After a few “shakedown cruises” with the Max2 I began collecting imagery in earnest in August, and learned a few lessons.

1. Massive 10Gb files overwhelm older MicroSD-to-USB card readers. I struggled to copy the .360 files from the SD card to my desktop computer’s SSD drive, and resorted to Disk Drill (sometimes worked) and Roadkill’s Unstoppable Copier (sometimes worked) to copy them when copy, xcopy, and the Windows copy utility failed. I asked GoPro if it could identify the problem. When GoPro asked if I had tried a different card reader, I blew $7 on a new one rated USB-2 and it worked without problem. Issue solved, and something learned–just because a piece of hardware worked flawlessly for a decade doesn’t mean it will work today with the larger file sizes inherent to 360-degree imagery.

2. The battery lasts about 2 hours or less and a 64Gb SD card fills up in about 2 hours. Letting the camera battery die while filming is a headache, because the file isn’t closed properly. This is where Disk Drill came in handy to repair it so it could be copied and uploaded to Mapillary. A similar issue appears if you run out of storage. I blew $99 on a 256Gb SD card to avoid running out of space and put my wife in charge of monitoring battery life on the Quik smart phone app. Her reward for this is lunch at restaurants we have discovered while collecting imagery.

3. The Max2 can be toggled between collection at 5.6K and 8K resolution. I have experimented with both. Mapillary recommends 5.6K video at 30 frames per second but I have found that this makes reading house numbers difficult to impossible, and signage of businesses becomes very iffy. When experimenting with 8K resolution, I found both house numbers and signage become clearer and thus readable for addition to the OSM database. The tradeoff is file size, which quickly becomes an argument for a larger SD card (the Max2 can accommodate up to 1 Tb if you are willing to spend the money).

We have found a marvelous antique shop (even though we don’t need any more furniture), a fabulous Uyghur/Uzbek restaurant, and a shoe repair shop we didn’t know existed.