Hi everyone,


I am interested in purchasing GoPro cam and I was wondering if its worth to spend the $400 on the newest model?

What do you guys use?

Is the quality of audio and image good?

Thanks for any input.

Unless you want 120 frames per second at 1080p... or it's other great features then yes it's an amazing piece of tech for $400 (gp black right ?).

If you want to capture decent videos without fancy smancy stuff, find a gp1 or contour roam for around $100.

The black edition does 60fps at 1080. Which is really nice. I have the black, and I love it, the picture quality is amazing for such a small camera. at 720 it will do 120 fps which does some really really cool/smooth slow mo.

While $400 is very steep, the other gopros are great too. But the black edition has a completely different lens set up. So much more powerful / HD, that the battery life is less on the black edition when compaired to the white and silver. Which is fine for me. I don't take videos for hours. The different lens allows the black edition to work better in the dark as well.


If money is tight, go for a white hero 3 or a hero 2. If money is not an issue, get the silver or black edition.

Keep in mind you need a class 4 micro sd card for the silver and white, and a class 10 micro sd card for the black edition. (class defines how quickly can the microsd card move data)


And other accessories you might want. The suction cup is fantastic. I have full confidence in mounting my $400 camera to a car or other flat smooth surface with it. The floating backdoor is also handy if you have a pool..

and not just a class 10... but a high quality class 10... seen many people come back (i work in retail) claiming their hero 3 black is recording crappy video or having issues... and they have some crap brand class 10 that doesnt even come close to doing class 10 spec. Something like the scandisk mobile ultra micro sd cards is what you need for the hero black.

That said you will get better quality video out of the black in the same resolution vs the others.

Also... if you have any friends in retail... they might get an accommodations through gopro wherein they get some pretty steep discounts.

We're friends right?

Amazon dropped the price of new ContourRoam cameras to $110 today. It won't do as much as a contour, but it's great if all you are doing is posting on youtube for shits and giggles. The accessories are more expensive and less plentiful for the Contour. In it's defense, it's a hell of a lot easier to manipulate a Contour than a GoPro while mounted. The downside is you have 0 configuration options while in the field with the Contour (unless you have an android phone with an OTG cable...)

The Hero 3 Black edition is quite nice with the various modes it offers, and the abundant amount of accessories available. I have had quality issues with the 2 GoPros I have had (Hero2, and now my Hero3 black edition..) with lifespan. The Hero2 died just before its warranty was up, and it's replacement died a month later. At the last track day my Hero3 would record for a couple of minutes, and then shutoff.

I have had 2 glitches with the Contour. The laser aiming assist would turn on while recording or plugged in. It didn't bother me but it was distracting riders when I was out at Deals Gap (and I understand why completely!) The other issue was low mic volume.

If go with the Contour, know that it doesn't do well with wind. They have wind breakers for quite cheap on scamazon.

That being said...if all you want is [email protected] and a few bucks for a camera that option exists too. Just don't ask me what to search for, other than keychain camera.

I read some pretty bad review on gopro black. Hmm

Mostly due to prior firmware. The latest firmware fixed a lot of the issues - I've had no problems with mine over the last few weeks.

hero 3 black with the remote, and or the wifi app on your phone.... view finder and full control over the hero 3 on your phone.

I have the GP hero 3 silver and love it, although yes it doesn't have the fancy stuff the black does..Half the time I wouldn't bother with that stuff, I just wanna shoot video.

Although higher fps so doing slow mo videos would be cool, then again for the fancy video, might as well buy a real video camera.

The app just got updated so you can view your photos and videos on the go.


^^^^^ I agree i dont bother with the extra features as much, but the higher quality video is awesome! i bought it to record my wedding proposal, so I felt shitty cheaping out on the biggest moment of my life. had to get the best small camera. side bonus of using it with the bike and pool

I just updated the app and it crashes. Every frickin' time.

I guess there is a new firmware for the cameras that came out 2 days ago, updating that now...

My app doesn't crash, but takes forever to load videos.

It is better than buying the $100 screen attachment

UPDATE: So I installed the latest firmware on my camera, without hitch. App still didn't work, so I uninstalled and re-installed the app on my phone.

Works AWESOME!!!

Will definitely come in handy when setting up the go pro on mounts on the bike, so I know what the camera is seeing.

I haven't used my gopro all week. Went to use it today and its all foggy. Video and pics, with or without the case on it.

I've cleaned the lens and tried different settings.
I can't remember if this is the first time taking pics/video since the software update or not.


image-4136661289.jpg



image-3292701488.jpg

^^ What the???? Dang dude, the camera worked fine the day I sent it to you... is there any condensation in the lens?

Does this help?

http://goprouser.freeforum.org/gopro-blurry-t5015.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5J5IoVprI8


Maybe you need to take off the lens and let it air out a bit...

So you did do the firmware update? The latest firmware was for the GoPro 3 (not likely that it would mistakenly let you use the 3 firmware on the 2), but I didn't specifically look for a firmware update for the Hero 2.

Let me know if you figure it out - if not, contact GoPro, seems they've been replacing cameras that had this issue.

It worked fine when you sent it to me. We played with it in the pool, and I played with t in the house afterwards last Monday. The I did the firmware update when the new iPhone app came out that allowed you to preview stored data, but I didn't use it after. It sat on my desk all week until this morning we went out to the pool and I fired up the app and noticed it was real cloudy. I figured it was the app and took a few videos. Then I plugged into my tv and realized it was the camera.
I put it in a Baggie of rice a few hours ago, maybe I'll take the lens off too and put it back in. Although I can see the inside lens clearly, doesn't look like any condensation.

Must be some condensation I guess - the trick is to put the camera in the housing and lock it up while you're inside the house, then don't touch it when out in the pool. I learned this the hard way with my portable Canon camera, but I've never had my GoPro underwater, so maybe it doesn't matter.

Was there any water in the housing when you took the camera out?

Try the rice thing first, I'd avoid taking off the lens for any length of time if you don't have to.

This sucks man! Makes me want to think twice before taking mine under water now

I don't even know how you'd take the actual camera lens off. There's no fasteners. Aside from taking the screws out from in the battery compartment, but I'll wait to see what gopro says before I do that.
How long ago did you buy it new?

The screws on the front:



But you greatly risk introducing dust particles into the interior of the camera.

Maybe they are just loose and need tightening? Dang vibes from riding on the 919 so much??? lol

I have the camera out of the case and it is cloudy too. So it's not the lens on the plexiglass case. It's the interior camera itself.

That's not a cloudy lens, that's out of focus! Somehow the lens got moved away from the ccd/cmos. There's a way to change the glass on the lens, surely there's a way to focus it.

You know, I did notice the glass didn't seem lined up with the housing. But I can't think of how it would get moved out of place.


image-2962812546.jpg

Yeah, my bad on the lens, I was thinking of the housing. Derp.

Is it glued into place? Didn't get stuck on a hot dashboard, did it?

I wonder if it shifted or something.

Since it was last while working fine, it had been sitting on my computer desk, and the blinds next to it closed.

That's a 1pc EDFD. Usually on those style cameras the lens mounts on by screwing in. It has a set focal point so you should be able to rotate the lens (not just the glass, but the whole black piece) clockwise and counterclockwise. I don't have mine in front of me to try (GP1) but you could try rotating it gently, don't force anything. Since you can view it remotely via cell phone, it'll take the guessing game out of it. Fire up your cell, turn on the camera and rotate til you get a good pic.

Which GP do you have?

*EDIT: That's not a 1pc. The black plastic around the lens is not part of the lens so you can not turn it. You'll have to disassemble or find a creative way of trying to turn the lens without dismantling the whole unit.

Hmmm...GP2. Ok so it is a screw type lens but after watching the vid below it looks like they glued it. There must've been some serious heat for the glue to become undone because on the video he's using a heatgun to break it out. Maybe the glass did get moved or pop off?


FF to 2:15 on the vid
GoPro HD Hero 2 Lens Change by RageCams GoPro HD Hero2 HD2 modification fpv - YouTube

Hero 2
The outside doen't turn, I think it's attached to the case. I think it's just a collar around the part that DOES turn, but I can't get in there to turn it without scratching or damaging something.
I took the four screws out that hold the two halves of the body togther, but i could feel the serial number sticker holding them together. I don't want to peel it off, in the off chance I can get GoPro to fix the issue.

Yea, that's not part of the lens so don't turn it. If you can find a creative way to try to see if the lens will turn from the glass or plastic just around the glass (cover it with rubber maybe as to not scratch it?), you can check if the lens glue did melt and it's turning freely. If it doesn't move then you know the lens didn't get out of focus by turning and I'm willing to bet something is broke inside. Maybe the part where the lens screw into got loose or the CCD/Cmos itself might have gone bad. There's usually a glass in front of the actual sensor (not the lens glass) and if that shifted or got knocked off, then focus goes to crap. Rattling?

There's a crack down the collar that the lens threads into: so I can see how some jarring knocked it out of place.
Now to see if I can straighten it out and get it to stay:


image-4187091604.jpg

It doesn't look like it'll be an easy fix unless you can get that plastic together without completely taking the camera apart, including soldered pieces that holds the 2 or 3 boards together.

This video is a complete tear down and unfortunately it skips the part that shows where the collar is removed. The complete assembly is a sandwich type with 2 boards including an aluminum heatsink. The collar seems to be attached to the aluminum portion so it's possible that heat could've made that crack.

FF to 16:45 for a better view of what you're working on.
EEVblog #399 - GoPro Hero 2 Teardown - YouTube

Shoot, makes me want to drill holes in the housing to let some heat escape.... but then it'd probably fog up the waterproof housing on the colder days.

Edit: Looks like from the video thumbnail that is might be screwed into the bottom board and passes the alu heatsink as opposed to being attached to the heatsink.

What'd you end up doing? I would say to remove the lens first, then glue the collar. Careful no to get superglue in the thread, then screw your lens back and let the focusing fun begin. I forget if the gopros come with an a/v cable to output to a tv, if it does it would make focusing a breeze.

I couldn't get the lens to twist with my fingers. So i put the camera back together without the collar. When I get to work I'll heat it up a bit and try to remove it with some insulated pliers.

My only other option is but another camera off of eBay that's damaged, but has a good lens. Like one that was water damaged, and trade parts.

I'd look for gopro1 teardown pics and see if you can use those collars. I'd imagine there are more busted up 1s thans 2s.

Good thinkin

Man, this makes me sick to my stomach, you've only had the thing for a week!!!

What do you think caused it to break?

Even those these are notoriously tough cameras, I was always really gentle with it - the worst treatment it got were the vibes on the T at the track day over a year ago...

Man, this makes me sick to my stomach, you've only had the thing for a week!!!

What do you think caused it to break?

Even those these are notoriously tough cameras, I was always really gentle with it - the worst treatment it got were the vibes on the T at the track day over a year ago...

Not a damn clue. It worked, then it didn't. And I can't think it anything that happened in between. The only time it was out of the casing, was while laying on my desk to get a software update and charge.