GoPro HERO11? 10? Something else?

I'm still rocking a HERO2 that I just stick on the side of my helmet.  I have a second one, added WiFi backpacks and remote, etc but started having issues with batteries a few years ago.  Ended up just doing the single camera on the helmet and hitting the button when the run starts.

But I keep seeing ads for GoPro on Facebook and it looks like they've made some serious advancements.  Horizon stabilization, MUCH higher resolution, obviously built-in WiFi (or whatever) control...  I'm thinking between car stuff and my costume group events, maybe it's time to upgrade?

What's the consensus these days?

HERO11 link

In my limited experience, WiFi control means that sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. I don't know if I'll ever go back to gopro. Unfortunately, Garmin stopped making the VIRB.

I went from a hero2 to a 10 and the difference is incredible. The first time I watched something I had just recorded, the video and sound quality blew me away

Not sure what version mine is, but you can start recording using voice prompts, which is really convenient. 

My buddy was racing at Laguna Seca Historics last month  and his older GoPro packed up after the first lap.....

If it's a once in a lifetime occasion maybe is better to have 2 cameras rolling.....

I have a very negative opinion of GoPros, gleened over four... FOUR generations. In short: randomly acted like the battery was completely dead, then later, powered up just fine. Randomly shut down during recording, yet had plenty of power and memory. Randomly stopped a recording then immediately started a new one. Oh and I think that the scene most recorded by GoPros is me saying, "Is this on?" It wasn't one model that the above, it was all of them. Yes, great picture and sound, when it worked, yet always seemed to fail right as I was about to head out on-track, or fail out there.

I remember when GoPro stock went public, and the CEO was at the NYSE that morning, with a GoPro in his mouth! Quite memorable, that, and right where it belonged... Grrrr, but I'm over that, really.

I ended up getting a Sony ActionCam. Works as expected, every time, unlike the above.

I run two GoPro knock offs. One 1080p and one 1440p. Both were under $100 shipped - one from Adventure Cam and one from Amazon. 

The batteries suck. I found that buying an external battery pack and hooking it up to that is the best way to make sure it lasts the full time i need it in car. We used it in Champ Car, Autocross, Trackcross and HPDE events. Have only had a small handful of issues and it was totally user error(forgot to turn it on). 

Battery pack is this one - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0954T1NG6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And i just cut a small hole in the side of the faux GoPro case, plug it in and it will last 6+ hours without turning off.

I have a Hero 10 Black. Some notes: 

• Battery life is atrocious if you want 4k 60 FPS and Wi-Fi control. I typically just start the video manually as keeping the wifi on quarters battery life.
• The Hero 10 and Hero 10 Black are notorious for overheating and shutting down.
  • I will note that I have not had this issue, but it is helmet mounted and I typically run with the windows down, so there is some airflow across it in the cabin. 
• The horizon stability control is great, but can lead to wonky moments. You can check out a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZV1dgiZ52A

I wouldn't buy it full price. I got it for a discount by signing up for their gopro subscription (that I canceled the next day) and Costco is also having a sale on the 10 Black. 

I'm still using a GoPro2 + Wifi setup. The optics and mics of the newer models are way better, and of course you can record in beyond-1080p resolutions like a madman as well, but it seems like reliability has taken a hit. The reliability of the Gen2 isn't so easy to give up. 

I almost pulled the trigger on a knockoff last year - they give you 80% of the capability of a modern GoPro for about 15% of the money, and I'll consider it again when more models that can encode with H.265/HEVC are out.

We have 2 Hero 10 Blacks and so far they have worked great. I would recommend getting extra batteries and don't let them sit in direct sunlight because like other have said they can overheat. 

When we were shopping for new action cameras we looked at the options from DJI  as well.  In the end we settled on GoPro because you can get batteries, cases and mounts at almost any Walmart, Target or Best Buy so if we were out on the road it would be easy to replace something if it went wrong. 

As for the knock off versions, I have tried a few and they have been terrible. Some would eat memory cards and some the quality said 1080 but it was just upscaled from a lower resolution sensor.

Here is a good video comparing the newest from DJI and GoPro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqDLMpeIyUo

The quality of the knockoffs sure does vary, from "slightly stripped down GoPro without California salaries and a massive marketing campaign in the price" to "portable 90s webcam embedded in a toxic waste brick" so you need to really do your research if you buy one. SJCAM has a generally decent reputation among the knockoff brands.

I haven't used it enough to give a good review, but I can tell you that one thing separates the DJI Action from the GoPro it replaced: the DJI has recorded every time I've asked it to. The GoPro would have been... A coin toss is too good. Like having to roll over seventeen on a twenty sided die, if I understand fancy dice right.

Jerry said:

I'm still rocking a HERO2 that I just stick on the side of my helmet. 

I did the helmet mount for one race.  I found it useful for insight into where I was looking, but the video was hard to watch.  It would give you vertigo between checking gauges, corner stations, passing, looking down to the apex then track-out, oh...time for another gauge check, mirrors, snug straps, back to traffic.  Went back to a fixed mount after that, lol.

Have had my Hero2 since they came out what....like 11 years ago?  Flawless.  Bought a Hero8 Black for my kids a month ago and it is dead already.  GoPro support is replacing it with a Hero9 Black with an extra battery at no charge, however they wouldn't cross-ship.  2wks so far and I don't have a replacement in my hand.  

GoPro is still the leader in action cams.  I hope that my recent experience was a fluke.  

I find that mounting the camera on the rear quarter glass looking forward like this gives a good combination of race-review usefulness and cinematic value:
 

I was checking out some of the new knockoffs and the SJCAM SJ9 Strike looks interesting, although a bit on the expensive side for a knockoff.

I have a DJI Osmo Action 1 and an Action 2 - only reason I got the latter is because the Action 1 is NLA. Yes, cases and batteries aren't available at every gas station but mounting solutions are (uses the same as the GoPro). Haven't used the Action 2 in anger yet, but the Action was a big improvement over the latest GoPro and seems to work much better and reliably.

I would certainly stay away from the really cheap GoPro knock-offs, but I wouldn't hesitate to get another Osmo camera.

hunter47 said

I wouldn't buy it full price. I got it for a discount by signing up for their gopro subscription (that I canceled the next day) and Costco is also having a sale on the 10 Black. 

SWMBO has both Costco and Sam's memberships.  Thanks for the tip.

Jesse Ransom said:

I haven't used it enough to give a good review, but I can tell you that one thing separates the DJI Action from the GoPro it replaced: the DJI has recorded every time I've asked it to. The GoPro would have been... A coin toss is too good. Like having to roll over seventeen on a twenty sided die, if I understand fancy dice right.

Mirrors my experience. The Osmo Action just seems to work as long as you feed it a charged battery and a microSD card.

I went from a Hero 3 to an Akaso knockoff to a Hero 10 Black. The 10 makes the others seem like toys. Get the long life battery and a fast SD card and enjoy amazing video quality.  I'm still sometimes surprised at how good the video really is. 

I liked my Hero 2 a looooot more than my 8.  The video quality was a lot better, the higher res/frame rate video of the newer one looks too unnatural and jumpy.  I cannot imagine that it got better with new releases.

What kind of battery life do you get out of a GoPro? My newest one is a 3.

With my Hero2 recording at 720p, I have trouble testing the limits of the battery capacity, if I go out with a fully charged battery I never need to change it at an autocross or track day...I've used it for extended recording of bike rides and I would get at least 40mins out of some rather worn batteries.

Do the Hero 10 and 11's have auto start recording when usb power is applied?

Does the DJI action 3 have a feature like this?

I'd really like to get a camera that starts itself - reliably.

I gave a Hero 5 White that was cheap on eBay, as I really just want something simple. I don't want an app, nor any advanced features. It doesn't autorecord, which sucks, but is OK with a big enough SD card and a battery charged beforehand, I just have an awful lot of footage of me sitting in the paddock and on grid. The huge downside to me is that I have to set "spot" exposure mode every single time I turn the camera on. This means it needs to come out of its rollbar mount, which is surprisingly hard to do with sweaty, sun screened hands. It also means that the angle is often wrong as its impossible to do without the ball joints in the mount moving at all. I don't want to spend a bunch of cash but I really wish there was a simple "starts recording when power applied, remembers settings" camera.

I really wish there was a simple "starts recording when power applied, remembers settings" camera.

I've been looking for one for years.  As far as I can tell none of the 4K action cameras do this.  It seems to be the realm of dashcams now.

I've got an old Mobius action cam that can be configured to record on external power on and can take pretty much any size SD card.  I've had it for years and until last year it worked perfectly, but now the USB connector to apply external power is dying.  I'll probably open it up and solder some wires and apply power that way since I don't have access to a SMT rework station anymore.

In reply to Honsch :

I had a something or other Ghost 2 action cam in my motorcycle helmet for years until the non-replacable battery died. Tried replacing it anyway but had a small... incident... while trying to solder the super short, super thin wires with what's probably a 10x too big soldering iron.

I really want to replace it, but can't find something similar - small and not gopro form factor, easy on/off, looped/dashcam recording mode. Its like the whole market has gotten worse over the years, yet somehow twice as expensive. Really need to replace it now that lane filtering is legal in AZ and the chances of angry drivers doing something dumb is probably way higher.