What's best for the Solo: Gopro4 Silver vs. Black

Brandon · Jul 21, 2015

Hi all, I've been lurking here for a couple months and I am like many, on the fence re Solo vs. P3 and am waiting for the reviews of the gimbal from the members on this forum....

So currently I am in the market to add a new Gopro to my stable (upgrade time) while I still have the original Hero, the Hero2, and the Hero3....I like the features and the price point of the GP4 Silver and the built-in LCD screen is nice

.....I know the Black has 4K...but for me, it's more camera than I think I'll need for the consumer type videos I edit (1080p at 60fps is fine for my needs for now).

So while waiting to see if I pull the trigger on the Solo I still need to purchase a new Gopro in the time being....

My Question:
are there any functionality issues in mounting a GP4 silver to the much awaited gimbal that could cause problems that I could avoid by buying Black such as:
Battery door location on the Silver
Mounting problems w/ the LCD screen getting scratched by the gimbal
other issues??

Thanks in advance for your help!

Ian [P13] · Jul 22, 2015

In your case, I'd be tempted instead to get a GoPro 3+ Black on the cheap second hand.

Brandon · Jul 22, 2015

....good idea.... but with the GoPro 3+ would the solo support the camera functions from the controller?

rrmccabe · Jul 22, 2015

Brandon said:
.....I know the Black has 4K...but for me, it's more camera than I think I'll need for the consumer type videos I edit (1080p at 60fps is fine for my needs for now).

They actually both have 4k. Not just the Black. But I guess it comes down to what you are filming. The black basically has twice the frame rate at every resolution. Starting at 1080 the black does 120fps compared the silvers 60fps.

Since we don't have the gimbal yet we really don't have all the answers but I would expect no mounting problems. You will have to remove the camera to get the SD card out so not sure why you are concerned about battery door location?

As far as the display on the back of the unit. That is very nice if you need to frame a shot using the camera in other applications. But its something that can be added to the black if needed as they have a snap on display available.

I went for the black just for frame rate purposes.

One other thing about 4K even though I never output final video in that format is you can zoom 2x and keep the same amount of detail. You can also use it to zoom in during post and them move the frame and create a cinematic effect which appears you were panning the aircraft.

So hard to say without your other needs but just thought I would add to what Ian said.

Brandon · Jul 22, 2015

Thanks! that's good advice...I didn't think about shooting 4K and then having the ability to 'zoom-in' 2x during editing and and keep the quality....that's just the advice I needed to make my purchase decision (I'll definitely go with the Black version)...now if I can just figure out how to do that in editing using my Pinnacle Studio 17 program?

rrmccabe · Jul 22, 2015

@Brandon. Just put together a quick video for you. Sorry the lens ended up with smears on it as it was raining off and on that day. But this is two 15 second identical videos back to back.

The video was shot in 4K. First one is unprocessed. The second I zoomed to 1080 and then panned the frame to follow the ball.

This allows me to get closer to the players in post editing (Premiere Pro) yet keep my distance and not distract their game.

Brandon · Jul 22, 2015

Thanks Rich, really good info...with your good points I'm definitely going with the 'Black' version.... being farther away to minimize the distraction/noise of the drone is a real benefit!

I do however need to learn how to do that zoom to 1080 thing with my editing software...I'm hoping my copy Pinnacle 17 can do that (if not perhaps in an upgraded software version) I've been using their program since it's inception so I've become fairly comfortable with it....I'm concerned that going with Premier Pro may be a steep learning curve

Ryan · Jul 23, 2015

rrmccabe said:
@Brandon. Just put together a quick video for you. Sorry the lens ended up with smears on it as it was raining off and on that day. But this is two 15 second identical videos back to back.

The video was shot in 4K. First one is unprocessed. The second I zoomed to 1080 and then panned the frame to follow the ball.

This allows me to get closer to the players in post editing (Premiere Pro) yet keep my distance and not distract their game.

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How do you like recording in 4k rather than 1080p? At 30fps how do you like it compared to 1080p at higher fps?

Ian [P13] · Jul 23, 2015

If you're after editing software HitFilm now have a free version, so it's worth a look: https://hitfilm.com/express

rrmccabe · Jul 23, 2015

Ryan said:
How do you like recording in 4k rather than 1080p? At 30fps how do you like it compared to 1080p at higher fps?

Overall I like the higher frame rates. But 4K for general filming I strongly dislike. The file size is large so you are typically dealing with two files you have to merge together since it breaks them up to 4 gig files on the SD card. Its hard to process on your PC and can tie your machine up for hours depending on what you are doing.

And in the end I usually am outputting in 1080 anyway. If I need to zoom as I showed above then it works great. But if you don't plan on doing anything like that then for me I might as well shoot in 1080 to start.

Right now the Solo is not usable for anything until they get the gimbal out. You might catch a lucky shot on time lapse but did not take long before I was frustrated with that. So I will know more when the gimbal comes. I am new to GoPro so don't have a lot of good input in that area.

Ryan · Jul 23, 2015

rrmccabe said:
Overall I like the higher frame rates. But 4K for general filming I strongly dislike. The file size is large so you are typically dealing with two files you have to merge together since it breaks them up to 4 gig files on the SD card. Its hard to process on your PC and can tie your machine up for hours depending on what you are doing.

And in the end I usually am outputting in 1080 anyway. If I need to zoom as I showed above then it works great. But if you don't plan on doing anything like that then for me I might as well shoot in 1080 to start.

Right now the Solo is not usable for anything until they get the gimbal out. You might catch a lucky shot on time lapse but did not take long before I was frustrated with that. So I will know more when the gimbal comes. I am new to GoPro so don't have a lot of good input in that area.

I appreciate the input! I've been using gopro for a while but I'm new to the whole 4k thing. Looking to switch to 4k instead of 1080p. Like you said, it takes hours to process these videos even with a fast computer. Anyway your videos look very fluid considering there's no gimbal yet!

rrmccabe · Jul 23, 2015

Ryan said:
Anyway your videos look very fluid considering there's no gimbal yet!

Phantom.

DodgeP · Jul 23, 2015

I have to be totally honest and I'm typing as if I were talking to you if we were standing next to each other and with no anger, but more disappointment than anything .... like, wtf would you use 4k for anyway? Most TV's don't process the signal, most computer monitors don't process the signal and if your shooting is so sloppy that you need to shoot in 4k (for the cropping) to compensate for the lack of preparation in framing your shots, then maybe you should be better prepared before you take flight. There are some instances where you might need to crop but they should be more less, than often. Most of these videos go straight to the internet via YouTube or Vimeo or maybe to a personal website that embeds the YouTube or Vimeo vid so, do this, save yourself the time and headache and if you must shoot above 1080, shoot in 2.7k - you'll thanks me later. Not a lot of people are shooting in 4k for any other reason than to say, I shot this in 4k. It's like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer then wondering why you have knot and a headache.

DodgeP · Jul 23, 2015

Just an FYI, we're not viewing anything in 4K unless we're sitting in front of a 4K monitor, a lot of folks aren't even viewing vids in True HD, but I digress. My Apple Thunderbolt display sure looks like nice but it falls just short of 2.7k - it's also 3yrs old (I think).

rrmccabe · Jul 23, 2015

DodgeP said:
I have to be totally honest and I'm typing as if I were talking to you if we were standing next to each other and with no anger, but more disappointment than anything .... like, wtf would you use 4k for anyway? Most TV's don't process the signal, most computer monitors don't process the signal and if your shooting is so sloppy that you need to shoot in 4k (for the cropping) to compensate for the lack of preparation in framing your shots, then maybe you should be better prepared before you take flight. Most of these videos go straight to the internet via YouTube or Vimeo or maybe to a personal website that embeds the YouTube or Vimeo vid so, do this, save yourself the time and headache and if you must shoot above 1080, shoot in 2.7k - you'll thanks me later. Not a lot of people are shooting in 4k for any other reason than to say, I shot this in 4k. It's like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer then wondering why you have knot and a headache.

Who are you talking to?

DodgeP · Jul 23, 2015

rrmccabe said:
Who are you talking to?

Ryan, or anyone else who thinks shooting in 4k is better but for no other reason than to say, I shot this in 4k and for all the reasons I mentioned in my post.