Buying a Go Pro-need help.

punee

punee

Hello guys, I am planning on buying the Go Pro hero 3 white edition(199$). I haven't used many pro camera's earlier . All I had was a VHS handy cam. I intend to shoot movies (majorly short films) on my new camera. The Go Pro looks great for 199$ but, my biggest issues are:

1)It says I can only shoot 30fps on hd mode. Can I convert the footage to 24 fps in post? (without loss in quality)

2)I am total noob when it comes to manual focus and all. But I would love to have a nice shallow depth of field by manually changing focus. I know that it's possible in a DSLR( have used a friend's 550D earlier). Is it possible on a go pro?

Really looking for some help.
 
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First up I would like to say I do not own a Go Pro and have have only minimally used one. But here are my thoughts on what you've asked.

Straight away I'd like to point out that the Go Pro is not a professional camera. Maybe for extreme sports people, but not a film maker. That being said it is a major step up from VHS.

At this level 30fps vs 24fps isn't an issue and there's not much point... I shoot all my work at 25fps (simply because that is the standard in Australia). I'm thinking there's little chance in the work of a Go Pro being shown in a professional theatre...

I'm 99.99% sure that Go Pros cannot manual focus and that there focus is far from narrow.

What sort of things are you looking at shooting? If its sports go ahead. If its films or events I would suggest looking at something like a 550D or the newer 600D model because as you said they have much better focus: as well as a gazillions other things.
 
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Just realized that you said you wish to shoot short films. In that case I would highly recommend that you do not purchase a Go Pro. For starters, a fish eye look isn't really a film look
 
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I own a few GoPros from the various generations. They are great cheap cameras to be used for activities where the camera might be destroyed. They do a reasonable job for the price. However, you do not want to use one for serious film-making. There are much better options in the used market. As far as manual focus (or anything), no dice. Also the GoPro has a significant amount of barrel distortion (straight lines at the edges of the picture look curved). If you want a camera to make anything but action videos, get a camcorder or HDSLR type of camera.
 
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punee said:
Thanks for the inputs guys.

Is there any where I can buy a used 550D or t2i?
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eBay? A camera shop that also deals with second hand products?

I rarely buy second hand equipment so I can't really offer much help. However the 550D is quite possibly extremely cheap as it is three versions old so a new one may not be out of the question. What is your budget?
 
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eBay? A camera shop that also deals with second hand products?

I rarely buy second hand equipment so I can't really offer much help. However the 550D is quite possibly extremely cheap as it is three versions old so a new one may not be out of the question. What is your budget?
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I couldn't find it on ebay. Can you please give me a link?

My budget is 250-300 $.
 
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