Good or Bad idea to merge GoPro video with prosumer camera video ?

[AAC]

I will have my Panasonic AGAC160 camera to shoot presentation in conference and plan to add GoPro (any model) on steadicam to walk through banquet tables and exhibition booths. I never use GoPro before, I know it's fully automatic, extra wide angle but unable to change WB, exposure or focus. Just wondering if video footage taken by GoPro is able to work with the big camera seamlessly in the editing ? Or the GoPro video quality doesn't cooperate with the big camera because of the fully automatic setting ?

[turk690]

The cameras do not have to "cooperate" with each other. (?) GoPro will produce *.mp4 wrapped video, the Panny will create *.mts AVCHD. When you bring these captured files into the NLE, you may have to convert them to an intermediate format (such as Cineform, which is the same company) for the most efficient editing, at which point their original formats no longer matter. Bigger concerns include matching the two different kinds of clips (color, gamma, noise, etc) so cutting from one to the other looks as if both were taken by the same type of camera.

[AAC]

Thanks for telling me that I need to spend more time to unified two different files. Unlikely to get a GoPro for walk through video.

[Stears555]

Gopro shot a bad quality video, due to the bad quality encoder of the camcorder. Why do you want to merge them?

[AAC]

I've never owned GoPro before. I thought it is handy and light weight on steadicam to walk around tables and booths in the event for wide angle video footage adding to the conference event video later. Will drop this idea.

[Cornucopia]

Don't listen to Stears555 re:GoPro.

It depends on the shots being combined and the relative merits of the 2 cameras under specific lighting conditions. IIWY, I'd make sure you have a lot of light, as that is where the GoPros look worst, IMO. But, because it is such a wide angle (FOV), it should be less prone to vibration's effects than a camera with a longer lens/narrower FOV.

Matching up can be done, but you need to set the WB manually to the same thing on BOTH devices (say: 5600ºK). Yes, GoPros can be set to be manual/fixed. Focus is, again, not very necessary, because of the extreme angle used by GoPros, so nearly everything is already in focus (if you wanted to have good bokeh, this would be bad, but if you wanted to do selective blur in post, it's fine). Exposure is the worst factor (though you can cheat/force it downward by adjusting the ISO limit). Best to use ProTune mode.

Re-read what turk690 told you: you will likely want to upconvert to a DI format for editing, regardless of using GoPro (AVC in MP4) or Panny (AVCHD/Mpeg2TS). Since GoPro already expects to use Cineform, that's probably a good way to go.
You'll need to match WB (not hard if prepped manually), resolution & framerate (easy enough). Even if you aren't actually shooting multicamera, I suggest you use timecode (see one of my previous posts) - GoPro uses starting frame timestamp, except when it rolls-over after hitting 4GB and has to create a new file (it uses a different timestamp altogether). So, you'll have to fudge a little with timing/sync unless you use TC.

Light weight is handy for portability, but it is bad for stability (for the same reason). I think it comes down to personal preference.

If you've matched the other stuff (incl. WB) and you have sufficient light, what you want to do should be possible, even if you have to do a little color & exposure matching/correction in post. Preferable?-probably not.
I underlined that last bit because I recently did a multicam shoot with 4 cams: DSLR, Semi-pro Panny and 2 GoPros. However, I didn't have the luxury of getting correct manual WB, plus the GoPros ended up actually being TOO wide angle for the even, so for things to work I would have to zoom in a bunch. That, combined with the fact that the bulk of the event was quite low light in a big space, meant lots of noise on their images. So I ended up using only ~2 minutes' worth from both cams for a whole 2-full-day shoot that ended up on DVD as ~5 hours. But, they were helpful for those 2 minutes (other cams were having batteries/cards swapped).

My slightly more than 2¢,

Scott

<edit>...also note: at highest available bitrate, both cams are around the same, at ~20-25Mbps, so no real difference there. Panny is a larger sensor, but not THAT much larger.</edit>

[redwudz]

I watch a fair amount of car auction programs on cable/satellite and they use GoPros a lot, suction cupped to the windshield or hood for drive around shots, which are also videoed with a pro camera from the back of a van. They seem to mix both videos together fairly seamlessly. The GoPros seem to work well for the close up shots within the car.

[turk690]

Another little detail would be the Panasonic will produce drop-frame video 29.97fps, while it's not clear whether the gopro will produce the same or non-drop frame 30fps or if there is a choice. If the gopro will only do 30fps, appropriate steps have to be made in the NLE to properly sync them the longer the uninterrupted periods of individual takes get. Granted, there is only a difference of 3 frames in a 100sec clip of both, and may not really be noticeable.

[Cornucopia]

GoPros also do 29.97 as well. Heck, they're made in US. No need to worry about that - NTSC-based color framerates is fully understood & supported.

Yes, the manuals & promo literature all say 24, 30, 48, 60, 120. But we all know that in NTSC-lands that means (or ought to mean): 23.976, 29.97, 47.952, 59.94, 119.88. And so does GoPro. They're probably just doing it as a (lazy?) naming shortcut, to make it easier to newbies.

Scott

BTW, I tested mine. They fully follow all the NTSC rules. Even 12fps 4k is actually 11.988! Didn't check the other rates.
In fact, from what I can tell, you CAN'T select the whole # equivalents (except the PAL-based rates: 25, 50, 100, etc.).

[turk690]

GoPros also do 29.97 as well....

That's good to know. I bought off ebay a dash cam video recorder (G1W-C) meant to constantly record in a loop. The video is not bad at 1080p, & I set it to 30fps (25fps was the only other choice). Somewhere in between I tried to incorporate said video with shots taken off a Canon XA10 in premiere and syncing was more difficult than I had encountered, until I realized the wretched camera did create integer non-drop frame 30fps video, and not 29.97fps.

[AAC]

Thanks for all technical information despite I'm not 100% understand... May be I grab one GoPro to play around. My next concern is light weight C-types stabilizer able to provide excellent stabilization to GoPro while walking between banquet tables and 500 guests.

[budwzr]

You can stabilize it by mounting to a monopod, collapsed to a short stick, and hold it by the case with two fingers.

[Cornucopia]

That only partially fixes things, and in some ways exchanges one set of problems for another.

Things to think about.
1. The stick vs. cam weight isn't balanced (L<->R, F<->B, Top<->Bottom)
2. You fingers aren't ~frictionless gimbals
3. You're going to easily and quickly get tired/fatigued holding it like that

It works in a pinch if that's all you've got.

Scott