My GoPro setup

[caorach]

A few people have asked me about my GoPro setup so I thought to write down what I do, and why. I'm not saying I've got it right, or that it is the only way to do it, or any of that stuff but if you were thinking of doing something similar then you can look at what I do and see if any of it works for you, or consider why you'd want to do it differently.

The first thing that is key is I wanted a solution that didn't interfere with my fishing. So my aim is not to produce professional productions but to produce a record of my fishing, a holiday snap if you like, that has little or no impact on the actual fishing process.

As a result what I needed was "point and shoot" that was waterproof, drop proof, required the minimum of outboard gear, was lightweight etc. and that I could see the GoPro was the only answer. Basically I get 4k video from a waterproof matchbox. The GoPro does have some competition in this area but, on balance, I decided it came out top for what I wanted to do. I ended up with the GoPro 7 Hero Black. I needed interchangeable batteries and the 7 Black had a good balance of features and price and the price is coming down with time plus I can see nothing that the newer 8 and 9 versions have that would encourage me to upgrade.

I almost always carry a stick when walking/fishing and so it seemed obvious that the sensible thing to do was use this stick as a support - a tripod replacement. So I got myself a sort of "clip and arm" type thing which allows me to push the stick into the ground and clip the GoPro to it. With a wind it is never totally steady but on Lewis we always have soft ground so the compromise worked for me. So I have one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clamp-GoPro-objects-ranging-diameter/dp/B00F19Q2R0/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=gopro+mount+jaws&qid=1604246094&sr=8-5

For Point of View video (i.e. where the camera is attached to me) I went with a chest mount as there is too much movement in a head mount and I find the chest mount really doesn't get in my way and in fact I simply forget I'm wearing it. I have one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chesty-V2-Performance-Official-Accessory/dp/B07CQ4N5XX/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=gopro+chesty&qid=1604246147&sr=8-3

Occasionally I also attach the GoPro to the car just to provide some sort of "establishing shots" to give an idea of location etc. and I use a sort of suction cup type device. I think it is this one I have:

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/delkin-fat-gecko-single-suction-mount-1534523/

I have the fast release "buckle" type connector on the camera and all the attachment accessories so it takes seconds to move the camera from one means of support to another.

On top of this I carry two spare batteries in a GoPro battery charger. The GoPro charger can be powered by one of those portable "power banks" via the USB connector so once a battery is nearly exhausted I put a full one into the GoPro and put the empty one into the charger in my rucksack. I then plug up the powerbank and the battery recharges in the rucksack. This means I never run out of battery. A battery is worth about 40 minutes of record, or standby, time. You may well get more but 40 minutes is what you want to count on.

GoPro cameras are very sensitive to the precise model of SD card you use in them. I've no idea why this is so but the vast majority of problems and bugs with them are down to people spending hundreds on the camera, and then saving a fiver on the SD card or using one they have in the drawer. GoPro produce a list of validated cards and it is worth paying attention to it. Putting a genuine validated SD card into the camera will eliminate almost 100% of the problems I've seen people document and complain about. Almost all of the problems I've had with my camera in terms of bugs have, on consideration, been finger trouble on my part. One thing the camera sometimes does, after a battery change or not being used for a long time, is that when you turn it off it beeps to say it is turning off but the rear screen remains on. Of course you then press the off button again, and what you've actually done is turn it back on. The truth is if you just leave it alone for a few seconds then the screen turns off as well and this is simply a little bug in the camera that is then turned into a big problem by my fiddling with the buttons rather than given it a few seconds to sort itself out. So it isn't completely bug free but if you do the recommended stuff, read the instructions, and think things over, then most of the "bugs" go away in short order.

The biggest single problem with the GoPro 7 is that, under some conditions, the inside of the front lens protector "steams up" and you have to remove it and give it a wipe. I think GoPro were sort of caught with this one as the 8 did away with this protector, and the 9 has returned to it again so this is a compromise thing where if you want some features then there is a cost.

In terms of image quality then the GoPro is good in daylight and the better the light the better the images you will get out of it. The sensor is small so it simply doesn't cope well with low light or high ISO and as most of my fishing takes place in daylight that wasn't a big deal for me. To give some idea the start of this video was shot on a murky morning just before and around sunrise, you can see the headlights from the car for example, and the video quality is not great:

https://youtu.be/OoJ3i7K23I8

I shoot the video fairly flat and then try and correct the colour and gamma when I edit it as I didn't really like the default video out of the GoPro however what I will say is that this is mostly a personal preference thing rather than there being any absolute right and wrong. The following video is what comes out of the GoPro:

https://youtu.be/bdPkkDjQHj0

and if you look the same sequence appears about 24 minutes into this video except that I've graded it to get it between the hedges on the scope, plus make it look reasonable on my TV:

https://youtu.be/BrL1_N2Rq2Q

If you look carefully you will see that the GoPro is set on auto-white balance and so the colour temperature changes fairly often and it can become a little annoying. I'm torn about how to deal with this but the truth is that most of the casual viewers of my videos aren't noticing it and solving it might require me to think more about the camera during a day of fishing so I've decided that I'm willing to take the hit, the video is not going to be perfect but for the most part it is going to be "usable" so I'm going with that.

The GoPro sound is, pretty much, useless. Fixing this requires a lot of work, and a lot more cables and gear, so I decided to put up with what I've got. Wind noise, in particular, is a huge problem so I have to record speech with my back to the wind on many occasions. On a positive note I like to fish with my back to the wind as well so this isn't always any great inconvenience. The other positive is that many people watch videos like this on phones and iPads and stuff and they lack any real bass performance to actually make the wind noise a serious problem. So the sound problems I'm simply filing under "yeah, I know, I'm not letting it concern me." 

I hope that perhaps this gives a few people something to think about and I would encourage people to give it a go as, especially during the lockdown, it was nice to be able to sit and watch some of my fishing from last year and plan what I'd do if I could get back out again.

[Bobfly]

Many thanks for putting this together. That adds more helpful info to your recent messages. Is the mount screw thread for clamps the standard camera screw socket ? Also, for a single frame you would need some sort of programme I presume. Any recommendations?

[Wildfisher]

Great info. I too use a GoPro 7 Hero Black which is far more reliable than the Hero 2 (or it may have been 3) I used to have. I just record in HD 1080 and find the quality pretty good. The high frame rates work well for slow motion.

[caorach]

Many thanks for putting this together. That adds more helpful info to your recent messages. Is the mount screw thread for clamps the standard camera screw socket ? Also, for a single frame you would need some sort of programme I presume. Any recommendations?

The GoPro brand clamp with an arm thing has the GoPro buckle type connector on it as a permanent fixture, I think you can get convertors so not the end of the world and it fits well with my way of working.

The Delkin suction mount I have has a standard tripod type screw on it and I've attached an Amazon Basics convertor to convert it to the GoPro buckle type connector. This sort of thing:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-GoPro-Tripod-Camera-Mounts/dp/B00XNKW45I/ref=sr_1_14?crid=2JLQFQAKWY62J&dchild=1&keywords=amazon%2Bbasics%2Bgopro%2Baccessories&qid=1604263464&sprefix=amazon%2Bbasics%2Bgopro%2Caps%2C168&sr=8-14&th=1

What I've done is try to standardise on the GoPro buckle connector so my GoPro is permanently attached to a buckle and there is a connector for the buckle on all the mounts I use. That way I can move the camera about in a few seconds.

By a "single frame" I assume you mean extracting a still frame from the video? If so then I suspect that most video editing software will allow you to do this and the Microsoft Photos app in Windows 10 will do it as well I believe.