The Ultimate Guide To The GoPro Hero 12

Introduction

The GoPro hero 12 Black is an incredible camera and with the help of this book, you can create stunning pictures and videos.

This book will fully explain each setting, mode and option. After reading it, you will fully understand how each setting impacts the footage, and how to set up the camera for each unique situation. You will be given real-life, in-the-field examples of when to use each setting and how to get the most amazing footage. Also featuring Pro-Tips from my years of action-sports production work that you can’t find in any other GoPro or filmmaking guide.

I am a seasoned action and adventure sports photographer and filmmaker with over 15 years of professional experience. I have been using GoPro cameras on production since the Hero HD Camera. The GoPro is an essential part of my camera kit. I never go on any adventure without it. I worked on staff with the GoPro Media Team creating some of their amazing YouTube videos, social content, launch reels and TV commercials.

You can find some of the videos I have worked on at my website: www.justincwhiting.com.

To get more tips, tricks and news on upcoming releases, please subscribe to my mailing list:

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For additional GoPro tips, tricks and guidance, check out my Udemy course:

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First Steps

The GoPro comes with a battery, a mounting buckle, a USB-C cable and one sticky mount. The first thing you have to do is charge the battery and put in the memory card. Open the side door of the camera that opens the battery compartment, the SD card slot and the charging port. Put in your battery and use the USB-C cable to charge it.

The GoPro does not come with a MicroSD card so you will have to buy your own. Make sure you get a fast enough MicroSD card or the camera will not be able to record at the highest resolutions or frame rates. The GoPro 11 supports a minimum of Class 10 or UHS-1 cards up to 512 GB. I look for at least a 1000X write speed. If you use a slower card, the camera will notify you and some higher resolution settings will not be able to record.

My go-to MicroSD card is the SanDisk 128 GB Extreme Pro microSDXC (Link). If you want to save some money, you can also buy a smaller card and still have plenty of space. I always have larger cards in the camera just to ensure I never run out of space while filming.

When you first turn on your camera, you have to choose the language for your camera. You can change the language at any time. Next you will have to choose whether or not to enable GPS. The camera can tag your footage based on your location to make it easier to sort through footage later on. The GPS does drain the battery slightly faster, so it is up to you if you want to use it or not. You can turn it on or off later if you change your mind.

Basic Camera Functionality

Mode Button

Hold down the Mode button on the side of the camera to turn the camera on. Once the camera is on, pressing this button will switch between the different camera modes (photo, video, time-lapse). Holding the button down will turn the camera off.

Shutter Button

Pressing the shutter button on top of the camera will either start a video, start a time-lapse or take a photo depending on which camera mode you are in.

Front Screen

The front screen of the camera will display what the camera is seeing (perfect for shooting selfie shots). It will also show the amount of space left on the SD card, the current camera settings and the battery level. You can adjust the amount of information on the front screen or even turn it off to save battery if class=img you prefer.

The back camera screen will control most of the function for the camera and give you all the information you need. The back screen tells you the amount of space left on the SD card, the battery level and the current mode. Pressing the button with the current settings will open the preset menu where you can fine tune the settings. The additional icons on the screen allow you to quickly change the most commonly used settings. The on-screen option can be adjusted when creating pre-sets.

Swiping

You can also change the mode of the camera by swiping side to side on the back screen. If you are in video mode, you can swipe from left to right of the screen and change to Time-Lapse Mode. Swiping from right to left will put the camera in Photo Mode.

Media Menu

Swiping from bottom to the top will bring up the Media Menu. This is where you can view all of the footage on your camera, mark your favorites for later and delete the ones you don't like.

Preferences Menu

Swiping from top to the bottom will bring up the Quick Preferences Menu. These settings allow you to adjust some of the functionality of the camera. Swiping from left to right on the preferences menu will bring up the menu for the SD card and Auto Upload. Here you can see how full your card is, what footage is uploaded to the cloud and set up Auto Upload which allows you to automatically upload and store your footage in the GoPro cloud.

Swiping from right to left will bring you to the quick preferences menu. These settings allow you to adjust some of the functionality of the camera.

You can swipe from this menu right to left and you will be able to adjust the controls between Easy/Pro, quickly pair your camera to a phone and access the In-Depth Preferences Menu.

Quick Preferences Menu

1.Voice Control: controls the GoPro using standard voice commands.

2. Beeps: adjusts the volume of beeps. The louder beeps are easier to hear while riding, but they can get very annoying.

3. Quick Capture: when enabled the camera will go from turned off to recording when you press the shutter button. I always keep this on when I am shooting POV because it saves battery and time.

4. Screen Lock: This will lock the screens. This is great when in the water as sometimes the water can change the modes.

5. Front Screen: Here you can choose what all is displayed on the front screen.

6. Orientation Lock: the camera has a built in gyroscope. When you turn the camera 90 degrees it will automatically record the video as vertical. If you turn on orientation lock then it will not switch between vertical and horizontal.

7. Max Lens Mod: if you are using the Max Lens Mod attachment, then you need to turn this on or the footage will not look right. If you are not using the Max Lens Mod, then do not turn this on.