GoPro Hero 3+ - Initial Impressions
One of the gifts I bought this year for my granddaughter was a GoPro Hero 3+ Silver Edition camera. Best Buy had an excellent bundle that included an LCD Touchback and 16GB SD Card that saved me over $100 versus purchasing separately.
In addition, I also bought the 3 way arm/tripod combination. This is one of the cooler little mounts I've ever seen and extremely light and versatile.
The Hero 3+ is actually an amazing little piece of technology - and I emphasize the little. Weighing in at only 74g and maybe 3" wide by 2" high and about an inch thick the main camera almost feels like a toy. Even with the housing - the whole unit weights in at 134g - so about the same as my Nokia 735 smart phone. My 8 year old granddaughter ran around with it no problem. Combined with the 3 way arm/tripod - she can easily use it to record all sorts of activities and can easily manage the device at 8 years old.
Many years ago I was one of the first to own the Olympus OM-1 SLR. Back then when compared to the Nikons, Canons and others - it was featherweight with awesome capabilities - the GoPro reminds me of that.
It has a 10Mp f/2.8 ultra wide camera with excellent optics that easily captures 1080P video at 60, 50, 30 or 25fps. It can also take stills, time-lapse or bursts at up to 10 frames per second.
It supports up to a 64Gb SDHC or SDXC card and has a mini-USB port for PC connectivity and charging along with a Micro-HDMI connector.
It also has wireless remote and app capabilities. So let's be clear - you cannot connect the Hero 3+ directly to your WiFi router, but you can either purchase their remote control or download their very cool app for iOS or Android - that allows you to remotely monitor and control the camera - look at what is on the SD card and even turn the camera on/off. The camera actually acts like it's own little access point and you connect to it.
The picture quality is excellent and it truly is a very wide view. In fact almost a little fish-eye. Even at very close proximity you get a very good capture of what is in front of you. Much more so that you get with a phone camera or even an SLR or DSLR.
GoPro does provide standard housing front and a number of housing backs that while well labelled takes a bit to understand the role of each. But what is really cool is that you can have configurations which are completely waterproof. This means it can get wet - but not submerged to depth - for that you need to buy the dive housing.
One thing you need to be aware of is sound. The camera has a built in mono microphone and there is an option to add an external stereo microphone via USB - but when using the sealed waterproof back - the sound is very muted. The best combination of picture and sound is when you use the Skeleton back that has openings to expose the cameras microphone - but obviously you loose the waterproof capabilities with that particular back.
The LCD touchback is small but effective. The LCD package includes a new group of backs that support the additional depth of the LCD. There is also an option for a larger battery back.
The camera is very simple to operate and very deliberate in its confirmation of function. For example - turning the camera on or off involved pressing and holding the power button for a few seconds and then getting and audible beep and flashing light. There are separate external toggles for WiFi and the LCD back that follow that same deliberate function. Coming from the action capture background that this camera was designed for it all makes sense.
The battery is an 1180mAh and lasts between 1.5 to about 3hr depending on how much you use lcd and wifi. It typically takes between 2 - 3 hours to recharge via USB. You can purchase a dedicated plug that can shorten that time.
While the device is somewhat focused towards the Mac community - it works well with Windows as well. Plugging in the camera via USB, Windows treats it like any other camera device and you can easily transfer files.
GoPro also provides a free Windows app called GoPro Studio that allows you to trim, edit and export videos into formats easily accepted by YouTube, Vimeo, etc. While not a high-end video editing tool you can easily add titles and edit to meet most needs.
Bottom line - For what I bought it for - which was a fun small lightweight camera for my granddaughter the GoPro Hero 3+ is a great little camera. I would like to see a version of the GoPro App for PC to make file transfers over wireless but otherwise it's just a cool piece of modern tech.
In addition, I also bought the 3 way arm/tripod combination. This is one of the cooler little mounts I've ever seen and extremely light and versatile.
The Hero 3+ is actually an amazing little piece of technology - and I emphasize the little. Weighing in at only 74g and maybe 3" wide by 2" high and about an inch thick the main camera almost feels like a toy. Even with the housing - the whole unit weights in at 134g - so about the same as my Nokia 735 smart phone. My 8 year old granddaughter ran around with it no problem. Combined with the 3 way arm/tripod - she can easily use it to record all sorts of activities and can easily manage the device at 8 years old.
Many years ago I was one of the first to own the Olympus OM-1 SLR. Back then when compared to the Nikons, Canons and others - it was featherweight with awesome capabilities - the GoPro reminds me of that.
It has a 10Mp f/2.8 ultra wide camera with excellent optics that easily captures 1080P video at 60, 50, 30 or 25fps. It can also take stills, time-lapse or bursts at up to 10 frames per second.
It supports up to a 64Gb SDHC or SDXC card and has a mini-USB port for PC connectivity and charging along with a Micro-HDMI connector.
It also has wireless remote and app capabilities. So let's be clear - you cannot connect the Hero 3+ directly to your WiFi router, but you can either purchase their remote control or download their very cool app for iOS or Android - that allows you to remotely monitor and control the camera - look at what is on the SD card and even turn the camera on/off. The camera actually acts like it's own little access point and you connect to it.
The picture quality is excellent and it truly is a very wide view. In fact almost a little fish-eye. Even at very close proximity you get a very good capture of what is in front of you. Much more so that you get with a phone camera or even an SLR or DSLR.
GoPro does provide standard housing front and a number of housing backs that while well labelled takes a bit to understand the role of each. But what is really cool is that you can have configurations which are completely waterproof. This means it can get wet - but not submerged to depth - for that you need to buy the dive housing.
One thing you need to be aware of is sound. The camera has a built in mono microphone and there is an option to add an external stereo microphone via USB - but when using the sealed waterproof back - the sound is very muted. The best combination of picture and sound is when you use the Skeleton back that has openings to expose the cameras microphone - but obviously you loose the waterproof capabilities with that particular back.
The LCD touchback is small but effective. The LCD package includes a new group of backs that support the additional depth of the LCD. There is also an option for a larger battery back.
The camera is very simple to operate and very deliberate in its confirmation of function. For example - turning the camera on or off involved pressing and holding the power button for a few seconds and then getting and audible beep and flashing light. There are separate external toggles for WiFi and the LCD back that follow that same deliberate function. Coming from the action capture background that this camera was designed for it all makes sense.
The battery is an 1180mAh and lasts between 1.5 to about 3hr depending on how much you use lcd and wifi. It typically takes between 2 - 3 hours to recharge via USB. You can purchase a dedicated plug that can shorten that time.
While the device is somewhat focused towards the Mac community - it works well with Windows as well. Plugging in the camera via USB, Windows treats it like any other camera device and you can easily transfer files.
GoPro also provides a free Windows app called GoPro Studio that allows you to trim, edit and export videos into formats easily accepted by YouTube, Vimeo, etc. While not a high-end video editing tool you can easily add titles and edit to meet most needs.
Bottom line - For what I bought it for - which was a fun small lightweight camera for my granddaughter the GoPro Hero 3+ is a great little camera. I would like to see a version of the GoPro App for PC to make file transfers over wireless but otherwise it's just a cool piece of modern tech.
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