GoPro Hero 4 Silver – An Aspiring Technical Pro Users Review
Welcome everyone to my first blog article !
I’m writing you today to do my own Review of my experiences with GoPro’s Hero 4 Silver Action cam. My initial reasons for purchasing and what hands-on info I have discovered using the GoPro. I’ll also go into some details of how I planned on using the camera and how to get the best looking images from this little action cam.
For those of you that don’t know what a GoPro is, Check out GoPro’s website (www.gopro.com) and YouTube for a lot of worthwhile information regarding it.
This article is for a techy crowd however some users may get some useful information out of this
Hero4 Silver – What’s included in the box
My initial Impressions:
I was really excited to pick up this camera last year at Christmas time from Best Buy Canada (online). It came in a Bundle which was on sale and included various other items that I would need.
The one thing that GoPro has done by making the price point where it is (and I suspect to increase their margins) is to make you buy more accessories for the camera. The Camera itself comes with some basics but not much else. The good news is that there are tons of 3rd party manufacturers and people who make GoPro mounts and accessories so the possibilities are endless.
For example, both the GoPro Hero 4 Black and Silver do not come even with a charger (only a USB 2.0 cable to charge the battery from the camera itself!) or Lens cap. They do however come with one water proof housing.
For a complete list of what’s included check out Gopro’s Website – http://shop.gopro.com/hero4/hero4-silver/CHDHY-401.html#tab3
Initial Impression is that this is a solid and well-built product with a lot of thought and engineering put into it. I mean, If you think what was required only a few years how much it would have cost to do 1080p video on a budget, mind-boggling costs are what come to mind.
Just to give you an idea, my original camcorder bought in 2003 was a $2000.00 purchase and it only did 480p and stills and was able to do stills at 1.2 MegaPixel !
This GoPro Hero4 Silver Image Sensor is capable of 4K Movie (Sensor size – 3840 x 2160 [16:9] @ 15K frames a second max) and still images at a maximum of 12 MegaPixel Images (4000 x 3000 aprox [4:3] aspect Native)
My Goals for buying this product
My main goal was to purchase this GoPro to replace my very aged JVC 480p Mini-DV Camcorder (GR-DV4000u) bought way back in 2003. My thought was the GoPro Product line seems to have matured enough and that this Camera product had a lot of potential for a relatively low cost but high quality and usability factor in a small form. It seemed like a good idea for a video camera replacement (and better then most phone cameras), and it can take some punishment!
My basic wish list of what I wanted in a camera was as follows:
1. Something to shoot 1080p or higher video with (higher resolution the better)
2. A camera that wasn’t too bulky a had the ability to mount in different locations ( I wanted to start experimenting with this and not be just tied to a tripod )
3. Some sort of Zoom control. this is an issue but the Camera should have some sort of framing mode for closer and wide shots.
4. A camera that took small reusable memory cards instead of big expensive media that you had to keep buying.
5. A camera plus most gear you would need to be able to fit into one small carrying container
6. Interchangeable lenses ( Would have been nice but this is on my DSLR list)
7. Long or decent battery life
8. Good low light or night vision (most cameras do this horribly)
9. Decent Sound reproduction (I intend on improving this by using add-on products and external camera microphone and recording devices).
10. Good input output type jacks to expand capabilities or add to them.
11. LCD screen for framing shots.
12. Shoot in RAW (if possible) to get the most of out my shots and to be able to color correct / balance them later
