Official GoPro Owners Thread!

Cave photography is a hostile environment for electronics and there are a lot of shots I wouldn't risk attempting with any of my other cameras.
The GoPro 4 Silver is pretty much ideal for this. The screen lets me use it pretty much like a regular camera.
Another reason the GoPro works well in this environment is the wide field of view; my compact is 28mm and I've often been wanting about 1/4 frame extra. I'm using a 15mm fisheye on the big camera which is just about perfect and surprisingly close to the GoPro results.

This first shot was hand-held using Continuous mode at 5fps with the sharpest frame being kept. I'm pretty sure night mode would have done better but I didn't have a tripod with me.
Conditions in this cave are OK and I could have used a traditional camera, but I didn't have one with me. I've printed this to A4 and it looks great! I'll retake it with the big camera at some point and the comparison is going to be interesting.
It's lit by a 30W Cree floodlight to my left and slightly above. The floodlight is a wonderful bit of kit!
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This next shot is a reccy for an image I have planned. I want the caver framed by the arch of rock as they dive through the sump.
The lighting is going to be the challenge; this shot had the big floodlight on the far side of the sump, hence the back lighting which looks great! I have another shot with the big floodlight on this side of the sump and the rock looks far clearer, so that can be solved.
The other problem in this image is the caver, they needed to lead with their other arm and they are moving too fast for this close-in shot to be sharp; next time I will know how to instruct them better! Also, they should have waited a few mins to let the water clear from their outbound dive.
However - I now know the shot I'm after is achievable, but it may take a few more attempts to get right!
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In summary - the GoPro is a real asset to my cave photography project, but I've got a bit a learning curve working out how to get the best out of it.
As they say - watch this space!
 
Good stuff! Looking forward to the next post for sure.

Myself and the Mrs went on a little road trip through Snowdonia last weekend, this was taken with a GoPro 4 Black on the end of a monopod, just mucking about really while enroute - but was fairly happy with the impromptu shot, show's how much of a nice day it was !!.

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This thread is inspiring me to think about getting 'proper' shots with the go pro, see how far I can push it (will obviously use my DSLR as well if doing any proper work, but just for fun!)
 
Great idea to start this thread. I've mostly been using my Hero 4 silver for videos, including time lapse, I'll have to start taking still now then.
I updated the firmware on mine last week, looks like some nice new features have been added.
Allan
 
Yup - Mine is still doing great service.
Mostly on reccie trips where I can keep it in an outside pocket to grab stuff I want to go back and shoot on the big camera later.
But this trip is pure available light in a gnarly cave where getting the big camera (or even the little camera) down there would be a huge challenge.
Most of the shots from this trip were of the inside of my pocket as somehow I managed to repeatedly turn the GoPro on and start taking images; separate buttons on different sides of the camera; I've no idea how this can happen!
I'm about to take delivery of a new head torch which will improve the image quality immensely, but even with my current crap head torch these look OK.

We are parked in the widest section of this rift while our guide scouts ahead for the route.
Yup - the rift is only as wide as our shoulders and this is the wide bit !!!!!!
Beneath our feet the rift drops away at 45deg into a narrowing abyss that sliding down into would be extremely uncomfortable and very hard to extract ourselves.
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'The Canyon' lit from the exit, but doesn't show the void beneath our feet.
Usual tactic is to put a foot on the 'roof' to make sure we don't slide down.
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Dolphin Pot - an uncomfortable vertical climb.
These cavers are only so close together because they are passing the tackle sack up the climb.
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Great to see some underground shots. Haven't been since a rather unfortuitous excursion in Borneo a few years back. Good memories though, one day I may take it up again :)
 
A GoPro shot grabbed on a recent caving trip.
It's notable because it is the best image taken so far of this newly discovered 80ft pitch and will be shown at the national caving conference this weekend, Hidden Earth.
This find stands a strong chance of being the biggest discovery on Mendip this year; well over half a kilometre of new passage.
It was just a reccie and fingers crossed I'll be able to get back down there with my DSLR soon.

Illumination is from my helmet lamp placed on the floor off to my right; the GoPro did a pretty decent job with what little light was available.
The biggest problem was everything was covered in mud and even using my fleece under-suit didn't get the lens clean.
I ended up licking the GoPro to get it usable.
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I recently saw licking your GoPro lens as a good way of cleaning it, but not sure how much I'd fancy doing that if it was covered in mud!
 
Pretty much straight out the GoPro with just a powerful torch for illumination.
Only editing is a light crop and in Lightroom tweaked the blacks slider to make the blacks properly black.
Going for the 007 look :)
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Finally bit the bullet and ordered a GoPro Hero 4 Black on Friday, and arrived yesterday :D
 
Will add some pics to this soon surprised more pics aren't In here
 
Only just found this thread.

Some fantastic images and video.

Got a GoPro Hero 4 Silver a few months ago, mainly for my daughter who does athletics and gymnastics. Leant it to my mate who took it on his honeymoon to New Zealand , so hopefully he got some great footage as they went quad-biking, etc.

Looking forward to getting it back and using it now :)
 
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