Question: anyway to shoot a pic with hero3+?

I've been testing shooting 4K (15fps) and pulling stills from that. The resultant file is 3840x2160, but zoom in any and the artifacts are pretty visible. What is nice is that you have many options to choose from, since it's shooting 15 "pics" a second. Here's a sample still done that way: https://flic.kr/p/ohBEix

Here's one that was pulled from 1920x1080 and cropped slightly: https://flic.kr/p/o1qB7r

(click the DOWNLOAD icon on bottom-right to download and review the full res versions)

I'm going to shoot in stills mode over the weekend and compare. I am REALLY hoping that the GoPro 4 will have much better stills capability AND possibly a special edition for aerial videographers/photographers. I mainly shoot video, but it's always nice to have some good stills as well.
 
Lasvegascfp said:
tom3holer said:
A little correction for the GoPro 3+ black. First off it does take very credible pictures/stills if set up right.
If you are after stills then the best resolution will be in time laps, not video plus stills. The manual is a little deceiving in saying it shoots 12mp at 1440.24. It does but the output Jpeg you see is very compressed. Time laps works fine in aerial work for stills. You see the video for camera aiming but every 5 sec, or whatever you use, it blacks out for a second or so to take a pic. The Jpeg file size for a given shot is usually 3 times the size of a shot from video plus stills mode. The file size for the work I do, waterfront homes, is approx 6.3mp, and for a still from a 1440/24 with 12mp stills its 2.3mp, clearly a lot of compression is going on.

Tom

When you say set up right, you mean just the time lapse and not video plus stills? What other settings would make a difference?

Well there isn't much that can be changed when it comes to stills. Can't even use protune with stills. The one thing I am using is the 5.4mm lens. It does eliminate the fisheye which is really needed when doing stills. The lens is sharp but does give a pinkish cast to some shots due to the UV coating on the back element of the lens. That can be removed with an photoeditor like Photoshop or Lightroom.

Tom
 
I've just taken a couple pictures to compare the differences between time lapse versus video + stills. There really is a huge difference. Notice the amount of grain in the 1440/24 image compared to the time lapse image.

1440/24 5s image:


time lapse 5s image
 

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derrickduff said:
I've just taken a couple pictures to compare the differences between time lapse versus video + stills. There really is a huge difference. Notice the amount of grain in the 1440/24 image compared to the time lapse image.

Hmmm, nice comparison, thanks! I've been running Denoiser on my video caps to clear those, but that looks nice. I want to compare with bright sunlight shots, too. Shouldn't be much grain in those, since they won't have to lift the ISO too high. I'll post them if there's anything more definitive.
 
I have a friend in Hawaii who does beautiful stills and videos of the islands with a GoPro 3+ Black. I asked him about his settings and techniques for such excellent work. He said the key is only shooting on bright sunny days. Everything else was simply basic stuff.

Tom
 

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