GoPro has discontinued its developer program • Hacker News Board

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#91

Post by opticalflow » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 5:46 PM UTC

yorby wrote: post #83

opticalflow wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Yi 4K+ action cam ... https://store.yitechnology.com/

I bought a Chinese 1080p action cam for $30 about 3 years ago... is there some kind of competition issue in this market? (and it came with the waterproof case and various mounts)

I'd say there's a competition problem in that there are too many very poorly made "me-too's" that aren't even worth the 30 bucks. The Yi's come pretty close quality-wise to GoPro, have excellent build quality -- and frankly I like the Yi optics better than GoPro's... but they ain't 30 bucks. Disclaimer: I used to design camera systems and used to work in Hollywood so I can tell the s* from the Shinola, so I consider myself fairly picky.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#92

Post by yorby » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 6:44 PM UTC

opticalflow wrote: post #91

yorby wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a Chinese 1080p action cam for $30 about 3 years ago... is there some kind of competition issue in this market? (and it came with the waterproof case and various mounts)

I'd say there's a competition problem in that there are too many very poorly made "me-too's" that aren't even worth the 30 bucks. The Yi's come pretty close quality-wise to GoPro, have excellent build quality -- and frankly I like the Yi optics better than GoPro's... but they ain't 30 bucks. Disclaimer: I used to design camera systems and used to work in Hollywood so I can tell the s * from the Shinola, so I consider…

I'm fairly picky too, I tend to compare everything to my Nikon D5100 (maybe not as picky as Q. Tarantino). This $30 action camera has decent image quality but the physical build feels cheap... but it hasn't broke yet.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#93

Post by abritinthebay » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 7:10 PM UTC

atomical wrote: post #81

abritinthebay wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define high quality? The Smoove is great for example.

I'm looking for a gimbal I can use while running.

I’ve used my Smoove Pro for that, and on a motorboat, so... should work. Also works for phones.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#94

Post by abritinthebay » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 7:12 PM UTC

noarchy wrote: post #80

atomical wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Garmin beat them to the 360. My biggest complaint is that GoPro mounts are cheap and there isn't a high quality gimbal for the GoPro.

>My biggest complaint is that GoPro mounts are cheap and there isn't a high quality gimbal for the GoPro. I went through two of GoPro's awful, plastic mounts before buying a metal, third-party mount, and never looked back. The two mounts that broke sent my GoPro careening down asphalt in each case, and I was lucky to both not lose it and to not have it be destroyed. So while the mounts are junk, the unit itself has p…

They used to do some metal mounts, back in the Hero2 days. Shame they stopped.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#95

Post by davidkuhta » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 7:13 PM UTC

JBReefer wrote: post #25

TaylorGood wrote: post #24

Gopro would’ve been a beautiful lifestyle business had they stayed private and only did cameras. The weight of scaling post-ICO sank them.

Do you mean post IPO? Internet funbux should have nothing to do with GoPro - they sell a real product that actually has value.

Satoshian Slip

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#96

Post by goldenkey » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 1:09 AM UTC

y4mi wrote: post #41

nerflad wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I've been passively interested in getting a GoPro camera for a long time, but knowing their remote control requires a cloud service (I thought it was local wifi) is a total dealbreaker. Same with Hue lights. It is absolutely ridiculous for the customer to be locked out of their own hardware.

Now I'm confused,I thought the hue lights and Ikea knockoffs are one of the few smart lights that don't need internet and they never leave the wlan? Most of the others are cloud enabled without a firmware upgrade, I'll give you that

The hue lights work fine over a standardized LAN protocol. I control them with both Google Home and F.lux on my desktop.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#97

Post by asterius » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 11:53 AM UTC

JBReefer wrote: post #25

TaylorGood wrote: post #24

Gopro would’ve been a beautiful lifestyle business had they stayed private and only did cameras. The weight of scaling post-ICO sank them.

Do you mean post IPO? Internet funbux should have nothing to do with GoPro - they sell a real product that actually has value.

The investors didn't want standard returns, the valuation was based on them growing rapidly for years, which means new markets.

They could have made money from their drone product line by diversifying beyond 'toy'. But that would have required integration partners, different sales channels etc, and they didn't have the skills to build that.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#98

Post by stryk » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 8:33 PM UTC

bringtheaction wrote: post #67

stryk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I can heartily recommend SJCAM -- their build quality is great for a Chinese knock-off and the resulting image/video quality is really really good for the price of the hardware. However, be careful when on eBay/aliExpress I've actually seen other vendors knocking off the knock-offs.

> However, be careful when on eBay/aliExpress I've actually seen other vendors knocking off the knock-offs. Yes, I have noticed this. Do you have a list of some sellers on eBay that can be trusted to deliver real SJCAM? This one for example is probably legit right? https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-Stock-SJCAM-SJ5000X-Elite-WiFi-4... How much should one pay for a SJ5000?

Sorry for the delay in replying. I bought mine from the Official SJCAM Store on aliexpress. It was a little cheaper on ebay at the time, but I just didn't want to risk it because shipping from China can take a while some times.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#99

Post by wepple » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 12:38 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #79

wepple wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually think gopros gorgeous videos may have contributed to its downfall. They’re all shot on GoPro, and they make a big deal about this. So everyone who buys one assumes they may be able to make videos that are also awesome. Then reality comes crashing down, and you realize theirs was shot on 5 continents with tens of thousands of dollars worth of extra gear, and days of work on high-end editing rigs, and yours…

I don't know about contributing to their downfall. But GoPro with all their videos and so forth definitely create this aspirational branding that a lot of people like to see themselves being associated with. Then they shoot a few videos skiing down an intermediate ski slope and realize this is all pretty boring and they don't kayak off waterfalls or jump off cliffs themselves. Personally, I feel the same way about dr…

Yeah, I think you nailed it.

I remember taking the footage from a mountain biking trip and excitedly looking through it only to realize it was painfully boring. I forgot for a moment that I’m not a professional mountain biker, and can’t even do a double backflip. Even I didn’t really want to watch it; why would anyone else?