Go Pro Hero 4 Black samples have been hitting the net and included are 1080p 120fps tests. The quality seems much better than what the Hero 3 black was able to do in 720p but it is below what 1080p 60 can deliver on the same cameras.
Hero 4 Black slow motion Samples:
Diving on lake by Pro Video
It is probably the best slow motion in an action camera yet. It would have been great to have 240p in 1080 full HD but maybe that is reserved for the 4+ later in 2015. It does however beat the iPhone 6 in compression and detail with less aliasing artifacts. If you want a 1080p 120fps camera on a budget the GoPro is a good option especially for sports and POV but we still recommend for a similar price the Panasonic V750 and W850 for better control and image quality as a standard camera at 120p 1080 full HD.
GoPro Hero 3 vs Hero 4 Video and Slow Motion by GoPros N’ Stuff
Hero 4 120p 1080 Test by Brent Rose
Throwing stones on river by Michael Kincaid
DJI Phantom in Slow Motion by AVEO S.PL
Airflares by Pigmie
You can order the Go Pro Hero 4 Black for $499 free shipping from Amazon Here! Thanks for your continued support of HSC !
does the silver version with touchscreen perform this good too?
In short no, the Hero 3 silver offers 120fps on 720p only not full HD. However it does offer 100fps at 1280*960 4:3 aspect ratio. Still it is not near 1080p.
As for 1080p 60fps it should perform the same as the Black or equivalent to the Hero 3+ which was very good!
by the way, there is a new project called fps1000 in kickstarter
seems like a cheap version of Phantom but the samples of the video are not that good
We were alerted yesterday of this new exciting project and are in the process of getting some answers to our many questions. Expect a post regarding this camera soon, thanks for your support James!
Great videos. Limited by that lens of course. And still, no camera in this price range matches the iPhone 6 for 240fps! Although the Panasonic video cameras look good: I want a stills camera with slo mo video functionality! The LX100 should have been the one. But…8-( Any tips on anything coming out by the end of the year? I’m tempted to go back to the LX7 or pay 3 times more for the Sony RX100 M3! Although I was wondering about the Alpha 5100, even though I wanted pocket ability… Great website, by the way!
Thanks for your good words.
There will be new Mediatek phones with 480fps at 1080p released by the end of the year or early 2015. For quality slow motion I recommend you look at the fps1000 in our latest post. If the samples we get later this week show good quality it will be unbeatable because for 1000 us you will get a killer slowmo cam The iPhone 6 quality is aliased and low bit rate plus the phone price is really 800+ only contract subsidized. It will get interesting in the next few months!
I have done some testing with cameras I can afford to get my hands on and so far the iPhone 6 seems to be the best at high speed video. I bought a GoPro Hero 4 Black Edition for $499 and was extremely disappointed after seeing my cousin’s iPhone 6 performed much better in every shot we tried. The GoPro is okay but lacks in many areas such as the need for a swappable lens (Wide Angle Fisheye is not always the best), the need for a more sensitive censor (the iPhone performed way better in low light), the need for longer battery life (even with the BackPac addition I only get about 2hours of life). Hopefully Nick Woodman took some notes from Apples success with the way they implemented video recording into their cell phone.
Here are some examples of the video footage we did while looking for an inexpensive way to record for slo-mo playback.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU4z6K8d7QJzJ82MLQqe7tdANiui-CzxX
Interesting results Shawn,
Thanks for sharing your insights. We measured the linear resolution of the Hero 4 black and it is slightly higher then the iPhone which is still not true 720p at 240fps. The iPhone at 120fps is slightly better but is still not true 720p. The Gopro is somewhere in between 1080 and 720 but inching to the low side, the 1080p claim is marketing in that mode. The GoPro is one place above the iPhone 6 in our guide because of several factors like: Pro Tune, Better Bit rate, Ability to grade the footage better, lower price and slightly higher resolution plus 2.7k at 60p. Remember that our rankings weight a lot on the resolution factor. If the iPhone actually had better resolution at 720p or offered 120fps at 1080p it would have been one spot or more above the Hero 4 Black.
The iPhone looks more colorful and pleasing but be aware that using Pro Tune and grading the Hero 4 is capable of amazingly good results using post tools. This is intentional as to be able to grade them to match other cameras. The iPhone has a pleasing but baked in look.
There is no doubt that the iPhone 6 is a great phone and for slow motion if you need it and you have it on a contract it is quite good. However for the money an fps1000 which is in development or some Panasonic handycams are a better value for slow-mo. The market is going to be shaken when Mediatek and their partners release phones sporting their new 64bit chipset which is capable of 480fps at full 1080p with some line skipping.
Stay safe and be sure to make some Pumpkin Pie for the birds with the wreckage.
Well said, and nature maid out well with those pumpkins! I understand and actually agree with you on all those valid points, and I also look forward to 480fps @ 1080p in an affordable product. Let’s hope they are affordable.
For our purposes, slow motion playback was top priority and thus high speed frame rate the most needed feature and created some bias in that direction. The GoPro Hero 4 was so hyped up (pre-purchase), that when I bought it, we thought it would be unbeatable in any mode, or was going to deliver cinematic results for 500 bucks. The company did a great job marketing the camera and it steered me to buying one.
I put the GoPro Hero 4 in its 480p mode and left it there for days while we compared it to several budget cameras. It did okay in very, very bright sun light, but got pixelated quickly as the light level dropped, such as at dusk. The iPhone software on the other hand, seemed to tune the image and give better results in all the low light shots we did, so after a while I would not use the GoPro set to any frame rate above 120fps, because it just seemed to need too much light in order to avoid pixelated or motion blurred frames.
I should also add that, I did no protune adjustments to the GoPro footage as I wanted an “out of the box” comparison. I think for us, it was mostly the shock factor that a dedicated camera seemed to lack slightly when compared to a cell phone that happened to have a camera built in. Who would have ever thought that a cell phone camera would do so well? We also never compared higher resolution footage from the iPhone 6 with the GoPro as our main need was high speed at resolutions decent enough to see detail.
Also, I am by no means someone who advocates for iPhones or Apple products in general, but I am on the lookout all the time for quality, but cheap, slow-motion capability and the iPhone 6, when someone else buys it, seems to do pretty good. You just have to invite your buddy with the iPhone 6 to a video shoot. Hah!
At least in every situation we have been in, the footage from that phone could be slowed down with much less motion blur or pixilation compared to the GoPro or any other camera I have tried so far.
Sony HandyCam was originally $700
iPhone 6 was $700 from Verizon (it was purchased off contract)
GoPro Hero 4 Black Edition was $499
Have fun!