GoPro Hero4 Silver

GoPro Hero4 Silver Review

The GoPro Hero4 Silver is my third GoPro, and I have been very happy with it. The first one I bought was the HD Hero, which at the time was super impressive. The quality of the footage (especially in bright light) was great, and I never had to worry about damaging the camera in the waterproof/protective case.

When the Hero 2 was released, I bought it straight away. One of the main features that I wanted was the higher framerate (60fps at 720), and the medium and narrow shooting modes.

I used both of the GoPros almost exclusively in the snow, filming snowboarding and skiing, so they were always in their waterproof housings. After a few days of using the Hero 2, I noticed that the battery life was terrible compared to the original Hero, even counting for the cold conditions that I was filming in.

I emailed GoPro, and after letting them know the serial numbers, they sent me new batteries, which fixed the battery life problem. Must have just been a bad bunch of batteries, but it was good to know that they solved the problem quickly and easily.

When the Hero 3 came out, although I was super impressed with their product video, I didn’t end up buying one, because I couldn’t justify the extra money for the new features. Although I did get to use a friends Hero3 Black, which took great looking video, but the battery never did last very long.

When the Hero 4 was released, I was immediately interested in the Black. The two main features that interested me were the high resolutions (4k and 2k), as well as the options for high frame rate filming.

The high resolution filming was very interesting, as it would let me film in 4k/2k, then stabilize the footage later, and still export it as clear 1080.

The other feature was the very high frame rate filming, especially in the narrow modes. Filming snowboarding and skiing, especially on powder days you can get some very nice shots in slow motion, which can look especially good in 240 or 120fps.

It was a tough decision to decide between the Black and the Silver models, but I ended up choosing the Silver. The screen on the back didn’t sway my decision much, I had gotten used to framing shots on my older GoPros by guessing, so I had a good idea of what things would look like without actually being able to see the shot.

As for big feature differences (that made a difference for me), the black had the option to film 4k at 30fps (a useable frame rates), as well as film in 240fps (after an easy firmware update).

The silver will only film 4k at 15 frames per second, which isn’t super useful. It will film 240fps at 720p, which I decided would be enough for me.

Although being able to film at 240fps on the black would have been nice, I couldn’t justify the extra cost, so I ended up buying the Silver.

Just like any GoPro, in the box you get the camera, battery, USB cord, case and various mounts and attachments. Because the Silver model has the screen, it comes with 3 different back doors for the waterproof housing.

Along with the normal waterproof backdoor, there is a skeleton backdoor that lets you use the touchscreen, as well as get a bit better sound quality to the microphone. The downside is that you lose the waterproof protection of the case.

There is another backdoor, that lets you use the touchscreen, and is still waterproof to 3 metres (9 feet). It is similar to the skeleton backdoor, but has a thinner plastic layer to protect the camera, while still letting you use the touchscreen. Although it doesn’t feel flimsy, if I was going to take an expensive camera underwater, I would just use the proper waterproof backdoor, and change the settings through the normal buttons.

Touch screen

Back a few years ago, I had used an another older GoPro with the LCD bacpac, which was helpful, but I didn’t see it as a necessary addition. One of the main advantages of the LCD screen on the Silver, is that it doesn’t add a huge amount of size to the camera like the old LCD bacpak did.

Using the touchscreen to adjust settings is much quicker than using the regular buttons on the camera, you can move around the menus quite quickly once you know where you are going.

I don’t see too much footage around from people who film in the medium or narrow modes, but I use them a lot. The screen is a huge help in showing how much of the scene will be shown, as both medium and narrow are a big step down from the wide view that people are used to seeing from GoPro footage.

On top of that, it helps a lot when you are getting someone else to film you, because even if they haven’t ever used a GoPro before, they can use the LCD screen to make sure that they are actually getting everything in the frame.

Filming modes

There are almost too many filming modes to list, so I will only talk about the few that I used regularly.

1080p 60fps wide

This would be the mode that I use the majority of the time. The 1080 resolution is plenty, and it gives a very nice and crisp image. Filming in 60fps gives you a bit of an option for getting some slow motion if you end up filming something that looks good. In reality filming at 60fps will let you halve the footage speed, so you can get nice and smooth 30fps slow motion. (One advantage of the Black model is that you can film 1080p at 120fps).

If I am filming from my helmet mount, or on a pole or gimbal, those are my go to settings. They work well in most situations, doesn’t use a whole lot of battery power and gives a good wide view in case you don’t align the camera perfectly.

720p 120fps narrow

One of my goals, and one of the things that I like the most about editing a GoPro video is making it look like the footage wasn’t filmed on a GoPro.

The narrow (and to a lesser extent the medium) filming modes don’t look like they are filmed on a GoPro. I have even read somewhere that they didn’t include any narrow footage in the main GoPro 4 video, as people would assume that it wasn’t all filmed on a GoPro.

The narrow view uses a smaller part of the sensor, which means that you are more limited in resolution (size of the video that is recorded), but the advantage is that you don’t get the classic wide angle GoPro look.

I don’t know many of the little things that go on inside of the GoPro, but from what I understand is that because the narrow view only uses a small area of the sensor, the processor is free to do much more work, which allows you to film at a much higher frame rate.

Filming at at 720p @ 120fps is a very cool change, and it gives you the ability to slow the footage down to 1/4 speed, which still keeps the motion at a smooth 30fps.

Because you are using only a smaller section of the sensor, and filming at a high framerate, the footage is noticeably softer, no where near as clear or crisp as it is at a standard resolution like 1080. Though it is not a problem to sharpen the footage up later, you might notice the softness the first time you see your footage. For me, it is a perfectly fine tradeoff to get the high fps and smooth motion.

Battery Life

The battery life on my Hero4 seems to be comparable to my older Hero2. I never expect too much from the GoPro batteries, as I like to film in high framerates, in freezing cold weather, both of which are very tough on batteries.

I have ended up buying the Smatree extra batteries and charger, which are higher mAh batteries than the original, and lets you charge 3 batteries at once. So far, even filming in the coldest weather I have not been able to use up all the batteries in one day.

If I am stuck out riding and filming in cold weather, and don’t have extra batteries with me, I will change the filming mode to get the most use out of the battery. The main setting that I will change is to only film at 30 frames per second, which seems to give it a good boost to the battery life.

ProTune

Because I like to spend a bit of time playing with my footage, grading colors and trying to get the most from the footage, I almost always have ProTune turned on.

Most of the time, I have the White Balance set to Auto, Color Profile set to Flat, ISO Limit at 400, Sharpening to Low and leave the EV Compensation to 0, or a bit lower if it is a sunny day on snow.

Those settings end up giving me softer footage, which is easily sharpened later, and the colors are flat, which gives you lots of options for adjusting them later.

What you get in the box

• Camera
• Waterproof housing (to 40m)
• Rechargeable battery
• Flat mount
• Curved mount
• 3 Way Pivot arm
• Quick release buckles
• USB Cable
• Skeleton and touch backdoor

Should I buy one?

Overall, I am very happy with the GoPro Hero4 Silver. I have owned and used it it for more than a year, and have used it in a whole variety of situations.

The screen was a nice surprise, and I ended up using it all the time, where I didn’t expect it to be as handy as it is. The frame rate/resolutions are quite good on the Silver, and I have been able to get some nice results from it.

If you need the highest resolution and framerates, then you should look into getting the Black model. It costs a bit more, and has no screen, but is able to film in a bunch of better modes.

As I was jumping up from the Hero2 to the Hero4, the smaller size is a nice change, you can easily fit it in your pocket without a problem.