So my buddy Jonathan had a GoPro Hero3 sitting around the house. His brother (who manages a motorcycle shop) won it at a convention, traded it to Jonathan for a kindle fire, and it ended up sitting on his desk... So I did 3 hours worth of welding for him and he gave it to me as payment!!!!

Woot woot, free GoPro!!

I can't tell whether its a silver or black edition though. There seemed to be an issue with the battery, so he replaced it and I'm trying it out as I type this post.

So...

1. Just out of curiosity, is there an easy way to tell if its a silver or black?

2. Any recommendations or helpful information from those of you with GoPro experience would be much appreciated.

I learned from past experience with this camera that the battery seems to last longer when the Wifi is turned off,... Any other advice?

He's let me borrow it before,... But now it's MINE !!!!!!!

The black comes with a bunch of extra bells and whistle for editing and movie making. I have the silver and it is enough to do quite a bit as for filming. Nice camera, good score.

I think there's an external difference - the Black has black rubber backing on the door? Dunno...

Check in the settings - you'll be able to tell from there: Black has all the big rez and higher frame rates.

I think one way to tell is what is the highest/largest pictures it can take?

White: 5mp
Silver: 11mp
Black: 12mp

And movies go to 1440 on the black?

Yes; the 1440 is a difference between the two. Also; unbelievably; after looking into it some more. The number 3 on the front of the case of all things is either white, silver, or black.

Looks to be silver then...

Any additional helpful tips etc.?

My only advice is to go make a cool video and post it as soon as possible

Best Advice is shoot shoot shoot, that's the only way you're really going to learn the camera and what it can produce.

I'm a big advocate of shooting at higher frame rates like 60 fps for smoother motion playback

Be creative in your camera angles and shots.


and read read read, 98% of your questions answered here:


http://goprouser.freeforums.org/

From my personal experience:

Don't record your epic masterpiece the first time out at the highest setting or you may never do anything with the footage especially if you have hours and hours of footage.

After recording something at high res; you may very well record at 720 or less from then on especially if it's just going to be a quick clip to go on Youtube.

Reason: It takes an absolute beast of a machine to edit and process and deal with high res footage. Not to mention the hard drive space.

It's beyond easy to record hours and hours and gigs and gigs of footage. Not so fun or easy to edit it to do anything with it.

Record a test video at your desired resolution and load it into the GoPro software to edit it or whatever software you prefer and cut and splice a few scenes and compile/render it and just see how easy your machine handles it and go from there.

Can someone post a linky to what you would use to mount the GoPro to the kite (bridle)?

Quote: Originally posted by soliver

Can someone post a linky to what you would use to mount the GoPro to the kite (bridle)?

I was screwing around with a few ideas on how to connect the gopro to the power line near the kite and after a few hours of dozens of failures my grandson asked why I didnt do it this way and showed me in a split second what actually works quite well.
I will take a picture and post it later. In simple terms, put the camera in its case and set the camera to record upside down. Run the line around the pin of the helmet mount and it will rotate as you fly and remain in the upside down position while flying. Now that your completely confused, I need to take a picture to explain.
I'll be back.

I used a thicker line so it could be seen for clarity.

As the line is pulled tight it stays in place and still rotates with movment of the kite. It just hangs there while taking pictures or videos. Place it close to the kite to video the person, put it close to the handles and point it towards the kite to get a different point of view.

I saw this

http://www.amazon.com/XSories-Kite-Mount-GoPro-HERO2/dp/B00C...

And wondered if this was what some people used, and what they thought

Quote: Originally posted by soliver

I saw this http://www.amazon.com/XSories-Kite-Mount-GoPro-HERO2/dp/B00C... And wondered if this was what some people used, and what they thought

works good with the depowers but not the fb's.

I'm not seeing how your rig works, Jeff.

Is there something on the market that works on FB kites

I suggest you also download the GoPro App for your tablet or phone and use the wireless to set up the camera, battery life and the settings. Easier than scrolling through all of the menus..

http://gopro.com/software-app/gopro-app

Quote: Originally posted by soliver

I'm not seeing how your rig works, Jeff. Is there something on the market that works on FB kites

not that I know of, been looking forever.
as for the setup, the picture is er I will take another picture to clarify.
I'll be back.

Thanks Riff, I did that before I even owned the camera,... Jonathan used to let me borrow it from time to time so I've had the app for a while. I have found though that the wifi feature on the camera tends to drain the battery faster.

What I've found works is to get the camera set up using my iPhone as a viewfinder then I shut the wifi off and use the manual buttons on the camera to start and stop recording.

the bridle is on the left. The camera os looking towards the handles.

This is what it looks like before, during, and after launch. OK?

Quote: Originally posted by soliver

Thanks Riff, I did that before I even owned the camera,... Jonathan used to let me borrow it from time to time so I've had the app for a while. I have found though that the wifi feature on the camera tends to drain the battery faster. What I've found works is to get the camera set up using my iPhone as a viewfinder then I shut the wifi off and use the manual buttons on the camera to start and stop recording.

Exactly!!! Also the App will tell you which version GoPro you have when you power it on. It shows on the virtual power button.

Jeff, does the camera stay stationary enough to get good shots?

I predict a whole lot of wiggle in Jeff's single line simple wrap mount..............maybe tequila is involved in order to view the video as level and not blurry.?

Jeff, are you not shortening one of your lines by wrapping it? Maybe not enough to affect it?

That kiteline mount might be mountable to an appropriately spaced bridle 'V'. However, the risk is high for bridle tangles.

You could try something like this. Starting at 11:20 it shows you what it looks like in flight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiUek7Egs2A

That's really a cool idea. I'm going to try that on the Montana next time out. Should give an interesting perspective.

this DIY line rig worked well for Depower rigs. its just a line winder with a fixed gopro thing and bungees







and the application...

http://vimeo.com/37216443

Yes it will wobble and swing a bit. If you are cranking hard on the kite as you turn it will stay put very well. like swinging your arm around in a big circle while holding a glass of water by the top of the glass, nothing spills out and it stays in relative position.
As for the video, you have to twist your head to watch the video. I did this idea with velcro to the kite and the back of the camera and a safety line to the bridle. With the video idea, I lost the latch for my case when it landed a bit hard. Scratched the lenz as it cruise across the parking lot.
I want somthing that will stay in one relitive position.

As for the 1/2" of line that I loose with it looped around the screw isnt an issue. I'm all for a better idea, been too many trips to the park and beach to try the bazillion different ideas and broken cases and damaged cameras to poo poo any ones idea.
Think about it, make it, and try it out. Then show us the video. One of the reasons I quit using the helmet mount is the back and forth, back and forth, not an enjoyable view. Neither is laying on my side for 2 seconds and then the other side for 4 seconds and then standing on my head for the swing shot back to upright to do it all over again..... Im dizzy and sick to my stomach just writing about it.
But just to clear things up, no one enjoys my home movies more than me. So yours will be just like mine, home movies, unless someone comes up with a great fixed bridle camera mount that will remain right side up all the time, or am I wrong?

The closest I came was with a piece of plexy glass with a 4 inch hole in the center that my gopro fastened to that rotated in the hole on a lazy susan type of plate that was conneted to the plexy that was connected to the kite much like the video of the snapshot. Worked great on that one kite. It was to hard to remove and put it on another kite. Plus it was a bit heavy, besides it broke when it hit the beach:o