GoPro might have silently rewarded us with more accurate GPS data in 2022! Learn to record good metrics and see how the HERO10 and HERO11 compare.
Telemetry Overlay: [ Ссылка ]
Telemetry Extractor: [ Ссылка ]
Motorcycling footage: Jonathan Spiva [ Ссылка ]
Drag racing footage: Janne Laakso [ Ссылка ]
Music: Mario Ayuda - Don't Feel Right 2022 (feat. Dolly Rae) [Concordia Recordings] [ Ссылка ]
Icons:
GoPro by Aleš Kalan [ Ссылка ]
Satellite by Cuby Design [ Ссылка ]
Setyo Ari Wibowo [ Ссылка ]
Creative Stall [ Ссылка ]
Wawan Hermawan [ Ссылка ]
Camera teardown by Hypoxic: [ Ссылка ]
HERO10-11 GPS module: [ Ссылка ]
HERO5-10 GPS module: [ Ссылка ]
GoPro feedback: [ Ссылка ]
Thanks to C Gregory Russell for sharing his findings on the GPS performance.
The GPS data recorded by the HERO11 is at least as good as what the 10 and previous models offered.
Subjectively, the GPS antenna in the 11 is slightly more reliable and accurate. It finds a GPS lock faster, can keep it in difficult situations and it often seems to record more accurate positions.
You should still try to follow some basic rules to record good GPS data.
The GoPro records great quality data under optimal conditions: Outdoors under a clear sky, mounted away from obstacles, and with the GPS antenna pointing at the sky. Giving it time to find the GPS satellites before you hit record is also essential. On the other hand:
Turning the camera ON with the record button won't give it time to find a location. Luckily, the HERO11 is able to eventually recover from that and record some useful data for the second part of the video, but with previous models chances are the entire video will lack the GPS stats. See for example the same situation on the HERO10.
Getting into a city causes the GPS signal to be reflected by buildings, thus producing incorrect locations. This is a common problem, as you can see by the Garmin signal also going astray.
While traversing a dense forest the satellites become less visible, increasing also the chance of errors.
Turning the camera upside down is risky, as the antenna will point at the floor instead of the sky.
When using a chest mount, your body blocks some of the signals, so consider using a head mount instead.
Recording GPS stats from inside a vehicle is difficult because of the metal roof, conditions are much better outside it.
Going indoors will prevent ANY data from reaching you at all.
And the same applies when diving.
Even if the GoPro desktop software has not kept up with the latest camera models, programs like Telemetry Overlay and Telemetry Extractor allow you to work professionally with the data and clean it up to correct small errors caused by imperfect recording conditions.
GoPro cameras, especially recent ones, record other useful data streams like accelerometer or pitch and roll, that don't depend on the GPS signal.
Now, back to the recent changes. The two main ones are:
- The HERO11 includes a different GPS module than ALL its predecessors since the HERO5
- And the frequency of the GPS data has dropped from the previous 18 samples per second to just 10
While that sounds bad if you rely on high-frequency data to compute GPS-based metrics, I will speculate that it could be good for reliability.
If we look at the specifications of the GPS module, we will see that it can produce 18 samples per second if it tracks a single GNSS constellation. If we wanted to track two or three of them to see more satellites and improve our geographical calculations, the maximum data rate would be 10 samples per second, and that is exactly the case with the new HERO11!
The difference is not huge, but the signal in the HERO11 does feel more stable so far: it takes a shorter time to lock and it keeps a more stable location in difficult environments.
The good news for HERO10 users is it has also been updated to use 10Hz GPS, thus probably enabling concurrent constellations as well!
The new HERO11 Mini does not have a GPS antenna, so you will have to rely on an external tracker or smartphone.
00:00 Intro, GoPro for GPS data
00:36 HERO10 vs HERO11, summary
01:00 Tips for recording good GPS data
03:33 Software to use the GoPro GPS data
03:59 New GPS module and lower frequency. Why?
05:15 Update for HERO10 too. What about HERO11 Mini?
05:35 Conclusions
