Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

Article URL: https://amateurphotographer.com/latest/photo-news/going-going-gone-is-this-the-end-of-the-once-mighty-gopro/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48916044

Points: 161

# Comments: 314

Hacker News 讨论

162 points · 314 comments · 查看原帖

sen
I’ve owned a lot of Gopro cameras, having done video capture for a variety of motorsports, and they just got too expensive for what you get. You can be more expensive if you’re better, or you can be worse if you’re cheaper, but they’re both the downsides while living purely off brand recognition. They also blew up in a time where there wasn’t any real competition. Sony had action cameras but they were bulkier and expensive, and didn’t have the features of GoPro. These days other brands give better quality video in better quality hardware and more functionality, for cheaper.
Gravityloss
Many years ago had my first Gopro camera that seriously overheated, sent it for repairs, they said there was nothing wrong with it. It literally turned too hot to handle after taking a few clips and wouldn't work. I think there was some serious hardware issue that caused it to then drain the whole battery. Gave the brand a second chance some years ago. Couldn't export my videos from the app, it always hanged. So I couldn't share footage. Apparently a common long standing problem on forums. Woved to never buy anything from them again.
abalashov
As a cyclist (and former racer), I still want to know how to capture videos with telemetry overlays (speed, power, HR, etc) from my head unit in a straightforward way. NorCal Cycling's videos - https://www.youtube.com/@NorCalCycling - are an excellent demonstration of this at work. Yes, I've done the Garmin VIRB Edit thing, which is the very approach recommended by Jeff (NorCalCycling) in his tutorial videos on the subject. It feels like something out of 2005. It is incredibly labour-intensive and imprecise unless you're fortunate enough to be in relatively short criteriums where you've got the battery runtime to just record the whole race. Most real-world events and rides require one to turn the camera on and off at certain moments, which then requires _hours_ of stitching together clips and correlating them to GPS fixes from the head unit (in the FIT file), and quite imprecisely at tha
arjie
It’s the classic situation. China can outcompete all this stuff. It doesn’t really matter. Roomba, GoPro, they’re all going to be crushed by Chinese manufacturers. You just can’t get the margins to work anywhere else and if you do the R&D you’re a sucker. I’ve had a few GoPros and a few GoPro 360s. I also had Roombas so you can blame me as the brand killer.
recursivecaveat
Extremely similar to iRobot (Roomba). They both practically genericized themselves by inventing and dominating the product category, then just couldn't keep up with the competition. GoPro does feel more self inflicted though. Their drone was a failure, and they burnt a lot of money trying to do some kind of pivot to being a media company.
ValentineC
When I was looking to buy an action camera last year, I was deciding between Insta360 and DJI, with many YouTubers suggesting outright against GoPro since they haven't kept up with image quality. Action cameras sound like a tough business, since most of them are built to last ages, and they need to keep the vast majority of content creators happy trying to increase image quality in a small form factor. Anyway, I bought the Insta360 Go Ultra I had my mind on from the start, which I'm still reasonably happy with.
rr808
I'm just surprised that an American brand making electronics lasted this long. Even Japanese companies are giving up. No one can compete with China. Apple somehow reigns supreme still. Anyone else?
hmokiguess
I bought my first GoPro for a scuba diving trip in Mexico once. Was super excited, it was my first scuba diving experience too. As soon as we hit deeper waters the capture button pressed itself down due the pressure and it wouldn’t come back up. That, unfortunately happened in a way that I couldn’t start a capture. Lost the entire thing, despite the camera being perfectly fine after we came back to surface. Hated them ever since.