Best Used GoPro after the Hero7

[JQ]

We have 2 GoPro Hero7's that we have used for the last two years to record my son's skiing for his GCSE PE. This involved me following him everywhere he went and my wife then editing it all together once home.

On our last trip we got to use a GoPro Hero12 briefly and the quality of the output was significantly better than the Hero7, I think it had a lot to do with the image stabilisation and quality of the recording.

I guess my question is - at what point in the range (1-13) did the stabilisation and image quality take a leap forward from the Hero7? I don't need the latest iteration, just the one that offers the best bang for buck, as it's only likely get used for 2 weeks.

[untakenname]

I moved from GoPro 8 to a DJI Osmo Action 3 and then a 4 and haven't looked back, too many times (trackdays etc..) the GoPro would inexplicably stop recording (tried multiple decent microsd cards with the correct ratings).
If you are staying with the GoPro ecosystem then the 10 upwards would be a good jump from the 7, the new GoPro Hero is £199 but doesn't afaik have a removable battery.

[Crudeoink]

untakenname said:

I moved from GoPro 8 to a DJI Osmo Action 3 and then a 4 and haven't looked back, too many times (trackdays etc..) the GoPro would inexplicably stop recording (tried multiple decent microsd cards with the correct ratings).
If you are staying with the GoPro ecosystem then the 10 upwards would be a good jump from the 7, the new GoPro Hero is £199 but doesn't afaik have a removable battery.

I'd agree with this. There are much better options than GoPro out there now. The best stabalisation I've had is from an Insta360. As its capturing everything, there's no 'limit' to the amount it can correct in the way of stabalisation. Removable battery and much more reliable in my experience. Just look at the share price of GoPro to see what the market thinks of GoPro products in general

[JQ]

Crudeoink said:

untakenname said:

I moved from GoPro 8 to a DJI Osmo Action 3 and then a 4 and haven't looked back, too many times (trackdays etc..) the GoPro would inexplicably stop recording (tried multiple decent microsd cards with the correct ratings).
If you are staying with the GoPro ecosystem then the 10 upwards would be a good jump from the 7, the new GoPro Hero is £199 but doesn't afaik have a removable battery.

I'd agree with this. There are much better options than GoPro out there now. The best stabalisation I've had is from an Insta360. As its capturing everything, there's no 'limit' to the amount it can correct in the way of stabalisation. Removable battery and much more reliable in my experience. Just look at the share price of GoPro to see what the market thinks of GoPro products in general

The preference would definitely be to stay GoPro as we have countless helmets (skiing and mountain biking) with the attachments and countless sticks and assorted accessories, plus I'm trying to work to a budget as other than documenting GCSE PE it'll likely see little use. I will however take a look at the Insta360, thank you.

[milesgiles]

Skiing is a GCSE?

[JQ]

milesgiles said:

Skiing is a GCSE?

No PE is, where you have to demonstrate your ability at several sports.

[beambeam1]

The footage from the Hero 7 will be perfectly acceptable for the GCSE - by the time you have edited it and uploaded it/submitted it to whatever portal your education authority uses you will have lost a great deal of that sharpness and clarity recorded in HD. If you really don't think you'll use it much more than for the skiing footage then I think the money may be better spent elsewhere.

I went from 3 to 5 to 8 and have never bothered moving onto to the next one. I still get a great deal of use out of the Hero 8 and like you, loathe to try something else due to the sheer number of mounts and add-ons I own. I think some of the attachments are now obsolete after GoPro changed the mounting system for the 13 so worth checking out if compatible if you do decide to upgrade.

[untakenname]

JQ said:

The preference would definitely be to stay GoPro as we have countless helmets (skiing and mountain biking) with the attachments and countless sticks and assorted accessories, plus I'm trying to work to a budget as other than documenting GCSE PE it'll likely see little use. I will however take a look at the Insta360, thank you.

The DJI magnetic mount which comes in the box with the camera is compatible with the gopro type mount interface.

[Byker28i]

Have you looked at the chinese copies. I had two of them and they worked great, I know others using them as trackday cameras as they are only around £40 if damaged.

[JQ]

Byker28i said:

Have you looked at the chinese copies. I had two of them and they worked great, I know others using them as trackday cameras as they are only around £40 if damaged.

I wouldn't be prepared to take the risk. It's my youngest son now following in his older brothers footsteps. We have 12 days to get as much footage as possible, and the footage only gets properly reviewed once home. We have to provide evidence of a list of tasks / skills, and the thought of getting home to a corrupt file or such would be a nightmare.

I am liking the look of the Insta360's, currently I have to have my head pointed at my son at all times, on an easy run that's fine, but when he's flying down a black mogul field I'm also trying to concentrate on not killing myself as his skill level far exceeds mine. Looks like with the insta's I don't need to be pointing at him all the time as we can just centre him in the post production edit.

[Byker28i]

The people doing stuff like Ice Road truckers use the clones all the time, because it doesn't matter then if they lose a few, but I can understand if you want to spend on a more expensive single rpoduct.

I see a lot of the vloggers etc using the DJI Osmo pocket 3. Are there any skiing vloggers? What do they use?