We spent the afternoon surfing Pacifica, California. The video is basically my first attempt at making a movie with my new GoPro Hero6. Here are some of the lessons I learned from working with the camera for my first time in the water.
Specific GoPro Hero6 Black Stats at Time of Shooting
This is the new GoPro I won from doing the Roses are Rad film festival:
Name = GP05828030
Version Number = 01.51
Surfing Pacifica with a New GoPro – Lessons Learned
The new GoPro Hero6 is my favorite of all those that I have owned in the past. That said, I still don’t feel like they have perfected the camera.
Problems
- Touch Screen Lock? When I hold the camera in my teeth and ski down a mountain, sometimes it gets intense and my tongue accidentally touches the screen. This causes unwanted video stoppages recording accurately.
- Battery Reliability? The camera showed a 0% battery when I first went out. Though I thought this was a mistake, I didn’t film for 15 minutes as I thought the battery was dead. I then tried it again later and found the battery at 85%. My guess is that the camera suffers in the cold, Northern California ocean water.
- Temperature Problems? The day after filming the above video, I took the camera out and it froze again. This time it was just stuck on the media playback scene. It remained frozen the whole time I was in the water so I lost a bunch of opportunities to film. That included a dolphin sighting and Veronica catching some fairly large waves on a longboard.
- Sound? Thus far, the sound remains a big weakness of the GoPros. It’s beyond me how a waterproof camera can record sound at all, but I none-the-less wish it could record sound a little better.
Excellences
- Slow Motion – Filming at 120 fps allows me to slow down some really great shots. This camera does an excellent job.
- Record Button – I love the way the new record button feels
- Lack of Housing – The lack of housing rocks. That makes this camera much easier to film with. It also has a lot less critical pieces which make for a better filming experience.
