9

Inspired by the close vote on this question: How can I get a fixed short exposure ( < 2s) with a GoPro Hero 4 Black?

At first glance, it appears quite on topic; The GoPro natively takes pictures and the question is relevant to still photography.

But, the flip side is as the close vote says: the device was built around video with photography as somewhat of an afterthought. This spectrum would continue until we get to devices not built for photography at all, but are attempting to be used as cameras.

My own thought on the matter is: if the end result is a photograph, it's probably on topic and we should err on the side of on topic.

Thoughts?

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  • Err... is "camera on phone"... a camera? – Andrew T. Feb 1 '19 at 8:12
18

Absolutely. If it's making a photograph, it's photography and it's on-topic (subject to our other constraints, obviously). We all clearly agree that smartphone photography is on-topic, and a smartphone is a device designed with photography as a secondary purpose. We're not proposing to move all iPhone questions to Ask Different so we shouldn't move all GoPro questions to Video Production - because if nothing else, it would get rejected from there as it's a photography question.

We do have a line at which we decide "this is off-topic", but it's based on "this is not a photo" (computer graphics is not a photo, etc), not "the device taking this isn't primarily a photography device".

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  • 6
    This is the correct answer. Questions about shooting video on a DSLR or mirrorless aren't on topic simply because they are mostly designed for still photos. Conversely, taking a photo with a video camera is still taking a still image and would be on topic. Action matters, not device. – AJ Henderson♦ Feb 2 '19 at 0:28
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While the question may be "on topic", there appears to be insufficient expertise here to answer the question since it has gone unanswered for well over three years. Since the device is primarily a video/action camera, photographers would not necessarily be expected to know the answer, and the folks at video.stackexchange.com would be more likely to know. If the intent is to have the question answered, it should be migrated. If the intent is to collect questions for the sake of collection, then it should be kept here, where it can go unanswered for another odd number of years.

Further, it's not clear OP's intent is to take still photos. Exposure and "shots" are concepts shared with video, and the linked Hero3 exposure lock hack appears to be for video. Since it seems OP believes the hack would do what is desired, if it worked on the Hero4, it is possible OP's intent is to capture video.

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