GoPro Hero 3/3 + Black Time-lapse photography with manual adjustment of shutter speed and exposure
Already quite a lot of people know GoPro cameras. This article will be about how to use the capabilities of the latest Hero 4 model in 3/3 + Black cameras.
In the fall of 2014, a new line of cameras was released, the flagship of which is the Hero 4 Black model. I think even those who did not know about the existence of the GoPro brand watched the promotional video for this camera:
Many of those who are already familiar with the mechanism for updating updates on GoPro cameras have realized that after the release of the new model, the firmware on the old cameras stop coming out.
The video recording functionality has been updated in the new camera (the number of frames per second has been doubled), and the entire line has such a mode as “night timelapse”. Surely, many owners of Hero 3+ Black, who have 60 frames per second with their heads in FullHD mode, are interested in the last function, which allows you to take photos, as well as time-lapse videos at night. For example, such:
Rainbow-tastic. Photo by Kevin Custer. Camera settings: 30 second exposure at ISO 800.
Recently, I came across a website of a 15-year-old Spaniard who was able to manually adjust the exposure for cameras 3 and 3+. He found out that the cameras use the Ambarella chip (for example, Hero 3/3 + - A7 from Ambarella), and this chip supports exposure adjustment.
In order to reconfigure the camera, it is enough to place the autoexec.ash file in the root of the memory card, which contains commands for ASH (Ambarella Shell). When the camera is turned on, it will configure according to the script and switch to the required mode. In order to return the camera to normal mode, this file simply needs to be deleted.
Actually, the contents of this file:
where P is ISO, X is Exposure time (shutter speed), Y is Iris (aperture), and A is timelapse interval (photo interval).
Here is what I got last night:
P: 700 X: 2 Y: 2 A: 10
P: 700 X: 400 Y: 2 A: 10
I would not say that it is very convenient to use this scheme, but, if desired, taking a photo with shutter speed and not wasting money on the latest camera model is possible, but I don’t know another option for GoPro owners.
The most important thing in the existence of this scheme is that, perhaps, in the future, someone will sit down and write a full-fledged alternative firmware for the camera, correct me if there are obvious reasons why this is not possible.
UPD:
Having experimented with the script, I found out that in order to reconfigure the exposure in photo mode, it is enough to leave one line in autoexec.ash:
then the camera works as usual, but in the photo and time-lapse mode it takes pictures with the necessary shutter speed. But the time-lapse timer does not synchronize with exposure seconds. For this, just the rest of the script is needed.
In the fall of 2014, a new line of cameras was released, the flagship of which is the Hero 4 Black model. I think even those who did not know about the existence of the GoPro brand watched the promotional video for this camera:
Many of those who are already familiar with the mechanism for updating updates on GoPro cameras have realized that after the release of the new model, the firmware on the old cameras stop coming out.
An exception
Firmware v3.00 on Hero 3+ Black, released on 02/10/2015, contains only updated functionality for transferring media files to a computer, as well as fixing some minor bugs.
The video recording functionality has been updated in the new camera (the number of frames per second has been doubled), and the entire line has such a mode as “night timelapse”. Surely, many owners of Hero 3+ Black, who have 60 frames per second with their heads in FullHD mode, are interested in the last function, which allows you to take photos, as well as time-lapse videos at night. For example, such:
Rainbow-tastic. Photo by Kevin Custer. Camera settings: 30 second exposure at ISO 800.
Recently, I came across a website of a 15-year-old Spaniard who was able to manually adjust the exposure for cameras 3 and 3+. He found out that the cameras use the Ambarella chip (for example, Hero 3/3 + - A7 from Ambarella), and this chip supports exposure adjustment.
In order to reconfigure the camera, it is enough to place the autoexec.ash file in the root of the memory card, which contains commands for ASH (Ambarella Shell). When the camera is turned on, it will configure according to the script and switch to the required mode. In order to return the camera to normal mode, this file simply needs to be deleted.
Actually, the contents of this file:
t app appmode photo
sleep 1
t ia2 -ae still_exp P X Y
sleep 1
t app button shutter PR
sleep A
d:\autoexec.ash
REBOOT yes
where P is ISO, X is Exposure time (shutter speed), Y is Iris (aperture), and A is timelapse interval (photo interval).
The correspondence of the values of the variable X, seconds of exposure
- 2 - 8.5
- 5 - 7.7
- 15 - 7.3
- 20 - 7.1
- 25 - 6.9
- 30 - 6.8
- 39 - 6.4
- 40 - 6.3
- 45 - 6.2
- 50 - 6.1
- 75 - 5.3
- 85 - 5
- 95 - 4.7
- 99 - 4.6
- 100 - 4.6
- 130 - 3.9
- 160 - 3.3
- 200 - 2.7
- 255 - 2
- 400 - 1
- 500 - 0.56
- 600 - 0.33333
- 1000 - 0.000158328
Here is what I got last night:
P: 700 X: 2 Y: 2 A: 10
P: 700 X: 400 Y: 2 A: 10
I would not say that it is very convenient to use this scheme, but, if desired, taking a photo with shutter speed and not wasting money on the latest camera model is possible, but I don’t know another option for GoPro owners.
The most important thing in the existence of this scheme is that, perhaps, in the future, someone will sit down and write a full-fledged alternative firmware for the camera, correct me if there are obvious reasons why this is not possible.
UPD:
Having experimented with the script, I found out that in order to reconfigure the exposure in photo mode, it is enough to leave one line in autoexec.ash:
t ia2 -ae still_exp P X Y
then the camera works as usual, but in the photo and time-lapse mode it takes pictures with the necessary shutter speed. But the time-lapse timer does not synchronize with exposure seconds. For this, just the rest of the script is needed.
t app appmode photo - включаем фото-режим
sleep 1
t ia2 -ae still_exp P X Y - перенастраиваем экспозицию
sleep 1
t app button shutter PR - делаем фото
sleep A - ждем необходимое время
d:\autoexec.ash - запускаем скрипт заново