How to Use Reelsteady V2

Finally Reelsteady V2.0 (RSGO 2) is officially made available and I can’t wait to share the news, and explain how to get it and use it to stabilize your GoPro footage. If you bought Reelsteady GO before, you can get Reelsteady V2 for free.

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If you are a new customer, you can purchase Reelsteady V2 inside the GoPro Player app for $99.

How Does Reelsteady V2 Compare to V1?

Here is a summary of the new features in Reelsteady V2:

• New and improved user interface. ReelSteady 2.0 is now fully integrated into the GoPro Player desktop app for unmatched usability and performance
• Support for additional GoPro shooting modes including videos shot with HyperSmooth
• Real time playback. View the full-quality stabilized motion as soon as your video loads
• Batch rendering. Export all your stabilized videos in one go
• Advanced encoding options. Fine control over professional export formats
• Saving of settings and preferences. Auto-apply your go-to stabilization settings to every video you open
• Adjustable lens correction. Choose exactly how much fisheye you want in your final output
• Support for additional shooting modes for HERO8, HERO9, and HERO10 cameras
• Fully optimized for Apple Silicon (M1, M1 Pro/Max/Ultra)

Here’s an FPV video demo using Reelsteady V2 (filmed on GoPro Hero10 Bones)

I made a video comparing the result of V1 and V2:

Here’re the major differences I found after using V2:

• Real time playback/preview is much smoother
• Much faster when exporting
• It keeps the audio after exporting. In the previous RSGO, audio is removed
• The stabilization result using default settings is really similar between the two versions, it’s hard to tell which is which. However when comparing them side by side, I could see the FOV (field of view) is ever so slightly larger in V2
• The ‘fish eye” distortion from Superview is less in the V2 (default settings), as you can see the edge of the image when the drone was panning around at 1:45

Yes, Gyroflow is free, but if you own a GoPro, Reelsteady is still the way to go in my opinion, it’s simple and the result just seems to be better.

You can see how Reelsteady V1 works in this article.

GoPro Settings and Supported Modes

To use Reelsteady and get the most out of it, you can try these GoPro settings.

It’s best to record in 4:3 aspect ratio and WIDE FOV. No need to use Superview in the GoPro when recording, because Reelsteady GO will do that automatically when you export the clip. The exported video will be in 16:9 as well.

To utilize the ReelSteady features of GoPro Player + ReelSteady, shoot in the following Resolution/Digital Lens/Frame Rate combinations.

HERO10, HERO9, and HERO8 Black

All shooting modes are supported except for:

• Video Performance Mode – Tripod/Stationary Mode
• MAX Lens Mode
• Narrow Digital Lens

For all cameras below, do not use any in-camera stabilization.

HERO7 and HERO6 Black

• 4K SuperView 30/25
• 4K Wide 60/50/30/25
• 4K Linear 60/50/30/25/24
• 2.7K (16:9) SuperView 60/50/30/25
• 2.7K (16:9) Linear 60/50/30/25/24
• 2.7K (16:9) Wide 120/100/60/50/30/25
• 2.7K (4:3) Linear 30/25/242.7K
• (4:3) Wide60/50/30/25
• 1440p Linear 60/50/30/25/24
• 1440p Wide 120/100/60/50/30/25
• 1080 SuperView 120/100/60/50/30/25
• 1080 Wide 240/200/120/10060/50/30/25

How to Get Reelsteady V2

Download and Install GoPro Player: https://gopro.com/en/nl/info/gopro-player

Install and open GoPro Player. In the top Menu bar, select ReelSteady and click on Log in. This will open an activation window. Enter your Reelsteady Go 1.0 activation key and associated email address. Search for this in your email, they sent it to you when you purchased it.

This will prompt you for the free in-app purchase of Reelsteady V2.0. Note this will be linked to your Microsoft Account (if you are a Windows user), or your Apple Account (if you are a Mac user), and it can’t be undone, so be sure to use the account you prefer.

Once activation is complete you’ll have access to all GoPro Player and ReelSteady V2 features.

How to Use ReelSteady V2

Importing Video and Enabling ReelSteady

Once you open the GoPro Player app, all you have to do is drag and drop the GoPro video file into the app to open it.

To stabilize the video, simply click on the ReelSteady Icon at the bottom right corner. It takes only a few seconds for the stabilization to take effect and it will automatically place a couple of key frame markers (sync points) in the timeline.

Replacing Sync Points (Key Frames)

After importing the GoPro video, Reelsteady will automatically insert sync points (aka key frames, the markers with a blue flag on it in the timeline).

If you don’t see the sync points, that’s because for Hero 8, 9 and 10, they are hidden, you are only allowed to add sync points manually when Horizon levelling is enabled. However for Hero 5, 6 and 7 cameras, sync points are always visible.

“Sync points” are used to match the gyro data to the video precisely, as sometimes the video may be slightly ahead of or behind the gyro data. By placing those sync points correctly can reduce the overall amount of cropping due to stabilization.

The auto generated sync points are usually okay, play the video with the preferred stabilization settings and see if it works properly. If it is then just leave it, if you place the sync points in the wrong places, stabilization will not work properly and you will get some vibrations in the video.

To delete sync points, click on the sync point tool icon at the very bottom (just below the timeline), then click on the sync point you would like to delete.

To add your own sync points, you need to find a moment in the video where the drone is moving forward with some horizon reference in the background. If you just add a sync point in a shot with horizon visible but the drone isn’t moving, the gyro tracking will have no relevant data to sync with footage and so the result will be less optimal.

The number of sync points required depends on the camera. With GoPro 6 and firmware 1.6, two sync points are usually enough. Other cameras and GoPro 6 firmware 2.0 might need more sync points, but the quality of the sync points are more important than the amount.

ReelSteady Settings

Click on the setting icon above the Reelsteady icon, this allows you to fine tune Stabilization settings, such as enabling Horizon Levelling (horizon lock), Smoothness, Cropping Speed, Lens Correction.

Let me explain what these settings do.

Horizon Levelling

Used to be called Horizon Lock. By enabling Horizon Levelling, it will always keep video level to the horizon.

I sometimes enable it when I shoot videos with my cinewhoops, it makes the footage look even more stable and it gets rid of most of the dips due to throttle mismanagement. But for freestyle footage you probably want to just leave it unchecked because it can’t handle roll and flips that well.

A little demo showing the differences with Horizon Lock Turn on and off.

Smoothness

This is how much stabilization you want to apply. Higher smoothness results in more stable video, but it reduces the FOV (field of view) of your image more due to cropping.

Cropping Speed

Cropping Speed is how fast the camera zoom in and out when stabilization is taking place. Faster cropping speed will make stabilization more effective, but the zooming might become more noticeable, it can be distracting for the viewers and the video would just look “fake”.

Smoothness and Cropping speed are linked by default, by increasing one will decrease the other. You can unlink them if you know what you are doing.

For cruising style FPV videos, I found 65-70 smoothness, 35-30 cropping speed and 90-95 Lens correction work relatively well, of course that depends a lot on how shaky your original video is and how much panning you do, more shaky and panning you will need higher smoothness and lower cropping speed.

For instagram, I use 5-10 smoothness, 95-90 cropping speed and 90-95 lens correction, and set aspect ratio to 9:16.

Trimming Footage

The GoPro Player is a very basic editing tool, but it still includes clip trimming.

Use the scissors tool to crop the unwanted parts of your video (e.g before take off and after landing), this will make rendering/exporting faster.

Exporting

When you are happy with the stabilized video, you are ready to export it. Simply click on the File menu, Export.

Here you can choose the Export settings such as Resolution, Codec and Quality (bitrate).

H.264 is good enough for Youtube for the most part. HEVC will offer the same quality, but it’s slower to export and file size is bigger. However if you are doing further video editing with the stabilized video (for example in Adobe Premiere or Davinci Resolve), the CineForm codec might be preferred as it offers the best image quality at the cost of larger file size.

Batch Export

ReelSteady 2.0 now makes it possible to process several files at the same time. This is useful if you have a lot of videos you want to export, so you don’t have to sit there doing them one by one. To do so, simply click on File, Send To Queue.

You can then open other video files to stabilize, when you are done, Send To Queue again.

When you are ready to batch export, click on Batch Explorer, and click Start.