GoPro - GoPro MAX

I would avoid GoPro Hero 10 or beyond. Those are the only Hero cameras I have experience with and they're a huge PITA especially for motorcycling. It either doesn't turn on, doesn't record, or records with no audio ALL THE TIME. If you happen to notice it's not turning on, then you get to pull over, take your helmet off, unmount the camera, and fiddle with it until you figure out what's not working. Usually requiring you to remove and reinsert the battery. It's the most frustrating thing ever on a bike and I'd argue dangerous since you're preoccupied with the camera instead of your ride. I tried working with a Hero 10 and 11 for over 2 years before I swore them off forever. I recently switched to Insta360 and couldn't be happier. The Insta has literally not one time malfunctioned or not recorded when I pressed the button. I also have an old DJI Osmo Action that never had reliability issues. I would say any Osmo Action gen or the previous gen Insta360 (R One or something like that I cant' remember the name) would do the job well. If part of its job is dashcam you might also consider a 360 camera. You'll have way butter luck catching incidents with it than a regular action cam. I also have a GoPro 360 MAX camera. Unlike the Hero cameras, it's been great. It's still glitchy at times but nowhere near the regularity of the Hero cameras. It's kind long in the tooth now too so you may be able to find them on a good deal somewhere.

GoPro 360 max. Update the firmware with GoPro labs beta and bump up the bitrate to 90. It helps provide better reads for plates. I’m still playing with different bitrates to see what is better and in what light conditions. I’ve also found if I upload a video into a Chatbot it does an okay job helping to extract plates. It’s hard though when the sun is on the horizon hitting me from the side when being passed. But that isn’t often. Extreme battery that it comes with is fine. I get about an hour on 360. Haven’t tried it in winter yet so we will see. I mount my 360 on my helmet. Tried handlebars and it’s not as good for a full 360. Haven’t mounted on a bar on the back but it’s something I’m pondering (less likely to forget about camera on my head).

Well the 360 would make sense when surfing, however under water footage will suck. For these purpose anything from the Hero 10 would get you there. The 8:7 ratio would help framing your shot on the surfboard, so I'd recommend going for the 12 or 13.

Picked it up on preorder right away. I have a scratched Max 1. I wonder if they’ll warranty replace with a max 2 now

Wow. I am willing to bet you’ve never done a side by side comparison or gopro, insta360, and dji. It has NOTHING to do with influencers. It has to do with GoPro quality and functionality compared to the their competitors. I started on GoPros with a Hero Session 4 (small cube camera). I loved it. After a while i bought GoPro 8. The resolution was an upgrade and still enjoyed using it. But cracks started appearing in my enjoyment. Battery life was horrible. I had to buy 3 extra batteries (off brand) with a charging case that allowed “action” with my action camera. The chargers that come with GoPro dont allow that. Overheating was also an issue. Then i got a GoPro 10. I used both together to get varying shots like outside car / inside car simultaneously. The 10 would shut off automatically when i placed it on the bumper of my car. Still have idea why. Its an action camera, it shouldn’t do that. Overheating on the 10 is WAY worse. And battery life is terrible. Bought 3 more (off brand) batteries with same “action” charger. Then i bought a Max 360. Absolute trash. The color was horrible. The bit depth was so bad a blue sky looked like it was “printed” from a 1990s printer. I used it for like 6 months then sold it. Since i bought that 360, they have been “announcing” a new 360 for over 5 years. Still hasn’t happened and the competition has not only come out with better 360 cams, but taken the market lead away from GoPro. About 7 yrs after buying my GoPro 8 the 2 batteries that came with it failed. They deformed and expanded out of their case. One was in the camera at the time and luckily i was able to get it out before it caused damage. Now 4 yrs after buying GP10, one of the original batteries deformed. Now I stopped using the ones that came with it and have 2 enduro batteries and 3 of the off brand (Telesin) batteries. So my love of GoPro has gone from a high point to ultra low because of the companies lack of quality(overheating, bad batteries, etc), and not keeping up with the competition.

That’s what I was confused about. The Max 1 came with lens protectors. I used them exactly one time because of the artifacts you’re describing here.

I love my X4 and i've had no issues whatsoever. Its definitely not the same quality as my Ace Pro 2 but it's still quite impressive as a 360 camera. I also had the gopro max for 5 years and also the X3 for a while, and the X4 is simply so much better than them both. The ability to zoom in on subjects in 8k is also much better than the X3. i've been more than happy with my battery life. Although I generally turn it on and off as needed and am not running it for hours at a time. i did pick up a spare battery but rarely use it... just my two cents.

I like it much for skydiving for its form factor. I assume DJI one is similar, but I had Max 1 for so long, gonna be an easy switch to Max 2. I also have X4 just to fool around

Yeah. Hero 10 has an issue that after charging it might end up with red light, and you have to remove battery. And yes. I did have issue with Max not recording as well. As I understand Max will record POV and 360 at the same time. Which is nice. But at this point, I don’t really care if it will not record one jump. Other people will have videos as well. Usually jump in the groups.

The hero 11 when i had it before always worked and the quality was awesome. Concrete cooked mine so i got a max 360

I don’t have answers to all your questions since I only own the Max 1, but my recommendation would be to just try it out yourself. If you’re ordering from Amazon, their return policy is really good. Also, I’ve noticed that a lot of YouTube reviews these days feel more like paid ads than genuine opinions kind of like modern-day billboards for companies.