The proverbial digital ink hadn’t dried on the screen as the first release about the GoPro Hero3+ splashed on computer screens when people were already speculating about the GoPro Hero4.
Like the adrenaline junkies who have fueled the sales of GoPro’s amazing action camera, we are hooked on the next bigger, better, more exciting camera offerings.
The juggernaut is that GoPro raised the bar and elevated itself from the niche neighborhood of the Hero2 companion camera to the professional realm with the Hero3. So of course, when the Hero3+ was announced there were some that were crestfallen. For months speculation was rampant that the Hero4 would be the next camera announced. We had been teased with the 4K 15/12.5 FPS capabilities of the Hero3. The quality was there and after all with ProTune mode we were recording at close to a broadcast quality 48 Mbps.
(A word on the July 29, 2013 firmware upgrade for the Hero3. The is one caveat to using anything other than the suggested SDHC cards. In the small print on the GoPro website, you will note that it states, “With the camera software update released July 29, 2013, using other microSD cards with your HERO3: Black Edition camera while shooting in 4K, 2.7K and Protune video modes may result in a reduction of the data stream rate from 45Mb/sec to 35Mb/sec.”)
But GoPro surprised it’s ever increasing legion of followers by releasing an incremental step rather than a completely new camera. They chose instead to fix some of the issues that had confounded the otherwise exciting release of the Hero3. Think of the Hero3+ as a required step before the Hero4.
The increased battery life, expanded compatibility of micro SDHC CARDS (maybe you didn’t notice but our favorite, SanDisk is back). The addition of SuperView mode and Auto Low Light Mode, the 33% increased sharpness and 2X reduction in image artifacts and even the increased sound quality. Even the faster WiFi connectivity contributes heavily. All of these improvements, big and small all point the way for the Hero4.
It’s no state secret, although GoPro may wish that it were, that the GoPro Hero3 Black and Silver Edition “engine” comes from the Ambarella people. The A7 and the A5S camera solutions built on Samsung’s 45nm CMOS process are used respectively. It wasn’t much of a stretch to figure out that back in January of 2013, when Ambarella announced the A9 camera system on a chip, that this would almost surely be the heart and mind of the Hero4. The soul would need to be crafted by GoPro.
The Hero3 was still a toddler of 3 months when Ambarella made this revelation. An interesting side note is that only a month after the Hero3 debut Ambarella strutted out a low power, high definition 3D camera solution also using the same base systems in the Hero3 Black and Silver.
This accounted for the speculation that GoPro may go with a possible integrated 3D camera rather then the two camera with a sync cable solution. And indeed, this is also a possibility, although not too likely. It may seem like heresy that, I, the 3DGuy, is saying this. But, alas my friends, it just doesn’t make good business sense to try to develop two cameras at the same time. Just as, “too many cooks, spoil the broth”, too many products developing at the same time stretch the resources too far. The result would more than likely disappoint everyone.
Couple that with the fact that 4K is the buzzword of the industry right now and it makes sense that GoPro would continue in that direction.
The specs on the new Ambarella A9 are impressive. The new system uses Samsung’s 32nm HKMG process. This delivers both lower power consumption and video recorded at 4K at 30 fps. In addition you get a wide variety of resolutions and frame rates including,1080p120 or 720p240. This doubles the frame rate of the previous generation with increased performance. The A9 also assures that the playback will be judder free.
Below is the spec sheet from Ambarella for the A9 4K Ultra HD Camera SoC.
In addition to the specs that I have already mentioned there are a few other intriguing features that point to the overall high quality of the system.
700Mpixels/s oversampling performance
This has to do with how the processing of the signal is handled. In plain english, by oversampling the signal at such a high rate ensures that the integrity or quality of the signal is maintained. What does that mean, in short, more accurate images.
Multi-exposure HDR and WDR tone mapping
This lends itself to the ProTune neutral color profile that GoPro already offers. By sampling a wide range of exposures having to do with the highs and lows of the image and by utlizing Wide Dynamic Range tonal mapping, the Hero4 could produce images that can be easily adjusted in post without losing the details in the the whites and blacks of the image. When it comes to 4K especially, this feature is a must. To paraphrase a certain movie franchise, “With the greater resolution comes greater responsibilty”, to deliver images where image details are crisp and clear.
Electronic image stabilization (EIS)
This is something that has not been offered before in a GoPro product but is a mainstay in most modern camera systems. Hopefully this will be something that can be activated or turned off. While image stabilization offers less bounce in the image, it does soften the image to some degree. This is something can could either be a blessing or a curse depending upon the shoot situation and content.
Improved MCTF with advanced sharpening
MCTF stands for motion-compensated temporal filtering. Once again, cutting through the tech jargon what this relates to is the technique used to compress the video image for recording.
Over the course of time from when you press record to start and stop the difference in the frames that are captured are only slightly changed based on the camera moving or an object(s) in the frame moving. Using MCTF, the camera processes and captures the differences, rather than capturing each and every frame. This results is less space being used on your SDHC card. Without this type of technology the file sizes would be huge. Much like what happens when you shoot with the likes of an Epic or Arri pro cameras.
Remote viewfinder, playback
This, put simply, means you get to view and palyback using WiFi.
Upload pictures and video to social media
Finally, in a node to YouTubers and Facebook Friends everywhere, you will be able to upload directly to your social media site of choice. Or whoever sponsors this feature with GoPro.
For the most part, throwing terms like this around at a social event will get you raised eyebrows and lots of, “Ahhh, I see”, without a great deal of understanding going on with your audience.
Unless they are a bunch of engineers, in which case, you will be the one going,”Ahhh, I see”, to their follow-ups.
The bottom line to all this is that I am speculating based on a good deal of research, knowledge of the industry and 30+ years of experience.
Does that make it a lock for what GoPro will do next with the highly anticipated Hero4, ahhh… no.
When the time comes we can all react with our own mixed bag of sentiments and collective exclaim, “See, I told you so, I knew it…”.
One thing for certain, with the track record that GoPro has, it most certainly will, “WOW” most of us! — Al Caudullo, Digital Samurai