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Comment by tbrock | Hacker News Reader

I don’t understand why people go gaga over this stuff. It’s a camera in a plastic box with a screw hole. Are there that many Richard Bransons out there?

Now that smartphones are increasingly becoming water proof I can’t see this providing incremental value over a phone in a fancy case in the long run.

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A 720p Polaroid Cube and a Red Weapon 8k are both a 'camera in a box with some screw holes'. You can make anything sound stupid by reducing it to a simplistic description, but it's not contributing anything useful to the discussion.

Hahaha!

GoPro completely changed skydiving photography. Before GoPro we would fly around with camcorders clumsily bolted to the side of our head. Now they can be mounted anywhere, with greatly reduced chances of injury (a fast opening can expose you to dozens of Gs, causing severe neck injury when a heavy object is on your head).

There are now a ton of options other than GoPro, but GoPro was the one that got the product/market fit first and changed everything.

You should think about then :-) Only half kidding here, its a great example of the difference between "parts" and a "product". And understanding why people go gaga over it explains the value it adds for them over the basic parts. Once you can see that value, you are well on your way to developing a product that you can sell for a profit.

The product here is essentially a point and shoot camera for people who want to take the picture but are engaged in an activity that doesn't make it easy to operate a camera, and further that activity might cause them to drop a camera and that would damage your typical model.

The original Hero took the notion that you could be out doing some sort of physical activity with your friends that you enjoyed, and if you could capture some action shots of the activity you could relive those fun times over and over again. It had a side effect of letting people who talked about doing amazing things bring a video to the conversation to add evidence they weren't exaggerating.

Its one thing to have a fish story of this huge fish that got away, it is something else entirely to have the helmet camera view of your efforts to land said fish and the heartbreak of the line snapping.

So there is value in capturing that experience and the Hero folks packaged up a point and shoot camera into a package with a set of features to make capturing that experience fairly friction free. People are willing to pay money to have that capability, and voila product.

Great explanation. I think a lot of comments along the lines of “I don’t understand something so it must be dumb” are better framed as “I don’t understand something so my model of the world is incomplete”.

The original GoPro was reasonably priced camera with support for image stabilisation, in a small enough package to stick to your helmet / body / apparatus, without looking that dorky.

I use mine every day, it's getting on a bit now, but I still really like it.

When they first came out they did allow a new level of filming for extreme sports (there were very few waterproof cameras around). These days you can buy a Chinese clone for $20 that does more or less the same.

To be fair, the $20 Chinese clone is of a lower quality than the GoPro I bought in 2013, 5 years ago. The image quality of GoPros is quite impressive. 4k@60fs and 1080p@240fps with GPS and waterproofing is impressive for such small form factor.

I think it's because you can give them money, and then be shooting incredible video 10 minutes later without much setup or hassle. Just like a small computer in an aluminum case with a good screen and camera, putting a few pieces together in the right package lets people have experiences they're excited about.

Because this is much sturdier and much cheaper than my iPhone?

I don't want to repeatedly smash my $1000 phone into the water while I'm wakeboarding. I'm perfectly happy to smash this sturdy little $200-400 thing as many times as it takes to get a good shot.

>I don’t understand why people go gaga over this stuff. It’s a camera in a plastic box with a screw hole.

Because there's a market for cameras in a plastic box with a screw hole (and the ecosystem of screw accessories).

Just because you don't have a use for one doesn't mean people don't.

>Are there that many Richard Bransons our there? Now that smartphones are increasingly becoming water proof I can’t see this providing incremental value over a phone in a fancy case in the long run.

Yeah, like I'm going to tie my smartphone to my car, or use it to film my mountain bike ride or dive 30 meters with it duct-taped to my scuba mask...

The GoPro is easy to mount, whether that's in a helmet mount while ziplining in Mexico, on a backpack strap while horse riding, or on a chest mount while hiking through a waterfall. The GoPro is quite waterproof and with the outer housing, can be used for some scuba situations - certainly safe for kayaking and whatnot. The GoPro is also simple to operate and can be operated with gloves on - which is important if you're trying to use it while snowboarding.

Phones are bigger and harder to use. You can't easily attach a phone to a bike helmet or motorcycle handlebars. Phone cases are pathetic and won't survive a crash. Phone cases can't be taken on a 100-foot deep scuba dive. Phones (especially in cases) don't allow one-handed operation while bouncing around in the back of a jeep.

They are not solving the same problems or serving the same markets.

If you don't understand why someone would buy a GoPro-type camera instead of just using their iPhone then you are probably well outside of the target market. In addition to the mobile phone form factor being unsuitable for a wide number of commonly used camera placements, an iPhone would not survive a single average day of filming PoV freeride mountain biking or skiing/snowboarding.

Their marketing department has done a very good job advertising the product.

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