Spyder University

GoPro Hero 9
With the launch of the new GoPro flagship, we have created a dedicated page for our ongoing testing information.  You can find that here: https://lynkspyder.com/pages/gopro-hero-9-launch In short, the new camera mounts perfectly on our standard LynkSpyder.  As with all GoPro cameras make sure to select the Tripod Mount addon. Read more...
New Camera: Mevo Start
Announced on January 9, 2020 at CES, the Mevo Start is the second camera release of the Mevo Camera company.   Ship date of this device is currently scheduled for April of 2020 with a price point of $299 (compared to the Mevo Plus price of $399).  The device was intended to a a few new features, and the removal of some Mevo Plus features in effort to get better performance and longer battery life.  Those features, that pertain mostly to recording baseball and softball games, are listed below: New Features:... Read more...
Loupedeck CT Editing Console
When you edit as many videos and photos as we do, for either the business or our ball players, you start looking around for ways to trim away tasks.  Most certainly, when many of those tasks contain the same sequences every time, editing consoles can really lend a hand.  For the most part, these don't do anything you can't already do with a Keyboard.  But editing consoles place functions and shortcuts in a very convenient place to perform these tasks more efficiently. When the Loupdeck CT device was announced, we knew... Read more...
GoPro HERO8 Announcement
UPDATE 10/24/2019 @ 9:30 PM Short note today.  But GoPro recently released a firmware update for the HERO8 Black.  There were many things added, mostly "bug fixes".  But they also added a new feature that we have been asking for years:  Linear FOV at 4K.  Now, it is a bit limited.  There is no zoom option and only 30 FPS and lower.  But being able to shoot a full game in 4K and not get fence in the shot (from the previously Wide only FOV) is a great benefit. UPDATE... Read more...
Mevo Boost Review
  Until a full review is complete, the following page is a live-ish (ongoing updates, sometimes coinciding with live events on FaceBook and other sources) review of the Mevo Boost.  Come back for more updates as we find and post. Here is a live stream on FaceBook that is currently active: https://www.facebook.com/Lynkspyder/videos/411557299679913/ Notes from 4/27/2019: 1.) A couple firmware updates were required when connected the first time.  No issues and was a fast process 2.) THUMBS UP ITEM: When connected to Ethernet, the app (which was on the same network)... Read more...
'Hey Josh' Episode 0
Tripod Mounts....Aluminum is better than plastic.   Read more...
GoPro HERO 6...First Blush
  GoPro HERO 6 Black Quick Takes What I like (for baseball/softball): 1.) Digital Zoom. Usually photo and video guys aren't too keen on digital zoom. But if you find you have to slightly crop your video in post...never again. Slide the zoom bar ever so slightly to crop the shot. 2.) 5GHZ wifi. I can't speak to the stability yet, but 5GHZ means much faster wireless video/photo transfer. I hope it also leads to potential streaming options....please GoPro...make it happen! 3.) Additional (and higher) Frames Per Second, up 240... Read more...
VLC Player
In preparation for another tutorial video (Standard Workflow) I was reminded that we use VLC Player for a lot of things.  VLC Player is a very good free video player with a lot of very useful functions.  In the video, we run through the download and installation process, as well as outlining the process of generating small video clips (we call them "snippets") without a great deal of work.  Watch the video and then check out the list of standard shortcut keys below.   The following are all of the... Read more...
Frame Rate and other GoPro Settings
(This article was written circa GoPro HERO4) We were recently asked why we suggest recording baseball/softball games in 30 frames per second (FPS), as apposed to 60 FPS. Here's the answer, (and it involves admitting that it is no longer valid for the GoPro Hero 4). At 1080p/30 FPS, the GoPro Hero 3 Black would hold about 6.5 hours of video on a 64GB card. If you shot at 60FPS, you could lose about 2.5 to 3 hours of storage capacity. Make sense, as technically there is twice as much... Read more...
Hero 4 Silver or Hero Session?
So, the results are in on the Hero 4 Session; for me at least. Still trying to be non-biased, but I'm personally not a fan of this camera when used for recording full ball games. The quality isn't near as good as my Hero 4 Silver, but the biggest issue is the ease of use. I've grown quite accustom to using the LCD on all of my GoPro's. So without an LCD, I tried to embrace the WiFi control with the Session. I don't know how you guys deal with... Read more...
Video File Transfer Speeds
Copying a fully loaded memory card from your GoPro is going to be a timely process.  There's just s a lot of data there.  But did you know there are things you can do to speed it up?  In some cases we're talking about going from hours to minutes.  In this video I discuss many of the things you can do to speed up this process, and the reasons why.  Below are the numbers we talked about (transferring 64GB) HP Card Reader = 53.33 minutes GoPro USB = 42.67 minutes... Read more...