(Compare all GoPros)

HEROs 9 to 12 can do the Duration Capture and you can set it from 15 seconds up to 3 hours. To set a specific time you want to start a Duration Capture, set a Scheduled Capture so you don’t have to get out of bed for that sunrise!

You can also schedule a time to start a capture on a GoPro.

Set Duration Capture on the GoPro

1. Press and hold Preset Pill
2. Scroll down and tap duration
3. Set time you want on scroller
4. Press Mode Button to return to idle/main screen
5. When you start a recording, the Top Pill will show the duration

To turn off, follow the steps and set to No Limit.

The duration only shows on the main screen if there is a scheduled capture set.

Set Duration Capture in the Quik App

1. Pair camera
2. Tap Preset Pill
3. Scroll down and tap Duration
4. Pick Duration
5. 15, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5, 15, 30, 1 hour, 2, 3 hours or no limit
6. Tap back arrow
7. Tap X top left

To turn off, follow the steps and set the time to No Limit.

Tips

• For recording for longer than 1 battery (about an hour) the camera will need to be plugged in.
• Set Scheduled Capture to start recording automatically for the time you set in Duration Capture.

The post How to set a Timer on a GoPro shot first appeared on Pack & Trail.

(Compare all the GoPros)

You can also set a timer on the duration of the GoPro shots.

Set Scheduled Capture on the GoPro

You can set Scheduled Capture right on the camera without a phone.

1. Hold the Preset button and scroll to bottom
2. Click Scheduled Capture
3. Time will be gray if Scheduled Capture is off
4. Turn Scheduled Capture on
5. Select the time you want
6. Click back arrow
7. The blue pill at the top the main screen will show the set time for capture. Duration will show there if it is set.
8. Turn the GoPro off. It will turn on at the scheduled time.

Set Scheduled Capture on your phone

1. Open Quik app
2. Pair with camera
3. Tap Preset pill
4. Tap Pencil on a Preset
5. Scroll down tap Scheduled Capture
6. Set time by moving dial or select keyboard (first movement is hour, second is minute)

Scheduling tips

• You can only set a time in the next 24 hours with Scheduled Capture
• Duration Capture can be set as well so the recording will stop
• If Duration Capture isn’t set, the GoPro will just run until the battery dies (the recording will still save)
• Set Auto Power Off in the GoPro settings to not kill your battery after the Duration Capture is done

Got any cool shots with a Scheduled Capture? Share them in the comments!

Buy the latest GoPro

The post How to Schedule a Shot on a GoPro first appeared on Pack & Trail.

The Osmo Action Camera is a GoPro-sized action camera a solid feature set. With their experience with stabilization, camera and lens hardware and tiny form factors, DJI has put together an impressive display on their first crack at an action camera. GoPro had better take notice because they have hungry competition hot on their heels.

This is great for us customers because with no real competition in the last couple years, GoPro has got complacent, making small tweaks to a solid platform. With DJI poised to swipe the action cam crown, they need to put it all on the table for the GoPro 9.

Let’s have a look at the Osmo Action.

DJI Osmo Action Specs

• Video

  • 4K 60 fps

  • 2.7k (16:9) 60 fps

  • 1080p 240 fps

• Still photos at 4000×3000 pixels max

• Time lapse

• Mov, Mp4 (H.264) formats

• 2.25 inch back screen

• 1.4 inch front screen

• 124 grams

• RockSteady image stabilization

Back screen on the Osmo Action

Dual Screen

The Osmo Action has 2 screens like many other action cameras do but this is a full color display that is plenty to see yourself from the front. It’s only 1.4 inches diagonal but all you need when you’re ripping down the while is if you’re centered in your shot. Tapping the rear screen with 2 fingers or holding the Quick Switch button for 2 seconds switches screens. The same actions switches back.

The lens on the action cameras are so wide that it may not be hard to stay in from but it’s still nice to know where you are and if your head is cut off.

RockSteady Stabilization

The RockSteady stabilization is impressive and does a very good job stabilizing bumpy footage. It does come at the cost of a crop which is just a fact of life with any electronic stabilization. To make it look stable it has to cut off the edges.

The crop is slightly more than GoPro and their HyperSmooth 2.0 stabilization but GoPro has had a couple iterations to improve. DJI is good at getting better with every version so I’m sure each firmware and each new version of the camera is just going to get better and better.

The first version of the camera firmware had a considerable playback lag when RockSteady was on. It would record, apply RockSteady and then play it back seconds later.

Mimo App

DJI Mimo app for controlling the Osmo Action and editing clips.

DJI has a bunch of apps you can use to capture and edit your videos. Most are designed for use with one of their products. For the Osmo Action, Osmo Pocket and Osmo Mobile 3, the Mimo (My Moment) app is used for controlling the camera, reviewing media and editing video.

It feels simple but it’s got a ton of features. Controlling the camera is easy. You can quickly view all clips on your phone or switch to just clips downloaded from the Osmo Action. The video editing interface (shown in the screenshot) which can be a cluttered mess in other apps, is straightforward and simple. I easily edited a short video with clips right after downloading the app for the first time.

If you edit clips on your phone a lot this Mimo app is a good one to get.

Is it a GoPro Killer?

The Osmo Action is an amazing first action camera and I’m excited to see what DJI has in store for a next iteration. They know how to improve their products quickly and have completely taken over the drone market.

This first version is a solid action camera. With the firmware update fixing the playback lag it’s become one of the best action cameras you can get. The front screen and removeable lens covers give it a leg up on the competition already. And it’s just going to get better.

The post DJI Osmo Action Camera Review first appeared on Pack & Trail.

Larger cameras with interchangeable lenses are (for the most part) the only way to get very large, professional-level photos. There are lenses that can take photos from hundreds of metres away or mere millimeters.

And then there’s action cameras. These do-anything, go-anywhere cameras can be mounted to surfboards, helmets, motorcycles, or plane windows. They take videos, shoot photos and can look as good as any other kind of camera.

The GoPro Hero8 is the latest iteration in the GoPro line of cameras, arguably the camera that started the action camera industry.

The GoPro Hero8 Action Camera

Every year the GoPro gets a little bit better. This year is no exception and it’s all adding up. They’ve managed to pack so much tech into this tiny little camera, it’s insane what’s going on in there. The next version might be able to cook food for you too.

First some specs and then we’ll break down how they all perform.

• up to 4K60 and 1080p240

• HyperSmooth 2.0 Stabilization

• TimeWarp 2.0 hyperlapses

• SuperPhoto

• Night Lapse Video

• Built-in mounting

• GPS-enabled

4K60 and 1080p240

GoPro Hero 8 in the dirt showing the front screen.

Every year adds bigger and better resolution. 4K at 60 frames per second (fps) looks amazing and is just enough to get you a bit of slow motion if you slow it down to 30 or 24 fps. 4K video is still hard to work with and requires a fast computer and are big files to store but 1080 is high enough quality for most people’s projects.

At 1080 you can easily film at 120 fps which you can slow down 5x or 80% and watch at 24 fps. And Hero8 easily goes to 240 fps for 8-10x slow motion.

Basically, you can choose from any number of resolutions and framerates for what your filming. The digital lens (how wide the video looks) will affect what video modes you can do. The Wide lens has the most options while SuperView, Linear and Narrow have less.

Presets

Manually switching through the 60+ different combinations of resolution, frame rate and digital lens takes a while. Thankfully GoPro has added a preset function that makes switching faster.

When you are out filming, just pick the preset you want, and it sets the resolution, frame rate and how wide the lens is for you. It comes with a set of default presets which you can modify and then slots custom ones, up to 10 total. I wish you could rename the presets but you can see settings they use.

With the presets, you can also choose which shortcuts show on screen and set each ProTunes setting. The shortcuts can control which digital lens you are using, slo-mo, clips, white balance, max ISO and HyperSmooth.

ProTune let’s you set the more advanced settings like shutter speed, ISO min and max, color profile and sharpness. ProTune let’s video editors who want to edit on their computer later dial in the settings so it’s easier to use in the editing suite. By default they are set for regular joes like me who just want to film and then upload.

Unreal stabilization: HyperSmooth 2.0

The most impressive and useful feature of the Hero8 is the stabilization: HyperSmooth 2.0. It takes your handheld video shot and smooths it out realtime in the camera and makes it look like it was on a gimbal. Gimbals are the big stabilizers that take all the shake out of the camera and make it look like their floating. Bigger cameras need bigger stabilizers but regardless of their size they’re another heavy piece of gear to carry.

I don’t have gimbal to test with but after seeing other test videos HyperSmooth very close to using an actual gimbal. And you don’t have to carry anything else, it’s just a button right in the camera. How you don’t have to buy one if you don’t have one and you still get the super steady footage out of your Hero8.

There are 3 settings for HyperSmooth: On, High, and Boost. When set to On, it’s a bit like HyperSmooth 1.0. It crops (zooms in) the picture a little bit and provides a bit of stabilization. High is really enabling HyperSmooth 2.0 and does an amazing job stabilizing with the same crop as the On setting. The Boost setting cranks up the stabilization even more but crops in (zooms in). Higher stabilization settings drains the batteries faster.

Battery

The battery has changed a bit since the version for the 5, 6, and 7. The only visible difference is the bottom is blue and the pull-tab faces the opposite direction. Inside though they can pull more power through it faster than older models for the top end functions on the Hero8 like HyperSmooth 2.0. You can still use the older batteries but the certain features won’t work.

TimeWarp 2.0

TimeWarp 2.0 is GoPro’s hyperlapse feature. These are essentially a moving time lapses. All the time lapse images are automatically compiled into a video in the GoPro and smoothed out by HyperSmooth.

SuperPhoto

Most people won’t sit and edit photos for hours after taking them so GoPro developed SuperPhoto, a smart camera mode for still images. Depending on the lighting the GoPro will apply HDR, tone mapping, or noise reduction to get you the best still image it can straight out of camera.

Night Lapse Video

The Night Lapse mode is just a time lapse mode configured for long exposures at night. These can be hard to do with other cameras so it’s nice to see GoPro offering a mode straight of the box to do this with a few clicks. I haven’t tried northern lights with them but apparently they look epic.

Built-in Mounting

The Hero8 is the first GoPro to not require any sort of case for most shooting. The first GoPro’s needed a whole case to do anything but that really limited the sound. Hero5 turned that on its head by being completely waterproof and only need a frame. Hero8 doesn’t even need a frame, the mounts are built into the bottom, no extra parts required.

If you want to go deeper than 33 feet underwater, then you need a special case for those depths. It will kill your sounds but I bet you’re recording any audio at 50-100 feet under the water anyways.

The built-in mount isn’t as sturdy as the frame, the 2 prongs can move side to side a bit even when it’s mounted tight. My Hero8 had this issue straight out of the box. It doesn’t really cause an issue most of the time. If these prongs break off, you’ll have to use a Frame mount but at least there’s already an alternative.

Issues

There’s not much to complain about the Hero8 but I’ve yet to see a perfect piece of gear. There are always tradeoffs to be made.

The lens cover is not removable. On every action camera I’ve owned, the lens covers got scratched and sometimes broken. Not being able to replace these with fresh new lens covers is going to limit some peoples use of the Hero8. GoPro is now selling small screen protectors for the back and lens cover on the front but to me this defeats the purpose of an action camera a bit. Replaceable, sacrificial parts are good.

The back screen could be bigger. The bezel around the screen is massive and the screen hasn’t increased in size from its 5.1 cm (2 inch) diagonal. The icons on the back are quite large and take up a good amount of real estate on the screen. They are easier to tap on the touch screen when they’re larger. A larger screen that takes up the whole back of the camera would be nice to see.

Conclusion

Apart from a couple small issues with the GoPro Hero8, it’s a ridiculously good camera. The stabilization alone makes it the best in the class. Unless you absolutely have to go for something cheaper, the Hero8 is the best video and feature set you can get right now.

The post GoPro Hero8 Action Camera Review first appeared on Pack & Trail.