Yes, still messing with the new Go 3 camera. I got out on the CTX today, with a plan to try the standard video mode on the camera. There are a lot of great features on this camera, and one that gets the most attention is the FreeFrame Video Mode: it locks the horizon level, no matter the orientation of the camera. It's an interesting feature, and also in that mode is the capability to "move" the video left/right/up/down... if something isn't centered just the way you like it, you can make a small adjustment.
It can also "pre-capture" a shot, up to 30 seconds. If you've ever "just missed" a shot, in this mode, as long as the camera is pointed in the right direction, as soon as you press the record button, it goes back (up to the aforementioned 30 seconds) to get what you missed. It can be voice activated ("Start recording, stop recording, take a photo, shut down camera"). It can be used in "dash cam mode" where it records for up to 30 minutes, and if don't press record, it goes back to the beginning of that time frame and then starts recording of the top of that 30 minutes. You can set the camera to come on at a specific time, like if you want to capture a sunrise but don't want to get up that early - just make sure your camera is pointed in the right direction and it will turn on at the designated time and take a photo or a video. Of course, there are all the adjustments for exposure, as well as color temperature. There are shooting modes for different activities like snow skiing (not for me), biking, beach, etc, etc, where it will make adjustments to the normal exposure to compensate for the light in those given conditions. In FreeFrame, you can shoot now and decide later if you want the photo or video to be horizontal, vertical, or square.
And then there is the "old school" Video Mode: it shoots video. You can adjust the exposure and the amount of image stabilization. If you want it to be in vertical orientation, you turn the camera on its side (there is no deciding later). It also doesn't have horizon leveling. If you've ever shot a video that looked like it was running downhill to one side, that's what horizon leveling fixes. Most people want the horizon to be level, so they pick the FreeFrame Mode. For motorcycle videos, sometimes I want the road to lean right or left as the bike is going through curves. On my other 360 cameras (which also have horizon lock), I have to "induce" some lean to the video in places so it doesn't look static. Video Mode "leans" as you lean. I like it. The effect is different depending on where you have the camera attached to the bike or to yourself (as in: mounted on your helmet).
Today, I shot video clips where the horizon leans. I thought it looked great. It's nice to have the option to change that, and it just takes a couple "flicks" of the touch screen to go back and forth... before you shoot. I was so impressed with it, that I made another video (of course) showing two clips on the same stretch of road - one shot today in Video Mode, and one shot last time I was out in FreeFrame Mode. I could easily put together a 20 minute video of the bike carving up the curves, but instead, this is a comparison of Video and FreeFrame.
If you have an opinion, let me know which you prefer.
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