Regardless of the fact that GoPro has been going through hard times lately, mainly due to the Karma drone recall that happened more than a month ago, the company is still the leading manufacturer of action cameras in this highly competitive market segment.
With the latest iteration of the GoPro HERO5 Black and HERO5 Session cameras, sports enthusiasts and aspiring filmmakers can take advantage of the newly implemented and extremely effective built-in image stabilization, expanded manual video settings, touch screen capabilities of the HERO5 Black display along with the improved audio and image quality on both cameras.
So, if you are one of those users who struggle to get the best image quality out of your latest GoPro HERO5 Black camera, here’s an insightful video that covers the camera’s optimal settings that will help you to sort things out and get the best results.
According to Reha Alev the producer of that video, the 2.7K resolution mode of the camera is the most flexible one as it gives you a plenty of resolution to tweak your framing in post, especially when finishing in 1080p. At the same time, it doesn’t eat up the SD card space as quick as 4K recording. Plus, some of the essential features the camera provides such as the higher frame rates and built-in image stabilization are not available in 4K, so the 2.7K mode is indeed an acceptable compromise.
Most the of time, Reha shoots at 25fps using the LINEAR FOV due to the fact that this mode provides a less distorted field of view which is something that you may want in general, except for action shots and on other occasions when the extremely wide field of view is required. The filmmaker also utilizes the PROTUNE option and sets the color profile to Flat. He also switches his sharpness to Low and tries to stay at the native ISO400 whenever possible. As a rule, try to avoid going above ISO1600 as the video becomes unusable because of the amount of digital noise introduced in the image.
As for the White Balance settings, Reha Alev recommends using the AUTO mode. However, I would opt for dialing in the appropriate color temperature values manually, especially if you want to color grade your footage properly later in post. You can set the Shutter Speed manually as well unless you want to use any particular adjustment and go after a certain in-camera look. You can also affect the brightness of your video by using the EV Comp settings, but keep in mind that this adjustment will be available only if your shutter speed is set to AUTO.
Last but no least, always double-check whether your image stabilization is turned on and adjust the brightness of your screen to 50% to save your battery charge for longer shoots. It also worth noting that with the latest firmware version 1.55, the GoPro HERO5 Black can’t accept third-party batteries any longer, so make sure you have a plenty of the genuine units to keep your camera running for extended periods of time, especially during this time of the year, when low temperatures drain your battery a lot faster than usual.
[source: Reha Alev]
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