Does it still overheat?

Yesterday, I saw GoPro announcing the 12th version of their venerable action camera. The first thing that pops to my mind: “Do they still overheat and malfunction easily?” I’ve a friend who uses a GoPro for his video blogs, and that thing is effectively useless when he takes it to the heat of Southeast Asia. It’s hilarious and sad to see when he says in his videos that his GoPro died, necessitating a switch to the bigger Sony camera to finish filming.

As an owner of a GoPro HERO 7 myself (five years old, if you’re counting), I can sympathize with my friend’s predicament. Even on just warm days (read: not hot at all) the unit cannot last more than half an hour of continuous shooting. GoPros have been overheat-prone since they’ve combined the waterproofing-function into the same housing. In the early days, the GoPro unit and the waterproof housing was separate. Simple laws of physics: water not getting in also means air not getting in. No airflow means the processor runs hotter. Ergo, overheating.

The GoPro HERO 12 promises double the recording runtime of the 11, which sounds good on paper. I will need to see reviews that really put it under stress testing in hot environments. Otherwise, I am completely fine to continuing using my HERO 7.

Not that I would call myself a videographer - far from it. I’m first and only a photographer. Making videos is a whole other art in it of itself. The storage and processing horsepower needed for videography is exponentially more than just pictures. One minute of 4K60 video off an iPhone - not even that high a bit-rate compared to dedicated cameras - is about 400 megabytes. If you’re still counting, that space requirement adds up very quickly. Not to mention the hours of work just to make a video in the minutes. At this point, that’s not something I want to invest in.

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Here in the dark.

Dash-cam videos of car crashes are fun

As one does I spent a significant part of this weekend sleuthing on Youtube. What took me down the endless rabbit hole this time were dash-cam videos of bad driving and car accidents. As someone who haven’t driven regularly for over seven months now, the wonton idiocy and incompetence of other drivers is something I do not miss. That said, I shall be back on the road sometime next year so those compilations videos are a stark reminder of the potential dangers.

In my previous cars I ran a GoPro as a dash-cam as a sort of insurance policy against possible accidents, ensuring zero ambiguity as to whose fault it was that caused it (unless it’s me?). Luckily in those four years I never had to use it for that specific purpose; the GoPro primarily served to capture stupid drivers on the road and for me to look at the footage later and have a laugh.

It’s interesting to see the dash-cam movement catching on here in America: there’s even dedicated websites and storefronts to the cause now. We’ve all seen the crazy Russian dash-cam footages on Youtube, and in Asia almost all cars (that I’ve been in and I can see) has them installed and running. In supremely litigious United States it was only a matter of time before it absolutely proliferated here. I think it’s a hugely missed opportunity that automakers don’t fit these cameras as standard in cars.

I think in my forthcoming 911 I will bite the bullet and hard-wire a dash-cam unit in so I don’t have to screw and unscrew a GoPro every single time I get into the car.

Perhaps a bit arrogant on my part to say, but from what I can analyze of the dash-cam videos I watched this weekend, much of the accidents can be easily avoided. It’s incredibly easy for our egos to get inflated sat inside a 3000 plus pound rolling missile, and the key is tame that down. Be on a constant alert for bad drivers, and be ready to react when they encroach onto my space. Many of the collisions I saw were the unwillingness of the aggrieved party to acquiesce to the terrible driving of the other.

If another cars wants to cut me off, jump a line, make an illegal turn, go super slowly on a 65 mile-an-hour highway: I let them. The goal is to not play cop and challenge these drivers, but rather extricate myself and my precious car from the situation as soon as possible. The reward of a victorious ego from righting a wrong that ends up in a mangled car is pyrrhic indeed.

But it does make for entertaining videos on Youtube.

There was a time when appendages like these on a car would excite me to no end.

Going to stay in my lane

I spent much of the weekend putting together some GoPro footage I took way back during the Colorado trip - in addition to watching World Cup games of course. It was nothing elaborate: just stringing disparate videos together using iMovie into one cohesive timeline, with the appropriate transitions and captions. As someone who is decidedly on the still photography side of things it’s always fun exercise to dabble in moving photos. 

Suffice it to say I won’t be quitting my “day-job”. Video editing is obviously immensely time consuming and while the artistry involved is a natural extension of photography there’s many more dimension to juggle simultaneously - sound editing might be an entirely different art in it of itself. The amount of time spent on production and the resulting output length of the video is heavily skewed towards the former. 

Not to say I don’t enjoy video production, and given enough time investment I’m confident I can become decent at it. At the present however I think I shall as the kids say these days 'stick to my lane' and keep to still photography. I’ve still got much to do in that arena, plus I won’t ever “pivot to video”: written words and beautiful images are my passion.

Besides, it was superbly difficult to concurrently take pictures and film during the Colorado trip. At every place of interest I first took photos with my camera and then repeat with the GoPro for video. I’d nary the time savor the breathtaking views, which ultimately defeats the purpose of traveling in the first place. This is why I haven’t done video since traveling to Denver. 

Photo-journalism is more my speed anyways. 

The first-generation Honda Fit was a great car at the tail-end of Honda's golden era.