GP Hero 3+ Black edition for $250
1In the official GoPro eBay store, while supplies last, you can grab a GoPro Hero 3+ Black edition for $250 with free shipping. Full 1 year GoPro warranty.
This model will do 4K/15, but also 1080p/60, 720p/120, and WVGA/240.
If you've got the budget for it, this is one to own.
- 5 comments, 23 replies
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Is 4K/15 worthwhile? Sounds like it would be choppy.
I've wanted a gopro for a while but I'm too cheap to spring for one, and haven't committed to any of the imitators. I do have a Meh special Oregon scientific that I'll try to fly on the 250 :)
@djslack I've watched 4K/15. It gives me a headache. Personally I don't much see the point. Frame caps I guess?
@djslack BTW, I grabbed a iLook on eBay last weekend. Brand new in box for $66 delivered. It's only 720p/30, but with the built-in 5.8Ghz video transmitter and light weight (just 65g including the video transmitter), I feel like it was a solid value at that price.
@ruouttaurmind that is solid, i might jump on something like that. Under $80 is impulse buyable without much regret, especially for a known item. $250 makes me think about it too much.
@djslack I subscribe to about the same philosophy. Anything over about $65ish and I overthink it. My credit cards tend to encourage much overthought. :-)
@djslack i don't use the 4k setting because of the frame rate. that said the other options are also higher in the black edition so you can do 2K at 30 fps ant 1080p at 60 fps and 720p at 120 fps so you can do slowmo video. Those options were the reason I went with the Black edition.
I believe Silver edition will do everything except 2k, but the price difference is negligible. Might as well spring for the Black I think.
@ruouttaurmind it'll do 1080p and 720p just not at those framerates. That's the one thing the Black has always had over the silver is all of the frame rates go up across the board. Now if you're talking Hero3 black vs Hero4 silver those will probably be close to the same recording stats. I think that's how they work it anyways.
@DJMajickMan From the eBay product page: "Video: 1080p60 / 960p60 / 720p120 fps"
@ruouttaurmind yes for the black edition. Silver edition won't do those frame rates.
@DJMajickMan That's actually from the Silver product page on eBay. The Black says: "High-performance 4Kp15, 2.7Kp30, 1440p48, 1080p60, 960p100, 720p120 fps video"
@DJMajickMan I suspect you're thinking of the 3 Silver, not the 3+ Silver?
@ruouttaurmind looks like you're right https://gopro.com/support/articles/hero3plus-camera-comparison must have gotten my comparison sheet from somewhere else on their site.
@djslack Hey slack, if I buy this GoPro deal, do you want to take that new iLook off my hands?
@ruouttaurmind that sounds like a good idea to me.
@djslack Sent you a PM from DroneBuilder
I've earned $40 in eBay bucks during the last calendar quarter, but they won't be available to spend until Saturday. By then this deal will surely be sold out. I'd jump on this one if I could use those points towards purchase.
What to do... what to do...
@ruouttaurmind I got $70 from my ebay bucks and I'm thinking the very same thing, but not sure if it would be a good use of my money since I already bought the AEE S71 :(.
@garyhgaryh Heck, I'm just trying to catch up with your S71! :-)
Many thanks to @djslack for helping me shift some assets and paving the way for me to jump on this GoPro deal. I've never owned one before, so I'm a bit curious to see what all the hubub is about.
@ruouttaurmind I would have bought the ilook! Damn! That's what I get for not checking this forum as often as before.
@ruouttaurmind I hooked up the iLook and my vrx today, it sends a good looking picture. Thanks again! I need to find a way to mount it somewhere besides my gimbal without a gopro style shell case on it. Guess I need to get my 3d printer going.
@djslack Glad you're satisfied! Have you considered using it on your 250? It's a tidy, compact, pretty lightweight setup. I'm considering it myself (I still have the one that came with the second QR X350 Pro a couple of weeks ago).
@ruouttaurmind I did consider it, don't have a clean mounting setup for it atm. I set up the board camera tonight, but i may switch back. It's a bit wider than the frame but would be lighter than having the fpv cam and a second cam to record, unless i get a Mobius as well.
I want to have a few fpv craft though, so I will probably end up finding/designing a 3d printed mount that I can use in several ways for it. I have a pretty big seaplane that would have no problem hauling a camera, that would be fun too.
I received my GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition today. I'll post a full review once I have a chance to really try it out. I charged up the battery and did a quick 15 second test vid.
I have to say, I'm a bit underwhelmed with the video quality right now. Lots of video noise in the 1080p/60 video. I'll have to RTFM and figure out the advanced settings, then try again armed with the knowledge of how to adjust settings for optimum vid quality.
I also downloaded the GoPro Android app and setup a wifi connection between the camera and my tablet. Nice feature and decent range. I was able to walk about 250 feet up the street before the visual artifacts started appearing. And that's in a suburban neighborhood flooded with wifi devices. It's a shame we can't use the this capability with our UAV's. It sure would simplify photography and videography FPV. Not useful for piloting FPV though due to the excessive latency.
@ruouttaurmind that's basically the fpv setup my phantom has, except the fc40 camera was free and only 720p30. Nice for checking shots, terrible for actual flying. But in an open area the range is impressive.
Hope you get the settings tweaked, in general gopro video seems to be excellent quality.
@ruouttaurmind I decided not to order since I missed out on the free shipping. I guess I used that reason because I bought the AEE S71.
Did a few test videos with the 3+ Black today. In midday bright sunlight I didn't experience the video noise I complained about yesterday. But as the day evolved into late afternoon, the noise returned. Apparently this camera doesn't care for 60fps in anything but the brightest sunlight.
And I'll be darned if I can figure out any good use for the "Superview" setting. It distorts the image terribly. I'm still messing with the various cap modes to figure out which I think will be best for aerial, but I'm leaning towards standard 1080p/60. It seems to have the least amount of fish-eye distortion with plenty of data saturation for post tricks like stills and slowmo.
Also messed around with the 60fps footage in post. Slowmo quality is fantastic. Slowing 60fps down to 24 cinematic is crisp, smooth and clear as a bell. Even 1440/48 slowed to 24 cine is exceptional. 4K... well, not really much you can do with 15fps, is there.
Still on my ToDo list: messing with Protune settings. LOTS of different settings there to play with. It's going to take some time to get through all of them.
Site note: I was having trouble with 1440p mode and any Superview mode. No matter which frame rate I selected, the camera would record 8 to 10 second and stop recording. Turns out I was (mistakenly) using a C-4 MicroSD card. I plugged in my new C10 Samsung EVO 64GB SDXC card (Walmart flash deal Monday, $19.57) and all modes worked perfectly.
Full review and video coming. Maybe not soon... but coming. :-)