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YEAH I WON THE GO PRO CAMERA IN TAUCK VIDEO 2014 FAN FAVORITE CONTEST!
I AM SO EXCITED TO BE ABLE TO TRY OUT THE GO PRO CAMERA, AS WE ARE BOOKING THE MAY 2015 OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS. ANY TIPS, FROM FELLOW TRAVELERS, AS WE ARE PLANNING PORT SIDE, CABIN 2, FOR OUR ADVENTURE. LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING NEW FOOTAGE OF BIRDS AND ANIMALS!
WHAT WERE YOUR FAV MEMORIES OR MUST HAVE'S WHILE ON THE TRIP?
JO JO
WHAT WERE YOUR FAV MEMORIES OR MUST HAVE'S WHILE ON THE TRIP?
JO JO
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Congratulations! I can't help you with the trip, but I took a GoPro on our Alps tour this past June so can give you some hints. Others may disagree, but this is what I discovered.
First get get a spare battery, especially if you will be using the WiFi remote to control it. Also, get a good, large capacity micro-SD memory card. I used a 64 GB card and it had plenty of memory for whatever I wanted to shoot. The manual will tell you how long various memory cards and the battery will last.
As to using the camera- if you have never used a video camera, you really need to force yourself to hold the camera VERY, VERY STILL and move it SMOOTHLY and VERY SLOWLY when panning! Though it has a single shot capability, it really is intended for shooting action videos- while surfing, skiing, skydiving, etc. I took one on our trip to the Alps this past June where I used it to take a few panorama shots and also strapped it to a helmet during a Segway tour of Munich. It has an ULTRA-wide-angle, fixed-focus lens, so the closer you can get to your subject, the better- closer than 12' (up to just a foot or so) is best.
Take short videos, less than 1 min. each, rather than long ones. They are easier to upload to Facebook, etc. and are much easier to edit that way. You can combine any number of segments together. Speaking of editing- I hope your computer has a fast processor!!! Using the free GoPro editing software, I edited a bunch of video segments into a single, 20 min. video. First you must download the segments to your computer, where the software converts them to an editable format, so you can trim the lead-ins and lead-outs (divide them into two segments if you have a bad section in the middle of one you want to remove), add transitions and text, then reconvert the new joined file back to a viewable format (MP4). It took over two hours for the computer to do the reconversion to a 20 min. MP4 HD video!!!
Practice a lot before you go! Have fun!
Edit: As to your other post about uploading- I doubt you'll find many places (in the world) that have enough bandwidth or if they do they won't allow you to upload video files- which can be huge and take forever to upload!!!! A short 53 sec. HD video I shot with the GoPro is 194 MB in size! In comparison, a single high res. photo shot with my 18 megapixel Canon DSLR is only 6.5 MB in size. Single shots are much easier to upload but even so, I wouldn't expect much in the Galapagos.
The GoPro's WiFi capability only allows you to view realtime video or download videos to your computer, phone, or tablet which you must pre-load with the (free) GoPro software- you don't need a cable. Or you can use it to control the camera functions with the little handheld wireless remote. You can set camera to do one or the other not both at the same time. You can't go from the camera directly to the web, i.e. not upload directly to Facebook, or other photo hosting site, etc.
I use a cable to download video files to my laptop.