When you first buy a GoPro Camera, you open the box to find a plethora of mounts and components. It is rather overwhelming at first, but most of the bits and pieces are self-explanatory. There’s a ton of stuff, the camera, the housing, the mounts, some pivot arms and the not so self-explanatory part, the white rubber thing.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone, we have all been baffled by this little piece of rubber. What is it and what is it for? The manual probably explains it, I have never looked, but then again who has. Most of us just chuck it aside and never think twice about it. Too excited to go out and capture some awesome footage with the new toy.
Believe it or not, that tiny little white rubber thingy can be the difference between good video footage and absolutely awesome footage. How can that be, I am hearing you, I thought exactly the same when I finally worked out what it was for. The white rubber thingy, known by GoPro, in technical terms, the Quick Release/Vibration Plug is actually used to jam in between the clips of your quick release buckles.
Next question, what is the quick release buckle? The quick release buckle is the clip that locks into the self-adhesive mounts supplied with your GoPro Camera. If you clip the buckle into one of the adhesive mounts, you will notice that there is a little bit of movement, which can cause quite a lot of vibration through your camera. This vibration is quite visible through any of the video footage you are taking, not to mention making it very difficult for the camera to focus in both video and photo modes.
The tiny little white rubber thingy, jams nice and firmly between the clips of the quick release buckle making a positive connection between the buckle and the mount. This removes any movement and in turn, removing any vibrations. The eyelet on the end of the rubber thingy (Quick-Release/Vibration Plug) is used to loop over the thumb knob, so that if the plug comes loose it is not lost.
One of the handiest quick release buckles included in your GoPro Camera kit is the J-Hook Buckle. Unfortunately, the white rubber thingy does not work with this buckle, making this mount susceptible to vibration and movement. The J-Hook is quite handy for mounting your GoPro parallel to the mounting surface. Although this mounting configuration can be achieved using a couple of pivot arms, I have found that the more components you use to construct a mount, the more vibration you introduce into the final video. The J-Hook Buckle allows you to mount your GoPro in a parallel configuration with only the one mounting component. Maybe GoPro need to revise their J-Hook design, to allow their white rubber thingy to work with it directly!