Summary of Filmmaking Features
The three greatest weaknesses of this camera for filmmaking are 1) image stabilization, 2) exposure control, and 3) motion and blur artifacts.
Frame Control
It’s hard to get the camera stable enough for proper framing. Even on a tripod I had difficulty getting any kind of a smooth pan or tilt. The small size of the sensor and the lens make almost any kind of camera move problematic. The problem is exacerbated by the high resolution of the camera. In DV or CIF mode, the movement is far less noticeable. The 3x zoom is under-powered for a lot of filmmaking purposes, but it adds to the motion problem when the camera is “zoomed-in”.
Image Control
The camera has a nice range of controls for exposure and white balance, and these do a pretty good job. However, the camera is made to adapt to changing light levels and it does not have a very wide contrast range. The changing shutter speed alters the motion quality of images as the light changes, which is undesirable for filmmaking. The camera did not provide any kind of Neutral Density filter, and there was no obvious way to attach a filter to the lens, thereby limiting image control based on the available light.
Motion Control
There is no image stabilization. And there were noticeable artifacts that appeared as “fake motion blur” when the camera moved or when objects in the scene moved too fast. The 3x optical zoom worked well and responded adequately to the rocker button. Of course, operating the zoom (while recording) produces a very mechanical constant zooming effect.
Blur Control
There is no depth-of-focus control, owing to the tiny sensor and lens. So depth blur is not an option. Motion blur was radically effected by the automatic exposure (changing the shutter speed), by the size and lack of stabilization features. These limitations were made worse by artifacts caused by the high compression codec. Finally, the high definition image made the resulting artifacts, blurs, and smears much more noticeable – simply because the image’s resolution causes the smears to be more easily recognized.
Features
The GO-HD packs many features into a very little space. A lot of the features make it very useful as a casual video camera. Unfortunately, it is lacking a few key features and controls that are critical to filmmaking.
Image Quality
On the one hand, the image is really 1280x720p HD. On the other hand, the high compression causes motion smears, artifacts, and “fake” detail. The color rendition was not ideal. But I felt after experimenting with it that I might have gotten better color out of the camera if I had spent more time with the various settings. In any case, the color wasn’t bad, so long as I did not need to correct it in post for inter-cutting with other footage. Again – for cuts-only, causal use – it would be fine. But for filmmaking where scenes need to be color-matched – it simply wasn’t adequate.
