Tutorial on using a GoPro to video fishing
Since I did my original video about using a GoPro to video my fly fishing back in 2013 with a GoPro 3, I’ve learned a lot through trial and lots of errors. I primarily use a GoPro Hero 8 Black now. I really like it. It has incredible image stabilization that I demonstrate in the video and allows me to record @ 1080p in narrow mode @ 120fps.
Action cameras like a GoPro are fixed focus and have a wide-angle lens to capture the action. The problem when fishing is a lot of the action ends up looking too far away. If you use the wide angle, your subject will look miles away. I use a head mount and shoot in narrow mode if it is available in the setting I am using in order to get the subject to be as close as possible. If you shoot at 2.7K or 1080p and edit in 720p you can effectively “zoom” in, crop and straighten your video. At 720p it will still look good on a computer, tablet or TV. I show some examples in this video. If they have a new model that lets me record in narrow at 2.7K that will really be nice. Editing in 720p allows me to enlarge the image 50% in a 1080p video and 2.7 times in a 2.7K video.
Generally, I shoot at 1080p narrow on my head and 2.7K wide on the second camera mounted on the PVC pipe. I use a frame rate of at least 60fps and if I’m filming jumping fish, I use 120fps. Just keep in mind that the higher the frame rate the larger the files size.
I edit my videos on a Mac using FCPX editing software. I like it a lot, but there is a learning curve like most things. There are plenty of tutorials on video editing on the web.
Lately, I have used voice control. It really helps when you want to get the camera rolling but are too busy to reach up and hit the button. You have to have the camera on before this feature to start recording almost instantly. If you are judicious in when and for how long you leave it on you can get quite a bit of time on the battery and not miss as many shots. It always helps to have an extra battery or two.
Hopefully I have a few ideas in this video that will help you make some memories with your GoPro.