GoPro Hero4 line was officially announced today

[TheForce]

It will be available on Oct 5 at prices similar to Hero3 line.

Hero 4 will offer 4K at 30 fps and traditional HDTV 1080p at 120 fps maximum. The processor will have 2x the processing power as the Hero3.


Who has one of these GoPro's on the Holiday shopping list?


Correction: Just heard the new top of the line Hero4 Black will be $499 and the silver will be $399. They will still sell the basic Hero for $129. The silver model lacks a few of the higher end shooting frame rates and resolutions that the Black version has.

 

[dangue]

They didn't dive the short battery life issue from the 3rd Gen version. Until that's addressed, I'm not sure these are as useful as they could be. If the battery was better, I have a friend who would make feet use of one of these.

 

[Ilya]

I was thinking about GoPro, mostly for shooting under water, but ended up getting a waterproof Sony instead. My main concern about GoPro was the absence of zoom and the fish-eye lens. But then again I am not into extreme sports.

 

[TheForce]

The most popular camera I saw on my last cruise was GoPro on a stick. Every other person with a camera had a GoPro on a stick.

Typical battery life I get here is about an hour average, recording 1080p 30. That's with the LCD screen attached. I'm sure it's longer without the screen. Just carry a spare battery.

One of the issues I saw was the incompatibilities of the accessories for the different camera models.

 

[TheForce]

Ilya- for shooting underwater, you want the widest lens possible as underwater has a .75 correction factor. Telephoto is really bad in UW application. No one uses it. The Sony is a nice camera too but the results I have seen are not quite as good as the Hero 3 Black. ( The model I bought )

For underwater work I have a cheap knockoff of the GoPro that can be had for under $100. It's called the Nabi which is marketed as a toy camera but shoots some very impressive video. I'm rigging 2 for an affordable underwater 3D camera I'll use while snorkeling:

 

[Ilya]

No, I wouldn't be using zoom underwater anyway (hard to use it with other cameras too and not really required underwatter) and the fish-eye is not a big problem there either, but if I had a GoPro I would probably want to use it everywhere and hence my concern about the absence of zoom and the fish-eye effect.

 

[TheForce]

Got lucky and sold all my stock in GoPro over last 2 days. Today they announced a surprise release of 5.8M shares to a charity owned by owner Nick Woodman and wife. When it happened the stock tripped the circuit breaker and halted trading as the price fell through the floor. Not sure where it will go now. Stock dropped 12% in a few seconds around 11AM.

I'll buy a small amount back in if it falls another $10 but otherwise I'll keep my money. Gonna owe some taxes! It had become way over bought since August trading at 300 times 2017 projected earnings. It may be time to look for another hot mover and let this one rest for awhile. There is another key employee lockup to be released in December. After that the stock will probably trade in a traditional manner.

I sold off twice and bought back in since the IPO in June. But, I never saw this coming. I just decided making 3 times my investment was enough.

 

[TheForce]

It was reported late this afternoon that the 5.8M shares never hit the market but were direct transfer on paper. Still I believe this raises the the number of shares on the market out of lockout. The new news caused the stock to recover by $6. It's getting too volatile for me now so I will watch on the sidelines and enjoy the product.