Down 42% In The Last Year, Is Gopro Stock A Buy?
There’s a lot similar between the models, but once you start digging down into the details there are differences that can help in choosing between them. I have a rundown of the highlights of the HERO8 Black here. Many have been lightly processed, in part because I find that the camera tends to underexpose a little for my tastes, so I’ve often had to nudge up the exposure and contrast slightly. I haven’t used any lens profile corrections to fix the fisheye distortion, although that’s certainly an option available. Here are a few sample general travel-style photos I’ve shot with a HERO8 Black.
Though responsive and gorgeous to look at, the touchscreen suffers in bright light. The inclusion of some additional mechanical controls would’ve been nice. Although not waterproof on its own, the Garmin VIRB becomes so with the addition of an external housing, which is rated at a maximum water depth of 131 feet. Amazingly, the touch screen and voice recognition controls still work with the housing installed. They won't show up immediately--all comments are moderated so that I can try to respond.
These are mostly grist for marketing—it’s not actually any different in practice than FOVs on the HERO7 Black or HERO6 Black. With the two FOVs where a focal length range is given, that’s accounting for using it in combination with the digital zoom. There are also two main disadvantages to using the RAW output format on the GoPro HERO8 Black, and both are definitely worth knowing. The first is that you really need to process RAW files and export them in another format, such as JPG, before you can do much with them.
Earlier versions of the GoPro had a feature where I could film normal while at the same time take full resolution stills every few seconds. This has been removed from the later versions, but is this something that is back in the GoPro 9? The battery is only a little bigger on the 9, not enough to justify forking out another $500 just for that. The 9 and the 8 get freaking hot BECAUSE the limit of how fast one can write to the micro SD bus. dcrainmaker, you are causing me to loose sleep, I get up early to check to see if your hero 9 in depth review has been posted.
GoPro has revamped the way you access Protune options on the HERO8 Black. With earlier models, you had to turn on the kind of expert mode before you could access these enhanced settings. While I can see the appeal insofar as simplifying for users who don’t want the clutter, it also means that it adds unnecessary clicks, steps, and menu items to those of us who do want to access those controls.
I don't have all the answers, but I'm happy to try to help if I can. I’ve posted my detailed hands-on comparison of the Osmo Action and the HERO7 Black.
The app will even enhance the video by adding royalty-free instrumental music to it. You can make minor tweaks to the final result or share it right away. Using your smartphone and GoPro’s excellent app is another streamlined way of control. The app connects to your camera through Wi-Fi and has a live view of what the GoPro sees.
That’s partly to make them look better—unprocessed RAW data doesn’t look very good—and partly to put them in a file format that other people, labs, and online services can actually use. That part is true of RAW files from any camera, but where it becomes more of an issue with GoPros is that there Gopro Hero 9 are very few apps that can read the GoPros’ RAW image format.