GoPro HyperSmooth Stabilization is Perfect for Car Videos

[@RStandsForRace]

When I use Hypersmooth on my GoPros, it does this weird panning around effect under high lateral g loads that ruins the footage.

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

I'm no expert but I'm figuring that this could happen when the picture is especially bumpy because it has to "zoom in" more in order to retain what little bit of the picture is consistent across multiple frames. I hope that makes sense. Do you have a link to one of your videos where that happens?

[@salut151]

@@EvolutionAutocrosser I have the same issue. It is more pronounced I think when you use it in linear mode vs other wide angle shots.

[@HoboI3ob]

I've found on the Hero 8 Black that slaloms are smoothed to the point of looking ridiculous (i.e. the car moving in and out of frame while the camera moves straight forward). I'm assuming that newer cameras would exaggerate this even more. Using a post processing stabilization like Davinci Resolve allows me to stabilize relative to the car which looks a million times better in my HS Fiesta ST which admittedly isn't going to bounce nearly as much as a prepared/modified car. In your case where the car is bucking under acceleration, hypersmooth does help quite a bit.

[@TryOverWish]

I believe the problem is not the stabilization. Rather, by stabilizing we remove the sense of ... movement going on in the video overall. Whereas although stabilization makes the video look smoother, it also makes it look "slower" .... The key here is, when people are posting videos online, they are generally trying to appeal to an audience for whatever personal reasons. It is easier to appeal to mass audiences if the video "looks fast" if the video "looks slow" it doesnt matter how fast or how much madness is going on. It seems "people" like the unstabilized videos more than stabilized. People meaning, potentially, people who do not understand the differences in video footage and or honestly dont care and want to watch a video that "looks fast" as opposed to a video that is fast and smooth. Hopefully that made sense, it's something I've evaluated over the last decade of driving, making videos, and watching videos, scrolling comments, talking to people etc.

[@TheEarthwinders]

I just recently bought a hero 8 after seeing the amazing hypersmooth video on a friend's autox run, compared to my video on my old Hero 2, which vibrated, bounced, and shook all over the place on the uneven asphalt.

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

I'm starting to believe that a big part of it is related to the mount. I've found that using the gopro suction cup mount on the body of the car works pretty well in making the camera reasonably smooth even with stability turned off. What kind of mount are you using? If it's solidly bolted or affixed to a rollcage, seat, dashboard, or something that that - the mount could be transferring vibrations and resonance in to the mount and the camera.

[@TheEarthwinders]

@@EvolutionAutocrosser I usually used the suction cup mount. It varied greatly depending on where I stuck it. The front bumper seemed to have the most flex and vibrations out of any spot. The rear bumper was much smoother. The doors were in the middle and yes, the body made for the best footage. But it's still shaky; the asphalt on our autox track is an old abandoned runway and it's very rough and bumpy. I have a dash cam permanently mounted to the windshield with 3M sticky tape as well and that vibrates a little bit on this track.

[@aroundomaha]

You sold me on using this for 2021, though I will mount it behind the driver to analyze and improve my driving.

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

Maybe consider running 2 cameras. One on the course and one on the driver. You can line up the video in an editor (a bit tricky and advanced) and then watch them together either as a picture-in-picture or split-screen. Cheers!

[@phillipdavies3896]

Lol I saw the same Reddit post which got me thinking. I’m gonna do a couple of runs this weekend with the hypersmooth turned off so I have a side by side comparison.

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

I'm still trying to decide myself and I'm open to having my mind changed. Let me know what you find.

[@nelnova]

Way better !!!! wow

[@willecutlip]

Looks like we’re even closer to reality-based video.

[@Zewerr]

My take on it is if it's mounted on the car, it's almost like you're driving a car with sloppy soft suspension. You turn the wheel, car loads up, then car turns. In the case of this video, car turns, camera stabilizes, then camera turns. I find it mostly annoying. on a helmet mounted camera, on the other hand, it makes the videos fantastic. I have a Hero 7 Black that I use for my autocross videos. My in car mount is not very stable, so the camera bounces a little bit and makes my in car videos kinda annoying, but I've tried with with stabilization, and it makes it even more annoying, constantly panning left and right. But I do have some helmet cam videos uploaded to my account with hypersmooth turned on, and it works wonderfully.

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

That's a good point. The mount itself could be playing a big part. Perhaps if you tried a new GoPro suction cup mount you'd have better results. I plan to do more testing and videos on the topic in the future with different mounts, locations, and settings. Thanks!

[@fcsantiel]

Hey Can you do a vid about autocross aero

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

Sure! I’ll do that in the next month or so now that were in the end of the season. The topic of aero is complex and will require real research and help from experts to tackle properly.

[@fcsantiel]

@@EvolutionAutocrosser thank you. Ill try uploading my videos as soon as my internet at home is fix

[@elusive5884]

I think it depends on what you're going for with the video. If I'm shooting with the GoPro mounted outside the car, I turn off stabilization/hypersmooth. I prefer having the mounting point (car) appear stationary relative to the background. It's more natural and gives a better sense of speed. Otherwise with stabilization on it looks a little unnatural with car floating around. But I do find hypersmooth works great for helmet cam shots or anything that will be in constant motion.

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

Good points! I can see why turning stability off may be better in certain cases. More for me to ponder for a future follow up. Thanks!!

[@dcskater180]

I think 4k limits the amount of pan the camera can apply. I filmed a run in 2.7k and it is smooth but looks like the camera is on a loose tri-pod. Its a hero 8 black and pans ~15-20* each side and is unwatchable

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

Thank you! I wish I had more for you to watch. I hope to make more in the 2021 autocross season!

[@darkmagician941]

How do you drive like that? Where can I learn to do autocross like that.

[@TheBreaded]

Lol, I knew you were going to refer to that reddit thread.

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

Hah. I felt inspired to tell the other side of the story. I’m genuinely impressed by what this little $300 camera can do and I think the HyperSmooth feature is the best built-in stability control I’ve ever seen on a camera in this price point.

[@BerkeleyGang]

I think without Hypersmooth, I would have gotten motion sickness. BTW, my Hero 8 Black finally arrived today. :)

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

Awesome. I’m considering an upgrade but don’t have a reason to just yet.

[@BerkeleyGang]

@@EvolutionAutocrosser The 7 Black you recommended looked good, and your videos look fine. It's not available from GoPro anymore. Only the 8 and 9. Looking at reviews, 8 seemed to have some good upgrades, and the 9? Seems some things went backward with the 9. Saved a little money with the older 8 as well. Cheaper on GoPro's web site than Amazon, B&H, Adorama, or other reputable retailers. Now to figure out how to mount. I think I figured it out. Have to do some testing before next season.

[@ckrampertracing]

HS dulls the motion of the shot. Especially poor if being used for driver aid. If goal is cinematic footage, maybe you could make an argument to leave it ON.

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

This certainly seems to be the consensus. I may need to reconsider my position. More to follow :-)

[@adrianvalella6854]

Nope I dont like the hypersmooth, also I have no idea why that autocross club uses lot H, when there is a way better parking lot right next to it!

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

I know, right?! Can we please get a different / better lot next time? This one was terrible! LOL

[@mitchlewis535]

How did I not see this video sooner?!! lol! Thank you for making it! When I bought our Hero 11 recently, I couldn't decide whether I liked HyperSmooth turned on or off, so I made my own video about it running the car around our neighborhood. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnaaaZaXocSpj8k. But then, when I actually used it last weekend at our first autocross, the footage was super bumpy. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4bNiWVogcl_eck. I'm thinking of living with the panning effect that comes with HyperSmooth, just so my footage looks less bumpy. Thoughts? I wish there was a way to stabilize footage, but only on the X-axis. (so it smooths the bumps, but doesn't affect the left/right turns)

[@EvolutionAutocrosser]

I watched both videos. Thanks for sharing. I definitely noticed the exaggerated panning with the boost mode which is, in my opinion, not good. I'm not sure why the autocross video was so bumpy with smoothing turned on. Maybe because it was mounted inside the car and the algorithm had a tough time tracking everything? No idea honestly. Maybe try mounting the camera on the roof, hood, or door and see how it ends up.

[@mitchlewis535]

@@EvolutionAutocrosser thanks. I’m going to try that next time. (Mount outside of windshield)