As planned, we embarked on a flight to Malaysia during the Spring Festival and started a two-week holiday journey. Before I set off, I planned to bring the SLR at home, but the suitcase that was already stuffed with travel items was staged, and I had to give up in the end. After thinking about it, I decided to bring only my phone and a sports camera, which is the iPhone 11 Pro that I am using and the GoPro Max panoramic sports camera that I just launched in October last year.
Why do you bring these two devices?
convenience and functionality are two main reasons: mobile phones have long become the most popular recording device, and the small size makes them the "photographic equipment" I have used the most frequently in recent years. For the sake of functionality, I also brought an additional GoPro Max panoramic sports camera, which is valued as its waterproof and panoramic shooting functions. One is because of the diving trip during the journey, and the other is because of curiosity about panoramic shooting functions.
GoPro once launched its first consumer-grade panoramic sports camera - GoPro Fusion in 2018. Coincidentally, I have experienced this product for work reasons, so when I first saw the GoPro Max, the similar boxy look made me put it on the hat of "GoPro Fusion 2.0" with preconceived ideas, but after these days of experience, I found it more like a new beginning for the GoPro panoramic camera .
The new form after getting rid of the burden
Before using GoPro Fusion, there were three shortcomings that made me feel that there were room for improvement:
Larger volume
Insert two SD cards to use
Missing a display screen for monitoring
But the emergence of GoPro Max solved all these problems at once.
is the volume first. Putting GoPro Max and GoPro Fusion together you can clearly perceive the difference after the size is reduced. The former is significantly thinner than the latter. There are many benefits of reducing the size, and the first thing to bear is its more portable use. For this type of sports camera, it is inevitable to be tied to a skateboard or helmet for unique perspective creation, and a smaller size means that these operations have higher feasibility.
Internally, GoPro Max also experienced a bit of "slimming". GoPro Fusion requires users to insert two SD cards to use normally, but GoPro Max further lowers the threshold, and only one SD card can complete the data collection of two lenses, which is a better transformation for both preliminary preparation and post-matter material management. Of course, this also brings some side effects. The maximum video bit rate of GoPro Max is only 78Mbps, which is not as good as the 120Mbps of GoPro Fusion.
Compared with GoPro Fusion's monochrome display, another important change of GoPro Max is that it is equipped with a 1.7-inch touchable color screen. The advantage of this change is that I took out my phone significantly less often. Aside from the phone, I can also complete tasks such as framing, composition, and surveillance independently.
Because GoPro Fusion only has one screen to display camera parameters, monitoring the screen, adjusting composition and other tasks must be done by connecting to the mobile phone. Although the phone has a larger screen and better display effect, occasional unstable connections will lead to delay in the picture, and coupled with the loss of physical strength over time, such "dual machine operation" is actually a loss of a person's energy, and subsequently the exhaustion of creative enthusiasm. The screen of
GoPro Max is not the largest among sports camera products, but it is more than enough to perform simple composition and monitoring. However, if the screen size can be further increased, I believe that the experience of both viewing and operation will be improved.
360° Panoramic view is no longer the only choice
If the previous dual fish-eye lens brought the effect of 1+1=2 to GoPro Fusion, then now in front of the GoPro Max, which also equipped with Pisces-eye lenses, this formula may become 1+1>2. Because the dual lenses of GoPro Max not only provide the ability to shoot panoramic materials, but also retain the flat and wide shooting function of a single lens, which means you can use it as a GoPro HERO action camera.
In single-lens mode, you can switch between the following four focal segments when recording video materials:
"Max SuperView" (13mm)
"Width" (16mm)
"Linear" (19mm)
"Narrow" (27mm)
, and when taking photos, you can only select "Max SuperView" and "Width" focal segments. It is worth mentioning that thanks to the characteristics of fisheye lenses, GoPro Max's "Max SuperView" is GoPro's widest focal field of view to date, even better than the GoPro HERO8 Black launched at the same time, with the latter's widest focal length of only 16mm (SuperView).
A wider focal length means a more immersive perspective, especially when shooting some sports scenes, you can often get a more shocking picture. If you are shooting a Vlog, a wider focal length can not only ensure that more materials are included in the picture, but also the BUFF of a wide-angle lens can also capture the effect of "small faces", which is also a plus for those Vloggers who like to shoot first-view works. In terms of
functions, GoPro Max inherits most of its features from HERO, such as Max TimeWarp mobile time-lapse video, slow motion shooting, live streaming, Max HyperSmooth anti-shake, voice control, etc.
During this period of experience, the most common feature I used is the Max TimeWarp mobile delay function. TimeWarp is not a new feature. It was built in the previous HERO7. This function can adjust the speed according to actions, scene detection and light. There is almost no manual operation required throughout the process. Therefore, it has the advantages of low threshold, easy to use, and good results. This also makes it my favorite feature: compared with uniform linear video recording, moving delay videos with variable speed and fast movement can often catch the audience's attention and are more interesting. When shooting
, you only need to hold the GoPro Max firmly and then take photos while walking. It should be noted that it is best to find the subject of the shooting when shooting, which can be a building, a person, etc., and then aim at the TA to shoot. You can turn the camera slightly in the middle to obtain the change of viewing angle or create the timing of transition. The common viewing angle changes are from top to bottom or from bottom to top, from left to right or from right to left, and when connecting to the second video, the transition can be completed in the same direction.
I shot a time-lapse video with iPhone11 Pro and GoPro Max TimeWarp on a small island in Langkawi. GoPro Max has overwhelming advantages in both picture, anti-shake, field of view, etc. In contrast, although the ultra-wide angle is slightly wider than the wide angle, the iPhone 11 Pro still cannot raise its head in front of the focal length of the Max SuperView. In addition, the mobile time-lapse video captured by the iPhone 11 Pro will have obvious flickering problems, which is caused by changes in light, inconsistent exposure parameters of the mobile phone or not smooth enough.
It is worth mentioning that the path entering the island is composed of many paths floating on the water, so when I was walking and shooting this video, I couldn’t walk steadily, and I almost shaking left and right throughout the whole process. But the Max HyperSmooth anti-shake of GoPro Max still plays its due role, and there is almost no slight shaking feeling in the video.
What does the HERO mode of single lens bring to GoPro Max? I think it offers a new option for those who seek to have both fish and bear’s paw.
Panoramic camera is new, but problems such as post-editing and social sharing are still "mountains" that stand in front of reality. When the enthusiasm for buying a camera is exhausted by complex material editing, or social platforms do not support it, people begin to doubt the decision to place an initial order. GoPro Max's single-lens HERO mode gives this group a "retreat" where they can choose the familiar wide-angle flat view to continue their creation.
But just like a two-in-one laptop, this "fish and bear's paw" practice often means sacrifice.
For professional users who value video or photo imaging quality, the single-lens HERO mode of GoPro Max may not be as good as the GoPro HERO8 Black, which can take flat photos of 12MP + SuperPhoto and flat videos of up to 4K60 frames, which makes the GoPro Max with a shooting ability of up to 5.5MP (plane photos) and 1440p 60 frames (plane video) a bit eclipsed.
In addition, although the single-lens HERO mode supports switching between two lenses, it must be stopped before recording can be cut, which is a bit less user-friendly. After all, if you often record Vlogs, the operation of changing the perspective by switching lenses may be more frequent. If you have to go through the process of "pause and switch recording" every time, it will inevitably make people feel cumbersome.
360° Panoramic self-salvation
GoPro Max supports up to shoot 5.6K 30-frame panoramic videos and 16.6-megapixel panoramic photos. The parameters are basically the same as GoPro Fusion, but GoPro Max uses a GP1 processor and also uses a more efficient H.265 codec.
But I think for most ordinary users, "image quality" may not be the main decisive factor, and "image content" is more important: a cool extreme sports video with a resolution of only 720p must be more exciting than the homely trivial matters taken with 8K cameras, and it can also be forwarded more. Therefore, how to use the panoramic camera in your hand to shoot a video that can make friends (and the lower the operability, the better) may be the highlight.
Unfortunately, compared with traditional flat videos, panoramic videos have a fresher perspective and playability, but how to spread has become a problem. At present, most social platforms in China do not support the sharing of panoramic videos/pictures. When you take a wonderful panoramic video on your snowboard, but find that you can’t socialize and can only “appreciate yourself”, the frustration may be more intense than the sense of accomplishment. How to solve this problem by
? The answer given by GoPro Max is to convert panoramic video into flat video, relying on the "Adjust Picture" tool on the GoPro App.
When you import the panoramic material taken by GoPro Max into the GoPro App, you can enable the "Adjust Picture" tool to move the view by adding " keyframe " to the video. The reason this is better than the OverCapture used by GoPro Fusion before is that it does not need to rely on the rotation of the mobile phone gyroscope to find the view. It is more about dragging the finger. You only need to add marks (keyframes) at the beginning and end of the action to achieve smooth transitions or viewing angle switching, and it can also simulate smooth mirroring effects. The tool on the
GoPro App is also suitable for panoramic photos. By dragging the screen to convert the perspective, you can transform a panoramic photo into a "planetary photo" similar to the perspective of "Little Prince Planet".
Last
The other side of the tepid sports camera is the highest in the mobile phone industry.
Why can mobile phones become popular? Isn’t it just that people are unwilling to “torn”? Open the camera application and press the shutter key, and a good photo of exposure, color, , white balance, will be automatically generated. In addition, the app store also provides various post-editing apps and social apps. This almost "one-stop" process automatically forms a natural barrier, causing sports cameras, digital cameras and other products to be blocked.
If you want to attract more potential users who use mobile phones to shoot, fully absorbing the advantages of easy-to-use and concealment of the mobile phone will become a key step. The sliding operation introduced by GoPro HERO7 imitates touch screen phones is an example. In addition, live video broadcast, vertical composition shooting, 15-second short video shooting and other functions are all attempts by GoPro to align with mobile phones.
is that successful? I think it may be too early to make a conclusion now. Disadvantages such as not having large enough screen, not supporting recording status switching lenses, and poor HERO mode picture quality are still the shortcomings of GoPro Max.
But as I said before, the GoPro Max is a brand new beginning for the GoPro panoramic camera, and the two-in-one gameplay further amplifies the playability. After this trip, I began to consider adding it to the list of “must-have equipment for travel”.
Editor: Tao Zongyao
