GoPro for sale?

Like, the entire company? Yesterday I heard that their stock price had fallen. 

That drone thing really blew up in their face from everything I've read. That coupled with falling revenues from competition, with a product which really hasn't evolved in several generations, has put them in a pretty bad spot.

In hindsight they should have either purchased part of or bought outright DJI like was rumored after their IPO when they were flush with cash.

Hindsight is always 20/20 though.

Hrm. Maybe the entire company would like someone else to be responsible for the Hero Session interface? (Speaking from a place of spending most of my limited use of it failing to get autocross runs, and trying to get it re-re-re-synced to my phone, whose battery it drains, stat; Apologies for being not-quite-on-topic...)

You can only ignore the cheapo Chinese competitors that are actually pretty good for so long...

Ransom said:

Hrm. Maybe the entire company would like someone else to be responsible for the Hero Session interface? (Speaking from a place of spending most of my limited use of it failing to get autocross runs, and trying to get it re-re-re-synced to my phone, whose battery it drains, stat; Apologies for being not-quite-on-topic...)

All of this.  Bought a Hero 3 Black special edition blah blah blah a couple years ago only to discover that it was near garbage.  Sold that one and still have original Hero but honestly don't use it because it's just such a PITA to operate.  Quick hint for manufacturers in the iPhone era:  MAKE E36 M3 WORK!!

From my December blog:

In other news, earlier this year my brother got fed up with his GoPro, replacing it with a Sony action-cam. He can’t say enough good things about it, and it’s mostly because the Sony, well, it just works – every time. I’m sympathetic; my GoPro 4 (with the latest firmware) still had demon-possessed moments. Starting a second video by itself, resetting itself, and my favorite, acting exactly as if it’s bricked, then works days later like nothing was ever wrong. I have to give GoPro’s Marketing Dept props for having the nerve to continue pushing their stuff even with pissed-off customers. Point being, if you’re looking for an action cam for Christmas, consider the Sony. Here’s my brother’s Virginia City Hill Climb video recorded with it, which has both mechanical and electronic stabilization – it shows.

I have more video of me staring in to the dam thing saying why is it berkeleying blinking! Or is it on?

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Yes, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/08/gopro-has-hired-jp-morgan-to-put-itself-up-for-sale.html

Huh I didn't realize the quality had gone so far downhill. I have Gen1&2 GoPros, and while the Gen1 GoPro has an interface like a VCR clock, they've both been very reliable. Except for an old Gen1 I had that simply fell dead for no apparent reason, maybe heat from the sun if I had to guess...but it was reliable before that.

I have a Hero 3  Black, and it's pretty much a POS. It will be the last GoPro product I ever buy. Their hype is much better than their product. 

Maybe they should have taken their advertising budget and use it for R&D. 

Glad I never popped for a GoPro 

Clones, or clones of clones appear to do better

I keep thinking SJ4000

Someone told me you could update the firmware on a Hero3 and make it a 4 and that you can record some great video with them.

I got a Hero3+ for daily use as a dash cam and it is on the shelf gathering dust.

I bought a Hero 2 HD and it has been very reliable -- reliably starting every video with a dorky picture of my damn face turning it on.  

When they came out they had a disruptive technology:  small camera, HD quality, no tapes.  Waterproof housing.  Competitive price point.

They quit innovating and disrupting with new products, while their Hero2 HD never quit getting the job done.  Scaling from a startup to a boring old normal company is hard.

Their brand still has intrinsic value. I'd still buy another one later on. Selling is a good move. 

I actually really liked my GoPro. (hero4)

The problem is this: They never made creating video easy. Not that I have a solution, but I used my GoPro for non-stop action while riding through Vietnam and such, and the editing took HOURS and HOURS. I sold it afterwards.

When they IPOd I laughed at those falling over each other to buy. It's an ultra-wide angle camera. It's not flattering or useful to use in most situations - but motorsport is one where they excel.

fasted58 said:

Glad I never popped for a GoPro 

Clones, or clones of clones appear to do better

I keep thinking SJ4000

I plan to get an SJCAM for my next action camera. When I'll upgrade though, who knows? Modern action cams are ridiculously overpowered IMO. 720p videos are still good enough for me right now.

Here's a bit more from my blog from several years ago:

Either I don’t know how to operate the GoPro 4 or it has some quirks – probably both – so I didn’t record nearly as much as expected. Sometimes it wasn’t clear when it was recording and when it wasn’t. Some of the “scrap” video snippets found during editing showed me puzzling over the camera, saying “I can’t tell if it’s recording” yet obviously it was. Not seeing any activity (no blinking LED or LCD indications) I kept messing with it, and after finally seeing an indication, I headed out since I’d configured it for “one-button record”, which turns it on and starts recording immediately. Push the button again and it stops and powers down. It worked during testing but later I found that the first session was completely missed, me thinking that it was recording when it was not.

I got it running for the second session, but during editing I found two videos from the session. Apparently hitting a small bump on-track caused it to start a new clip.

For the third session, the GoPro appeared dead as if its battery was done. However, when I got home and downloaded the videos, the camera reported that it still had 75% battery life… grrr.

So, yeah, I'm done with them, whether they reappear as something else or not.

GameboyRMH said:

You can only ignore the cheapo Chinese competitors that are actually a lot better good for so long...

fixed.

BTW, I'm not sure they are aware, but buying an expensive camera specifically for use in situations where it might be lost or damaged is a bit silly for the average person.

The fact that I can buy a handful of cheap Chinese knock-offs, stick them all over the car or in various locations, use the same cards with much easier interfaces and they usually come with enough mounts to be useful and often don't use some proprietary mount counts for quite a bit.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming racing season as I have an antennae and a triple suction mount for my 2 HD cameras, plus a mount for my phone, so I should be able to get some vehicle data to combine using Race Render.

Editing video will always be difficult and time consuming, there's a reason why decent editors are worth their weight in gold.  It might help some who are struggling to look at some film or studio classes at their local community college, etc.

https://www.lifewire.com/introduction-to-video-editing-1081794

My hero 3+ is reliable, but it doesn’t do night time cam, the one darn thing I wanted. If I put it in the celica and do some back roads snow manji, all you can see are head lights on snow. You can’t even tell if the car is moving forwards or slideways. 

I love my Hero 4 with the built in screen and wifi. My HD Hero 2 still works good too just doesn't have as many features.

I can't bring myself to do the clones. I tried one of the well-rated ones on an amazon lightning deal and the quality was no where near comparable. 

I've had a bunch of issues with their products and their responses were exclusively "tough e36m3". You can't do that to people for long and stay on top. 

In reply to kb58 :

Interesting.  My experience with Sony products is that they work for six months and then stop.

I really like the Hero's interface.  You push a button and it's on, you push another button and it records.  You push that button again to make it stop recording.

I agree, until it forgets that you configured it that way. Had it forget twice, always right before I headed out on-track. My brother's had his Sony for a year now without issue. 

Knurled. said:

In reply to kb58 :

Interesting.  My experience with Sony products is that they work for six months and then stop.

 

I really like the Hero's interface.  You push a button and it's on, you push another button and it records.  You push that button again to make it stop recording.

Sony took very, very good care of me when I had a problem with my tv. 

I have a sony bravia xbr 46" tv and it was not cheap when I bought it (10years ago now at least), like $2800 iirc. Like 6-7 years after purchase it started doing a thermal shutdown thing after watching it for an hr then the duration got shorter and shorter. I called sony to see what it would take to fix it, they said someone would have to come out and look at it. They said it would be less than $100 for a service call so I figured berk it. Guy came out and said it needed a screen, I asked how much and he said he'd have to check into it. The next day he called and said he wanted to schedule a time for another visit, I was like "woa, woa, how much?", knowing it was way out of warranty, he said they'd handle it and no charge for the original visit. Good company.