A pox on the GoPro 10

schmoe90

Magni M-16 Sport Pilot
Joined
Feb 8, 2018
Messages
250
Location
Roseville, CA
Aircraft
Magni M-16
Total Flight Time
>1000
I was really looking forward to getting my GoPro 10, but sadly it doesn't work as well as my GoPro 7 for flying videos. I'm going to borrow a friend's 8 (or is it a 9?) to see how that does. Anyway - the 10...


I noticed that the background scenery doesn't roll across the frame, it stutters. What I think is happening is that it's assuming that the subject is the centre of the frame, and is trying to hold what it sees in the centre of the frame in the centre of the frame as long as possible. Rinse, repeat :(

I logged a ticket with GoPro support, and their suggestion (sigh) was to do a factory reset and try again. This I did:


You'll notice that that time-wasting exercise made no difference, the background still stutters. GoPro's next suggestion was to turn off the stabilisation. I thought that would make the video unwatchable, and surprise, surprise, it does:


I'm not sure why anybody would buy a camera with image stabilisation and turn that off, but maybe that's just me. I also shot some video with the stabilisation at "standard" rather than "high" (which is how it comes out of the box). There's also "boost," but I doubt that'll make a difference:


I don't think I'd have as much of a problem if I pointed the camera lower, so I'm in the centre, but do you really want to be looking at more of the back of my head?

GoPro have asked to see footage from the 7, so I sent them


and are now asking for footage from the 7 without stabilisation, which I've suggested will be as bad as for the 10, but I guess I'll shoot that at the weekend. They're not very helpful.

Maybe I should have bought an Insta360 :(
 
Have you test the resolution and frame rate to the same settings as the GOpro7 since I assume the Gopro10 has higher default resolution and frame rates than the 7. Have to keep stabilization on. See if you can match all the settings with the 7.

Oh, what memory card are you using since this might be the issue if it’s not fast enough to handle the 4K resolution?
 
I've had the 7 set to 4K@60fps and it doesn't do this. I'm using a SanDisk Extreme Plus card - basically the 128Gb version of the 32Gb card that came with the camera. GoPro are reportedly very quick to blame memory cards, and their support said this one was supported.

I was playing with horizon levelling yesterday (haven't put a clip on YouTube yet) and that works just fine. I'm pretty sure that the problem is choosing the subject of the shot - it's trying to keep something waaay out there in the middle of the frame, rather than the back of my head. In a perfect world it would figure out the piece that isn't moving is the subject. In a slightly less perfect world it would let me tell it what's the subject, like it allows for exposure control.

I have thought of dropping the resolution back to 1080, but that's just for the file sizes - it takes ages to upload anything to YouTube :)
 
Barry M14 has a GoPro9 and don’t think I see this in his videos so maybe check with him?
 
Oh, a friend has either an 8 or a 9 that I'm going to try. I don't think it's a problem with my GoPro specifically, I think it's something in the software :(
 
Does it happen with the 32GB card that came with the camera? Does it happen with the raw recorded video? Seems there are some computer related frame rate issues with nvidia cards. I’m just throwing things out from what I have read on the topic…
 
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Haven't tried this myself, but you may be able to define a set area within the field of view that the gopro bases it's stabilization on.
 
Does it happen with the 32GB card that came with the camera? Does it happen with the raw recorded video? Seems there are some computer related frame rate issues with nvidia cards. I’m just throwing things out from what I have read on the topic…
Yes, it happens with the 32Gb card too - I'm also seeing it in the output files direct from the camera, then I trim them down for YouTube to show GoPro. I do have a 1050Ti, but I can see this on my phone :(
 
Haven't tried this myself, but you may be able to define a set area within the field of view that the gopro bases it's stabilization on.
If you can, they don't document it anywhere :(

Next time I test, I'll see if I can use spot metering, and maybe it'll stabilise there too. Of course, I'll be setting the spot to be the taxiway, so it'll be interesting to see how that screws up the exposure :)
 
The seeming regular intervals between stutters reminds me of a conversion artifact I once encountered doing video capture. Is there a frame rate change or real time codec processing being introduced internally? Or is the video format native through the chain? Sorry I am ignorant of GoPro products.
 
There isn't a frame rate change that any of my software can see - it's set at 60fps, and stays there. It is, however, written as an MP4 file. If that was the problem though, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be the first to find it :)
 
I'm going to send the GoPro back, as I only have a day or so before I'm stuck with it. I'm really not impressed with their support.

Maybe I'll try again later.
 
Was it ever determined if the 8 or 9 had this issue? I have an old 5 and was thinking of upgrading, but clearly not to the 10.

Thanks,
Rusty
 
So the 7 is OK, a friend with an 8 has never mentioned this problem.

The thing is, looking closely at everything, it looks like the camera's software says the subject of the picture is whatever's in the middle of the frame - I'm pretty sure it would work OK if I tilted it down until the gyro was in the middle of the frame, but where's the fun in that? I know what the back of my head looks like, thanks :)

I looked carefully at the footage from my 7, and I think it's doing the same thing, it's just the frame / buffering / whatever isn't as good as the 10, so it is nowhere near as noticeable.

I ended up with an Insta360 One X2.

I really like the stuff you can do with it, and need to figure out a better mounting than having my girlfriend hold it out the side on a selfie stick.

Here's one of my favourite videos - me taking off, from Shane's gyro:

In the Insta editing software, I just drew a box around my gyro and told it to follow it. The only downside I can see is that you're pretty much stuck at 1080, as larger shots would be distorted.

You can do pan and scan 360 shots though:

(they're huge, and it takes ages to upload to YouTub, and then it takes them ages to over-compress it - trust me, it looks a lot better on your monitor.)

If you're interested in one of these, they're supposedly releasing a new one on March 22nd.
 
Thanks for all the video links. I'll look into the Insta 360. I've heard about them but never actually looked them up. I don't do a lot of video, but I mounted the gopro so I can use it during test flying of my Onex (not a gyro). Unfortunately, I can't read the instruments on the video, which makes it less useful. I'm just trying to see if a newer camera would have the ability to do that. The GoPro 9 is pretty reasonably priced since it's not the top of the line anymore, so I thought it might be worth a shot.

Rusty
 
Schmoe90, the 7 was the last good flying GoPro. I watched a video by one of those big wheel water landing Cub Clubs and they were all discussing it.
I still use a 7, frankly until they come out with a camera the does the video editing and upload for me I doubt I will buy another one.
 
I have an 8 and it does not do this to this extent - It will transition if you make a sharp 180, but it is much much smoother and not as pronounced. What you are seeing is all part of the stabilization settings. You might want to try changing that or turning it off and seeing if you still get it as bad.

Whoops - I didnt read the entire thread. Again, I would just try and reducing the settings. Again, my GoPro 8's don't stutter like this.
 
Thanks for all the video links. I'll look into the Insta 360. I've heard about them but never actually looked them up. I don't do a lot of video, but I mounted the gopro so I can use it during test flying of my Onex (not a gyro). Unfortunately, I can't read the instruments on the video, which makes it less useful. I'm just trying to see if a newer camera would have the ability to do that. The GoPro 9 is pretty reasonably priced since it's not the top of the line anymore, so I thought it might be worth a shot.

Rusty
I'm pretty sure you'd be fine reading your instruments with a 7 or later - my problem was just the landscape tracking, and no amount of playing with the stabilisation helped.

Basically it's seeing the landscape as the subject, and trying to stabilise that :(

I will say the horizon levelling worked pretty well:

If you buy direct from GoPro and sign up for their upload service thing, you get a decent discount. Make a note to cancel that in 11 months though :) You can also send it back if it doesn't do what you want.
 
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