Quick Release Tripod Mount

I have several monopods that have standard tripod mounts. There are some great GoPro adapters that make it easy to connect the GoPro to a tripod, they look like this:

The problem with this is that I have to screw on the GoPro every time that I want to use that mount.

Which isn't a great solution if I am moving the camera around. For example, I was using the GoPro on my monopod and then wanted to switch it to my Suction Cup Mount.

Simple Solution

So the simple solution is to use a different type of tripod mount. Basically, I needed what's called a "Quick Release Tripod Mount." This is what it looks like:

Having a quick release on a tripod or monopod is very cool. It's easy to put on and take off.

The bad side of this solution is that the plate is fairly expensive - about $15 apiece. The previous solution is $7 for four mounts.

I can see this being a good solution for those times when I am switching things around a lot. But for the majority of uses, I would stick to the standard mount adapter.

Ulanzi Multifunctional Battery Cover

One of the things that I don’t like about the GoPro is having to open the battery door to charge it every time. It’s really not all that easy to open.

I get that the door is made that way to keep the device waterproof.

Just would be nice if it was easier to charge the device.

Fortunately there is an easy way…

Ulanzi Metal Multifunctional Battery Cover

The Ulanzi battery door makes it easy to charge because the USB-C slot is always open.

Now this isn’t the best solution if I was using the camera outside for time-lapse videos. Water could get in the camera.

There are other GoPro doors available. This one is better because it offers a Tripod mount and a cold shoe mount.

The tripod mount isn’t on the bottom - but it’s still cool to have when I may want to connect the GoPro on a tripod. All I need to do is to have a Tripod Mini Ball Head and I can have good horizontal footage.

The shoe mount is great because I can add various attachments such as microphones, lights, and other shoe mount accessories.

The Ulanzi battery door is easy to take off and put on when I want waterproof protection. It’s very well built and is quality made.

Great GoPro Accessory

I have used the Ulanzi battery door for a week now and it’s come in handy so many times. It makes it so much easier to charge up the GoPro with some basic usage.

I am careful about leaving the charging port exposed on cold New England nights. So when I do my nighttime time-lapse, I play it safe and use the standard door.

The "Ulanzi G9-6 Battery Door for GoPro 9" goes for $15.95 and worth the price for a small tech piece.

TimeWarp

TimeWarp is a really cool effect from GoPro. It allows you to do Time-lapse with the inclusion of regular video.

TimeWarp has been available since GoPro 4, but in GoPro 9 they made some pretty cool changes.

Time-Lapse vs TimeWarp

Time-lapse is perfect for when you have a steady camera. Usually on a tripod. Perfect for the morning sunrise.

TimeWarp is used when you are in motion. This can be walking, skiing, or on a bike or car. Go Pro goes the extra mile to make sure the clip is sturdy. This is great when you want to show fast motion.

You use the TimeWarp option when your one the move.

TimeWarp Bonus

In TimeWarp mode you can break out of the warp into normal mode. This is useful when you want to describe something as your walking or if you want to pan a scene a bit slower than hyperspeed.

Make the Breakout Happen

There are two ways to take the video out of Time Lapse Mode in TimeWarp and into the "normal" mode:

• Tap the rear screen
• Click on the "Mode Button" otherwise known as the power button.

To put it back into TimeWarp, simply click on the screen or mode button again.

Read The Manual

You can learn more about the capabilities of TimeWarp in the GoPro Hero 9 manual. On page 34, there are some descriptions of the various settings.

GoPro Labs

This week GoPro announce some new experimental features. These are unsupported features that GoPro has decided that are stable enough for the public to play with. Some of these came from hackathons - probably ideas inspired by long time users.

These new features are called GoPro Labs and are available via the GoPro Support Hub.

Installing the update is a bit tricky. Make sure to read the installation instructions.

New Features

• Camera Motion Triggers: Leverage the camera’s accelerometer and/or gyroscope to start/stop capture only when the camera is in motion, preserving storage and battery.
• USB Power Triggers: Your GoPro can start/stop capture when USB power is detected, enabling USB-triggered functions such as serving as a dash cam.
• Motion Detection Enhancements: Motion detection is now supported in all video modes, including 360° motion detection on MAX, with improvements to the sensitivity range.
• Simplified Live Streaming QR Code: Program GoPro to start live streaming within seconds of being connected to a designated Wi-Fi network.
• Single-Setting/One-Button Mode: Enable a one-button mode where the operator can only start/stop capture, making it impossible to accidentally change camera mode. This is designed to capture critical events.
• New Exposure Modes: Set timed exposure lock and minimum shutter speed settings.
• New QR Code Controls: QR code controls supported in 5K and HindSight capture for HERO9 Black.

Things I Learned

As I mentioned the instructions to install is tricky. The instructions aren’t clear that you need to move the uncompressed folder to the root of the SD card.

When you start up the GoPro you get the notification. I think this slows down the usability of the camera.

The startup text can be replaced with a Personalize QR Code. You can have "Owner's Information" which might be a nice saver if you ever lose the GoPro.

The QR Codes is a very cool feature. You can set up QR codes to quickly program settings.

I like the USB Power Triggers. This is great now that I use the GoPro as a dashcam. It would have been much better if this was supported in older GoPros.

Night Time Specs

In a blog post in April 2019, I wrote about why the iPhone Xs Max was a better night time camera because of the camera specs. Today I have 4 active devices that I can use for nighttime photography. I have the GoPro 7 Silver, iPhone Xs Max, Panasonic DC-FZ80, and the GoPro Hero 9.

Here's an updated table of the specs of four cameras that I have:

Name	GoPro 7 Silver	GoPro 9	iPhone Xs Max	Panasonic DC-FZ80
ISO	1600	6400	2,304	80 to 6400
Aperture	f/2.8	f/2.8	f/1.8	f/2.8 to f/8.0
Exposure Time	1/15	1/9600 (1080p60)	1/22000	1/2000

Winter Temperatures

Winter in New England means some cold nights are here. It might be risky to leave the GoPro out a night to take overnight time-lapse videos. Here are the recommended temperature settings for the GoPro cameras

GoPro 7 Silver	40-105 degrees
HERO9 Black	14° F ~ 95° F (10° C ~ 35° C)

Time Warp

As for night time Time Lapse photography, I'll be using the GoPro Hero 9. It certainly does a better job. Check out this video using the nighttime time-lapse settings. It makes it looks like a time warp

GoPro Hero 9

This afternoon I purchased the newest GoPro device - the GoPro Hero 9. I purchased this at a local BestBuy store instead of online as I used some gift cards to help with the purchase.

This is my second GoPro series as I currently have the GoPro Silver 7. I have been using the Silver 7 GoPro a lot and still plan to use both of them.

Six Things I have Learned

Just getting started learning about this cool tech toy. Here are some of the things I have learned so far.

1. The GoPro now comes in a nice travel case as part of the environmentally friendly packaging.
2. The GoPro battery is replaceable. Which is great for when I go on trips. I just need to bring a second battery for those occasions where I may do a lot of filming.
3. The mini SD card slot Is pretty hard to get a card in and out. Certainly much harder than the Silver 7. I think instead of the 64GB card that I have, I may get a 128GB just so that I have enough space for videos.
4. Photos, Videos, and Time-lapse are now scenes base. You select the scene that works for you. This makes it easy to select the one that works for you. I almost feel that there should be an additional video category for 5k videos.
5. The GoPro Hero 9 does support 5k for videos but the option is not enabled in the factory-installed scene. You have to edit an existing scene to change it to a 5k option.
6. The screen menus are difficult to select than in the Silver 7. I did read another review that mentioned that and didn’t think it was an issue. It does get a bit frustrating at times trying to select a menu option or scroll through the menus.

Now What?

As I am excited to learn all about the Hero 9, I decided to make Thursday blog content around the new GoPro.

So instead of BBEdit, I’ll focus on tips and tricks with the GoPro Hero 9.

GoPro Plus Service

Recently I signed up for the GoPro Plus service. This is a subscription service that gives you Unlimited Cloud storage, extra insurance for the GoPro and discounts on mounts and accessories for the GoPro.

It cost $4.17/mo for the yearly plan ($50.04) or $4.99 a month for the monthly plan.

Unlimited Cloud Storage

The main reason that I got the GoPro Plus is for the Unlimited Cloud Storage. This allows me to upload media content that was created on the GoPro instantly when the GoPro is connected to a registered WiFi point and is charging.

Here's What Was Happening:

I wanted this plan because I was having a hard time getting some of the videos off my GoPro. For some reason when I insert the microSD card into my iMac the computer wouldn't recognize the card.

My Short-Term Work around:

To fix this I was connecting the GoPro to the iPhone and then uploading the media into the GoPro app. I would then have to move the media to the Images folder. Then move it to the computer. It's a lot of steps.

Once I did get the media off the card, I tried reformatting the card and that didn't help.

Life is easier with the GoPro Plus

Using the GoPro Plus Service, the uploads happen automatically, in the full video resolution. I won't miss any video or pictures taken with the GoPro.

Now I simply go to the plus.gopro.com website on my phone or computer and download the media. It's nice the way GoPro has this setup, the most recent media is on top. You get a thumbnail view of all the media sorted by date. This makes it easy to find media short on the same day.

In addition, I can add media to my GoPro Could account on the iPhone or via the iMac. I simply visit my GoPro page and click on the "Add Media" on the top right of the page. I can upload multiple videos at one. The nice thing is that GoPro will check for duplications. So I can simply search my computer for all the GoPro videos and upload them.

Postive Results so Far!

In the first week of using this service, I have backed up 307GB of data. Saving a lot of valuable disk space. I know I don't really need to forever keep these files, and I certainly don't plan to. However, it's a lot of space that I can now reuse.

I now find that I am using the GoPro more. I am having a lot of fun with various attachments and taking creative videos.

Zoom with GoPro

When you take videos or photos with the GoPro you have an option to use the Zoom feature to zoom in on your picture. Seems natural to use that when you want to get more up close in some situations.

Don't Zoom in GoPro Silver

However, I’ll recommend not using the zoom feature of the phone. The reason why is because this is a digital zoom, not an optical zoom. You don’t actually benefit by zooming when you shoot then when you do it post-production in iMovie or Filmora Wondershare.

When you zoom using a DSLR you get a nice regular zoom because it's taking advantage of the lens (Optical Zoom). It’s not the same with the GoPro, you're simply using the software to zoom in.

Some Instances to Zoom

There are three reasons, the I can see using GoPro zoom:

• When you want to send the image and don’t want to touch it up.
• You generally don’t want to deal with any post production editing.
• You would like to get ride of the fish eye look.

Tripod Mount

Go Pro Tripod Mount is a cool thing to add to your collection. It basically makes any GoPro accessory available to any other technology device.

For example, if you have an iPhone XS Max, you can use a simple tripod adapter and the GoPro mount to connect the iPhone XS Max to a GoPro Suction cup accessory. Now you can exchange accessories and limit the amount you carry.

Cheap Enough to Get it

Obviously this won’t work in all accessories, but it’s cheap enough to have on - just in case you find that using a smartphone would be better than the GoPro. You can find a mount for about $4 on eBay or in various kits on Amazon for about $7.

Night Mode - GoPro Silver

If you're looking for the best quality night pictures and time lapse, your best bet is to get the GoPro 7 Black. The Silver version has very minimal functionality to low light photography.

GoPro 7 Silver Specs

A quick look on how the iPhone XS Max is a better camera for night photos. (Tip: You have a lot more control over the settings than you do with the GoPro 7 Silver series.)

Name	GoPro Silver	GoPro Black	iPhone Xs Max
ISO	1600	1600	2,304
Aperture	f/2.8	f/2.8	f/1.8
Exposure TIme	1/15	1/15	1/22000

Note: GoPro Silver users have no control over the Shutter Speed and Exposure time.

Sample YouTube Video

GoPro 7 Silver YouTube video showing the morning sunrise in time lapse.