THE BENEFITS OF A GOPRO (ft. Bali video)

I've been wanting to start making videos of my holidays for a while now, I used to love doing it in my job at the radio station and have missed it. Sadly, when I got to Bali I found that my DSLR can only record a few seconds of video at a time! I had emptied out my SD card so I had plenty of space (16G), I need to work out what's going wrong. So, I went with my handy dandy GoPro instead, and there were definitely some pros and cons. Check out the video below, it's my first travel video so I still have lots to learn! 

(If the video doesn't show up, you can find it on Youtube here.)

A couple of years ago I bought the GoPro Hero 3 and this is the first time I've gotten around to actually using the footage from it for a proper video. I bought a set of 9 accessories from a deal site last year and I love using the floating hand grip, it's only about 6 inches long, bright yellow, waterproof and floats but also lets you take selfie shots. Sadly though, I forgot to rinse it off after a day at the beach last summer and now my GoPro case is fused to it from rust, meaning it was the only accessory I was able to use on my trip. That'll teach me!

BENEFITS

One of the benefits of using a GoPro is it's size. GoPros are tiny, they're smaller the palm of your hand, so are very easy to take travelling. I was able to put mine in my DSLR bag on top of my DSLR, even with the case and handle attached. 

Underwater shooting is great when you're somewhere tropical! This was probably the biggest reason I bought a GoPro and I love taking underwater shots. I really wish I'd had it for Hawaii because the fish there were insane. There were quite a few tropical fish in Bali but nothing like the ones in Hawaii. I love the sound it makes underwater and left quite a bit of it on the video, as you'll hear.

For something so small it delivers pretty good quality footage. The colours aren't always great if the natural lighting isn't quite right, but that's not too hard to fix in post-production, I use Premiere Pro. 

LESSONS LEARNED

Well the obvious one is that I need to rinse my equipment after using it at the beach! And that I need to find some CLR to get rid of the rust and free my case.

There is a lot of shake because of the size of the camera which is one downside. It makes some of the footage a little hard to watch, especially if I'm walking (I need to stop doing it altogether!). I might look into finding a stabiliser for next time. 

All in all I would highly recommend a GoPro, or similar product to anyone who is going on adventures! Especially if you're going somewhere with a pool or a beach, or you want to do some extreme activities. I got mine from Parallel Imported in NZ for around $350 if I remember correctly, and you could probably get one cheaper second-hand. Keep an eye on daily deal sites for cheap accessories too. 

Please let me know what you think of my first travel video!