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Comment by mtw | Hacker News Reader

I haven't read your account. What's bad about GoPro?

Note : I have an action camera, but it's from Garmin

My main complaint is that it's difficult to determine camera state. My main use case is having it mounted to a motorcycle where I can reach the buttons but can't safely or easily see the indicator LEDs. Is it on? Is it recording? I have some awesome videos of me sitting on a curb in front of a gas station drinking a Gatorade because I thought it was recording the whole time, and it turns out that when I pulled up and stopped the recording I was actually turning it on. That can and should be fixed by making a button that isn't so mushy. Even with bare fingers I can't tell you if I really turned it on without looking at the lights. With motorcycle gloves, it's a complete (and as noted above, often wrong) guess.

Okay, I'll strap my Pebble to the handlebars as there's a GoPro app for the Pebble. But the Pebble needs to go to the iPhone, which then talks to the GoPro iOS app, which then talks to the camera. Yeah, you can see where this is going: I spent more time trying to get all those devices to stay connected than I did riding.

Fine, I didn't want to do it, but I'll buy your $80 remote with status LCD. That piece of shit didn't work any better. I spent most of the time looking at an animated WiFi icon because it couldn't find the camera literally 50% of the time. If it did find it, it often wouldn't stay found. A single company made the hardware and firmware on both ends, and they still can't get them to stay connected.

Additionally, the thing eats batteries. I wouldn't mind so much if there was a way to power the thing while its in the case. There is a way, but it'll cost $65 for a waterproof case with USB port from a third-party vendor. I bought one. And about half the time when the bike fires up and pumps power to that connection, the GoPro's little pea brain gets confused and needs a reboot.

This is the kind of stuff I expect when I bought the cheap Chinese knock-off instead of the name brand. But I did buy the name brand, and specifically for this reason. And I end up still having the cheap Chinese knock-off experience, only at name-brand prices.

>My main complaint is that it's difficult to determine camera state.

Agreed. I gave one to a friend as a Christmas present a few years back and this was her big complaint. Mounted on a helmet (for whitewater paddling in her case), she was never sure whether she was turning it on or off.

In general the whole UI was just pretty awful in my experience. I get that it's hard but this strays pretty close to the "You only had to do one thing" meme. (Well, the rugged case, but that's not rocket science.) Their main innovation looks more like great marketing and community building to me.

>My main use case is having it mounted to a motorcycle where I can reach the buttons but can't safely or easily see the indicator LEDs. Is it on? Is it recording?

If you get the GoPro phone app, you can do a live preview of what the camera can see and you can fiddle with most of the settings. I usually use my phone to make sure everything is pointing correctly from my helmets pov and then tuck my phone into my backpack.

Pulling out your phone and fiddling with it isn't especially easy or advised in many situations where people use GoPros.

And having the phone connected to your battery exhausts the battery really fast.

plus their app sucks.

Good point. However after using the gopro app on my phone I usually want to throw both the phone and gopro into a fire rather than my backpack.

Truly one of the worst apps I've ever used.

I find the audio cues particularly useful - turn them on, set them loud and learn them well. Before this I used to be really frustrated as well, so I completely sympathise.

I motorbike, mountain bike, rock climb and race cars with the gopro, and the only thing I pay attention to is the audio cues.

Same here. Audio queues only. No one wants to wait for you to get your camera in the right mode or pair... Not to mention battery life of the remote and the camera. I have never gotten the remote to work on an actual trip. Only while testing at home.

"cue"

The user experience with their accessories is horrible. I feel your pains and have no interest in buying another GoPro product.

A skydiver / hardware hacker I know has a solution to the "am I recording?" issue:

http://turnedon.camera/

It is a visual status indicator.

I have a 1st generation Garmin Virb mounted to the front of my motorbike:

Stabilization is (very) poor, and image quality is so-so, but the thing works flawlessly; it's remote-controlled by the Garmin watch via a special connection that never drops, and powered by the bike. I love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvZbWkVKW1c

I've been reading this thread thinking "hey, my GoPro has been great, little bit pricey for what it is but I have no major complaints" - and then I come across your comment:

> I spent most of the time looking at an animated WiFi icon because it couldn't find the camera literally 50% of the time.

...Ah! Now I remember why I completely gave up on the GoPro app and just use it as a standalone camera. Their wifi connectivity is an absolute joke. I guess I'd suppressed that memory :/

>Note : I have an action camera, but it's from Garmin

Fwiw, I own a GoPro, but use Garmin's video editing software. Not only do I find it easier to whip up quick edits, but I can also overlay my Garmin Edge cycling data.

Wait a minute, I can use the GP for video, but then suck in GPS data from my Garmin and overlay it using Garmin's software? Oh, wow, thanks for the tip, I'll try that tonight.

Absolutely. VIRB Edit can handle your Garmin data files, and gives you many options for how you'd like to display the data. And as I mentioned, I import my GoPro videos, as VIRB Edit doesn't seem to care.

The software, for those who are interested: https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/into-sports/apps/virb-edit/p...

Nice. I remember GoPro Studio crashing everytime. its frustrating. Good luck if you havent saved your project.

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