01/27/15 Clouds in motion–A wonderful Time Lapse series from my home

Still from a Time Lapse of cloud motion near my home

I know I need to fix that deck rail for sure.  But for now my deck has been a great place to capture some great cloud motion.  I am going to get out soon in to the field and start this, but I am still learning and have found out a few things about the GoPro4 Hero Black

1. The aperture being fixed at F2.8 really tends to allow brighter parts of a sky to be totally blown 255:255:255, i.e. pure white
2. You can spot meter the brighter portion of the image, but there is not way to lock that exposure down.
3. The GoPro4 Hero Black has two ways to help control this, EV adjustment and iso control, but even with both of these at the lowest settings you will blow highlights.
4. The 12MP jpgs from ths camera are loaded with details and considering the camera, I am impressed.
5. At iso ranges of 100 to 400, there is a lot of extra dynamic range left in the shadows that can be pulled up in software like Premiere Pro.

This video is a improvement over some of my earlier versions, but there are still some massive blow outs.  I realize that I could be using my DSLR cameras and taking the same type of shots, but the GoPro does make it a lot easier to work with.  I took this in 5 second series, but as the clouds were really moving, I might have wanted to consider 2 second series instead.

One other thing I have learned, the iPhone 6+ will not connect via WiFi to the GoPro4.  I have tried everything I can think of.  Actually the iPhone 6+ will connect to the WiFi, but for some reason the GoPro app, can’t connect.  I have made the WiFi connection many times with my iPhone 6+, but it seems that to pair (something that is different with the GoPro4), you also need to make a Bluetooth connection and no matter what I try, I can’t pair the unit.  So for now, I am still using my older iPhone 5 to control the GoPro4.

I would never try to setup such a camera from the menu on the camera as the LCD is just too small and it’s a bit confusing.  My iPhone 5 connects every time, however in certain spots where there may be a lot of other WiFi signals, it may take several attempts.  However once attached it does stay that way.  The drain on the phone is not too bad.

I have now determined that I should be able to get about a one and half (90 minutes) time lapse with one battery installed.  A 64GB card is plenty to hold the series and a lot more.  Not sure how long it would last on pure video, but I am still learning that.