4K/2.7K with GoPro4 Black or Silver (1 Viewer)

[scotview]

Hi,

Has anyone experience of using the new 4K/2.7K GoPro cameras for VideoScoping ?

The GoPro4 has 2.7K as one of it's video formats and this might be a nice intermediate format in stepping up to UHD video production/image grabbing.

It doesn't look like the GoPro has optical zoom though, which might be a limitation.

Thanks,

Scotview

 

[Moocher]

I have considered this myself, I hope someone has tried it and can offer a bit of a review. I can see so much potential in a go pro as a bit of a nature filming camera, it would be such an added bonus if it did a reasonable job of Videoscoping too..

 

[postcardcv]

I suspect that the fixed wide angle lens will make videos coping with one very tricky. I have a 3 and will try it on the scope tomorrow.

 

[Moocher]

I suspect that the fixed wide angle lens will make videos coping with one very tricky. I have a 3 and will try it on the scope tomorrow.

Cheers Postcardcv, look forward to your feedback. :t:

 

[scotview]

Thanks Postcardcv,

It will be interesting to see how the GoPro lense behaves with a scope eyepiece.

I believe the video field of view can be set to ultra wide, medium and narrow but I'm not sure if this would overcome vignetting.

Look forward to the results and many thanks.

Scotview

 

[postcardcv]

Just did a quick check (battery was very low so only had a couple of minute life to play with) and it looks better thank expected. Using a Swaro 80mm with a fixed 30x eyepeice the gopro gave what appears to be a vignette free image when using the narrow fov setting. Vingetting was very obvious at other settings. Due to the low battery life I couldn't shoot a test video (would have been tricky as I was handholding it to the eyepeice) but it does look promising. Will try to work away to hold it in place and try a test video soon.

 

[postcardcv]

Screen grabs from the WiFi app showing level on vingetting at all three fov settings. Not great quality as the app seems to deliver a low res preview image but it does give an idea.

 

[scotview]

Thanks Postcardcv for doing that initial test. Interesting that the narrow field of view gave no vignetting and presumably this will give the least distorted image.

 

[Moocher]

Thanks for the info Postcardcv. Hope you can rig it up to your scope somehow. It looks like it might just do the job?

 

[scotview]

Spec limitations in UHD

My intention would be to use the GoPro4 to create video in 4K or 2.7K format, primarily to improve the quality of "grabbed" jpeg images.

Unfortunately, the camera specs on the GoPro site show that only 1080p video format is supported in the "narrow" field of view setting.

2.7K is available on the "Medium" FOV setting and 4K is only available on the "wide" FOV setting.

So, unless vignetting can be overcome with the medium and wide FOV settings the camera looks to be limited to 1080p videoscoping.

Optical zoom to X2 or X3 would have been good but I suppose the camera would have cost more.

 

[Paul - Herts]

To use a GoPro for videoscoping you would have to change the lens I reckon. There are custom kits for connecting them to different lenses, Backbone ribcage is one I looked at, so it is possible - what isn't these days. Think you'd need to be creative to get it on a scope though.
I fancied one for setting up as a live view camera trap but the battery life is just too short lived