I used a gopro max 2 while walking. I set it to interval, 2 seconds, as recommended.
I started the camera via the app.
However, multiple times, I found that it stopped without any apparent reason, so I lost a good part of my images.
As I held it on a stick above my head, I not see why that was, I just checked in with the app and found no capture was going on.
Did anyone have the same experience? Any idea what mistake I could have made, or what setting or technique would avoid that problem?
I do experience similar behavior when walking but with the GoPro MAX mostly in 0.5 s Photo Time Lapse Mode. Initially, I thought that it may have been due to me cranking up the video bit rate for h.264 and h.265 because photos (JPEGs) are actually sourced from the video stream but every video mode works smoothly without any hick ups most of the time. Then, I suspected that maybe the FAT32 cluster size may have something to do with it. So, I have formatted my SD card to the maximum cluster size of 64 KB and aligned the beginning of the partition on the first 64 KB, to make all clusters align on a 64 KB boundary and thus also enable full block writes for maximum write speed. Unfortunately, the 0.5 s Photo Time Lapse Mode continues to lock up the camera randomly. When the camera is locked up in this way then the only way to get it back working is to do a hard shutdown, by pressing the power button for 4 seconds minimum.
My latest suspicion is that the SD card may lose contact with the SD card slot contacts due to vibrations. Hence, before my next walk, I want to add a small piece of thin cardboard on the SD card or between the battery and the card slot to increase pressure on the contacts. In other words, make things a bit more tight in and around the battery compartment. We will see how it goes. ![]()
Thanks, that gave me another idea: I didn’t notice any lockup. However I did notice GPS missing for large parts. So maybe in my case it is power loss due to to a similar issue with battery contact, leading to a reboot. Then, as soon as I notice, I start recording again, but GPS fix takes more time? I will watch out in my next walks.
If that should be the case, I’d be quite disappointed, because some robustness against vibration and shock is exactly what I had hoped for in an “action cam”
Loose contact hasn’t occured to me, the battery is firmly placed. Maybe it’s indeed a mode issue, I always record in video and don’t have any issues, even when recording for 5 hours straight.
You can use my program if you want for processing the videos and uploading to Mapillary, you can adjust the sample distance, for on foot is 2 or 3 meters a good setting. Releases · TheWizardbc/GoPro_Workflow · GitHub
Thanks, but I generally prefer the camera to produce JPEGs and deal with images than with video files because JPEGs deliver better image quality over video. Hence, this is why I would like to have a stable working short time interval Photo Time Lapse Mode. Ideally, like my almost 16 year old Canon tourist digicam, which can not only perfectly capture 5 full sensor resolution (12 MP) images per second in burst mode for about 30 minutes but also has a marvelous integrated lens compared to any existing actioncam. It really is worth noting that a camera designed in 2010 and released to market in 2011, continues to be so much better in so many aspects than any over‑hyped GoPro model to this very day. Unfortunately, this camera’s only downside is that its firmware lacks a time lapse mode, which is basically a must have for mapping. Otherwise, I would use it for mapping even today (granted, probably with better battery technology). Lets face it; traditional Japanese and Korean camera makers continue to be light years ahead of the rest. They just do not target the actioncam market specifically.
Have you checked if you have the same problem with other SD cards?
MAX camera may have different construction, but if its the same as regular GoPros, this shouldn’t be a reason unless the SD housing is defective. Personally, I only film with external power bank and no battery inserted in camera, so there is no “pressure” at all for SD housing. And I have it mounted on a bicycle, so it’s basically non-stop vibration. Obviously, this is just my experience, so who knows.
I’ve had pretty much all GoPros hard-lock up on me at one point or another. But most of the time it just announces that “SD card is too slow”, which is just a useless generic message. I always blamed SD cards (like everyone else in forums), but after replacing cameras a few times, I now blame the camera itself wearing itself out because the same SD cards I had for years work perfectly fine in the new cameras. I am tempted to blame their power circuitry gradually failing.
MAX and MAX2 surely differ in design and implementation. Either way, imho GoPro’s build and software quality are really poor, so I do not blame the SD card either. No traditional camera maker could get away with the kind of stuff I too read on forums about GoPro build quality. It is totally unacceptable for the money they ask.
In my case, I seem to have narrowed it down to the SD card slot probably not always deliver proper base voltage on writes to the SD card. God knows why. Random voltage drops are probably also the reason why the camera loses auto and locked white balance levels for one or two frames. This is just pathetic.
I would need to verify all of this against another camera but I am not really sure I want to go through all the hassle sending it back and explaining everything to dull customer service.