Solo Still Photography camera?

PdxSteve · Aug 7, 2016

The CMOS sensor in the GP (the image chip) is rated at 12MP.
The 3.97 lens is rated up to 16MP - meaning it is optically clear enough to handle the finer resolution of UP TO 16MP. For our gopro, it might as well be rated at 12MP. Anything higher than 12MP will work basically the same as if it were 12MP, anything lower and the image quality starts to degrade as the glass isn't clear enough for that resolution.

No matter what glass/lens you put in front of the 12MP sensor, it will still only take 12MP images.

wsalopek · Aug 7, 2016

For what it's worth, I just wanted to say that I talked to Peau a few weeks ago, asking about the relative quality of the 5 lenses they offer for the GoPro, three of which are rated at 10mp. The gentleman I talked to said that, in this case, the 10mp lenses are just as good as the 16's...at least in the respect that it's impossible to tell the difference in image quality between the 16's and the 10's.

Your mileage may vary, I suppose.

pulsar110 · Aug 9, 2016

We are using a Ricoh GR2 for mapping and last week started playing with the Backbone setup from Canada. They are similar to the Mapir setup. With the GR2 I use the timer and plug in the HDMI so that I can see on the tablet that its working.

wsalopek · Aug 9, 2016

pulsar110 said:
We are using a Ricoh GR2 for mapping and last week started playing with the Backbone setup from Canada. They are similar to the Mapir setup. With the GR2 I use the timer and plug in the HDMI so that I can see on the tablet that its working.

Pulsar...how do you mount it? Can you share a picture? Thanks...

--

Bill

pulsar110 · Aug 10, 2016

I don't have a photo handy tonight but we printed a box that fit to the fixed gopro mount and holds the camera nadir.

JelleNL · Aug 10, 2016

wsalopek said:
Pulsar...how do you mount it? Can you share a picture? Thanks...

--

Bill

You can actually get these 'GoPro mount to tripod screw' adapters to just fix a regular camera to the fixed GoPro mount that came with the Solo.

Wrangler · Aug 11, 2016

Travelfox said:
Hey, you already lost me here: "100-200 iso" is not high. 3200 or 6400 is high. You are right however in saying that's what you would use for bright daylight. The theory is also correct - you make the sensor more sensitive by cracking up the ISO, using stabilizer and higher frame rate to capture the sharpest image possible.

Maybe you meant to imply "however on bright days just keep it to a low 100-200 ISO" otherwise your pictures will be blown out/over exposed?

twitchyzero · Aug 11, 2016

frame grabs of 4K30 > still photos

JelleNL · Aug 11, 2016

twitchyzero said:
frame grabs of 4K30 > still photos

That's how I photograph with GoPro. Strangely much better pictures then the photo mode.

franknitty69 · Aug 11, 2016

just so you know...

4k stills are a lower resolution then a photo in photo mode (3840x2160 @ 8.3mp vs 4000x3000 @ 12mp). For quick and dirty stills its fine, but if you want a photo, photo mode beats a 4k still.

JelleNL · Aug 11, 2016

franknitty69 said:
just so you know...

4k stills are a lower resolution then a photo in photo mode (3840x2160 @ 8.3mp vs 4000x3000 @ 12mp). For quick and dirty stills its fine, but if you want a photo, photo mode beats a 4k still.

I'm well aware of that. But for some reason a 4K still gives me better quality then a still from Photo mode. Can't explain it.
But I've ordered some leg extenders now and I'll fly with my RX100 IV. I can use time-lapse to let it take a pic every 10 seconds and I get live view in the Solo App. Finally some sharp RAW files I hope.
Until someone comes out with a proper solution that is...

wsalopek · Aug 13, 2016

pulsar110 said:
We are using a Ricoh GR2 for mapping and last week started playing with the Backbone setup from Canada. They are similar to the Mapir setup. With the GR2 I use the timer and plug in the HDMI so that I can see on the tablet that its working.

Pulsar...one more thing...can you explain how you get video out of the GR2 and downlinked to the tablet? (My Solo is being delivered in the next few days.) Did you need adapters of any kind? Or did you have to do any modifications to your Solo?

Thanks...

--

Bill

wsalopek · Aug 13, 2016

JelleNL said:
I'm well aware of that. But for some reason a 4K still gives me better quality then a still from Photo mode. Can't explain it.
But I've ordered some leg extenders now and I'll fly with my RX100 IV. I can use time-lapse to let it take a pic every 10 seconds and I get live view in the Solo App. Finally some sharp RAW files I hope.
Until someone comes out with a proper solution that is...

Jelle,

I don't have my Solo yet...arriving in a few days...anyway, just wondering what the cabling was like to get video from the RX100, into the Solo, and down-linked to the tablet.

Thanks...

--

Bill

JelleNL · Aug 13, 2016

wsalopek said:
Jelle,

I don't have my Solo yet...arriving in a few days...anyway, just wondering what the cabling was like to get video from the RX100, into the Solo, and down-linked to the tablet.

Thanks...

--

Bill

Solo comes with a fixed GoPro mount and a micro-HDMI cable pre installed. So just connect the cable to a camera that has micro-HDMI and you're set!

Only downside is that my camera hangs up-side-down so the image in the Solo app is flipped as well. I just place my phone up-side-down as well since I'm not using any smarts shots for photography anyway.

wsalopek · Aug 13, 2016

JelleNL said:
You can actually get these 'GoPro mount to tripod screw' adapters to just fix a regular camera to the fixed GoPro mount that came with the Solo.

OK...thanks...I actually already have one or two of those.

--

Bill

wsalopek · Aug 13, 2016

JelleNL said:
Solo comes with a fixed GoPro mount and a micro-HDMI cable pre installed. So just connect the cable to a camera that has micro-HDMI and you're set! Only downside is that my camera hangs up-side-down so the image in the Solo app is flipped as well. I just place my phone up-side-down as well since I'm not using any smarts shots for photography anyway.

JelleNL...OK...yes, sounds easy...thanks for that.

wsalopek · Aug 13, 2016

JelleNL said:
Solo comes with a fixed GoPro mount and a micro-HDMI cable pre installed. So just connect the cable to a camera that has micro-HDMI and you're set! Only downside is that my camera hangs up-side-down so the image in the Solo app is flipped as well. I just place my phone up-side-down as well since I'm not using any smarts shots for photography anyway.

Re: Upside down... For cameras that have a hotshoe, this adapter would let the camera hang right-side-up:

https://www.amazon.com/Smallrig®-Ho...71114906&sr=8-1&keywords=hotshoe+tripod+mount

JelleNL · Aug 13, 2016

wsalopek said:
Re: Upside down... For cameras that have a hotshoe, this adapter would let the camera hang right-side-up:

https://www.amazon.com/Smallrig®-Ho...71114906&sr=8-1&keywords=hotshoe+tripod+mount

Good thinking!

pulsar110 · Aug 13, 2016

Here are a couple pics of the first version I made. The second version replaced the screw mount with a peg like what plugs into the base eliminating the bolt and making it more solid. With this one I worried that the sides might break in flight dropping the camera.

As for the camera I just plugged the HDMI cable into the camera port and it worked. What I see on the tablet is the same as what the camera shows on its screen so its the same as taking photos with the gopro with the flickering black with each photo. I like it because I know that I'm getting photos and things are working.