GoPro - Hero 4 Series

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