spike747
Well-known member
For those of you looking for the very best from their Gopro Hero 2's, I just did some testing that shows some pretty interesting results. So far all I've done is picture testing, not video testing. I briefly checked the manual and I didn't find anywhere that explained the amount of compression used to make a JPG in the various modes (more compression on a JPG = less color accuracy). So I did some quick tests with my two cards (a class4 and a class 10+ which is actually a 15 Mbit/s card) and found the following:
1. The 10 fps burst mode actually takes the pictures in about a half second and puts them in an internal buffer. So it doesn't matter what class of card you have. You will always get 10 photos taken in less then a second. But moving the pics from the buffer to the SD card will take much longer on a class 4 then a class 10+. My cards took 15 seconds and 6 seconds respectively. So the higher class card allows you to take another set of 10 fps burst sooner.
The flip side of this is the JPGs from the 10fps mode are compressed ALOT more then standard single shot mode. My photos taken at the same object both at 11 Megapixel mode were about 1.2 Meg in size in 10 fps mode and about 5-6 Meg in size in single shot mode. So in order for the camera to keep up with the demand in this mode, it compresses the JPG alot before writing to the SD card.
So if you absolutely need 10 fps second, just keep in mind the quality of the jpgs coming out are less then single shot mode. They will probably need some post production to make them look better.
2. The time laps mode showed similar results that 10 fps mode did when I had it set to 0.5 and 1 sec time laps. So the pics from 0.5 and 1 sec mode were compressed alot. But when I increased to 2 and 5 second time laps, the quality was much higher being equivalent to the single shot mode.
So if you want the higher quality pics in time laps you might want to consider 2 seconds as you minimum time.
3. I tested time laps with 0.5 seconds with the class 4 card thinking it would not be able to keep up. I was wrong. It does keep up. But it was because again the JPG was compressed alot. Even when I put my class 10+ card in, the JPG was still compressed alot. So the camera does not dynamically change the JPG compression based on the type of card you put in. It is just hard coded to do certain compressions with certain settings.
4. I repeated the above tests in 5 Mega pixel mode and found similar results. Just scaled to 5 mega pixel instead.
So if anyone is looking for the very best quality out of their pics, keep this stuff in mind when choosing your setup. You only get one chance at that golden shot.
Anyone else got some useful tips, please chime in.
1. The 10 fps burst mode actually takes the pictures in about a half second and puts them in an internal buffer. So it doesn't matter what class of card you have. You will always get 10 photos taken in less then a second. But moving the pics from the buffer to the SD card will take much longer on a class 4 then a class 10+. My cards took 15 seconds and 6 seconds respectively. So the higher class card allows you to take another set of 10 fps burst sooner.
The flip side of this is the JPGs from the 10fps mode are compressed ALOT more then standard single shot mode. My photos taken at the same object both at 11 Megapixel mode were about 1.2 Meg in size in 10 fps mode and about 5-6 Meg in size in single shot mode. So in order for the camera to keep up with the demand in this mode, it compresses the JPG alot before writing to the SD card.
So if you absolutely need 10 fps second, just keep in mind the quality of the jpgs coming out are less then single shot mode. They will probably need some post production to make them look better.
2. The time laps mode showed similar results that 10 fps mode did when I had it set to 0.5 and 1 sec time laps. So the pics from 0.5 and 1 sec mode were compressed alot. But when I increased to 2 and 5 second time laps, the quality was much higher being equivalent to the single shot mode.
So if you want the higher quality pics in time laps you might want to consider 2 seconds as you minimum time.
3. I tested time laps with 0.5 seconds with the class 4 card thinking it would not be able to keep up. I was wrong. It does keep up. But it was because again the JPG was compressed alot. Even when I put my class 10+ card in, the JPG was still compressed alot. So the camera does not dynamically change the JPG compression based on the type of card you put in. It is just hard coded to do certain compressions with certain settings.
4. I repeated the above tests in 5 Mega pixel mode and found similar results. Just scaled to 5 mega pixel instead.
So if anyone is looking for the very best quality out of their pics, keep this stuff in mind when choosing your setup. You only get one chance at that golden shot.
Anyone else got some useful tips, please chime in.
