GoPro Hero 7 Black

[Rob Rides EMTB]

Replaces my Hero 4 / Hero 6 and Gimbal. Very impressed with the video and audio.

Spare batteries that I use: https://amzn.to/2IHxuzd
Removu Wind Remover: https://amzn.to/2C37EnM

 

[Dax]

I have three takeaways from that 1) wow the stabilisation looks amazing 2) I need to ride Swinley again 3) your motor is ridiculously loud

 

[khorn]

Not in Denmark yet but will bye in USA in 1 weeks time for sure.

Karsten

 

[Bongofish]

I bought a hero 6 black 2 months ago ???. I love the stabilization on the hero 7 and the fact that it's £379 and they havent gone crazy on the price! I just don't know if I do enough filming to warrant it. If anyone wants a hero 6 with box still for £150 I'll buy it ?

I think for anything other than ultimate Pro recording you really don't need a gimbal with the hero 7

 

[R120]

every time i think i will try and use an action cam again on an MTB' i end up watching back some crap footage and thinking, yeah I'm no Brendog and out it back in the draw.

Oddly i use one quite a lot Snowboarding, mainly on a pole doing follow cam with mates, and you get great footage that really does capture the speed, movement etc.

I think its super hard to get good go pro footage on MTBs

 

[Bongofish]

every time i think i will try and use an action cam again on an MTB' i end up watching back some crap footage and thinking, yeah I'm no Brendog and out it back in the draw.

Oddly i use one quite a lot Snowboarding, mainly on a pole doing follow cam with mates, and you get great footage that really does capture the speed, movement etc.

I think its super hard to get good go pro footage on MTBs

Yeh I kind of agree with this. The only way to keep someone interested in your MTB video footage for more than a minute is to be either talking or filming about something very specific or riding something really big. I really couldn't see many people wanting to watch me pedaling down fire roads and the woods for 5 minutes. Maybe I'm wrong? The only reason why one interests me is because the hero 6 stabilization isn't that great. It works but not great. And secondly I'm thinking about going places to explore on the e bike like the lake District and parts of Scotland and sure there would be some great scenes to capture.

I love the fact that the setup would just be GoPro and chestmount. The big gimble is probably one of the reasons I just out a hold on any filming. When I wanted to ride I felt like It was taking me 25 mins just to get kitted up and then I would have a big gimble on my chest.

 

[davosaurusrex]

Looks great with the stabilisation though and mounted on the chin gives a great angle without the faff of a chest mount. Now I have a Bell Super DH I am tempted. I have a decent Nikon SLR and an old Drift , selling them would near enough cover it. The Nikon does take great photos but I rarely take it out due to the size. Have you used the 7 as a family/ general camera yet Rob?

 

[Rob Rides EMTB]

Looks great with the stabilisation though and mounted on the chin gives a great angle without the faff of a chest mount. Now I have a Bell Super DH I am tempted. I have a decent Nikon SLR and an old Drift , selling them would near enough cover it. The Nikon does take great photos but I rarely take it out due to the size. Have you used the 7 as a family/ general camera yet Rob?

Not yet mate but it’s definitely suitable for that.

 

[Rob Rides EMTB]

every time i think i will try and use an action cam again on an MTB' i end up watching back some crap footage and thinking, yeah I'm no Brendog and out it back in the draw.

Oddly i use one quite a lot Snowboarding, mainly on a pole doing follow cam with mates, and you get great footage that really does capture the speed, movement etc.

I think its super hard to get good go pro footage on MTBs

I know some folks like to journal stuff, it’s nice to look back on it. I’ve tons of old footage that I saved that I’m glad I got. Also I’ve got one of my best family holiday vids ever all captured on just a GoPro Hero 4.

GoPro is so small it can be taken almost anywhere and it’s so easy to use that anyone can get some good footage.

 

[R120]

I think go pros are great, just i find i don't get anything great off mine when i use it on bike rides, which is as much to do with me as the camera as i just have it on the helmet and the quality of footage is crap.

I think the mctrail rider mount is very interesting though

 

[Bongofish]

I pick mine up today after work ?. Couldn't resist as I'll be able to sell my hero 6 with extras for 200. And to be able to just wear the 7 and nothing else is great. I still don't think it's a gimble killer but definitely good enough!

 

[Gary]

And to be able to just wear the 7 and nothing else is great.

NAKED POV VIDS?

well.. that's one way to get more views I suppose

 

[Gary]

@Rob Hancill What's the battery life like? and how big a memory card do you need for footage like yours?
Also do you need a really good computer to edit the videos?
Sorry for all the questions. I had a Gopro (3 or 4, can't remember) black and absolutely hated it. Poor user interface incredibly poor battery life and pretty poor jumpy footage. So gave it away.
This one looks awesome!
(I too think gimbals look too smooth)

 

[Dax]

NAKED POV VIDS?

well.. that's one way to get more views I suppose

That's for Robs other website

 

[SquireRides]

@Rob Hancill Great mini-review! Hows the firmware stability? Even now after updates the Hero6 is quite unreliable: Quick start half the time starts recording in default 1080/60p ultra-wide instead of my set 1440p/25p/Linear; I get random zero-duration videos; freezes at least once every ride...


I know no one watches my POV videos... I get about 10 views each on YT! They're mostly for me and a couple of mates who have a passing interest in the routes I find around Bath.

 

[Bongofish]

@Gary ill let you know if Rob doesn't get here first. Un fortunately it's forecast rain here for the next 24 hours straight which is a bit annoying. Just updating the GoPro as I type. In reference to your questions I'll try answer with what the 6 is like:

Battery life not great I found maybe an hour and a half of use before dead.

interface on 7 is not far off the 6 and I find it pretty easy...all touch screen LCD. Some annoying bits but there always will be on a device so small with all these features to fit in.

I use 64gb SD card and fits everything in fine. Not had any issues with running out of space on a day out. But do have to transfer files to the P.C when home and clear the card again just to keep it clean and tidy.

I bought myself a new nice laptop to do my videos on but it can still struggle with the 240fps slow motion stuff. And it genuinely is a descent laptop. 8gb ram and I7 processor. But maybe it's the program I'm using (filmora paid version).

video footage on the hero 7 I imagine to be very good. The hero 6 was very good it's just when you upload to YouTube you literally lose half the quality which is crazy as its the place people watch our videos but it is what it is.

To put it bluntly I like what I see with the hero 7 stabilization. It's not super dooper smooth which actually gives you more of a exciting effect when watching it than being in a magic carpet. But the hero 6 without gimble could make you feel dizzy it was that bumpy. I can't see why I would need to replace the GoPro hero 7. Even if the 8 has even better stabilization I'm sure I'll still be ahppy with this.

 

[Mgbudd]

Replaces my Hero 4 / Hero 6 and Gimbal. Very impressed with the video and audio.

Nice, what chin mount do you use?

 

[davosaurusrex]

What I really like about the chin mount is that it doesn't show the riders legs when pedalling like chest mounts, that really spoils vids for me.

 

[Rob Rides EMTB]

Nice, what chin mount do you use?

It’s. GoPole arm that I made to fit, cut it down, with cable ties and glue!

Helmet Arm For GoPro Hero Cameras

 

[Mgbudd]

It’s. GoPole arm that I made to fit, cut it down, with cable ties and glue!

Helmet Arm For GoPro Hero Cameras

Thanks

 

[Bongofish]

Anyone use the GoPro bag? It has a shoulder strap hook on for the GoPro and this view always looks good to me. But it's a £100 for the bag ?

 

[Rob Rides EMTB]

@Rob Hancill Great mini-review! Hows the firmware stability? Even now after updates the Hero6 is quite unreliable: Quick start half the time starts recording in default 1080/60p ultra-wide instead of my set 1440p/25p/Linear; I get random zero-duration videos; freezes at least once every ride...


I know no one watches my POV videos... I get about 10 views each on YT! They're mostly for me and a couple of mates who have a passing interest in the routes I find around Bath.

Yeah I also had those issues with the 6. I’ve had a single freeze on the 7, where it recorded about 20 seconds then video froze and audio carried on. On the 6 there were some rides that I lost about 30% of footage.

I think it’ll be good to start an ‘action cam footage thread’ where we can upload our rides and stuff to share. If it helps I could add a bit of my workflow to share how I create stuff too. ?

 

[Bongofish]

Yeah I also had those issues with the 6. I’ve had a single freeze on the 7, where it recorded about 20 seconds then video froze and audio carried on. On the 6 there were some rides that I lost about 30% of footage.

I think it’ll be good to start an ‘action cam footage thread’ where we can upload our rides and stuff to share. If it helps I could add a bit of my workflow to share how I create stuff too. ?

Awesome idea!!!

 

[Rob Rides EMTB]

@Rob Hancill What's the battery life like? and how big a memory card do you need for footage like yours?
Also do you need a really good computer to edit the videos?
Sorry for all the questions. I had a Gopro (3 or 4, can't remember) black and absolutely hated it. Poor user interface incredibly poor battery life and pretty poor jumpy footage. So gave it away.
This one looks awesome!
(I too think gimbals look too smooth)

About 1 hour battery, I use cheapo 3rd party spares that I carry in my really useful EMTB Forums Jersey side pocket ?... 64GB is good for about 90 mins worth. I carry a 2nd just incase.

In terms of computer, yes, you're going ot need something fairly capable, however, you can always convert the footage to a proxy in most editing software, basically reducing the filesize massively, so you can work with it. I tend to do this even though I have a good spec computer, it just makes editing on the fly so much quicker.

Interface is still fiddly, but I tend to go for a set and forget type setup to minimise faffing about.

Finally, the quick start button is brilliant on the newer GoPro's. Basically, a single button press to turn on and start recording, same again to stop and turn off, with beeps on the little speaker so you know that its actually working!

 

[Mgbudd]

Anyone use the GoPro bag? It has a shoulder strap hook on for the GoPro and this view always looks good to me. But it's a £100 for the bag ?

I have one, they are great I got mine cheap in the US as they were on offer. The shoulder mount isn't great for Mtb though as the arms get in the way too much and although you can use a pole attached to the bag I don't like that idea in case of an off while riding!

I haven't tried the bags chest strap but may try that tomorrow

Used it mainly for snowboarding and it's very cool, nice pocket in the top for camera and batteries as well

 

[Rob Rides EMTB]

Here's my home made chin mount with the GoPole Arm that I cut down. I cut away a channel of the padding in the helmet chin mount for the GoPole to sit in, then cable tied / glued it in place. Clear glue would have looked much neater but I only had white in the house!

If you need to, you add on more adaptors and stuff to the bottom if you need to make it longer etc. Once its in place its pretty permanent, but you can take off the GoPro housing and just leave the little stubby GoPro mount sticking out of the bottom.

Spare batteries that I use: https://amzn.to/2IHxuzd

 

[Mgbudd]

Nice one rob

 

[davosaurusrex]

How much do Gopro do in terms of ongoing firmware updates to sort out the issues? I'm holding off buying one until I sell my DSLR but presumably the only difference to later ones out of the factory is that they'll have any updates done in house so would imagine it makes no real difference? I'm also not keen on shelling out nearly £400 on a product that doesn't get ongoing support and development if it has issues out of the box.

 

[davosaurusrex]

Also think I'll wait for one of those eBay 10% off days....

 

[Bongofish]

Going to try and get out in a few hours for an hour of shooting some go pro footage. I'll post results in here later.....or if @Rob Hancill has made a separate place I'll post there ?