GoPro hero session

[Ric]

I lost my gopro3+ with the magenta filter, gone...my fault.
Anyways, now I am thinking:
Gopro4 vs Session which has the best sensitivity in low light ?
And I still want a magenta filter. I am not sure these filters can fit the Sessions or gopro5.

I have read review/comment that the filter doesn't make any difference. It does, but you are supposed to adjust the white balance with the software after the shooting. So a gopro that can't take a filter is not good to me.

[Ric]

I can get a Hero4 refurbished
or a Session (Hero5 I assume).

Any advice is welcome.

[Ric]

I finally got the Session (the Hero 4 session).

I tested it only in a dry situation. Image quality is certainly not better than my Gopro3+ silver. The 3+ was grainy in low light, so is the Session. The Narrow field is missing in the session but since I never used it, I wont complain about that. The big difference is in the controls.
I had to dig really hard in the Gopro web site to reinitialize the Session's Time and Date, using the manual way through the SD card.
Will see how it works in the waves. Hopefully it will be put and forget with no fussing. I hope the battery can hold 90minutes in the cold water, that 's all I ask. The 3+ could not do better than that.
And for the image quality, without a magenta filter, I don't even expect better than the 3+

[Ric]

First try in the water for my Session4, first movie and...corrupted file or something that prevents me from making clips in GoproStudio
On the Gopro support FAQ, the blame is conveniently put on the SD card, but I am using the same SD type 10 card that I was using for my Hero3+ with no problem.

[Ric]

The gopro softwares are so buggy or unpractical.

Gopro studio doesn't work anymore, it freezes after the conversion step and that is a problem that all users have encountered, yet Gopro didn't provide a patch for this problem.
We are left with another software from Gopro, called Quik. Quik doesn't allow to keep the original sound of the video and instead replace it with a Music track. And there is no option for not using the music, you must include one of the 10 'free' music tracks provided !
I used quotes for 'free', because even provided that you want to use the Music, some users report that Youtube warns them of copyrights infringement on this music !The solution, how surprising, is to subscribe to the non free version of Quik.
This is surrealist; Gopro forces you to break Youtube Copyrights with Quik and doesn't try to fix Gopro Studio !
You can't make clips out of your videos and build a small movie in Studio and Quik can only produce a 1 min clip, in addition to forcing you to use a music. What's left ? Windows Movie Maker . Thank you Gopro !

Brute videos out of the Session is OK, but no better than a Gopro hero 3. It's advertised as smaller than a classic hero, but not even IMO because it is shaped like a cube, thicker than the smallest dimension (width) of a classical hero.
Image quality is OK, performance OK. Magenta filter improves, but the problem with the softwares provided by Gopro is overwhelming.

So going for a Session was a mistake, I should have gone for a Classic hero, which are by the way more expensive, even a refurbished Hero4 is $100 more than a brand new Session 4. There must be a reason for that.
You have been warned.

[Ric]

Originally Posted by Jason7654

I have the hero session, which was originally called the hero 4 session. It's the under $200 version. I like it. My understanding is the sessions have the same video camera as the other goPros, but without the LCD screen. I mounted mine to my mask (a mako minimus) with a bolt/screw, then plastic epoxy:




I've used it snorkeling/lobstering up to 20 ft without a housing, and it was fine with that depth. The underwater sound is best with no housing. Here is an example video without a housing.

http://youtu.be/-yvl0OdyvEs


I was worried about scratching the lens putting my head into lobster holes, so I did get a housing. First I got this one which has a glass front. It shattered when I dropped it 2 feet after the second time using it. I then got this one which is all plastic. I've used it a half dozen times now and I like it. Here is an example video in that housing. You still hear things fairly well, and video quality seems the same.

http://youtu.be/O6CJTwlq4ak


I'm not sure what alldayreese means. This camera starts and stops recording when you hit the top button. I turn it off and on easily while freediving. I can hear the beeps that tell you if it is on or off (in case I forget and don't want to remove my mask to look). It works great.

The main negative I see is the battery life is not great, and you cannot remove the battery to pop in a spare. Mine gets 1:45-2 hours life. When it is dead, it can only be charged by USB.

Nice video.
Even if I rarely go under 20ft, I still use a housing case for protection against scratches from sand or rocks since it is always wavy and turbulent where I dive. Actually even with 'good viz' aka 20ft in NJ, I crashed head first on a rock while descending, and my cam hit the rock. No damages since it was in a case. Actually the filter must have hit first but it is not scratched in the center.

May I ask what video software did you use ? I'd assume gopro studio...how did you manage to make it work ?

[Ric]

Anyways...

The Gopro Session, although it is not indicated as 4 but as "session", is the replacement of the previous Session 4.
The video quality in terms of range optic and sensitivity is definitively not as good as a Gopro3+ Silver, which I used previously.

Range : lots of bloated/saturated areas in the Session. That also may be because the contrast is excessive, anyways my Gopro3+ silver was better with less oversaturated areas.
Field of view : My Gopro3+ Silver had a more linear, less distorted field of view in Medium. The 'medium' equivalent in the Session shows curvature and has a shorter focal length than a 3+ and as a result, objects shot in 'Medium' in the session are smaller than in a 3+ Medium.
And I also think the gopro3+ was more sensitive in low light/green light than the Session.

Now I'd expect a comparison with a Gopro4 classic of any type to be worse for the session.

Plus the limitation at 30 feet is too restrictive and without a waterproof housing case, expect lots of scratches. The bottom line : you need a housing.
Plus, even if you find a case for your Session, which I did, the compatible filters will have to fit that cubic housing shape which results in bigger filters than those for classic gopros. Altogether, a Session + case + filter, is a bulkier system than a classic Gopro + housing + Filter.

In short, I don't know how a Session 5 would compare, but the session(4) is not worth the money IMO if you already have a classic gopro.

The only advantage of the session is its price $149. It works, OK, it really is a shoot and forget cam that didn't gave me any problem. Battery life was good 90 to 120 minutes, in 50 degre water. I had no problem really except the software issue. I have taken a video to prove it : https://youtu.be/uX3bR0iE4mk
Taken at 1080 X 30fps/ Medium + light Magenta filter.
Not sure the chip is sensitive enough to use it at 60fps with a filter at 15ft deep in green water.

How nice you may (or not) think of that video, believe me I definitively feel it's a downgrade from the classic 3+ Silver.
So you know.

[Ric]

Another update, regarding the session but it may apply to other Gopros as well.

I used a Red Filter, supposedly needed in deep tropical blue water, in shallow (15ft maybe) turbid water with low visibility (6-8ft) of the Manasquan inlet. Usually I would only use a magenta filter, made for green water, or even a very light mangenta filter made for snorkeling, but the videos made with a red filter turned out perfect without post-processing for white balance.
I mean directly out of the camera, the image was very nicely white-balanced in 1080X30fps, medium field, Session.
That is after reviewing my raw footages, if I make a video out of it, I may apply only the ' protune' filter, which only improves the contrast but does not change the white balance.
Sometimes I apply a white balance correction by software in Gopro studio, but with a red filter, it turned out not necessary. So don't be afraid to use a Red filter in place of a Magenta one, at least in shallow 15ft deep green water, it will work nicely.

[Ric]

Yet another update

Still with the session with a filter, it turns out that there is always a bubble developing in the space between the filter and the case. I have still to figure out what to do about that, but it is not as simple as lifting your head up to let the bubble escape. I am not sure if it is actually air from the surface that is trapped, or air when I blow in my mask at depth. It is annoying anyways because the bubble stays half way in the filter like an horizontal line in the middle of the field.
I don't think that happened with the classical gopro + filter.
Still, I wouldn't dive without a filter anymore because the white balance is corrected automatically and nicely at any depth, including at the surface, provided there are Blue, Green and Red colors around to set the balance.

[Ric]

Update on the 'Gopro Studio' software.
For those who have issues aka the software crashes. It seems the simplest solution is to run it under Windows 10.

Now I am thinking about trying my session without its dive case (because better resolution and better sound even if I'd loose the filter) I know it is supposedly guaranteed for 30 feet and I don't intend to dive that deep, but sometimes I can get close. Also : is it 30 feet of soft water or salt water ? big difference.

IN SHORT, HAS ANYONE HERE TRIED A HERO SESSION (SESSION4) IN 30 FT OF SEA WATER, WITH PARTICLES OF SAND IN SUSPENSION AND ALL THE CRAP, WITHOUT A DIVE CASE AND HOW DID IT DO ? THANKS.

[Ric]

Originally Posted by Ric

Update on the 'Gopro Studio' software.
For those who have issues aka the software crashes. It seems the simplest solution is to run it under Windows 10.

I have to correct myself here : upgrading to Windows10 may be the ONLY solution, not the simplest.
I did it and it fixed everything. GoproStudio finally works, that's the most important.
And Quick works too, but it already worked in Windows7.

[kmoose]

For as much as they cost I wouldn’t run it without the case. Just too many interface ports that get opened and closed often that could fail. All it takes is a hair or piece of dirt to let one drop in.