GoPro - HERO3 Black Edition

Agreed with your first point (but I think, since the Hero 3, I have used my cams once in the dark) Agree with the second point but I like to use the best options available to me, no matter what brand it may be. If that means using insta’s software to edit my GoPro footage then so be it. But then, you went full Tropic Thunder…

My first, a Hero 3 Black is still going strong (whenever I pull it out of the drawer), only GoPro that has died on me was my own fault by not closing the door properly in the sea, and I’m happy with my present one. Why should I change? (Did actually own another brand but, ironically, that one did die on me. Know something though. It has never once entered my head to post on a dji or insta sub asking why they use their favoured make of camera but guess it must be a slow day there…

I think the way to look at it, is that GoPro was so far ahead for so long, there was no real competition for them for over a decade. Even DJI had GoPro mounts built in when the Phantom 1 came along. Historically, GoPro perfected their 1080P then moved to 2.7k on the Hero 3 Black. They had the best 4k on the Hero 4 Black. Then they made the whole camera waterproof and added the built in touchscreen on the Hero 5 Black, then they went 4k 60 with moderate stabilization on the Hero 6 black, built a tiny camera on the Session 4 and 5. With the Hero 7 black, they finally got stabilization in camera that started to compete with 3 axis gimbals. On the 8 they had the mount built in so you didn't have to have a frame and changed to a larger form factor with the Hero 9 black and got resolution to 5.3k. They perfected features like Timewarp and Hyperlapse where all the work was done in camera instead of post. They made GoPro labs available for most of their cameras and gave amazing levels of customization that no other cameras have even to this day. Then they really started to stagnate and features were more incremental and evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Sure they had the 8:7 sensor and got video resolution up to 24.7 megapixels, but they still use a tiny sensor and low light performance is still very bad. They also had to deal with the rise of DJI and Insta360 who started to release competing products. Dji matched 10 bit the same year as GoPro, The Action 5 and Ace Pro 2 use much larger sensors and do much better in low light. GoPro was late to the party with magnetic mounting systems and Insta360 even put 8k into their Ace Pro versions. Insta360 has the Ace Pro Line, their Go series mini camera and even had the modular R series which could be an action cam or a 360 camera. In the time since GoPro released the Max, Insta360 has released 5 consumer grade 360 cameras that get better each year and now do 8k. We have no idea when the Max 2 will be released. GoPro stock is hovering around 50 cents a share and the market cap of the entire company is only 75 million dollars. It used to be almost 11 billion dollars, so it is 145 times smaller than it was shortly after the company went public. They have had to lay off staff and that has a huge impact on R&D. They are clearly falling behind competitors with no real path forward. Depending on which site you listen to, they rate the probability of bankruptcy at 33 to 62% in the next 24 months. That is not the sign of a healthy company. They botched the launch of their Karma drone and ceded that potential marketplace to DJI in the process. The reality is that the DJI and Insta360 cameras do a lot of things better and much easier. Low light is a real thing for a lot of people and the Action 5 and Ace Pro do a very good job in the space and GoPro isn't on the same playing field. I love the new GoPro lens system, but I am an advanced user and have been using ND filters, Anamorphic lenses, and macro lenses for years with the GoPro. The new anamorphic lens is great because it does the desqueeze of your footage automatically in camera. What is annoying is that they announced the lens in September of 2024 and I was finally able to get it 7 months later. GoPro is a great camera, but for many people who never touch labs, don't care about 10 bit or color grading, never do reframing 8:7, like to shoot in lower light conditions, or won't spend the $129 on an anamorphic lens, the GoPro is not really the camera for them. Insta360 are releasing much better cameras each year and GoPro is falling further behind. I really want GoPro to come back strong, but I fear they don't have the finances to compete unless they have an absolutely amazing technical breakthrough in the action camera space.

I have been using a GoPro 3 Black, 4 Black and now a 12 Black. I am using Solo Storm and its controls the camera we are using. The biggest challenge of any camera is mounting to get the view or perspective you are after.

I’ve had GoPros since the 3 series, and DJI has embarrassed GoPro over the last 3 years. Go with DJI.

I have you beat, I'm still using a GoPro 3, lol. I keep thinking I want to buy a real camera but I just don't. Went diving last weekend and someone from the dive shop brought a Divevolk for iPhone. It was reasonably descent but not great. He didn't have any lights and we were diving in 3 to 6 meters of water. Looked very grainy compared to someone who had a DJI Action 4. Personally, I am thinking about the DJI Action 5 now. I looked at the Action 4 but in a side by side comparison I found: * Action 5 did 240 minutes, Action 4 was only 160 mins * Action 5 had subject tracking, Action 4 did not * Action 5 has an OLED display, Action 4 has LCD (I prefer my dive computer with OLED over older LCD display, so probably similar for camera) * Action 5 has a built-in pressure gauge and 47 GB of storage, Action 4 has no built-in pressure gauge or storage * Action 5 is 40 MP resolution, Action 4 is 9.98 MP If I didn't go for the Action 5, I'd probably look at the Action 3. It is similar to the Action 4 but cheaper.

I have a Gopro Hero 3 I got off FB Marketplace for $50, it's not fancy, but it records at very good quality and, it was cheap. Any Insta, Gopro, or DJI camera you can get used off Marketplace will work just fine

Hero 3. Really just because there was nothing like it and having a small action camera was unique/new and that shitty/grainy footage with crappy sound has a old school feeling you can never get back.

I mean, yeah, but I got a working gopro hero 3 for $30 from goodwill and it works fine for my casual rides for errands and such. If youre willing to shell out the cash, by all means get the better equipment. I've heard nothing but good things about the insta 360.

Just an old GoPro Hero I got off goodwill.com

I went out of the GoPro path, but came right back (first GoPro was Mark 3). Hero 9 is too old. You need 11 to level up, and it’s really cheap right now. 11 was a huge update. I skipped 12, and I don’t see so many advantages since I bought 13. I’m not disappointed, but the end result looks exactly the same. Maybe I’ll buy the overpriced Ultra Wide lens (I shoot downhill mountain biking).

I've tried to defend GorPro for so long as they do have the best daylight footage and best log profile. I've owned the Hero 3, 5, 7, 10 and now the 12. The 3, 5, 7 and 10 I was happy with. But it's getting indefensible now, with no Hero 14 out this year I am every chance to jump to DJI if the action 6 is good enough. Still using the GP2 processor is a joke, it came out with the H10, it's so far out of date. Low light hasn't usually been a concern to me as much, hence never making the switch to the competition. But it does pop up on occassions in thick forest or tree coverage, basically anything other than direct sunlight, so I am starting to notice how poor it is. On top of that the screens, lack of fast charge, slow boot times for "quick capture" ... I bought the Osmo 360 and am glad, I think the overall experience is better than that with GoPro and the footage is better than anything Insta360 has ever made which is always oversaturated and over sharpened trash. Maybe I'll switch back for Max 3 in 5 years time, maybe it will have a new processor, larger sensor and better editing software by then.

I've had a GoPro Hero 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 10, as well as the Max. I've go over 2,000 skydives with GoPros on my helmet, including world records and jumps into the Blue Hole in Belize. I've taken them to every continent (including Antarctica) for running and scuba diving and overall travel. So I use GoPros a lot, and I use them in environments that are pretty tough on them. One thing that's been annoying is the heavy push to GoPro subscription. Their cloud storage is just awful. The money is better spent on something like Dropbox or Box. Their software has been pretty terrible too. Hardware wise, they've been hit or miss. Sometimes it's software, sometimes it's hardware. They can corrupt video files, do a weird "gets hot after charging and locks up so that you have to pull the batteries", they can stop mid recording. All of that with the proper recommended cards. Some have just been lemons, probably a bad solder or heatsink contact. Sometimes it's fixed in a firmware upgrade. They're notorious in the skydiving community. "Did you get it?" "No, it stopped recording 5 seconds in." "It froze up". That kind of thing. Not all the time, not even frequent, but enough that it's annoying. And each model seems to have their own little quirks. My Hero 7 and 10 has been solid for the most part. My 9.. not as much. My Max is a piece of shit. My next 360 camera will absolutely not be a Max, and probably won't be whatever they come out with next. My next action camera probably won't be a GoPro.

Unpopular opinion maybe, but gopro puts out great quality underwater footage. It depends what you're using it for and what you want to film though. I'd encourage you to go look up recent gopro 4k underwater footage and you'd be surprised how crisp and sharp the images are, even without additional lights or gear. If you're looking for close up macro shots it's not the best (although it can still take great stills or you can also simply extract a still from 4k footage). I can't count the number of times I've seen people commenting on amazing shots here and asking what camera was used, only to be surprised that it was actually just a still frame from a gopro video. Is it the best for making professional quality prints or video? Probably not. Does it put out great quality non-professional video for a vacation diver? Absolutely. If you're okay with the quality of iphone videos, you'll likely be okay with the quality of gopro videos. The most important thing if you're filming video is image stabilization, which gopro is best of class at for non-professionals. There's nothing worse than shaky cam footage underwater and it's really good at producing smooth footage even for beginners. If you want to up your gopro game, you can still do it on a budget by adding a good tray (don't buy a handle) and two lights. I use a backscatter tray with 2x Orcatorch D710Vs. It's very decent and hard to beat at the price range. Sky's the limit on price if you want to look at more premium options. The best part is that I can fit it all in a regular sized backpack, which is something you can't do with nearly any other underwater camera options. I'm, also not worried about it getting banged around as they're built like tanks. Lastly there's a huge market of used gopros too if you really want to buy something on a budget.

dont give gopro anymore $ till they release an actually good product. insta, and DJI out perform them, and they dont DELETE YOUR FOOTAGE FOR NO REASON

i've used action cameras for almost 18 years now? and ive used all the major brands, GoPro more than ANY other. and from the hero -until the 12 black every single one at one point or another simply corrupted/deleted a whole days of videos. I've used DJI cameras from their little cube thing, to teh action 3 (i dont have the latest ones) and ive not lost any video recorded. same with Insta of what ive tested (i cannot speak to the newer 360's or the newer go 3s as ive not had them in hand to test) i will not give GoPro another single $ until they figure out wtf happens where it corrupts/deletes videos. its a useless camera if it cant save a video.

I started out with the DragonTouch 4K action camera and it was good enough. I started filming my games because I had just started playing again after 27 years away from hockey. I made friends with a few goalies I met here on Reddit who were kind enough to mentor me. Eventually, the video quality just wasn't good enough for what I needed. I invested in a gopro hero black, I believe I have the 11 or 12, and bought an aluminum case and suction mount on Amazon. The picture quality is amazing, and it makes filming and posting to youtube much more enjoyable since the footage is really sharp. Crease Quest on YouTube if you want to see the difference in camera quality. My oldest videos were all with the same camera. I tried editing and fiddling with the settings as much as I could, but when I switched to the GoPro it was a complete game changer. My home barn lets me mount the camera high inside the glass, which is why I bought the aluminum case. Other rinks I play at my son has to be behind the glass moving the camera between periods. EDIT: I also mounted a small external battery to the suction mount and have that plugged into the gopro during games so I don't run into any power issues.

I have the Hero black. Night time footage is good. However, the footage makes it look like you’re farther away from the subject than you actually are. That and it gets hot during extended replay while editing.

Many videos shown on YouTube are from the launch periods and are sponsored. Especially the DJI Action 5 was pushed pretty hard in my opinion. But they all make great videos. If you want low light performance I wouldn't go the gopro way. But in good light conditions I'd say the gopro still has the crown. For me the killer features though are 5.3k 8:7 and Gopro Labs which adds features no other action cam even comes close to. Those all help a lot for editing.

For me GoPro always had the best mic/audio balance. insta always sounded baseless and sucked at eliminating wind noise as well