Best settings on GoPro for the best video?

[Doug Benson]

Don't mean to kick a dead horse here but haven't found what I'm looking for and in the essence of time...
What is the BEST over all settings on GoPro for smoothest video?
What is the best ISO settings?
With or without an ND filter or Polarizer filter?
For example, is the 4k @30 frames with better resolution or 720 @120 frames better for better for overall video?

I know each situation is different in as far as lighting conditions etc. I'm looking for the base line and saving some hours of experimenting and uploading.

 

[DodgeP]

What does "Smoothest Video" mean?

 

[SteveReno]

Don't mean to kick a dead horse here but haven't found what I'm looking for and in the essence of time...
What is the BEST over all settings on GoPro for smoothest video?
What is the best ISO settings?
With or without an ND filter or Polarizer filter?
For example, is the 4k @30 frames with better resolution or 720 @120 frames better for better for overall video?

I know each situation is different in as far as lighting conditions etc. I'm looking for the base line and saving some hours of experimenting and uploading.

I hope you get some good answers, but the most i would expect "what is a good" Overall settings for Hero 4, 3 ?
Smoothness? will come with the Gimbal. Hopefully

 

[Earldgrayjr]

As you are finding out, there is no one answer. It depends on what you are doing. That said, ND filters help in all cases. Polarization filters help with glare (such as shimmering water). GoPro does several things automatically, so you have to fool it sometimes to get it to do what you want. ND filters do that by slowing the shutters.

After that, it depends.

Example: if you do post production and have After Effects.... and know going in you will use it to stabilize... Then you can shoot in 4k and use lense filters to remove fish eye, which crops the image some, and let the stabilizer built in do it's thing, which also crops the image, then you can likely render it in 1080 (if you shot it right) and you can set it up to happen in "batch". If you count on that going in and shoot accordingly, That will get you smooth video. But... It takes a hefty machine, software, and know how. To do that you set things up differently though than you would if you were going to remove fisheye and edit in GoPro studio and stabilize in YouTube.

See what I mean? Me personally, I am doing the former.

 

[Sampson]

I like to shoot higher resolutions (4k, 2.7k) to have the greater flexibility in post production for cropping/stabilization. In my opinion, anything less than 1080 for a finished edit is going to look substandard, especially for commercial purposes. 24 FPS settings help to produce a more cinematic look. ND filters can do the same but you need lots of natural light.
I think investing hours with practice and research is your only option.
Good luck!

 

[Wrexalot]

I use a gopro 4 silver and although it's mostly personal preference I use primarily 1080p at 60fps with the medium fov.

 

[JLJ]

Hi, nice topic. I have 2 questions regarding this

1. If I record in 4k or 2.7k and transfer or download from the sd card to my iphone or PC, the video will be transfer in 1080, right?

2. will I see any difference between 4k and 2.7k once it is download into Iphone or PC?

Thank You

 

[Dirby]

1080p 60

 

[Earldgrayjr]

Hi, nice topic. I have 2 questions regarding this

1. If I record in 4k or 2.7k and transfer or download from the sd card to my iphone or PC, the video will be transfer in 1080, right?

2. will I see any difference between 4k and 2.7k once it is download into Iphone or PC?

Thank You

No. Not sure if you are talking about camera roll? That is 720 no matter what you are recording on the camera. Whatever you record in on the camera, is what it is until you change it. Not likely you would get 4k of any length on a phone. The files are big!!

 

[JLJ]

So if I record into my sd card of gopro in 2.7K and 60fps, when I transfer that video to my phone or PC, when I watch them from there the phone or computer will play them in the same 2.7k?

No. Not sure if you are talking about camera roll? That is 720 no matter what you are recording on the camera. Whatever you record in on the camera, is what it is until you change it. Not likely you would get 4k of any length on a phone. The files are big!!

 

[Earldgrayjr]

Yes.

 

[Taylor Foster]

I recently got new GoPro 4 Silver from http://x-gopro.com/. Now looking for the best drone for it, I am thinking between DJI Phantom 2 or Parrot AR.Drone 2.0. Please let me know if you experienced any and its pros and cons. Thanks

 

[Earldgrayjr]

I don't believe the Parrot 2 will work with GoPro, so between the two choices given, only the former will work. That said, I believe the Solo with the gimbal will work better than the Phantom P2V+

 

[erikgraham]

I recently got new GoPro 4 Silver from http://x-gopro.com/. Now looking for the best drone for it, I am thinking between DJI Phantom 2 or Parrot AR.Drone 2.0. Please let me know if you experienced any and its pros and cons. Thanks

If you are willing to wait for the 3DR gimbal to ship, then a Solo is definitely the best drone for flying a GoPro. There are a variety of reasons for this, but first and foremost is that you will be able to control your GoPro from the ground. With the other Phantoms you have to hit record on the GoPro before you take off and record the whole flight. Also, to make any changes to settings (resolution, ISO, exposure, etc) you have to land the phantom, power everything down, make the changes to settings, per back up, and then relaunch. With a Solo, you can just make the settings changes while its in the air.

 

[erikgraham]

Don't mean to kick a dead horse here but haven't found what I'm looking for and in the essence of time...
What is the BEST over all settings on GoPro for smoothest video?

4K, 30fps, Wide, Protune, ISO 400, Flat Color, Native White point.
This requires a top of the line SD card.
It also means you will need to color grade your footage in Final Cut or Premiere. If you don't want to do that, use GoPro Color instead of Flat. You still may want to adjust contrast and saturation when you edit your video. If you don't want to do that, then turn off Protune.

4K is great even if you are delivering in 1080P. Even if you take your 4K footage and export it out at 1080P, it will look better than footage captured at 1080P.

IF you think you might want to do slow motion, then you will want to use a lower resolution (like 2.7k) at a higher frame rate. That will allow you to slow down the footage in software, without dropping below 30 (or 24 fps). TV is 30 fps. Movies are 24. If you want your edited footage to look "cinematic" then you will want to letter box and conform your video to 24 fps before you export.

The nice thing about 4K and 2.7k is that you can also reframe shots without resizing pixels. As long as you make sure you don't crop the footage below 1080P, then you can get really good results.

A lot of people will say that you should shoot at a higher frame rate for smoothness, but personally I find 4K to be so much better that I just like it. I'm willing to be stuck at 30fps for the sake of 4K. Can't wait for the GoPro 5 that will let us shoot at 4K 60 fps.

What is the best ISO settings?

Almost always set your ISO limit to 400. If you let it go above that, you will get noise in your footage. If you are shooting in low light, you may have to set the ISO higher. In which case use Neat video to remove noise. It is by far the best software out there for removing noise.

With or without an ND filter or Polarizer filter?

Your goto filter should be an ND4. Circular polarizers require that you rotate your filter to the right angle to match the light (they work best when the light source is 90 degrees from the lens). That means that when you are flying a drone around, twisting and turning, the CP may not give you consistent results. If you have scouted the location, planned out your shots, taking the light into consideration, then you might be able to know ahead of time exactly how much you want to rotate your CP.

Or you could just use an ND4 with a CP. I don't think the CP will noticeably hurt your footage, but it will improve it in some cases, at certain angles.

For example, is the 4k @30 frames with better resolution or 720 @120 frames better for better for overall video?

I know each situation is different in as far as lighting conditions etc. I'm looking for the base line and saving some hours of experimenting and uploading.

 

[erikgraham]

4K, 30fps, Wide, Protune, ISO 400, Flat Color, Native White point.
This requires a top of the line SD card.
It also means you will need to color grade your footage in Final Cut or Premiere. If you don't want to do that, use GoPro Color instead of Flat. You still may want to adjust contrast and saturation when you edit your video. If you don't want to do that, then turn off Protune.

4K is great even if you are delivering in 1080P. Even if you take your 4K footage and export it out at 1080P, it will look better than footage captured at 1080P.

IF you think you might want to do slow motion, then you will want to use a lower resolution (like 2.7k) at a higher frame rate. That will allow you to slow down the footage in software, without dropping below 30 (or 24 fps). TV is 30 fps. Movies are 24. If you want your edited footage to look "cinematic" then you will want to letter box and conform your video to 24 fps before you export.

The nice thing about 4K and 2.7k is that you can also reframe shots without resizing pixels. As long as you make sure you don't crop the footage below 1080P, then you can get really good results.



Almost always set your ISO limit to 400. If you let it go above that, you will get noise in your footage. If you are shooting in low light, you may have to set the ISO higher. In which case use Neat video to remove noise. It is by far the best software out there for removing noise.


Your goto filter should be an ND4. Circular polarizers require that you rotate your filter to the right angle to match the light (they work best when the light source is 90 degrees from the lens). That means that when you are flying a drone around, twisting and turning, the CP may not give you consistent results. If you have scouted the location, planned out your shots, taking the light into consideration, then you might be able to know ahead of time exactly how much you want to rotate your CP.

Or you could just use an ND4 with a CP. I don't think the CP will noticeably hurt your footage, but it will improve it in some cases, at certain angles.

A quick note on color correction / color grading with Protune. (edit: I guess this note wasn't so "quick" after all. Sorry for writing a novel)

Its crazy the amount of detail and the richness of color you can get with Protune ON compared to OFF. BUT, when you first import your footage it will look like crap. Flat and lifeless. Don't worry, you will be able to pull up detail in the blacks and get lots of subtle variations in the light areas. So here is what you want to do.

First adjust exposure.
Start with the blacks and bring them up or down until you see the amount of detail you want in the dark areas of your footage. Use a scope to make sure you are not clipping your blacks. Second, adjust your lights. Bring them up or down, again using a scope to make sure you aren't clipping too much. Last adjust your midtones to get the amount of depth and richness that you want.

Second adjust Color for cast.
If your footage is overly warm or cool, adjust it to the look you want.

Last adjust saturation.
Don't be afraid to crank up the saturation when using Protune, Flat color. Use a scope and stay within the inner ring, but go for it. The work flow I like is to crank it up. Walk away and drink some coffee. Come back and play your video. If it crosses your mind that your footage might possibly be oversaturated... then it is. Crank down the saturation, walk away, come back and check again. Once your are satisfied that your footage is not over saturated... then increase the saturation 10 or 15%. Now go get someone else and ask them to watch the video. Don't prompt them, but if they say the colors look artificial, then crank the saturation back down. If they just ohh and ahh, then you are good to go.

Apply a broadcast safe filter.
A broadcast safe filter will clip out any of the illegal blacks or whites in your footage. You won't even see a difference, but footage with illegal blacks/whites is very unprofessional. Its a sure sign of an amateur. You can get away with it on youtube or vimeo, but its so easy to fix. Its kind of like when you see a guy flying his drone without a neck strap on the controller.

 

[Jubalr]

A quick note on color correction / color grading with Protune. (edit: I guess this note wasn't so "quick" after all. Sorry for writing a novel)

Its crazy the amount of detail and the richness of color you can get with Protune ON compared to OFF. BUT, when you first import your footage it will look like crap. Flat and lifeless. Don't worry, you will be able to pull up detail in the blacks and get lots of subtle variations in the light areas. So here is what you want to do.

First adjust exposure.
Start with the blacks and bring them up or down until you see the amount of detail you want in the dark areas of your footage. Use a scope to make sure you are not clipping your blacks. Second, adjust your lights. Bring them up or down, again using a scope to make sure you aren't clipping too much. Last adjust your midtones to get the amount of depth and richness that you want.

Second adjust Color for cast.
If your footage is overly warm or cool, adjust it to the look you want.

Last adjust saturation.
Don't be afraid to crank up the saturation when using Protune, Flat color. Use a scope and stay within the inner ring, but go for it. The work flow I like is to crank it up. Walk away and drink some coffee. Come back and play your video. If it crosses your mind that your footage might possibly be oversaturated... then it is. Crank down the saturation, walk away, come back and check again. Once your are satisfied that your footage is not over saturated... then increase the saturation 10 or 15%. Now go get someone else and ask them to watch the video. Don't prompt them, but if they say the colors look artificial, then crank the saturation back down. If they just ohh and ahh, then you are good to go.

Apply a broadcast safe filter.
A broadcast safe filter will clip out any of the illegal blacks or whites in your footage. You won't even see a difference, but footage with illegal blacks/whites is very unprofessional. Its a sure sign of an amateur. You can get away with it on youtube or vimeo, but its so easy to fix. Its kind of like when you see a guy flying his drone without a neck strap on the controller.

Thanks Eric! good info and tips in there and really appreciated. Except...for the neck strap part. Been Flying RC since 83 and only tried it a couple of times, but never got used to it.

Thanks again..

 

[JLJ]

Erik, grate info, thank you for that.

The only way to adjust ISO is if you have protune on, right? if it is off the ISO adjusts automatically?

thanks

4K, 30fps, Wide, Protune, ISO 400, Flat Color, Native White point.
This requires a top of the line SD card.
It also means you will need to color grade your footage in Final Cut or Premiere. If you don't want to do that, use GoPro Color instead of Flat. You still may want to adjust contrast and saturation when you edit your video. If you don't want to do that, then turn off Protune.

4K is great even if you are delivering in 1080P. Even if you take your 4K footage and export it out at 1080P, it will look better than footage captured at 1080P.

IF you think you might want to do slow motion, then you will want to use a lower resolution (like 2.7k) at a higher frame rate. That will allow you to slow down the footage in software, without dropping below 30 (or 24 fps). TV is 30 fps. Movies are 24. If you want your edited footage to look "cinematic" then you will want to letter box and conform your video to 24 fps before you export.

The nice thing about 4K and 2.7k is that you can also reframe shots without resizing pixels. As long as you make sure you don't crop the footage below 1080P, then you can get really good results.

A lot of people will say that you should shoot at a higher frame rate for smoothness, but personally I find 4K to be so much better that I just like it. I'm willing to be stuck at 30fps for the sake of 4K. Can't wait for the GoPro 5 that will let us shoot at 4K 60 fps.


Almost always set your ISO limit to 400. If you let it go above that, you will get noise in your footage. If you are shooting in low light, you may have to set the ISO higher. In which case use Neat video to remove noise. It is by far the best software out there for removing noise.


Your goto filter should be an ND4. Circular polarizers require that you rotate your filter to the right angle to match the light (they work best when the light source is 90 degrees from the lens). That means that when you are flying a drone around, twisting and turning, the CP may not give you consistent results. If you have scouted the location, planned out your shots, taking the light into consideration, then you might be able to know ahead of time exactly how much you want to rotate your CP.

Or you could just use an ND4 with a CP. I don't think the CP will noticeably hurt your footage, but it will improve it in some cases, at certain angles.

 

[erikgraham]

Erik, grate info, thank you for that.

The only way to adjust ISO is if you have protune on, right? if it is off the ISO adjusts automatically?

thanks

Actually, thats a good question! I always shoot with ProTune on so I can't remember what settings you can change when its off.

 

[erikgraham]

Except...for the neck strap part. Been Flying RC since 83 and only tried it a couple of times, but never got used to it.

- I thought the neck strap comment might catch me some grief.