Gopro is running a promotion where you get $100 off a Hero 5 if you send them ANY old go pro. It's fine if it's broken. Doesn't sound like you'll be quick to replace it but who knows I replaced my Hero 2+ with a 5 and am very happy with it as a $300 camera (after promotion). Bummer yours has caused you such frustration!

 

Saw that offer a few days ago. The only problem is that I would have had to send them even more money. At this point I wouldn't take a GoPro for free. It's that bad.

If i get another camera i will probably check out Sony.

 

I wouldn't be quick to buy a Hero 5. I bought one when they first came out and I have gone back to my 3 +. The big problem with the 5 is the inability to permanently set spot metering, which is crucial for cameras mounted behind the driver. Every time you shut the 5 down spot metering goes away. The only way to reactivate spot metering is to press and hold the spot on the touch screen on the camera itself. To do that you need to dismount the camera. REALLY GoPro? It wouldn't be so bad if you could do it the Capture app on your phone, but nooooo why would we allow you to do that? I'm still waiting on a firmware update, but doesn't seem like it's going to happen. I understand why GoPro's stock is tanking. I've called customer service three times but they have been clueless.

 

I read about that issue too, Dave. You want your GoPro mounted on your rollbar so everything is set and ready to go. This company makes way too many mistakes. Half the time when i try to get my remote to work with my Hero 4 it doesn't do it. And don't even think about using the app. These are issues that constantly distract you from the event you are trying to record.

It all adds up to an incredibly frustrating, "random outcome" sort of experience. Life is too short to deal with this crap.

 

One more thing I would add about the GoPro, and this is critical. It doesn't matter if on paper the specs might appear to favor the GoPro. In real life situations these cameras are really frustrating. Sometimes they work flawlessly. Other times they screw up recording part or all of an event. And you just have no idea what problems you are going to face until you are trying to record the event.

This has been a huge waste of time, money and lost recordings I can never get back.

If you are in the market, do yourself a favor and check out Sony. They appear to be GoPro's main competitor, and in 5 years Sony will still be around. Keep in mind, I could have sold this GoPro. But that's just bad karma.

 

 

Well that sucks.

I've had one for a few years and although I don't use it a lot, it has worked flawlessly for motorcycle and vacation duty.

 

LOL that was a funny scene in a funny movie!

Yeah, luck of the draw. I got levd.

 

Mine been working kind of OK except everytime you do a a perfect lap


This thread could grow to something like: "Things we killed for various reasons."

I have no photos but tried to kill my Nokia 6610 inside my car.
The frustrating result was that the external heater that was on the floor got hit so bad that it fell into two pieces and the dash of my Saab got big cut. Phone separated in three pieces: Phone, battery, rear cover. When put together: it still worked. Needles to say I was even more angry. Took a bite on the phone with my corner teeth trying to kill it again. Failed.


Took the Nokia back to the store (still with the bite marks) and claimed "it is something wrong with the phone."
To my surprise I got a new phone on guarantee. (Probably because I had already bought another phone in another store...)

It was like the phone from hell or something. I could do nothing to get rid of the phone.

 

I laughed when I read your "except everytime you do a a perfect lap."

This thing is jinxed. Its ability to screw up at exactly the wrong time, in completely new and creative ways, is uncanny.

The examples I have of ways this thing screwed up are long. Here's one. We are driving in Telluride capturing incredible scenery. I see the light flashing that the battery is low. I ask the wife to plug the camera into the USB in the car. It won't recognize the charge. Then it dies. So we pull over to figure out why simply plugging the camera into the charger WHILE RECORDING was something it was incapable of handling. We powered it back on, at which point it had lost the connection to the remote. So we are literally on the side of the road trying to pair the POS to the remote.

This GoPro literally needed killing. And I felt it was my duty to do it.

 

Here's another one. We are getting ready to take a drive. I get the camera mounted and did a quick test record. All looks solid. About 15 minutes later I click the power button and I get SD error message. It never did this before, and turning the camera off, removing SD card, and powering it back on worked.

These are the things that randomly happen with this GoPro. Lockups. Freezes. Corrupted files. Pairing issues. Video skipping. Won't charge. The new one I have (Hero 4) is also experiencing some strange issues, but we'll see how problematic it becomes.

 

Used my GoPro about 5 times before I gave it to Goodwill.

 

Which one did you have?

 

Sorry for the rant, guys. I feel strongly enough about these GoPro cameras to underscore my point. If you have any thoughts of getting one, do yourself a favor and check out anything else. I am going to get a Sony and provide some feedback once I have had some time with it.

BTW, notice anything strange about the smashed photo? No labels or icons on the buttons. Literally, they design this thing with 3 buttons that look exactly the same, and none of them are labeled. Every time I had to have the wife do something, I had to explain "not that button, it's THAT button."

Terrible user experience. Terrible design.

Or the app that doesn't let you do any of the things you really need to do. Or the software they give you that is complete crap.

My friend has a GP3 and they seem to work okay. He says he does have some issues, but overall nothing like mine. So maybe the older ones are better.

This is the Sony I am looking at. They sell an adapter so all my GoPro mounts will work.

http://www.sony.com/electronics/acti...x3000-body-kit

 

Did you kill it on the first blow? Guess I'll take GoPro off my next camera purchase.