During my last trip to Raja Ampat I had the chance to compare a Sony A6400 with the 10-18mm f/4 lens to the GoPro12 with AOI UWL-5 wide lens for videos. My original plan was to use the Sony camera mainly for macro and have the GoPro setup for wide angle. However, most of the dives were more appropriate for wide scene videography. So I used both camera very similarly, therefore, I produced many similar footage, which is a good opportunity for comparison. I tried to max out both systems. Sony was on XAVC S 4K, 25p 100M, while GoPro was used with GoPro Labs (4K 60p, highest bitrate). You can see the setup below:

I've uploaded two videos with many footage on my YT channel. The perspective is a bit different but they can be compared. There was a recent thread about the "cinematic" application of action cameras. I think the GoPro is not that bad but I observed many optical errors.

What do you think about the results?

You can buy currently the GoPro set-up around 600 euro, while the cheapest wide-angle option for Sony A6400 (with this zoom lens) is 1750 euro when a Saltedline housing (400 euro with 6" dome port) is used and not the more expensive Nauticam case (there would be not much optical optical improvement going for the more expensive housing).

6 hours ago, Nikolausz said:

During my last trip to Raja Ampat I had the chance to compare a Sony A6400 with the 10-18mm f/4 lens to the GoPro12 with AOI UWL-5 wide lens for videos. My original plan was to use the Sony camera mainly for macro and have the GoPro setup for wide angle. However, most of the dives were more appropriate for wide scene videography. So I used both camera very similarly, therefore, I produced many similar footage, which is a good opportunity for comparison. I tried to max out both systems. Sony was on XAVC S 4K, 25p 100M, while GoPro was used with GoPro Labs (4K 60p, highest bitrate). You can see the setup below:

I've uploaded two videos with many footage on my YT channel. The perspective is a bit different but they can be compared. There was a recent thread about the "cinematic" application of action cameras. I think the GoPro is not that bad but I observed many optical errors.

What do you think about the results?

I like the gopro 12 footage, less expensive, excellent result.

Bravo

yes these action cameras are getting ridiculously good. Paired with good optics and light they provide excellent results. Where they suffer is inability to tune in custom white balance so at 15m the reds are simply not there and low light situations where they will get grainy and mushy really quickly. So it depends on use case. Having said that I got my wife Action6 with AOI housing and UWL-03Pro for upcoming Malpelo trip. And I am sensing i will be borrowing a lot of her footage😅 (my A1 is mostly in photo mode)

28 minutes ago, RomiK said:

yes these action cameras are getting ridiculously good. Paired with good optics and light they provide excellent results. Where they suffer is inability to tune in custom white balance so at 15m the reds are simply not there and low light situations where they will get grainy and mushy really quickly. So it depends on use case. Having said that I got my wife Action6 with AOI housing and UWL-03Pro for upcoming Malpelo trip. And I am sensing i will be borrowing a lot of her footage😅 (my A1 is mostly in photo mode)

In shallow water or with proper light these action cameras can produce really good results, especially with the AOI (or Inon) wide correction lens. I always praised the close focus improvement by the AOI UWL-03 but it's more prone to show the particles close to the lens than the AF lens with shallower depth of field. Shooting towards the sun is also more complicated with the AOI but under ideal conditions I'm pretty happy with the results from the GoPro.

For me, it's a bit like comparing a cell phone to a DSLM. Only in specific applications does the large camera really perform better.

The advantage of GoPro & Co is the wide focus range, but of course you can't isolate the subject by specifically selecting the focus range.

In my opinion, the videos shown are more favorable to the GoPro, but they also illustrate the general dilemma well: only those who really use the unique features of crop or full-frame cameras will actually get better pictures. In-camera-stabilisation is way better in teh GoPro, but with the A6700 they are nearly on par.

After our trip to Galapagos my wife and I discussed the optimal setup: We decided, that the Gopro has its place for "point and shoot" - we wouldn't have gotten the Orcas if we had to rely only on the big cameras.

Thanks for sharing!

Very interesting, thanks for this.
The results are very nice in terms of IQ for wider shots, but WB struggles on both, with a really strong cast. How do you WB for the A6400, and what WB settings are you on for the GoPro?
The lights don't seem to be making much difference on these shots, I guess the shots are too wide for available light power.


This is timely - after years of holding on to the GoPro7, a 2nd hand GoPro 13 just arrived from MapCamera this very morning, so I plan to experiment with it as well.
I'm really looking forward to 10bit colour, and to testing it with filters for mixed-lighting scenarios and WA.

At first it will be with the LX10, but I'm also in the process of upgrading it to an Sony A7SIII rig (bought the Nauticam housing, but assembling the full kit will take a bit of time), so I'll be able to offer A7SIII + GoPro13 tests in a few months, hopefully.

My A7SIII rig will be a macro rig at first, but I will have the GoPro13 on there for WA shots, and will test mixed-lighting with both on local reefs.
Mixed-lighting tests on the LX10 were very promising (I use Keldan SF -1.5 filter on the lens plus Dreifish recipe "Dreifilters" on the lights) allowing to setting the WB to ambient light and getting closeup highlights (one way to describe it like having a bit of "directional sunlight" at your disposal). Maybe it's something you could look into?

Regarding mixed lighting an action cams, here's an nice example of mixed lighting with the GoPro12 (GoPro Hero 12 with lens filter

2x Kraken Solarflare 10k Video Lights with Kraken Blue Filters) : https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=786913180869855

cheers
b

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by bghazzal

8 hours ago, fruehaufsteher2 said:

For me, it's a bit like comparing a cell phone to a DSLM. Only in specific applications does the large camera really perform better.

The advantage of GoPro & Co is the wide focus range, but of course you can't isolate the subject by specifically selecting the focus range.

In my opinion, the videos shown are more favorable to the GoPro, but they also illustrate the general dilemma well: only those who really use the unique features of crop or full-frame cameras will actually get better pictures. In-camera-stabilisation is way better in teh GoPro, but with the A6700 they are nearly on par.

After our trip to Galapagos my wife and I discussed the optimal setup: We decided, that the Gopro has its place for "point and shoot" - we wouldn't have gotten the Orcas if we had to rely only on the big cameras.

Thanks for sharing!

It's interesting that you favoured GoPro footage. Have you watched it on phone or on a large monitor? I think it makes a big difference, but I agree that the difference is not that big and when the conditions are good for GoPro shooting with a large camera doesn't bring too much.

8 hours ago, bghazzal said:

Very interesting, thanks for this.
The results are very nice in terms of IQ for wider shots, but WB struggles on both, with a really strong cast. How do you WB for the A6400, and what WB settings are you on for the GoPro?
The lights don't seem to be making much difference on these shots, I guess the shots are too wide for available light power

I used AWB on the Sony but I found that GoPro is better with fixed WB, so I tuned according to the video lamps, so I used 5000K, it makes wide footage more rich in blue.

Maybe these subjects are not that colourful, but I see a subtle difference bringing out the colours well. This video below is a better examples for the colours of GoPro with external lights (more colourful subjects and available lights are less dominating).

1 hour ago, Nikolausz said:

It's interesting that you favoured GoPro footage. Have you watched it on phone or on a large monitor? .

uh-oh, nooo! My fault, translation error: DeepL is good, copy/paste without proofreading isn’t.

I think the scenery makes it easy for the GoPro to produce good-looking clips.

I personally prefer the A6400 videos.

From A6400 to A6700 (and hopefully A7 V) the improved image stabilization reduces the benefits of GoPro even further.

The only upsides that remain is the size and point&shoot.

https://vimeo.com/1167108332