The GoPro Captures - Part II

From Part I

As for the bad parts, I'm sure there were plenty of YouTube video about them. But on a personal level, I found that the shutter lag - especially capturing RAW - can be a problem. This made the GoPro not the ideal camera for street photography. The moment may have passed on by the time the shutter clicked.

The RAW file also wasn't universal. I wasn't able to open it on my main workflow - using Aperture. Best to capture in jpg in my opinion.

You can see the flare at the topThe subject appears super-big when you come closeAn indoor capture at ISO 1100The captures may be oversaturated for some people. Luckily, using Aperture, I was able to dial down the colour making it more natural. This may be a plus though if you were doing architecture or landscape. On my cityscape photos, it worked a treat. I felt that it was a feature.

It looked like they are adamant about not parking there ...The nice contrast of blue and yellowWalking further alongFinally I find opening the doors for the charger on the GoPro could be a bit tricky. I supposed that was the trade-off since the unit on its own is water-resistant up to 10 meters. With the right technique, it was manageable.

Another indoor shot. This time inside Central Market.Waiting for my tram ride ....I can't miss a shot of the Twin Tower in the sunshine ...On balance, I was more than happy with my purchase, especially as I got it at a discount complete with a free memory card. It was hard to understand why GoPro as a company was struggling since the product was great. Moving into drone sector was a sensible move but maybe they were not able to complete with the likes of DJI. Hopefully they would continue to survive and come up with Hero 7 some time in the near future ...

The GoPro Captures - Part I

When I bought the GoPro Hero 6 Black, I didn't realise how good the photos were going to be. They passed my expectations to be honest in such a compact and easy to carry unit.

The photos were never going to be better than my Alpha 7R mark II with Zeiss Batis wide angle combo. In the right light, the results were just as delightful. With any fixed aperture lens, you would not be able to gain extra sharpness by stepping down the aperture. There were no optical zoom features and the electronic stabilisation only worked for the videos, not photos.

Captured from my balconyThe street of Orchard. The camera did not cope with high dynamic range that well.I did some post-processing dodging to bring out the coloursLet's start with the pluses. The whole setup was light and easy to use. There were not many buttons needed pressing. Just power up and you were good to go. If you needed to toggle a few of the options, the touch screen was a boon.

The lens as I mentioned was much sharper than I expected. Since it was a wide angle, at any distance, you were very likely to get all your subjects in focus. Point and click at its finest.

Nice effectFrom the top. Captured at ISO 800.A semi close-upThen came the part of transferring the captures either to your smartphone or computer. For the phone, I just switch on the built-in wifi on the GoPro, select the GoPro app on my iPhone. I was able to transfer the photos in seconds.

Bicycle in the crowdI must say I have no issue with this perspective ...The shadows seemed to be captured well at low ISOBack at my study, I used the supplied USB 3 to USB-C cable and using the GoPro Quik app, the transfer was just as straight forward. Charging the GoPro was also easy since it worked with any USB-C charger cables. It worked with my Samsung cable.

Gone GoPro

I finally succumbed. The final straw was when one of my nurses brought her little GoPro along at one of the ward lunches. I had to give that a look.

GoPro had a bad Xmas. Their sales were not doing very well. They announced that they were closing their drone arm - which I thought they were doing very well at until I read about the technical issues they were having. They were now looking for a buyer for the company and the prices of their cameras were being slashed.

I managed to get a decent deal and bought the Hero 6 Black, just in time for our Singapore trip. I planned to take only small cameras for the trip - which would likely mean the GR II and the GoPro. Too much hassle to carry the Sony or Fuji as time would be limited and were planning to fly and travel light.

So far, I had only had the chance to use the camera around the house. The photos and videos were much better than our old GoPro. I fact I was stunned by how good the stills were. The control were neater and having a dedicated touch screen and GPS were definitely bonus.

Some of the earliest photos from the GoProNext, I would like to see how well the snaps transfer onto the phone apps. That would make sharing that much more straight forward. The trip this weekend should allow me to do some field test with the camera.