They’ve always been kinda crappy. I don’t think that changed so much as competition got better. And then as competition got better, they started doing things like stupidly priced dongles for external audio input. This has been a slow burn in the works for a long time.
Meanwhile my old GoPro Hero 4 is somehow the most reliable action camera I own, and my newer one constantly stops recording due to something. I bought an Insta360 as an alternative a couple years ago and the batteries are all already toast, and last maybe 30 seconds of recording.
my newer one constantly stops recording due to something.
For a while they kept putting the same old processor in that couldn’t handle the load. GoPros shutting off due to overheating or recording too long was just normal.
Dunno if it’s still the case. I switched to DJI and you can’t even compare the two. Quality, smart design, price, reliability; these are not GoPro things. I record for an hour plus sometimes and just flawless. Don’t have to think about it.
Insta360 really wants to take the higher end of gopro. As in, beating them at quality. There’s a bazillion lower end models with varying quality, some rather decent.
I have the insta360 acepro 2, and recording quality is really good, i think better than gopro. But it’s a brick of a camera to hold, rather heavier. I didn’t have issues with batteries myself, i have an original one and 2 off market ones, so far all working Ok.
Agreed. I have a Hero 10 Black and basically every time I go to use it I wind up wanting to hurl it into the sun by the time I’m done. My wife bought it for me as a birthday present a couple of years ago because I asked for one specifically (I didn’t know any better, apparently) so it would probably be rude to do so, though.
It overheats, it randomly shuts off, it routinely experiences a firmware crash that renders all of its buttons inoperable and requires pulling the battery to cure. Oh, and it also has a battery life best measured in seconds so you need to keep it plugged in to external power all the time which requires an aftermarket accessory. Brilliant.
With any luck mine will get taken out in some spectacular and marketable fashion, preferably while recording at top quality so I can post it and use the video revenue to buy an Insta Ace or something.
What a crazy fuckup. You have a household name almost for action cameras and you keep releasing overpriced crappy products.
The Harley Davidson or Fender business model.
They’ve always been kinda crappy. I don’t think that changed so much as competition got better. And then as competition got better, they started doing things like stupidly priced dongles for external audio input. This has been a slow burn in the works for a long time.
And the exact same model just rebranded!
Meanwhile my old GoPro Hero 4 is somehow the most reliable action camera I own, and my newer one constantly stops recording due to something. I bought an Insta360 as an alternative a couple years ago and the batteries are all already toast, and last maybe 30 seconds of recording.
For a while they kept putting the same old processor in that couldn’t handle the load. GoPros shutting off due to overheating or recording too long was just normal.
Dunno if it’s still the case. I switched to DJI and you can’t even compare the two. Quality, smart design, price, reliability; these are not GoPro things. I record for an hour plus sometimes and just flawless. Don’t have to think about it.
I really regret not buying one of the earlier GoPros. The Insta360 frankly has been a huge disappointment. The batteries are really awful.
I see a lot of action cams on the used marketplace selling for cheap. What’s a good one to buy? Or are they all toast?
Theyre all really good now, and all priced very similarly. All have strengths and weaknesses but you can’t really go wrong with any of them.
Unfortunately they all require a proprietary app and associated account so I’ll never buy another one.
GoPro rested on their laurels and DJI and Insta360 are eating their lunch now.
I got a gopro for a project and basically gave up on copying the video files to my computer…
Insta360 really wants to take the higher end of gopro. As in, beating them at quality. There’s a bazillion lower end models with varying quality, some rather decent.
I have the insta360 acepro 2, and recording quality is really good, i think better than gopro. But it’s a brick of a camera to hold, rather heavier. I didn’t have issues with batteries myself, i have an original one and 2 off market ones, so far all working Ok.
I still have an original GoPro HD Hero and it still works fine. Battery is like 50% capacity as expected, but yeah, otherwise still working.
Agreed. I have a Hero 10 Black and basically every time I go to use it I wind up wanting to hurl it into the sun by the time I’m done. My wife bought it for me as a birthday present a couple of years ago because I asked for one specifically (I didn’t know any better, apparently) so it would probably be rude to do so, though.
It overheats, it randomly shuts off, it routinely experiences a firmware crash that renders all of its buttons inoperable and requires pulling the battery to cure. Oh, and it also has a battery life best measured in seconds so you need to keep it plugged in to external power all the time which requires an aftermarket accessory. Brilliant.
With any luck mine will get taken out in some spectacular and marketable fashion, preferably while recording at top quality so I can post it and use the video revenue to buy an Insta Ace or something.
Cries in Hero 7.
I can’t even plug mine into my PC and use it as a 4k webcam :/
Not almost, “GoPro” is absolutely a household name, they were the only realistic choice for action cameras for an incredibly long time.
It’s also a verb, I’ve heard people talk about “GoPro-ing” something many times before.
Absolutely nuts how far they’ve fallen.