Re: Difference Between Gopro Hero 4 Black And Silver
Rapheal Charlton
The thing is: These incremental bumps serve to stay just ahead of most of the competitors out there. But with these incremental bumps also came a rather unusual bump in price at the top end, while inversely dropping the lower-end unit significantly in price.
Next, the standard mini-USB plug that can be used to both charge the unit as well as download photos. Note that this USB cable (and your attached GoPro) can be plugged into any USB outlet on the planet.
The only difference in the box is the case doors. The Silver edition includes three doors (instead of two), and two of these doors are designed to allow you to operate the touch screen. In the below photo, the two lower doors allow touch screen operation. The left one is completely open, while the right one has a thin flexible plastic.
Case included the solid-door backing, and the semi-flexible backing for the Silver case. It includes a single Micro-SD card, as well as the default battery. You can see that the Hero Base is actually a fair bit lighter, interestingly enough.
For example, this is where you would change the orientation of the camera (Black/Silver/Hero), as well as change which mode the camera starts off in, for example, photo instead of video (Black/Silver).
There are two reasons: First is simply to start collecting higher quality content knowing that over the next few years 4K resolution will become the norm. But the second is more important: It allows you to crop to a lower resolution. This means that you can take 4K video and crop to a smaller portion of the image and then still maintain 1080p (or other lower resolution).
Smooth slow motion is a factor of how many FPS you can capture at, combined with the resolution you can capture. In general, each year the bar gets moved higher and higher for capture rates. So like past years, once again we saw a bump in resolution. This becomes important when trying to incorporate slow-motion video into normal HD programs.
So what does this look like? Well, no better way to test this than a canon ball into a swimming pool. The perfect way to illustrate slow-motion, in this case with a common 120FPS 720p clip (from the GoPro Hero4 Silver):
Note that the GoPro Studio offers the ability specify the exact moment in time that you switch from regular playback to slow-motion playback by simply splitting the clips. This allows you to keep at normal speed until just the moment of action, such as this where I kept it regular rates for the first few seconds, then slowed it down when she was mid-air, and then let it get back to half-speed towards the last few seconds.
Night Photo: In this case the unit takes the photo mode but adds the ability to customize the exposure setting. This means you can get more light into the camera and take clearer night photos, as well as get photos with light streaks and the sort. Again, more on that in a moment.
The Hero4 Black and Silver carry through the capability of being able to control and transfer data from the camera to the phone. This allows you to use your phone as a secondary display for the camera, or, just a quick way to get photos up to share with friends via social media. Note, this is not compatible with the 2014 GoPro Hero base unit.
The same week that GoPro announced the Hero4 lineup, they in conjunction with Livestream announced the ability to stream your GoPro recordings live to the internet via the Livestream service. This requires the use of your mobile phone, which connected to the GoPro via the GoPro WiFi network, and then streamed the data out via your cellular data connection.
But the mini-USB port is also capable of transmitting and consuming non-digital audio and video to other devices. For example, you can connect the 3.5mm stereo audio connector cable to it, and then plug a microphone to it. Note on the audio connector, that this is only supported on the Hero4 Black/Silver (and older Hero3/3+ units).
1) GoPro 3-way Pole: This came out last winter and instantly became my favorite accessory. As you can see from the below animated image I put together, you can twist/mix/fold/unpack/pack it up a crapton of ways. I can use it as a tripod, or as a selfie pole, or just to get a better angle and extend my reach.
In my case, I bought the DJI Phantom 2 last winter and have been experimenting with it to get cool shots and videos. From a setup perspective, I use the GoPro Hero4 with the DJI Phantom 2 in conjunction with the Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal. This gimbal is really the special sauce that allows silky smooth footage. Proof of that comes with the fact that the wind was never less than 10-15MPH during my flights in New Zealand.
I think their base model is brilliant, but selling the Silver model at $400 will be a hard push to the mid-market. Meanwhile, at least until new competitors get out there, the Black model will likely hold (and rightfully so) the top spot for the upcoming winter.
Hello I received the Go Prp 4 black for Christmas. I also got a BacPac spare battery. I would like to purchase the LCD screen as an option for framing my video and photos while Scuba diving. Do you know if I could use the BacPac battery and the screen as a combo in the same case? Thanks Brian
I have noticed my GoPro Hero 3 White interfering with my Garmin Etrex. If they are next to each other, it causes the GPS to often lose the signal, so loads of gaps/inaccuracies in the GPS track. It is very obvious, as soon as I switch the GoPro on, I can see the satellite signal strength drop.
So I now have them on opposite sides of the handlebars, with the GoPro upside down on an out-in-front mount. That keeps them a bit further away, which seems to mostly avoid problems.
Then out of nowhere I guy goes down the beach on this horse. Luckily, he came back the beach about 3-5 minutes later. It was interesitng though, he was clearly some sort of farmhand worker. No fancy clothes or anything. Then, about 5 minutes later he came back and did the same thing with another horse. Likely just getting them their workouts. Totally awesome though.
In my opinion for bikes the only usable Hero is the 4black when using 2.7K Resolution with 50/60P. This gives you a great advantage for post processing, because the Heros have no electronic stabilisation and the Virb has either. (The Virb is imo the worst action cam in its price region!)
The only cams working perfectly on a bike are the Sony AS-100 and Sony AZ1in XAVC-mode with their great stabilisation function. Disapointing: Sony uses while stabilisation is switched on only a field of view of 120! Advantage: Half of price in opposit to the 4black when buying with a remote control!
I see both the Silver/Black editions have Bluetooth support which is used by the GoPro remote. Is there any other use for Bluetooth besides the remote? I was hoping you could use the app to connect via Bluetooth instead of wifi.
I just bought a GoPro Hero 4 Silver Edition and I am not sure if the problems I am experiencing are common. This if my first GoPro ever. I noticed that it would get hot after about 10 mins of using it and not recording videos, but mostly playing with the settings and taking photos. It also gets hot when I am charging it. I turned wifi off just to see if that was adding to the heat and it did help cool it down a bit, but I am still worried about it heating up. It is warm and eventually if you were to hold on to it, esp around the lens area, it feels like it would burn you. Also, Another issue I came across was that it has lines when I am resetting or turning the camera on/off. Please let me know if you have experienced these issues or tell me if it is normal.
GREAT review, but, unless I missed it, no audio comparison (especially between hero4 black and silver) which is my interest. If there is any difference between them (one better than another), please comment. Thanks in advance.
If you want to learn photography stay away from the action cams. Best to get a top of the line compact or one of the mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. Action cams are full of compromises in order to be really small, water tight and shock proof.
I have a GoPro 2 still and had been tempted to get the 3+ when it came out. It looked fantastic and supports a better frame rate for smoother graphics while in the air. I hesitated though since I had other things to worry about until the new 4 came out. I got the update from Poc Network in my RSS (source: link to pocinc.net ) and it caused a downwards spiral in looking at other reviews like this one. My best friend wound up getting one and I have played with his for a number of hours. Now I have one! Finally!!!
Now I no longer pfft at the fact that my GoPro 2 was limited on frame rate. So much difference while in the air and while goofing around on the ground. Soon to take it snowboarding which will be fun (it will catch me falling all over the frackin place).
I am getting myself the Hero4 silver and also want to use it for diving. Now I read that one always needs a source of light under water for better imaging and colours. How do you go around this problem? Do you use the night video mode?
If one dives without using a colour filter, can one just adjust the white balance etc later on to the video or pictures on the computer? Have you ever tried this?
Hi mate, great review. Question i have is ive heard of plenty of people having dramas with the go pros overheating and stuffing up. I had a hero 3 black charged it up the other day and it would turn on but instantly freeze, i wiped the memory card to try and reinstall the software but the camera was frozen and wouldnt respond to anything. I have a low tolerance for when technology screws up so that particular camera is now in gopro heaven but i really dont want to fork out another $680 (im in Australia everything is f-ing expensive in Australia) if they are having frequent issues with these things, Im taking off to Japan in 2 weeks snowboarding so need to make up my mind pretty soon on what im going to get. Thanks again
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