GoPro - HERO4 Session (CHDHS-101)

It's simple to me. GoPro Hero cameras are a huge PITA to use. They're horribly unreliable and nowadays DJI/Insta look just as good. It's been like this since at least Hero 10. They have done nothing to fix the Hero line and continue to push out a new model every year. It's corporate greed and it's killing the company. I've spent a lot of money on GoPro gear only to be burned by them over and over again. I go out of my way to recommend against GoPro any time some asks. I will give credit where it's due though. The MAX 360 has been a great camera for me. I don't have any of the issues that are so abundant on Hero cameras. It's the only GoPro product I've had a good experience with but I still can't recommend it because of the culture at GoPro. I know if anything comes up that requires them to lift a finger to fix, it will remain broken forever while they work on the next yearly model release.

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

I opted for a GoPro session mounted on my chin with sugru. Press once and it starts no issues.

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 use a GoPro 4 I bought used and cheap on eBay, I switch the battery every time I ride. Good quality footage, many successful “positive action taken” responses from OpSnap. But I’m intrigued by the Redditor above using an Insta360, their case is compelling. Most important thing is that the camera is visible to motorists, I can clearly see improved behaviour whenever the red light is flashing. It’s

Due to the quality of the products. I am now on my third GoPro 10, as the previous two failed for mostly the same reasons. But give GoPro some credit, as they replaced them without much issue. On the other hand, I still have my GoPro 4, which is over 10 years old and works perfectly—used it recently whilst waiting for the second replacement GoPro 10.

My Hero 4 is spending it's retirement in my car as a dashcam. The lack of stabilization makes it a really bad action cam compared to the last 5 years of GoPros.

I’ve got an old hero 4 session and it’s perfect. Small form factor and decent quality with the GoPro ease of use.

I'm shooting just underwater footage since GoPro 4, I've never get this result even in auto mode. Low life competitior pays "i can ben over for money" so called "influencers" just to try to make their products look good. Even if you give me anything else but no GoPro , I'd just use it for my nobrain videos. Yes I'm very aggressive because I'm sick and tired of this stupid nonsense comparisons

I just bought my first go pro and I'm loving it. I had seen them back in the day and thought they were really cool, and I finally decided to buy one, no regrets. I will tell you this: I'm glad I bought the GoPro hero 13 because it's rugged and waterproof and has really great filming options. When you hold it in the hand, you can tell you have a nice piece of hardware that will be able to withstand everything you can throw at it. I'm not sure you will have this same feeling buying a cheap alternative, maybe it feels cheap in the hand. Had my go pro 4 days now and really really glad I spent the extra money. I'm even starting to look at lenses.