forgiven for thinking they were taken on different days - the difference is that big. Doesn't it always work that way: we had compiled a very detailed review of the GoPro Hero and published it mid-October 2011. This exterior lens window is also replaceable if it gets scratched in the heat of the action. We are not done yet with the 3D GoPro video project and plan on reporting on it in more detail sometime soon. The previous model lagged so far behind that the footage from underwater simply registered as black. The still photo resolution has been boosted from 5 to 11 Megapixels and you can now take a burst of ten shots in one second. Meanwhile on my GoPro HD Hero 2 movie quality page you'll see some examples of how the videos compare to its predecessor. Inexpensive vidcams that could record at amazingly high resolutions had been available at Walmart and other low price outlets for years, but those products rarely managed to rid themselves of the reputation of being cheap gadgets with marginal picture and overall quality. All of this technology means that all of a sudden, a decent CMOS sensor, a lens, ancillary circuitry and storage all fit into a very small place at a very low cost, and it was capable of producing results that rivaled and often blew away what was possible with much more expensive conventional video gear. None of this is totally new; it's just that it took companies like Ambarella and GoPro to really make it take off. When the subject is close and filling the frame and the light is good the images are pretty good. It arrived very quickly and testing in the pool showed a huge difference compared to the standard housing. Back from the trip we instantly went on eBay and ordered a real battery charger (the GoPro charges via USB cable, a notoriously unreliable charging method) and two extra batteries. Eyeofmine does the modification and sells the complete standard or wrist housing good for 100 feet (US$79) or 200 feet (US$99). While this may sound like a small improvement of negligible value you have to remember the context that this camera is intended. The latest offering from GoPro is less of a new camera and more of an improvement on an already tested and trusted model. RAM has high-quality GoPro mounting solutions that work with just about anything and anywhere (see the RAM GoPro page), and their industrial strength stuff is the answer where the smaller plastic mounts won't do. What often helps to overcome technical limitations is the visceral quality to a photograph taken mid way through a skydive. There's LOTS of mounting hardware in each of the three available packages (there are Outdoor, Motorsports, and Surf editions). The original HD Hero was notorious for being sluggish at best in compensating for changing light. There is one undeniable advance, though: there's now a new "narrow" 90 degree mode in 1080p video, which means you can shoot without the wide angle fisheye effect if need be. We tried several more times, and, adding insult to injury, the GoPro's already somewhat marginal battery conked out, yielding no more than a few minutes per charge towards the end of the voyage. The little matte-silver plastic housing even of the latest Hero2 is very basic, with just two buttons, and no display other than a tiny black & white status LCD. The downside to this robust exterior is the virtual inability to record sound using the built-in microphone. In bright sun both cameras produced lively images, but those from the HD Hero 2 were a cut above; you can really see this in the side-by-side portions of the video reviews above. You can alternatively shoot at 960p (4:3) at 30 or 48fps, 720p at 30 or 60fps, or WVGA (848x480) at 60 or new to the HD Hero 2 at 120fps. Now let's hope some big company won't come along, snatch up GoPro, and then shut it down like Cisco did with the Flip. The timelapse feature which takes photos automatically at preset periods is now available at half second intervals, and there's now both HDMI and external microphone ports. There are, however, also rather substantial improvements, and so we'll use this review to both explain and highlight the concept of the GoPro Hero, and also how the latest Hero2 model differs from the original. Then came the big step to high definition video and today's HD Hero 960 (960p video), Hero (1080p video), and now Hero2 (faster, more video and still modes, overall better). Now we're getting somewhere: The underlying Ambarella chipset of the Hero2 is two years newer, runs at more than twice the speed, and is entirely more powerful and feature-rich than the Hero's older A2S chip. Like virtually all GoPro users I've experienced the frustrating phenomenon of thinking I was recording some once in a lifetime action, when in fact I wasn't. For example, the Hero2 has three additional recording lights (top, back, bottom) so you know when it's actually recording without looking at it from the front. If you plan on shooting extensively every time you use the GoPro a second battery is highly recommended. Though the sharpness of the old model was passable, 'for a helmet cam' the new sharper lens and processing has set the standard. Low light performance, or lack there of was a failing that had dogged the GoPro HD Hero on previous occasions. What we found there was that the Hero2 did significantly better than the original Hero, but there are some limits and physical realities underwater that are hard to overcome. As this is the thinnest part of plastic on the unit it is often the first thing to fog up when there is a change in air pressure. So the presence of an external mic input sounds like a great solution, except for the fact that the only way you can access it is to have the camera outside of the protective housing, at which point it's vulnerable to knocks or moisture and lacking any easy mounting interface. The wondrous full 1080p HD video of today is already being surpassed with 60 frame per second 1080p, high-speed RAW capture of 16-megapixel images at 30 fps (Ambarella's new A7L system-on-chip can already do this -- see here), and 2160p video. First, you need two Hero or Hero2 cameras (and it must be two of a kind) and the special 3D kit from GoPro. In essence, what happened was a fortuitous convergence of a) CMOS sensors that have become powerful enough to generate decent high-resolution video, b) the emergence of SD and microSD cards with capacities large enough to replace large, bulky and expensive tape or hard drive storage, and c) efforts like Ambarella's that provided super-fast, efficient compression on the fly. Scott's written an in-depth review of the camera to which I've added my own image and video quality comparisons, but to kick-off the review here's our two-part video demo! The GoPro is sort of an unlikely success story that represents determination and innovation at its best, and the new Hero2 is better yet with its better lens, larger imager, and faster, more powerful processor. Mako offers the MAKO Flat GoPro Housing Lens for just US$21.95 for those who don't mind the do-it-yourself approach. Like running 960p video at a faster 48 frames per second, or 848 x 480 WVGA at a blistering 120 frames per second for very cool slow motion video. To get the full 170 degree coverage you had to reduce the video resolution to 960p in 4:3 or 720p. I know no-one better-qualified to do this than writer, photographer and film-maker Scott Kennedy, who some of you may recall from my Canon 8-15mm fisheye review. To do the camera real justice I knew I had to get it in the hands of someone who knew the previous model back-to-front and who'd take it on the most exciting activities. The clear hard plastic shell is accessed through a latch on the top of the camera case that opens much like a pelican case. The biggest improvements and changes with the GoPro HD Hero 2 are found inside the camera itself. The third installment in the Hero line is the highest spec unit yet and is a logical incremental improvement over the previous model The HD Hero. Ambarella specializes in low-power, high-definition video compression and image processing. So you get a 1080p HD video camera with plenty of accessories and an underwater housing good for 200 feet for less than you pay for a compact camera's underwater housing alone! The right side is where you will find the SD card slot alongside a new HDMI port for connecting directly to an HDTV. We experimented with a variety of video lights and torches, including Liquid Image head-mounts, Bonica dual video lights (shown in picture to the right), and a SeaLife video light. About 400 people work for Ambarella these days, 100 of them at the Silicon Valley headquarters. It looks halfway decent shrunk to this small size, but the full-size version is totally blurry and out of focus. The LCD module cleanly snaps onto the back of the GoPro, doesn't need any wires or anything, and even comes with waterproof and non-waterproof backdoors for both the standard and the wrist-mount housing. On the plus side recharging is simple and quick with a supplied USB cable - total time to recharge is about 2hrs. Note, however, that you can get very good color underwater if you use a video light to illuminate the scene (see picture of the moray eel below). We first took the GoPro on an 8-day expedition to the Islas Revillagigedos, a remote group of islands about 250 miles south-west off Cabo San Lucas on the Pacific coast of Mexico, and one of the most remote places you'll ever see. Our above-water video was excellent, but 20 minutes of recording giant mantas, pretty much once in a lifetime footage, was blurry and out of focus, all of it. You cannot claim a waterproof case that's good for 200 feet and then neglect to tell customers that the housing will keep the camera from focusing underwater. Thanks to the wide lens angle that's not too much of a problem as one tends to get the proper footage anyway. The glued-on fix is not pretty, looks more like a science project, and the acrylic lens is prone to scratching, but the fix definitely works and there isn't any vignetting in any of the recording modes other than a bit in 960p. Designed to be strapped to a helmet, affixed to a surf board or lashed to a mountain bike GoPro's are aimed at users who wouldn't necessarily refer to themselves as photographers. The second did silent 10 second digital video, the third had an SD card slot and 3 megapixel, the fourth, in 2008, had a wide angle lens, could do 5mp stills and VGA video. When you look at the side by side footage of the Shotover Jet in part 2 of the video review above, you can really see the difference in sharpness between the two of them. The HD Hero 2 has gone a long way in improving this as you'll see in the results pages, but it still has some distance to go. The combination of a wider lens and larger sensor now supports a broader field of view at the top video resolution of 1080p. Everyone from enthusiasts to adventure operators wanted to see how it compared to the old model. It's obvious that GoPro has listened to a cascade of feedback and has acted upon it for this new model. Essentially they paved the way from legacy MPEG-2 encoding to the next-gen H.264 encoding technology. I really would have liked to know ahead of time that taking the GoPro to film one-of-a-kind shots of half a dozen giant mantas would not work. Gently flipping up the bottom part of the case reveals a jam-packed inside with three sandwiched circuit boards taking up all real estate. The change in light from the interior of the plane to the outside sky when the daredevils leapt from the plane was just too quick for the old model. The kit includes a special dual-camera housing with a connection cable that synchronizes the video. In the first picture above you can see that the viewing angle is about the same, though with the Hero2 you get 11mp versus just 5mp in the original Hero. We expect advanced technology to come in spectacular, expensive packages, yet the GoPro is anything but.  |
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