Going Slow-mo with GoPro's newly released settings
GoPro announced a new camera update this month along with two new video settings for the Hero 4 Black; 720p240 and 2.7K 60. What does this mean?
Well if we look at the first setting, 720p refers to the screen resolution; 1280x720 pixels. More pixels mean higher quality images. 240 refers to the frame rate. Video is really a series of pictures or frames, which are recorded at a normal speed but can be played back at faster or slower rate. More frames mean you are capturing more steps within the action, and more steps mean that it's easier to slow the footage down on playback for a slow motion effect.
Footage to be used for slow motion is usually recorded at 60 or more frames per second (fps) and 240 frames is the maximum fps setting offered by GoPro.
In a nutshell, the more frames per second, the more you can slow down the action.
Until now, 240fps was only offered in WVGA mode, a video mode with far less pixels than 720p. So you could achieve super slow motion but it was a lower quality video. 720p240 offers the same super slow motion capability in a higher quality video. I wanted to test this out so I ventured out into the cold winter air and tried it for myself. Check out the video.
I recorded this video in 720p240, imported it into GoPro's free studio software, and slowed the action down to 8%. As far as the other new setting goes; 2.7K is an even higher quality video that was previously only offered at 24, 30 and 48 fps so the new 60 fps setting adds even more slow motion options to this versatile little camera. The video will be higher quality than mine due to the increased number of pixels, but the slow motion will be more limited. Both are great options depending on the speed of the action you're trying to capture.
If you want to see the full list of updates for yourself, check out this link on GoPro's website: http://gopro.com/update/HERO4
