Hi dear all,
I use two GoPro Hero 7 Black for capturing images, most commonly in picture sequence mode, while using the integrated GPS.
The quality of the images from the Hero 7 Black is quite good, but the software is buggy and many times the cams restart or forget about saving the GPS. So I find many sequences are gone or unusable.
Also, I capture from a bike handlebar or back carrier, so when I lean on my bike, the pictures are also tilted to the side. I’ve seen models 8, 9 and 10 have something called Horizon Levelling - which I assume is some trimming of the picture to automatically keep them level.
Have any of you tried this? Is this worth it?
And most importantly, is software in the newer models (8, 9, 10) any less buggy than it is on the Hero 7 Black?
Thanks y’all and have a great weekend!
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Hi
not directly added to the cams you do use, but my GoPro max never had the issue with the software.
Did you do a firmware upgrade, if available?
Amiga4000
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Dear Ruben,
Have now used a Hero9 black for just over a year to record time-lapse photos while mounted on the handlebars; far as I’ve worked out horizon levelling can only be enabled for linear video (as it needs to crop the image projected onto the sensor, and even then only works up to a certain angle - in the order of 27degrees); it’ll also only keep the horizon level, but doesn’t have an option to set the horizon to for example remain centred in the frame.
Not capturing or recording GPS data was an issue with the initial Hero9 firmware releases, the mid-december firmware update cured that : assume you’ve checked for and applied any updates? Latest release of the HERO7 Black firmware was the update to v1.90 on 25 November 2019 - according to HERO7 BLACK | GoPro
The stop recording, followed by a ‘repairing file’ message upon manual restart crops up on the helmet-mounted Hero(2018) which is used to record video - from a higher viewpoint, and will obviously be pointed where-ever one looks, thus records what one has seen. That problem goes away when using another SD-card, then crops up on the other Hero - looks like an issue with the card in ‘my’ case?
Have you considered that any SD-card can only be written to a limited (although perhaps ample) number of times? There is a format utility on the sdcard (,org?) website, which has on occasion cured memory card problems, but not the one mentioned above. And before anyone points out that cards can be written to 100.000 times : have had (two) cards replaced under warranty - production glitch was apparently missed by quality control testing only some cards from each batch.
Hope there’s something of use in this?
Met vriendelijke groet (Dutch for ‘with friendly greeting’,
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Hello, about Gopro 7: I received my first GP7 from mapillary. It was hanging up and also not writing GPS sometimes, battery was draining when camera off, and then it was loosing the date going back to 2016…really crap product!
I was using it like that for one year and then it broke down, meaning GPS stopped to work entirely.
I contacted support and really fast they exchanged it for another gopro7. It was more or less working same way…crap! Month ago it broke down again. It was working one day and another became a brick 
Fortunately it was one month before warranty end so they exchanged it for Gopro 8…hopefully it will work now.
So dont expect enything goood from gopro 7 maybe its due to mostly using timelapse photo mode and overheating the camera this way?
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Thank you everyone,
Yes I do keep my GoPro 7s updated - last firmware is 1.90 from Nov '19. Maybe no further updates, IDK.
The SD cards are not so old - yet I also have changed from SanDisk Extreme / Extreme Pro to some brand new Samsung cards. This supposedly reduces the chance of bad data collection or something like that. I find they are a bit more reliable but I assume it’s mainly the firmware on the camera that’s not so good.
As you mention there is NO horizon levelling when recording image sequences, so this is valuable: no use to get a newer camera, at least not because of this feature.
@masterofnoroad yes sometimes I find the camera gets too hot and restarts. I usually use what looks like a basic feature to me, GPS + 1s interval sequence recording. I’d understand it froze under video but while on sequences? I don’t know why this happens so often. I blame it on poor firmware. I may be wrong.
Maybe getting a 2nd hand Hero 9 and selling one of the Hero 7 would be an interesting intermediate solution. I’ll think of it.
Thanks y’all and have a great day! @koninklijke dank u wel 