Yet another toy

I like toys, and oh boy, I'm pretty excited to play around with this one on the upcoming SD trip.  I just picked up a GoPro Hero 7 Black.

Got to Love my Tapestry in my office as a background.  HeHe

One thing I love to do is to take pictures and video.  I'm not quite as addicted to it as I used to be and I've kinda swung the pendulum in the opposite direction from my huge Canon 7D with this purchase but it is exciting nonetheless.

In the past few years I've been taking most of my photos with my Phone camera in lieu of busting out the 7D because, lets face it, my phone is always there, it's light, it's easy to get the video off of and it's more resistant to the elements (Think pouring rain at Blarney Castle Ireland).

There are some downsides to using the phone though:

1. Storage is an issue as the entire phone has 256GB of storage, internal storage.  This is shared between apps and pictures/video everything.  The photos and video have to be removed before I can take more which means I need to connect to my laptop or the very least have a connection for cloud storage.
2. When I'm setting my phone up to take video, I'm without my phone.  I can put it on a tripod and try to capture the dogs playing in the backyard for instance, but I can't do that and easily check email, texts, take calls, or update this blog.
3. It's my phone.  I use it for work and home and I want to keep it in working order.  Even though it say's it is water resistant up to 5 ft for 30 minutes, I don't really want to test that out.

The GoPro allows me to address some of those issues:

1. Storage is not a problem with removable SD cards.  It also has cloud storage but that requires and internet connection the same as the phone would.
2. I can set it up on a tripod and leave it taking video or pictures while I go read my emails on my phone or call someone.  No issues.  Even better, I can use my phone as a remote for the GoPro so that I can see what's it's doing, take a picture, alter settings etc without having to touch the camera.  Very Cool!
3. It's a camera and it's waterproof! (Within Reason.)  It is rated waterproof up to 33ft without a waterproof housing and more with one.  I have no qualms hiking with it in the pouring rain, taking it with me in a kayak, or dipping it in the tank at Red Lobster to get a close up of dinner (Ok, maybe that last one I do).  To top it off with the GoPro Plus subscription if you damage or even lose/destroy the camera they will replace it so your free to go have fun.
4. The cell phone has an internal battery that can't be easily swapped and the battery life when taking video is not nearly as good.  I have multiple interchangeable batteries that I can quickly swap out with the GoPro.

Even better are some of the features this thing has.  

1. HyperSmooth stabilization so you can take video like using an expensive gimbal without having an expensive gimbal.  It has an extra 1 GB or Ram it uses for "Predictive Scene Analysis" to smooth out the video and avoid jerkyness.
2. The Time Warp feature is pretty neat and I can't wait to try it out.  I have always loved playing with time lapse video and making them was fun using the 7D.  You would set the camera on a tripod, attach the timer, take a pic every 2/5/10 seconds for example and then stitch them all together in lightroom.  Now with the GoPro, I can set the mode and interval and when I click stop I have a timelapse.  So Simple!
3. Accessories.  There are helmet mounts, car mounts, dash mounts, chest mounts, wrist mounts, bike mounts, selfi sticks large and small, tripods, clips for hats or backpacks, floating gizmo's for use in the water...the list goes on.  I don't have all of those options with the cell phone.

It will be fun to try it out and if we are lucky there will be more Photo's and probably video after the SD trip is done.  No promises!