GoPro - Hero 4 Series

so the smallest gopro was the session or session 5 but in terms of mounting im not sure it would have worked like that. the picture looks like an insta360 go 3 camera and that has a magnetic mount for caps and t shirts. there are other small cameras such as the runcam thumb series but it depends on your budget and use case and if you need it to be waterproof.

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 * 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.

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.

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 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

Gopro hero 4k. The cheapest no nonsense go pto

GoPro Mini 11 was a broken product. Overheated repeatedly, couldn't run for more than a few minutes. Worst $200 I ever spent. My Hero 4 Silver is still running, but has poor resolution in this day and age.

Hey there! I have used a GoPro for many of my professional and recreational dives. In my experience, GoPro pros are great within 30 m and have a wide depth of field, but when it comes to color, correction and specific focus, they are severely lacking. If you are seriously interested in getting into the hobby of underwater photography, or videography, I would suggest looking at something like an Olympus tough TG – six or TG – seven. these are phenomenal cameras for the money and have all the modern features you want, including automatic white balance ability to shoot in 4K at 60 FPS, as well as having all of your standard aperture and shutter speed settings all in one convenient digital camera package. I think the TG6, which I personally use runs about $400 New. You may be able to find one cheaper used, but I would definitely recommend a housing if you are frequently taking pictures and videos beneath meters or 30 feet.

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.

From personal experience I can say the following. Any normal version of GoPro will do as a basic camera for selfie shooting. Cameras like GoPro Hero 4K or Hero 11 mini. Great for shooting from a helmet (on the helmet, under the visor or on the side). Regarding the microphone, it is better to use a special helmet-headset with an adapter for internal mounting, for motocross helmets.When you have a microphone in your helmet, you can be heard better and there is less wind noise.

I would say Hero 4 and 5. I know dozens of them still in use without any troubles. Unlike newer ones that got replaced quite soon

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.

I took my old GoPro hero 4 but Ill be first to admit I’m a fairly fresh diver I only have around 35-40 dives so that go pro is always secondary to the dive and safety of the dive itself

I owned the GoPro 4 Silver and GoPro 9 Black... I ended buying a used insta360 X3 off of ebay after I lost my GoPro 9. The X3 was an instant game changer as I am a skier. It was lighter, felt more natural than my 9, and I dont have to focus so much on getting the right angle and shot when I'm following others. I actually lost my GoPro 9 after crashing into a tree because it was so end heavy on a selfie stick and i was too focused on getting the right angle that it was difficult to maneuver. With the X3 I press record and ride down without worrying about it. I researched the GoPro Max but felt GoPro didn't really focus on it too much since it had been years since it was released. If GoPro ever makes another 360 camera ill definitely get it because I'm such a GoPro fan boy. The only thing thay sucks about the x3 is that I scratched up the lens but the X5 seems to have remedied that by allowing the lens to be swapped. I'm just waiting for it go down in price.

I still have the 4 and it was/is rock solid for the years it has.

Hero 4 was peak GoPro for me. The launch video. 4k video, The skeleton mount, and social media was still in its Goldilocks era.

You got downvoted for commenting about DJI in a GoPro sub but as a regular GoPro owner who tried an Action 4 on the field for a day, it was by far the most reliable action camera I've ever used. It turned on quickly, never crashed and always worked.

I definitely agree with you - there are some fishy bots around and tbh I still think that GoPros are the best action cameras on the market....for now. There's no denying that DJI are a serious threat though. Like yeah, there's some janky bitrate issues and other things I didn't like on the Action 4 when I tried (not a fan of colour science and hardware, interface was a bit weird). But I would hard disagree that they are far behind - and a good reason why DJI/Insta360 are gaining marketshare.

Really big fan of the 11 Mini. Considering grabbing another one, just wish the battery was replaceable. Run into the same issues with it as the Session cameras, which were also awesome.

I had Hero 4 Session before it got stolen from my bag at work. It was awesome, and i would love to own 5 aswell

I used gopros mounted to my handlebars on my bike. They were ok while they worked, which wasn't for long. I had 2 mini 11s and both ate memory cards corrupting them seconds after starting recording. Tried everything. Hard reset, different firmwares. Both devices would get warm and be unresponsive until the battery ran out. Lastly I tried the new hero 4k. Absolutely shocking image quality and no stabilisation. Don't get me started on the subscription and returns service where you pay about 80 percent of the price you already paid for a replacement. Will be avoiding GoPro in the future.

Lots of issues. My Osmo 5 has much much better battery life+charging speed is amazing. I need 2 batteries compared to gopro 4-5. Startup is almost instant.

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.

The 10 and session because it was my first one

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.

I use a good pro hero 4 as my face cam on twitch I really like the wide angle you get makes for better zoom if you can get a cheep one off ebay like I did I'd say it's worth over a web cam imo

I still use my go pro 4 from time to time. Normally to strap to the top of the car. No such thing as an out of date camera to me!

if you can find one . . the old gopro sessions are great and i still rock one to this day.

a "hack" is buy a generation or two older go pro. like do some youtube searching for video content makers, on which older go-pros are the best. i bought i think a hero 4. was dirt cheap but still well regarded for it's video/specs. all i was doing was recording my trips when i lived in nyc, as i was afraid of being killed by shitty drivers. wanted a "dash cam" of sorts. i feel like mindless recordings of riding about is a very niche thing.

I've had my hero 4 since it came out. And its a great camera, never heated up the only reason I bought the 13 is because I can't find any batteries that are new for the 4. Well, when ever I try to video anything in 60fps the damn thing overheats and either freezes or turns off. I never had that problem with the 4. That and they got lazy with innovation and let dji take their lunch. Oh and how the hell is it possible that the 13 has worse low light video than the 4?!?! Smh

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.

I personally prefer the log files out of GoPro I have an action 4 too but it looks over processed and lacks details in shadows, where action 4 shines is its night time footage, that too doesn’t look real it looks over processed. Btw I’m using a Hero 10 and 11 and love both of it

The one that doesn't have glitches. From hero 7 down. The best one that I like very much si session because it was a very small camera

I use a GoPro Hero 4 Black as my webcam. I use it because I already had it and didn’t want to spend extra money on a webcam. The video quality it gives is decent though, I don’t get any complaints/comments about my webcam footage. I also throw on a bit of color correction in my streaming software which I think makes it look a little nicer. However, I wouldn’t recommend going out and purchasing one solely to use as a webcam. If you already have one then I would say it’s considerable. GoPros aren’t really meant to be on for long periods of time (at least that generation, I’m not too familiar with the newer ones). I had to remove the battery and find a dummy battery cable that would work for it. The GoPro runs extremely hot to the point where with the battery it would overheat and shut off. Using that dummy cable it still gets really hot but it’s able to stay on. I would also recommend looking into good lighting for your setup. Lighting is very important when trying to video something. Good lighting can make a cheap camera look okay. While bad lighting can make even an expensive camera look bad.

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.

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.

I’d just use the GoPro in 4K and then pull stills from it with a video editing program

Agreed. But for someone looking for a budget option that produces decent results it’s hard to beat the GoPro

My hero 12 is unusable in Thailand due to overheating issues. It’s so funny because whatever model I had here 10 years ago (Hero4?)I remember overheating as well. I haven’t owned one in a while so I’m just sitting here thinking really one decade later they haven’t fixed this thing from overheating?

I don't think insta 360 makes good cameras. I just like that form factor. My first GoPro was the session. It wasn't the best camera but my Hero 12 and Max don't fill what it could.

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.