gopro lcd touch screen instructions for sale

Make sure the GoPro is charged. Charge the GoPro by using provided USB connector and plugging it into a computer. You can also use the GoPro wall or automobile charger.

If the GoPro still does not charge, please use the microSD/Micro USB Port Assembly Replacement guide to replace your assembly. A poor connection inside the Micro USB port may prevent your GoPro from charging.

Older computers do not have the hardware to support HD playback. Ensure your computer can play the video by checking if it meets the GoPro Studio Software minimum requirements here.

You can have choppy video playback if you play the video streamed from the camera over USB. What this means is if you have the camera connected to a computer by the USB cable and you play the video from the files on the camera, without transferring the file to your computer, it can come out choppy. This is due to the USB connection not being fast enough to play the HD video back in real time. Before playing back a HD video, copy or transfer the file from your GoPro to your computer, then playback the video.

These LCD protectors are made out of insanely strong Corning Gorilla glass, and are also 60% thicker than other protectors, but are still thin enough to let your camera still fit in mounts properly.

It all adds up to being as much as 20x stronger than conventional glass screen protectors.  Camera Butter ULTIMATE LCD protectors are able to withstand much bigger impacts, heavier drops and more insane crashes, keeping your investment safe.

The LCD Touch BacPac™ is a removable touch display that seamlessly attaches to the back of your GoPro for added convenience and control. It’s perfect for playing back videos and photos directly from your camera, including audio and instant slow-motion playback. See what your camera sees to frame your shots with confidence. Adjusting camera settings is easier than ever—just tap and touch the screen. Plus, when used with HERO4 cameras, you can select modes and navigate menus with a simple swipe. Includes Standard, Skeleton and Touch BacPac™ Backdoors.

I will share tips and tricks on how to build and use the “naked” GoPro 8 – a stripped down GoPro Hero 8. You can reduce the weigh of the camera from 126g to only 15g. Using a BEC, you can power it directly from your drone’s LiPo battery.

This guide will focus on the GoPro Hero 8. I have another post just for the Hero 6, the GoPro Hero 9, and Naked GoPro Hero 10 (officially made by GoPro)

Going forward, I think the GoPro Hero 8 might be a better alternative, because of Hero 6’s diminishing supply of spare parts as it’s been discontinued for years.

GepRC is selling the naked GoPro in their injection molded plastic case, all ready to go! It’s a little pricey but no DIY required: https://oscarliang.com/product-l0ap

If you don’t have the time or skills to decase a GoPro, you can try and make a naked GoPro  from spare parts. All you need is a sensor module and a logic board. The only problem is that spare parts are not always available but worth a look.

Before taking the GoPro Hero 8 apart, you should do the following: Pair GoPro to the GoPro APP on your phone over WiFi (so you can change settings later)

Once you finished the tear down, you should test it by connecting the lens module and touch screen to the logic board: connect USB module to logic board, then connect USB cable, hold down power button to see if the GoPro powers on, is there image showing on the screen?

The GoPro 8 mainboard takes 5V only, so you can use a BEC (voltage regulator) to convert higher voltage to 5V and power the GoPro from one of the 5V input pads as indicated in the pinout diagram above. Purchase 5V BEC (at least 1.5A) here: Banggood | Amazon

I’d recommend at least a 1.5A BEC, because the GoPro Hero 8 is more power hungry than the Hero 6, and it draws more current. It’s more reliable to have a dedicated BEC. I don’t think it’s a good idea to power it from your flight controller. In case of lack of power, your GoPro may reboot or stop recording randomly.

There are other ways of powering the Naked GoPro, but in my opinion it’s way easier and hassle-free to use one of the aftermarket BEC boards. These manufacturers also make cases for the stripped down GoPro 8 that you can mount on FPV drones and cinewhoops.

BetaFPV board has straight plug (facing out), while Nameless’s and iFlight’s plugs are facing sideway. If you want to use the naked GoPro between drones, it’s easier with the BetaFPV board, the Nameless board is slightly more difficult to insert the cable.

When it comes to case, both Nameless and iFlight offer a 3D printed case, but BetaFPV doesn’t have one. Note that the iFlight one has allows you to install the front LCD. The Nameless doesn’t, but there are custom front plate you can 3D print yourself for that.

If you power down the GoPro without stopping recording, the file will be corrupted and you will lose your footage. Make sure you stop recording before disconnecting your battery.

Or you could use the GoPro App on your phone, however GoPro has since removed Protune feature from their App, so you can no longer change certain camera settings such as shutter speed. You can try to install the older version of the App though.

GoPro Labs gives your GoPro the ability to scan QR codes through the lens and register camera settings. This allows you to change most camera settings without touching a button on the camera, including resolution, frame rate, shutter speed, ISO, Lens (field of view), White balance, stabilization etc.

To update firmware and install GoPro Labs on your camera, you need the original battery connected, so it’s best if you install it before you do the decasing.

One useful application of GoPro Labs is the “WiFi Hack”. Simply scan the below QR code and connect your GoPro to the APP on WiFi. It requires GoPro Labs installed on the camera.

Naked GoPro’s are fragile due to the lack of housing. The ribbon cables can tear, therefore take good care when attaching/unplugging connectors. For those connectors that don’t need to be disconnected you may want to use some kind of removable glue (e.g. E6000).

The other cause could be overheating. The GoPro 8 is known to get hot and likely to intermittently stop recording. One fix is to put heatsinks on those chips on the motherboard.

Heatsink is not required, but the GoPro can get really hot, putting a small heatsink on the processor can avoid potential issues on a hot day. Some 3D printed cases normally leave cutout just for that. The CPU measures 14x14mm, so heatsinks for the Raspberry Pi should also work: https://amzn.to/2Sw06EY

Solder a piece of wire to the WiFi antenna pad on the Naked GoPro 8, this will extend your WiFi range as well as reducing heat that build up in the main board.

You can remove it from the GoPro, but it’s glued very well to the case, so it’s not easy to remove. You can just buy the LCD for around $10-$15 on eBay/AliExpress, if you can’t remove it. See spare parts section below for link.

To remove the front LCD, I first put it on my 3D printer heated bed (facing down), turned the heat up to 100 degree, and leave it there for 5-10 minutes.

Very carefully pry up the LCD display around the edges with a plastic tool like a prop, and gently lift it up. DO NOT use metal tools. The glass can break easily so do this very lightly.

You could damage the display if you scrape too hard, you can see the screen on the right, there are some scratches, it still works though. Be gentle and patient, and it will come out perfect like the left one :)

Prepare for the worst if you decide to invest in a Naked GoPro, as it’s a risky project. Stripped down GoPro is extremely flimsy and fragile, a damaged lens module and motherboard can easily cost you $100-150 each to replace. I have only damaged 1 GoPro logic board so far and I consider myself pretty lucky compared to some others :)

We have put together these dome port instructions to help you use your GDome Dome Port correctly. We have also added some essential over-under photography tips that you must follow if you want your half-half photos to stand out.

Remove your GoPro lens (twist and pull), put the camera in at a 45-degree angle, and push down and twist straight. Make sure the camera is sitting correctly. Always make sure there is no dirt, sand, hair or other debris along the rubber gasket that could compromise the integrity of the seals.

Put your GoPro camera into the SuperDive housing and close it. The housing seems similar to regular GoPro housing but it is not completely the same. It is designed specially to fit into the GDome, so your regular housing can not be used or water will get into the dome.

It is incredibly easy to use the dome port with a GoPro camera since the GoPro"s wide-angle lens and virtually unlimited depth of field are a perfect match for the dome port. So, utilizing the dome is essentially point and shoot. However, there are a few strategies and suggestions to improve your images and get the most of your GDome port.

Dome structures and standard GoPro housings may fog up internally, destroying your photos. When there is moisture inside the housing and/or there are significant temperature differences (warm air/cold water), fogging will occur. It is preferable to install the dome somewhere dry if you are in the tropics or another area where you anticipate there may be fogging (inside the car, in your hotel room). Turn on the air conditioning if it"s available because it removes moisture from the air.

However, there are situations and locations when reaching a dry spot is impossible. In this situation, GoPro Anti-Fog camera lens inserts can be used to drain the dome and housing of moisture. You can do this without removing the dome by inserting a tape measure through the hole for the GoPro housing and inserting the Anti-Fog insert into the dome. If you are not using something extremely huge, the insert won"t be seen in the picture. Alternatives to these inserts include tissue paper, silica gel bags salvaged from shoe boxes, and strips of chamois leather.

Your images will be upside down if you submerge the dome in water while standing on dry land, such as from a pier or some comparable location, as the grip will be pointing upward. Set the camera position on your GoPro camera to down or, even better, auto so you won"t have to worry about it.

The portion of the dome that is not in the water acts as a sizable lens and can collect some water droplets that will appear in the photograph. The problem is not as severe as with the conventional GoPro housing where one droplet can destroy the entire photo because of the vast surface area of the dome. However, we still favor no drops:). There are many strategies to stay away from them:

Dome structures and standard GoPro housings may fog up internally, destroying your photos. When there is moisture inside the housing and/or there are significant temperature differences (warm air/cold water), fogging will occur. It is preferable to install the dome somewhere dry if you are in the tropics or another area where you anticipate there may be fogging (inside the car, in your hotel room). Turn on the air conditioning if it"s available because it removes moisture from the air.

Use GoPro Anti-Fog inserts instead if that isn"t possible; these will remove the moisture from the dome and housing. You can do this without removing the dome by inserting a tape measure through the hole for the GoPro housing and inserting the Anti-Fog insert into the dome. If you are not using something extremely large, the insert won"t be visible in the picture. Alternatives to these inserts include tissue paper, silica gel bags salvaged from shoe boxes, and strips of chamois leather.

How do I switch the Hero 11 Black on or off after attaching it to the dome port? Can I activate and deactivate my GoPro when it is mounted to the dome?

Once the camera is fastened to the dome, all of the GoPro Hero 11 black buttons are operable, allowing you to operate the camera exactly as you would without the dome. The Hero 11 Black touch screen in the SuperDive cannot be operated because the camera is housed in a dive housing, which is the sole change. However, the LCD is still visible, making it simpler to take images and record videos. With one of our Advanced or SuperDive choices, you may use all the GoPro buttons.

You can mount GDome to any grip, pole, or selfie stick that utilizes the standard GoPro mount system (almost all sticks on the market use this mount). However, you should be aware that the selfie stick would need to be flexible, like the GoPro 3-Way Camera Mount, in order for you to take pictures of yourself using your dome. Due to the dome"s size, it is impossible to turn it toward you if you use a straight pole that cannot bend over the dome"s backplate as the support. To enable you mount poles directly to the face of the GDome and take amazing selfies, we created the action adapter.

The majority of GoPro Hero filters are made to attach to the lens of the camera housing. Attaching anything to the housing or lens will break the waterproof seal that is intended between the dome and the housing (or lens), making it likely impossible to fit the camera into the dome. Domes are constructed with this waterproof seal in mind. Only a sticker-style filter that could be adhered to the lens or housing would not interfere with the dome.

You must use the SuperDive camera housing that is included with the dome, NOT the original GoPro housing, as we are unable to side seal on it due to the original housing"s little screws on the face.

The touchscreen of the SuperDive is visible to aid in taking pictures and videos, but you are unable to use it because the camera must be placed within the diving housing.

Yes, you can use your GoPro without the dome by simply removing the two screws, opening the backdoor, and removing the housing that houses the camera. Just be careful to properly dry the housing before reinserting it into the dome since if you don"t, the dome can soon fog up (depending on the weather and temperatures of course).

Can I use other cameras with the dome? Like TomTom Bandit, Yi Technology 4K+ Action Camera, Olfi One.5, GoPro Hero5 Session, Sony FDR-X3000R, SJCAM SJ7 Star, Sony RX0, Olympus TG TRACKER, Garmin VIRB ULTRA 30, Veho MUVI K2 PRO, Nikon KeyMission 360, and other cameras? Are they going to fit in the GDome?

A GoPro dome is a specialized add-on for your GoPro camera that enhances underwater images and videos and enables the taking of over-under (half-under, 50-50) images.

Early last month GoPro completed their annual October ritual of releasing a suite of new units.  Like past years, GoPro doesn’t tend to make massive upgrades in their units, but rather works to add incremental features and performance bumps.

It’s somewhat rare that I group this many products into a single review.  Sometimes I’ll do two minor variations of the same product in a single post, but I think this is the first threesome I’ve had around these parts.  When it comes to the GoPro packaging though, all three units are pretty similar actually. They all include the following:

– The camera itself (duh) – The battery for the camera – A mini-USB cable – An underwater case rated to 40m/131ft – An alternate/secondary door for the case that allows for better audio – A small stack of GoPro stickers – A small quick-start guide and other paper junk – A flat adhesive mount – A curved adhesive mount – A loss prevention rubber stopper

Next, the standard mini-USB plug that can be used to both charge the unit as well as download photos.  Note that this USB cable (and your attached GoPro) can be plugged into any USB outlet on the planet.

The bottom opens up identically on the Black and Silver, which is where you’ll place the battery.  There’s a small little button you’ll press that’ll then pop open the door.  It’s a much better design than the annoying battery cover found on previous GoPro units.

The only difference in the box is the case doors.  The Silver edition includes three doors (instead of two), and two of these doors are designed to allow you to operate the touch screen. In the below photo, the two lower doors allow touch screen operation.  The left one is completely open, while the right one has a thin flexible plastic.

Here’s the front of the camera, as you can see, it’s virtually identical to the Hero4 Black.  Though, strangely in my case it actually has a small manufacturing defect on the front of the LCD screen.  It hasn’t bothered me though, and I’m too lazy to deal with returning it.

The 2014 GoPro Hero base unit is packaged slightly differently.  For example it lacks the top plastic ‘dome’ found on the other/past units, as well as the plastic baseplate.  Obviously at a fraction of the price they were looking to cut costs that were unnecessary, which, is completely reasonable.

Below are the components within the box.  You’ll find the two adhesive mounts (flat/curved), but only one mounting attachment piece between the GoPro and the adhesive mounts.  Don’t worry, you still get stickers.

When it comes to size, the Hero4 is identical to that of the Hero3, so there’s no changes there.  It’ll fit into all the same mounts, cases and locations that the Hero3 did.  This is particularly interesting even in the case of the touch-screen display included on the Hero4 Silver.  Of course, if you add a touch/display screen to the Hero4 Black then it’ll increase the size accordingly.

Looking at other units on the market, the GoPro remains the smallest unit with the highest quality video.  No doubt you can look at something smaller like the new Polaroid cube, but with that comes incredibly rough video (stabilization-wise).  While the baseline Polaroid 1080p video isn’t horrible when just sitting still, it’s not at all awesome with any movement at all.  And given the point of an action cam is…action, that’s sorta limiting:

Meanwhile, if you compare it to something like the Sony series of action cams, it’s sorta a wash.  The Sony cams are longer, but thinner.  While the GoPro’s appear a bit chubbier.  Both can go sans-case, though neither should be taken underwater without their respective cases.

Turning to something like the VIRB series, the GoPro is much smaller without the case, though only somewhat smaller with the case.  The VIRB doesn’t require a case unless going deeper underwater (splashing around in a pool is fine).  But, the GoPro is also roughly the size of a Twinkie compared to that of a kiwi fruit (not the bird, nor the New Zealander’s) with the Garmin VIRB.  Note that both the VIRB and VIRB Elite share the same outer shell.

Of course, to some degree comparing sizes with the GoPro is somewhat academic.  It’s well established as a completely acceptable sized unit within the marketplace – with the case.  And without the case the options are pretty much unlimited.

Let’s start off with establishing some of the basics, things that are largely common to all units.  To begin, you’ll turn on the unit by holding down the front-facing button (Mode).  This will get the GoPro ready to record, but won’t start recording:

With the camera powered on, all units have a front-facing LCD screen.  This screen will show you which mode you’re in, for example, video, photo, time lapse, etc…  You can simply tap the front mode button to iterate to the next mode.

And, you can enable the ability to automatically shut off after a preset time.  I like 5 minutes, because that’s typically longer than I’d wait around for any action sequence to happen – and usually means that I’ve forgotten about the camera.  Since the GoPro doesn’t save too much battery sitting in standby versus recording – I prefer to keep it off as much as I can.

Also note that unlike the Black/Silver, the Hero base can’t have settings changed via the phone apps, but more on that later. Next, when it comes to actually record something, you’ll start/stop the recording (or photos) by pressing the top button on the GoPro (with the red circle).

And again, to stop it, you’ll just press the same button.  By default the unit will chirp/beep and then the red recording light will blink.  You can change the volume of the chirps.  I do that if I plan to use the unit indoors where the chirps can get a bit annoying (Side Note: I fail to understand why there is a 100% volume, 75% volume, and 0% volume level…but no 25% or 50% level).Outside of course, it’s handy to have the chirps though if mounted on a helmet. With those basics covered, let’s get onto the Silver-only touch screen, and then I’ll cover many of the features individually.

The GoPro Hero4 Silver sports a new addition to the Hero lineup, a touch screen.  While you could in the past attach a LCD screen to the back of units, it always came at the cost of increased space as well as just being sorta clunky.  With the Hero4 Silver though, it’s embedded into the back of the unit while remaining exactly the same size as previous models.

The screen is both there to display what the camera is shooting, but also to act as a touch screen to change settings.  To do so, you’ll press the little red dot and then slide down and hold a few seconds.  This ensures that you can’t accidentally bump it on, like butt dialing, but for action cameras (which, upon reflection could be really awkward).

Once you have it unlocked, it’ll show you a touch menu that you can go into and modify settings for each of the modes.  You effectively get all of the modification capabilities of the front LCD + buttons, with the back screen:

Now of course while recording, you can use this to frame your shots ahead of time and then keep an eye on things while recording.  By default it’ll shut off the screen shortly after recording to save battery. I’ve gotta say, when I first saw the marketing images of the screen I figured it’d be like the Garmin VIRB screen.  In that while the VIRB screen was marketed to look like a orgasmicly colorful experience, in reality it was like 1930’s black and white silent film.

Thankfully, the Hero4 Silver is legit color.  Brilliantly colorful and just as crisp and pretty as the marketing shots look.  It’s a bit tricky to take photos of because of the light differential between foreground and the LCD screen, but, you can get a little bit of a feel for it in some of the below:

And on top of that, it will playback sound as well.  When it comes to a screen on an action camera, this is perfect for me.  Or rather, for my wife.  I actually didn’t use it nearly as much as her – who loved being able to see exactly what she was shooting and play it back without a phone (as was the case with her cannonballs seen later).

Now with all that praise, do keep in mind one thing: For most folks, the screen is merely used for framing a shot.  So while the color is much appreciated, I wouldn’t say it’s a complete deal-breaker.  I’m able to frame shots on the 1930’s style black and white screen VIRB just as easily as the Hero4 Silver.

When it comes to video quality in an action cam, nobody has higher resolutions than the GoPro.  Period, end of story.  Well, at least today. So what does that mean from a practical standpoint?  Well with the Hero3+ Black, GoPro offered 2.7K at full frame rates.  In this case, full frame rates are anything above 24FPS.  Below that and you’ll start to get degradation viewable to the human eye in most situations.  So in the case of the Hero3+ Black, it had 4K footage…but at 15FPS. With the Hero4, things simply shifted.  The Hero4 Black got full 4K at 24/25/30FPS, while the Hero4 Silver got 2.7K at 24/25/30FPS, and 4K at 12.5/15FPS.  So basically, the following happened:

Can you tell the difference?  For most on smaller screens – probably not.  But that’s likely just because you’re viewing it on a device too small to notice the differences.  But, this is a key point in deciding whether or not it’s worth the money to pay extra for what is 4K/2.7K over just 1080p resolution found on every other device out there.

Now when it comes to resolutions, keep in mind that while GoPro has action cam dominance today, tomorrow that might change (hence why it’s always good to check out the Product Comparison Tool).  In general, I wouldn’t expect any changes between now and the end of 2014.  But I fully expect that to change starting with CES the first week of January.  CES is the annual and massive Consumer Electronics Show, where everyone in the gadget world comes out with their new stuff.

In addition to high resolution video, the GoPro series can also do high speed video.  High speed video refers to the idea of increasing the frame rate (frames per second) recorded in order to then play it back at ‘regular’ speed and achieve a slow-motion effect.  Take for example 120FPS footage.  It’s captured (wait for it) at 120 frames per second.  But, when it comes to playback, it might be played back at 30FPS, which then results in that one-second moment of action taking 4 seconds to play back.  Thus achieving gloriously smooth slow-motion.  You can see this below with a Hero4 Black and a touchscreen attached.

With these higher frame rates at higher resolutions, you’re no longer having to make sacrifices in quality or frame rates for slow-motion footage. Like other settings, on the GoPro you can modify these within the app, or within the camera itself.  In the case of base GoPro Hero, you’re only getting 1080P-30FPS, or 720P-60FPS. The exact frame rates offered for each resolution I’ve included within the comparison table at the bottom of the review.

So what does this look like?  Well, no better way to test this than a canon ball into a swimming pool.  The perfect way to illustrate slow-motion, in this case with a common 120FPS 720p clip (from the GoPro Hero4 Silver):

Now I could have gone to 240FPS on the Hero4 Black, but that reduces the resolution.  Previous to February 2015 it was WVGA, but now it’s 720 – which makes it potentially a fair tradeoff.  Still, for those wanting to keep it 1080p or higher, you could instead look to slow it down further with the GoPro studio and take the hit on frame rates instead of resolution.  In this case, I went with 20% speed playback.

Note that the GoPro Studio offers the ability specify the exact moment in time that you switch from regular playback to slow-motion playback by simply splitting the clips.  This allows you to keep at normal speed until just the moment of action, such as this where I kept it regular rates for the first few seconds, then slowed it down when she was mid-air, and then let it get back to half-speed towards the last few seconds.

Further, GoPro has also introduced what they call ‘Flux’.  The idea behind it is a bit smarter interpolation of the frames when slowing down video, allowing you to get cleaner video.  In the above case I used Flux for the middle section of slow-mo, though, it’s not really required since I shot at 120FPS already and there was plenty of slow motion as-is. But it’s more noticeable if you really wanted to slow things down even further than that.

For example, if you wanted to turn what would have been 4-5 seconds at playback speed into 8-10 seconds.  In that case you’d lose so many frames that it might be tough to get smooth video. Note that Flux is all done after the fact within GoPro Studio, and is not something done on the camera itself.  It does not require you do anything on the unit itself.

Ok, with those basics out of the way, let’s get to some shots and how I use it.  In most cases, when I’m using the GoPro as a camera, I’m shooting in the highest possible megapixel arrangement with the wide option.  This is because the way the GoPro works is that even if you were to select a medium crop image, it’s simply taking the 12MP wide image and cropping that automatically.  Thus it’s much better to take the higher resolution and do the cropping yourself. For example, below if I wanted just the fish from this GoPro image, I could crop to just the fish and the sea anemone.

But what situations would you want medium over wide?  Well, for those where you didn’t want to deal with cropping.  For example, The Girl (aka, my wife), borrowed the GoPro Hero4 Silver for the day while snorkeling.  She didn’t want the super-wide shots that were coming in on wide mode, and instead preferred the zoomed in aspect of the medium mode.  For her, she’s not going to want to deal with cropping the photos afterwards on the computer or her phone.  She just wants to be able to take them and post them to whatever platform she wants – no editing.

The GoPro series includes a time lapse mode.  In this mode the unit will take a series of photos at a preset interval, such as every half a second.  You can then take those photos and compile them together to make a video time-lapse. Alternatively, this mode is ideal when you want to simply have photos of/during an event, but don’t know when the moment of action will come (or won’t be in a position to press record).

For example, you might be mountain biking downhill and want to easily capture photos along the way (instead of video).  Just plop it in time lapse mode and it’ll capture photos at the defined interval. Why use this instead of video (and then take a screenshot)?  Well, the resolution is substantially higher with photos over video.  Further, you tend to get crisper photos this way. The GoPro series supports different intervals depending on the model.  Here’s the run-down for the 2014 series:

Next, you’ll need some software to turn these all into a pretty video.  Of course, if you don’t want a video, then you’re just done as-is. For the video, GoPro Studio enables you to drag the photos into the software and it’ll compile it into a video.

There’s two ways of doing this.  The first is to just drag the first photo in the series into GoPro studio (and it’ll do the rest automatically).  Or, you can manually put them all in a folder and then drag the folder in.  Whatever floats your boat:

However, with the February 2015 update for the GoPro Hero4 Black and Silver, it’ll now create that same video for you within the GoPro unit itself.  I’ll discuss that in the next section.

In February 2015, GoPro introduced a new time lapse mode that automatically exports out a video file when you end the recording of the time lapse.  This means that when you hit finish on the time lapse on the camera, you immediately have a video file – instead of a huge pile of photos that need additional processing.  This option was made available to only the Hero4 Black and Silver models, via a free firmware update.

The Hero4 Black and Silver carry through the capability of being able to control and transfer data from the camera to the phone.  This allows you to use your phone as a secondary display for the camera, or, just a quick way to get photos up to share with friends via social media.  Note, this is not compatible with the 2014 GoPro Hero base unit.

To begin, you’ll need to enable WiFi on your Hero4.  Just hold down the left side button until the blue light blinks on the front of the GoPro.  Then, on your mobile device connect to the WiFi network.

You’ll need to go through a setup of pairing steps before moving forward.  They’re fairly straight forward and ensure that you have a unique name for each unit, and unique password. Once that’s done you can go ahead and open up the GoPro app and then click “Connect & Control” to start the connectivity to the GoPro.

It’ll start on the preview screen, which shows you the exact same view as that of the camera.  You can rotate the phone as well to get a cleaner view.

If you click the little tool icon, you can go into the settings and tweak every camera mode and overall camera settings quickly and easily.  This is great when you are taking iterative shots at different resolutions or frame rates and don’t want to mess with the camera or touch it physically.

Next, you can transfer both photos and videos.  To do this within the GoPro app you’ll tell it to enumerate the files.  It may take a few seconds.  Or, in the event you have a time lapse pile of photos – it may never actually complete at all (as I learned).  Thus, I wouldn’t recommend trying to enumerate it if you just took a few thousand photos.

Overall, while seemingly straight forward and potentially simple, the phone app capability on the GoPro app is actually exactly one of the best (if not the best) out there from an action cam perspective.  Some other action cams don’t allow live preview while recording, for example.  Or, they don’t permit you to transfer files.  Or, the apps are just poorly coded.

The same week that GoPro announced the Hero4 lineup, they in conjunction with Livestream announced the ability to stream your GoPro recordings live to the internet via the Livestream service.  This requires the use of your mobile phone, which connected to the GoPro via the GoPro WiFi network, and then streamed the data out via your cellular data connection.

But, instead of trying to cram it all into this post, I’ve written up a HUGE post on live streaming options for action cams.  I cover the GoPro in super-detail, along with numerous other options and apps.

The first port you’ll find is the mini-USB port.  The primary use for most people will be charging the GoPro as well as transferring photos/videos to a computer.  Those are both fairly straight forward scenarios in that the GoPro will simply show up now as an imaging device on your computer (this is actually a change from previous lines, where it enumerated as a standard USB device):

Next, we’ve got the micro-HDMI port.  This port enables you to playback video and photos straight to a TV using an HDMI cable.  Note though that your regular HDMI cable likely won’t work here, since most HDMI cables you have around the house are standard HDMI connectors are both ends.  The micro-HDMI connector is on the GoPro end of the equation and much smaller.  You tend to see this also used in some tablets, such as the Microsoft Surface’s and some Android tablets.

There’s a fundamental reason why you see Hollywood shoot with the GoPro, and the core of that reason is ProTune and the flexibility offered within it.  ProTune is one such feature that has long been leveraged in GoPro units to offer more flexibility in editing afterwards.  It’s sorta similar (though not exactly) to the way that higher end photographers primarily shoot RAW photos for the ability to better tweak photos afterwards, people also shoot GoPro video with ProTune so they can easily tweak it afterwards.  When I talk to ‘tweaking’ I’m referring to the ability to drive change easily in things such as White Balance, ISO, Sharpness and more.

For example, virtually all of the photos you see here on the blog (not just in this post, but all posts) I shoot with higher end cameras in dual JPG/RAW formats.  This allows me to clean them up in Lightroom and make any color/lighting corrections as required.  The same applies here with GoPro cameras using ProTune with the GoPro Studio. Now this doesn’t actually just apply to video in the case of GoPro, but also to photos.  So you have that same power there too.

Now, GoPro notes there’s no downside to enabling ProTune.  It won’t make your images/video ‘require’ additional tuning.  So you might as well enable it and then decide later if you need it in post production. A better question is whether or not having (or not having) ProTune is a deciding factor.

The GoPro 2014 series all include waterproof cases that protect the unit down to 40 meters (131 feet).  This is pretty much the max for what a standard openwater PADI/NAUI certified diver would go to (by a little bit).  And of course fine for snorkeling and other random pool activities. In the slim chance you’re diving deeper than that, you can get a more hardened case that goes 60m (197 feet). In my case, I didn’t have any dives on my radar for this time period, so it was just limited to snorkeling and pool time.  In both cases, I had no problems.

Now what is notable is that there’s no water protection issues using the touch screen capable case underwater at least at snorkeling/pool depths.  However, you won’t want to try and use the touch screen underwater as the pressure will make it impossible to use.  Instead, just use the regular buttons on the side/front/top to change any settings or take any photos.

Note that while I didn’t use any of the corrective color filters, you can get such filters, especially if doing diving with the GoPro, which will help correct the colors a bit.  For snorkeling and pool shots, you can easily adjust them in the GoPro Studio as well, though I find that leaving a bit of the blueish tint at shallow depths tends to make the images pop a bit more.  It’s when deeper that you lose the colors that you want to use the filters.

Finally, in the event you’re doing a lot of water sports, you may want to look at picking up the floating door accessory.  That will keep the GoPro afloat in the event it departs from your grasp.  If you’re just doing snorkeling or in a pool it’s a bit unnecessary, but if you’re constantly out on openwater it’s probably worth it.

Now one accessory I have found handy though is the dual battery charger.  It connects via standard mini-USB cable and then will charge your GoPro batteries.  Note that it works best with a 2AMP USB port, such as those found with an iPad or other tablet.  So if you use just a regular amperage USB port you’re likely to get slow charge times. When you insert the battery in, it’ll show orange for charging, and green for completed.  Note though that it can be easy the first time to not push the battery in all the way and think it’s doing something.  The simple rule is if there’s no light, it’s not doing jack.

When it comes to accessories, there’s no greater selection than that with the GoPro lineup.  Heck, even other action cams now include GoPro adapter mounts, simply to be able to tap into the massive range of accessories and mounts found within the GoPro lineup.  The majority of mounts that most folks will use will likely be 1st party mounts made by GoPro, but there’s still a huge array of 3rd party mounts by other companies that are oftentimes far more interesting.

1) GoPro 3-way Pole: This came out last winter and instantly became my favorite accessory.  As you can see from the below animated image I put together, you can twist/mix/fold/unpack/pack it up a crapton of ways.  I can use it as a tripod, or as a selfie pole, or just to get a better angle and extend my reach.

In my case, I bought the DJI Phantom 2 last winter and have been experimenting with it to get cool shots and videos. From a setup perspective, I use the GoPro Hero4 with the DJI Phantom 2 in conjunction with the Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal.  This gimbal is really the special sauce that allows silky smooth footage.  Proof of that comes with the fact that the wind was never less than 10-15MPH during my flights in New Zealand.

You can use the below comparison charts to see how each unit stacks up against each other.  In the below chart I’ve just set it for the three GoPro units for 2014.  However, you can easily dive into the comparison database to see how older GoPro units stack up, as well as some competitor units.  You can mix and match and create your own charts there.

Of course, the real question is – does this matter?  For most people, probably not.  You’d likely be hard pressed on today’s screens to tell the difference between 1080p and 4K, let alone 2.7K and 4K.  Still, for the reasons I outlined in the 4K section above, there’s certainly value in such a camera.

An all around action cam: For this, it’s tricky.  On one hand the GoPro Hero4 Silver is solid, but at the same time, it’s also a bit overpriced compared to other offerings.  They effectively bumped up the price to $399 from what was sub-$300 before.  At that price you’re paying double something like the VIRB Elite or Sony Action cams, but of which have more features/functionality (i.e. sensors like GPS, altimeters, etc…).  Sure, the Hero4 Silver can do 2.7K video at full frame rates, but for most people, that won’t matter.

A budget action cam:This is where things get really interesting.  GoPro dropped the bottom of the price floor with the $129US price point.  That’s an incredible price, especially for such a quality cam as the Hero base.  At the same time, Garmin more or less countered with VIRB units now at $129US, and flirting every few days with $99US.  The VIRB base unit is more functional in every possible spec category than the 2014 Hero base (or equal in those not exceeding).

Mount considerations: There’s no question that GoPro has the most mounting options out there when you include 3rd party mounts.  But I wouldn’t let that be the deciding factor.  Virtually every other action cam on the market includes a GoPro mounting adapter, so that kinda becomes a wash.

Availability of accessories: When it comes to finding spare parts like a battery pack during a trip, you’ll find no wider availability than GoPro parts though.  In every airport on this planet and in just about every terminal of those airports, you’ll find GoPro parts.  I was blown away over the past month as I travelled to find that Hero4 parts and cameras were easily accessible in all sorts of random places around the globe, airport or just shopping plaza – mere weeks after launch.

Editing Tools: GoPro’s offering is good (not great, but good), and makes it relatively easy to edit videos.  On the flip side, you can edit GoPro footage in most other software video apps – many of them free.

Mobile Apps: When it comes to phone apps, GoPro’s is far and away the best.  While most allow you to change settings, not all other companies allow streaming of content or transferring of photos and videos, all quickly and easily.  This can be a major benefit when you’re trying to get content somewhere quickly and share it.  Further, the quick turning on/off of WiFi via a solid button press on the Silver/Black is awesome.  It’s just quick and painless.

Hero4 Silver Touchscreen: This is cool, no doubt, but at the same time, for my particular use cases it’s less important.  Usually if I’m mounting a camera to a bike or to my helmet, I can easily check framing via the GoPro mobile app display.  And the same goes for playback via the phone app.  On the flip side, my wife loved the screen and much preferred having that unit over the other GoPro’s, purely because of the screen.

Like previous years, GoPro has continued to raise the bar on action cameras from a specification standpoint – in particular, within the resolution and video/photo quality department.  That aspect alone will no doubt make it a must have for those wanting the best video quality money can buy in an action cam.

Meanwhile at the budget end of the spectrum, they’ve forced other companies to slash prices to compete with the new $129US GoPro Hero.  While this unit isn’t as full featured as other competitive products that are now priced the same or less, it is a rock solid option.

The next year will no doubt be interesting to watch for GoPro, especially going into CES with what will undoubtedly unleash a slew of new action cameras into the market.  With GoPro pushing prices up $100 on their two top units, I’m not fully convinced that the bulk of consumers will follow to the higher end.

I’ve partnered with Clever Training to offer all DC Rainmaker readers exclusive benefits on all products purchased. You can read more about the benefits of this partnership here. You can pickup the GoPro units through Clever Training using the links below. By doing so, you not only support the site (and all the work I do here) – but you also get to enjoy the significant partnership benefits that are just for DC Rainmaker readers. And, since this item is more than $75, you get free US shipping as well.

Additionally, you can also use Amazon to purchase the GoPro units or accessories (though, no discount). Or, anything else you pickup on Amazon helps support the site as well (socks, laundry detergent, cowbells). If you’re outside the US, I’ve got links to all of the major individual country Amazon stores on the sidebar towards the top.

If you’ve just bought a GoPro camera, or perhaps there’s one under the tree for you, and you’re wondering how to get started on your journey, we can help. Whether you have a GoPro Hero9 Black, GoPro Max, Hero8, Hero7, Hero6 or Hero5 Black, the process of setting up your action camera is largely the same.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to set up your GoPro camera for the first time, from taking it out of the box and formatting your memory card to selecting resolution and frame rates.

We used a GoPro Hero9 Black for this tutorial, but the same process applies to models going back to at least the Hero5 Black. Some of the features and resolution options have changed over the years, but rest assured this guide will give you the base knowledge you need to get up and running with your GoPro.

This seems like an obvious one, but your GoPro camera – if you’ve bought it new – will have transparent screen protectors on the lens and LCD. It’s easy to miss these in a rush, and if you shoot a video or take a photo it might come out dark and blurry due to this sticker.

Another seemingly obvious tip, but in your excitement to get started it’s easy to forget to charge your battery. If you haven’t bought GoPro’s separately sold battery charger, stick the battery in your camera, lining up the connection points. Next to the battery terminal is a USB C port. Plug it in and it should reach full charge in a couple hours.

GoPro cameras use microSD memory cards. If you have the SanDisk card that comes with some GoPro bundles, or if you’ve bought a new microSD card, stick it in the camera and you’re good to go.

On one side of your GoPro is a compartment door. Slide the switch and pull to open the door, and this is where you insert the battery and memory card.

When you turn on your GoPro for the first time you may be prompted to update your firmware, depending on when your GoPro was produced. Next you’ll be prompted to select your language. Unless you speak Klingon or Esperanto, you’ll find your option by scrolling down.

GoPro will next prompt you to turn on your GPS. These days, giving big tech access to your data can seem scary, but allowing GoPro to access your GPS lets you stamp your photos and videos with data on where you went, your speed, elevation and more.

Download the GoPro App from the Play and App Stores and go through the steps connect the camera to your phone. In the GoPro App press the + symbol and search for your camera. Once it finds your GoPro camera, it will ask you if you want to rename it or stick with the default name.

Once the app is set up and your camera is found you’ll have the option to control your GoPro within the app. This lets you use your smartphone as a live view screen and preview images and video, and apply all the settings you can do in-camera.

In Video mode you can again select the lens, slow motion options, Boost and zoom. At the bottom of the screen is the resolution and frame rate control.

Again, we used a Hero9 Black for our tutorial, but the process is the same for older GoPro cameras. A Hero5 Black, for instance, will have a similar interface in video mode, except resolution and frame rate options will be different and HyperSmooth wasn’t introduced until later models.

At the top of the preview screen in the app, tap the spanner icon to access the Camera Preferences. Here you can set the voice control language and wake with voice settings.

Here you can also enable QuikCapture, GPS, video compression, LCD brightness, set the date and time and more. You can also check the status of your SD card and battery.