GoPro 360° camera

Guide by Allen Kingsbury

To work with a GoPro 360° camera on your phone, please start by downloading the GoPro Quik: Video Editor.

You can always choose not to download the app and just record from the GoPro itself and download to a computer.

You can save footage to your phone in the Quik app and export to Photos or you can download footage directly to a computer with the provided USB-C to USB cable.

To work with 360° footage in other video editing apps, you will first need to download the GoPro Player desktop app or use your phone GoPro Quik app and export the 360° footage, which will change into a .mp4 or .mov format.

Another legacy software option is using the Quik desktop app found here:

https://community.gopro.com/s/article/GoPro-legacy-software?language=en_US

Go Pro operation:

To start Tap the Power/Mode button to power on the camera.

Tap the Mode button again to toggle between the different modes. The modes are Video, Photo, and Time Lapse.

In Video & Photo mode you have settings to change the angle of the lens. Max Wide, Wide, Linear, and Narrow. 

On the touch screen's bottom left side button you can toggle between recording a normal 1920x1080 widescreen video or the "360 video" option. Normal video records at 1080p at 60fps. 360° video records at 5.6K at 30fps. In the middle of the screen is where you can adjust the settings for the video quality settings. On the right side is "horizontal lock" which prevents the camera from being off angle. The "switch" button below toggles between the front camera or back camera.

To record, press the red record button on top of the camera. Press record again to stop.

Downloading to Desktop (Make .mp4 file):

When downloading a .360 file to the desktop you will need to use Image Capture on a Mac to download it. Then download and open the GoPro player.

You'll need to export the file from the GoPro player so it'll be compatible with Final Cut or Adobe Premiere.

To export, go to File then Export then click next and give it a name and choose a location to save to.

Exporting will make the file compatible with other editors and change the format to an .mp4 or .mov file.

Alternatively, you can export the file to your camera roll from your phone and share via Google Drive. The file will already be compatible once it's exported to your camera roll on your phone.

When you drag and drop the file into Final Cut, choose the "Monoscopic" option which should be the default detection for the timeline settings based on the first 360 clip you drag into the timeline.

Set up the Quik App on phone:

To set up the app first make sure Bluetooth is turned on with your phone and allow your phone to connect to a GoPro if it prompts this. 

Select that you own a GroPro and choose the Max camera model. Power on the camera and choose My Camera is on. 

Swipe down from the top of the GoPro screen and choose Preferences. Then select Connections then Connect Devices. Tap the GoPro app to put your camera in pairing mode.

On your phone click Connect Camera.
Leave GoPro name as DMS Max #.

Once in the App you can Enable a Preview and move your phone around to check your 360 degree view. Once recording you do lose the preview. The app is not capable of previewing while recording. 

Edit files from Quik App on phone:

To edit files go to the Media tab at the bottom. First they need to be saved into an .mp4 format that still contains all of the 360 metadata. 

From the Media tab choose a file to send to your camera roll. Then click the the share button and choose save to Photos.

If you'd like you can trim a clip to take off unwanted parts off the beginning and end of the clip. This will save as a new clip and keep your original clip in tact.

Once the clips are saved to your camera roll you can edit them further from the Studio tab. This will allow you to edit multiple clips together into a single file.

It's a very basic editor. If you need more control I would recommend using Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro.