GoPro - Hero 4 Series

I filmed my wedding with a couple gopros. They were 4s back in 2015. My only recommendation is don’t film a wedding using GoPros. But if you absolutely want to I bet the 13 with that anamorphic lens could get some good shots.

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.

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.

I've had * Hero 3 White * Hero 4 Silver * Hero 7 Black * Max (1) * Hero 12 Black and I still have all but the 3 white. The 3 white was the only 'bad' one I think, one where the camera really didn't live up to the hype for me and hence I upgraded quite quickly. As for my favourite? In the context of when they came out the 7 felt the most incredible, it really was a big jump with the stabilisation. But I probably shot most of my coolest footage on either the 4 Silver or the Max, just because of the time in my life I was using them and the novelty of 360 footage at the time.

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 had 4 black many years ago. At the time it was a great cam. But it's very shaky, no image stabilization. All the cool videos from that era either had gigantic gimbals or heavy editing to not look like a jumbled mess. It's dated, unfortunately.

Literally every post now seems to mention low light. I've never had an issue with my GoPros and I've owned every GoPro Black since the 4. Sounds like your sports don't really need low light either, so not sure what the hesitation is. I own a few DJI products as well (drone, mic mini, Osmo mobile) but I'd get a GoPro over the DJI camera for sure.

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.

I've had almost every GoPro since the GP4. Just got the Max2, but in all honesty, I think my favorite is the 13 black.