GoPro gear for Northern Lights + 11 Feb 2016 Vlog

Good evening guys, back with my 2nd Vlog. Personally I find this Vlog kinda boring but imma post it anyway. Haha. Boring because it didn't turn out to be as well-articulated as I thought...haha.

Maybe I should script my Vlogs from here...but that takes up more time...Ok, we'll see how it goes :D

Anyway, I wanna talk about my Iceland and Norway trip, AGAIN. LOL. The itinerary's pretty much fixed already and so now I'm making sure I've got all the right gear to capture my moments in Iceland and Norway :D

I'll be armed with a GoPro Hero 4 Silver...and of course, with lots of other GoPro gear too, which I will be sharing below.

I've been asking my friends who've been to Iceland and Norway how did they capture the Northern Lights. All of them replied me "DSLR camera with manual settings". When I asked them "Can GoPro Hero 4 do it?", they weren't very confident of it.

So, as usual, being the skeptic that I am, I decided to do some research. Didn't take me 5 minutes to confirm my excitement. Here are a few YouTube videos and blog posts of people who did it with the EXACT SAME CAMERA MODEL.

This dude shared on his blog all the GoPro Hero 4 settings he used in order to capture this ever-elusive natural phenomenon.

http://brendanmarsh.com/uncategorized/how-to-film-the-northern-lights-with-a-gopro-hero-4/

Mode: Night Lapse
Shutter = 30 sec
Interval = Continuous
MP = 12MP Wide
Spot Meter = OFF
Protune = ON
White Balance = 3000K
ISO Limit = 800
Sharpness = High

It's really the Night Lapse mode of the Hero 4 that does the magic. So glad I didn't go cheapo and get the Hero 3. HAHA.

How many of you know that the GoPro alone is kinda useless? Without all the additional gear that I got below, I won't be able to do much with just the camera and the basic waterproof housing.

So, I needed to arm my GoPro.

I'm planning to do a lot of Vlogs over there so the first problem I had was - GoPro's videos have amazingly LOUSY AUDIO QUALITY.

This is simply because the GoPro's audio microphone pick-ups are located on top of the GoPro camera, which is housed in an ALL-ENCLOSED, WATERPROOF housing. Well, what's waterproof isn't necessarily soundproof but hey, if something's waterproof, I'm pretty sure it'll be soundproof to a certain extent as well.

So, after doing a lot of research, I found the best simplest, no-frills external microphone for my GoPro Hero 4 - the Saramonic GoMic Stereo.

GoPro external microphone - Saramonic GoMic Stereo

Many other GoPro-Hero-4-compatible, external microphones out there require batteries, have long wires, need a separate mount, etc...This dude? Just plug it into the GoPro mini-USB cable input and it works! The video will automatically read the audio input via your Saramonic Go Mic external microphone pick up.

I bought the above from Lazada at SGD$59.90 as offered on their website. But it came with a shipping fee of $12.50, bringing my total expenditure on this baby to $72.40. Yeah, not cheap ma friends.

Anyway, after I bought the microphone, I then realized, the standard GoPro housing doesn't have a hole in its side to allow you to plug the microphone in -_-" I know right. Duh? If it's waterproof, it can't have a hole?

So how do you plug it in then?

Answer: GoPro Skeleton Housing - see the opening at the side to allow entry? Yes. This is the answer.

GoPro Hero 4 Skeleton Housing

The local retail stores were selling it at around $70 for the above housing. Challenger was selling it at a whopping $80! Lazada came in with a great price again at $29.70 BUT with shipping fees again bringing it to $40+

I got mine for only $30/= from this webby - https://onlygopro.net/ The guy selling it is my NTU EEE junior! HAHA! He is doing this on kind of a hobby basis. He ships these stuff from overseas - in bulk  - and then sells them to our Singaporean GoPro enthusiasts at a small profit. He is on Lazada as well.

He does meet-ups and cash on meet-up transactions which is great. I like to touch, see, feel and USE my product before actually paying for it...and he does just that.

So yes, once I got my skeleton housing, I rigged my GoPro up with the skeleton housing and the Saramonic GoMic:

My GoPro Hero4 in the skeleton housing with the Saramonic GoMic Stereo

Looks good eh? But how do I know if it SOUNDS good? You don't know if that $72.40 microphone is actually doing its job until you test it right?

Yes, skeptical, anal, need-to-prove-things-right, Jonavan Lee Zisheng went to do a few covers with it. I only uploaded 2...Haha. Go see for yourself...I mean, HEAR the difference for yourself.

This is the audio capture quality WITHOUT the GoMic stereo:

This is the audio capture quality WITH the GoMic stereo:

Hear the difference? Tremendous amount of difference! This will really improve my Vlog audio quality in Iceland and Norway for sure :D

Apart from those 2 GoPro accessories purchased so far, shown below are the rest of the gear I got, mainly from Sean at https://onlygopro.net/

Most of my GoPro gear

The most essential equipment in the above photo are the 2 extra batteries and the 3-channel battery charger I bought from Sean. Essential because without it, the rest of the accessories are redundant. LOL. And this package cost me only $50!

1 GoPro rechargeable battery costs around $30 out there and this guy is giving me 2 batteries and a 3-channel charger for $50!

Ok, here's the catch, the batteries are NOT original GoPro Hero 4 re-chargeable batteries. The batteries are from Smatree. You can check them out at http://www.smatree.com/

Smatree belongs to ShenZhen Mobai Technology Limited. Shen Zhen (深圳), China. As expected, China, the master of copycats. LOL. Their office is based in China, Hong Kong, USA and Europe and they only ship to the above 4 countries which include UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Canada.

In order to get it shipped to Singapore, you gotta buy in bulk or buy through Amazon which will incur shipping charges and all. But here you have, Sean from onlygopro.net doing it here in Singapore...so why go through the hassle? Let your intermediary be Sean then.

Oh and the thing is, these Smatree batteries have an energy storage capacity of 1290mAh compared to GoPro's 1160mAh! And they're on sale for a fraction of the price! Dammmnnn!

I'll be diving in Iceland too - at Silfra - one of the top dive sites in the world. Check this diving video footage there:

For the dive, I got the floating Smatree monopod also from Sean at $60. Works exactly like a selfie stick just that there is the floating part of it.

So, if I happen to drop my GoPro together with the selfie stick while diving, I don't have to dive to the seabed to retrieve it, it'll float up...Not like I can reach the sea bed anyway...LOL.

Also got the LED waterproof diving light attachment which works as a normal camera flash if used on land. The waterproof depth is up to 20m only...which is the deepest depth recreational divers can go. Got that one for $55 from Sean as well.

This LED waterproof diving light is basically like a lamp. You turn it on, it stays on until the battery goes flat. There is a snap-on mount for the GoPro on top of the LED light fixture so you just mount your GoPro on top of the light attachment, turn it on and you're good to go.

Also got this compact mini-tripod which works as a selfie stick as well. It's fold-able which makes it really compact and easy to carry around.

Fold-able 3-way monopod - Folded

Fold-able 3-way monopod - Deployed

Ok, the monopod is kinda flimsy and not-so-firm, but hey, it's a selfie stick cum monopod for $30, what more can I ask for?

Another notable purchase is the wrist mount. For most of my land attractions, I'm most probably gonna use the wrist mount.

Wrist mount

The wrist mount was also at a reasonable $30. Challenger is selling it at a whopping $80 again...ok, but theirs comes with the standard GoPro housing. But if I buy this wrist mount together with the standard GoPro housing from Sean, it'll only cost me $60! So, Challenger, please, stop putting your profit margins so high...

So, putting the price of all the GoPro accessories together:

Purchase set 1

Purchase set 2

I have spent a total of $195 + $60 + $72.40 (Saramonic GoMic) = $327.40 on all my GoPro accessories above!!

Which is, not too expensive [I can earn 2 to 3 times of that in a single emcee engagement :D HEE. #justsayin' :D] But I really expected to spend at least $500 on all that GoPro accessories. So, yeah :D But I put in many hours of research, video-watching and web-surfing before finally getting all these awesome deals...and here it is, all blogged out for you! Haha.

That's why they say that reading really is a shortcut to getting ahead in life. Because what people spend their whole lives trying to discover, you can unravel within a few days by just reading their findings.

Lemme add another famous reading quote by George R. R. Martin "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one."

So yes, thanks for reading and I hope that the content has enriched your life :D Haha.

Do also watch this space and support my Iceland and Norway trip by praying for me, commenting and viewing my videos and blog posts...so that at least I know my posts are making an impact of some sort :D haha!

Yup, stay tuned and see you around! :D