GoPro HERO8 Black – Waterproof Action Camera with Touch Screen 4K Ultra HD Video 12MP Photos 1080p Live Streaming Stabilization

Got a defective product from Amazon’s Apario retail. Video recording did not work properly even a single day. Thought the issue is with memory card etc. Tried with multiple compatible ones still same result. I guess the new version is still buggy and make sense to wait for next stable release. Service from Amazon is equally awful in such cases and no accountability at all for shipping a defective product and only way out is to have an ordeal with GoPro service center. Imagine the pain of customer who spend such big amount only to go to service center having been shipped an item that did not work properly from day one. These are some of the nuisance of online shopping of expansive items. No matter how much premium you pay to choose top retailer for quality product or service. Pretty disappointing experience. Hope to make right choices in future.

 This 2021 July I bought Hero8 from Amazon and used it just for 3 months , while in ride for Ladakh, it started giving me problems. The GoPro Hero8 is switching on but while recording video the screen becomes black while recording timer on however there is no footage or it will record with blue green lines with blurry footage. There is no service centre in India, you need to contact GoPro customer support and that’s not easy, I have been contacting them for 3 days but not able to connect. Such big brand should have a service centre atleast at some places. Reaching out to customer support online is challenge. Amazon should help us in getting the warranty cover but they asked to contact GoPro. Many have returned the damaged GoPro bu contacting GoPro customer service, it just the process is not easy and lengthy too.

Good thing is, Gopro has replaced with new camera.

How did GoPro ever release this POS??? First time I used it for any length of time (at a local winery where our favorite band was playing), the damn thing crashed and locked up with the screen freezing… MULTIPLE TIMES!! The power switch will NOT function, nor does the start/stop switch. AND, it then gives an SD card error (SanDisk 128GB Extreme Pro Micro SDXC 275MB UHS-II Class-10 U3 4K), telling me that the ONLY WAY to fix the card is by FORMATING, which will then erase ALL data! WTF GoPro???

Not wanting to loose all my data, I disregarded the FORMATING requirement, removed the battery, removed the SD card, then re-inserted both and voila… the Hero8 came back up WITHOUT formatting! That is until the next THREE TIMES this POS camera locked up again!!! Each time it locked up, the recording I received was a completely frozen still image, while the audio kept recording (and the audio recording is FAR INFERIOR to my old Samsung S7 phone!)

PLUS… this camera has ANOTHER GLITCH… when held perfectly steady with the selfie stick’s end set directly on our table, the damn thing will FLICK LEFT to RIGHT about one time every 10 seconds for NO reason (no movement of the stick occurred). What a mess. Go figure…

Until these serious problems are (hopefully) solved, this camera is seriously a DNB (Do Not Buy). Hopefully, I will have a future update that solves this problem, or the Hero8 and ALL the accessories I bought (three extra “Hero8” Batteries w/one Dual Charger, lens protectors, storage case, SANDMARC Pole and more = $800+), will be returned to Amazon. What would YOU do???

PISSED OFF in SoCal…

11/15/19 UPDATE:
As it turns out, for proper camera performance, you will need to update the original Hero8 camera’s v00.15 software that’s loaded from the factory which came with my Hero8, to the latest v1.20 to function properly (supposed to eliminate the Left to Right “image shake”, and image Freezing/Lockup I experienced). It’s a manual update that is very easy to do, and is easily downloaded from the GoPro website. If needed, simply “online chat” with the GoPro people and they will walk you through this required software update (which they did with me).

No idea why my new Hero8 wasn’t already loaded with v1.20, but that seems to be the case with most all of them (I suspect too early of a release).

Ok… “so far, so good”, and my rating goes from 1 star to 4 stars (if Amazon will let me increase my rating). The v1.20 software update seems to have eliminated the Left to Right “image shake”, and image Freezing/Lockup problems I originally experienced. I performed a full one hour recording (one full battery), and there was NO image shake, NO lockup and NO image freezing. Seems all the Hero8 needed was this new v1.20 update and it was good to go. GoPro could have eliminated a LOT of complaints had they shipped the Hero8 with the v1.20 update, but as I said… this latest update may not have been available at the time of first release. Regardless, I feel the 10/31/19 release date should have been held back for a week or two until the original v00.15 could have been replaced with this new update. In any event, all seems well & good for now… until I get more recording hours on it!!!

Update: I’m changing my review from 5 to 4 stars after more use with this GoPro in different situations. Here’s why:
– Unlike previous models, the Hero 8 only has one door to access the battery, memory card and charging port. The Hero 5-7 models had a door for the battery and memory card on the bottom and a separate door for the charging and display-out ports on the side. While I’m sure this change was made to keep manufacturing costs down and perhaps also improve waterproofing, as someone who often uses the GoPro to record lengthy time lapses this change has become a bit of a notable frustration for me. The single door on the Hero 8 is on the side, which means you can still mount it while the door is open – this is a good thing. However, since this door now also houses the battery and memory card beneath it, it’s much larger and is also not removable (at least as far as I know). On my previous GoPro Hero 5/6/7 I would simply remove the charging port door, pop it into my frame mount, connect it to my powerbank and I was good to go for a long time lapse or extended shooting. If I was ever concerned about potential bad weather, I could easily fit a piece of tape over the open door area for protection. This can still be done with the new design of the singular door on the Hero 8, but is not nearly as convenient since the entire door must remain attached but open in order to connect a USB-C cable. I have also experienced issues (particularly just when trying to charge the battery inside the camera) where the battery has not made proper contact while the door is open and therefore does not charge, even though it’s plugged in. This has unfortunately happened on multiple occasions and as a result I’ve missed being able to record certain activities/events because the battery wasn’t charging. Again, this is simply a result of the battery and charge port sharing the same door. Personally I preferred the double-door design of the Hero 5-7 models and I hope they reverse or fix this design in future models.
– It’s nice that the Hero 8 provides several “loadouts” for each mode (photo/video/time lapse) – these allow you to quickly switch many settings at once to a different set. However, the loadout names are preset and cannot be changed (as far as I can tell) and you also cannot add or create new loadouts beyond the several that it provides for each mode – you can only change and edit settings for the existing loadouts. It would be much nicer if it allowed you to not only rename and customize these loadouts, but to also add and create new ones in addition to the 4 that it provides (and seems to limit you to).

Let me preface this review by saying that I’ve owned almost every single GoPro Hero model since the GoPro Hero 2 – with the exception of the Hero 3, I’ve owned each model from the Hero 2 all the way up to now this Hero 8 Black. I think the best hardware update arrived with the Hero 5 where you no longer needed a separate housing to make the camera waterproof, but the best software update is definitely the HyperSmooth 2.0 stabilization you’ll find on this Hero 8 (not to mention the increased shooting modes/resolutions that have been released since). Features like TimeWarp and HyperSmooth have really changed the way GoPros can be used and makes them much more versatile than they ever have been before. Not only that but the footage is a lot more usable now with the improved stabilization, since shaky video has always been a problem that has plagued GoPro footage in my experience with older models. HyperSmooth 2.0 is a total game-changer – it’s super fluid and can even look gimbal-like if you take your time with filming (footage taken from activities like mountain biking and snowboarding may not look quite gimbal-like, but compared to what this footage would look like on older GoPros, the difference in stabilization is night and day). I used to have to run pretty much all my old GoPro footage through Warp Stabilizer in After Effects, even if I was trying to be as steady as possible while filming – now I only have to use that method if, like mentioned above, the camera is mounted on something or someone very movement-heavy (mountain biking is probably the best example of this, where footage is often rough relative to the terrain).

With this being said, the reason I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is because compared to the Hero 7, aside from the improved HyperSmooth stabilization, there really aren’t that many other improvements or features that make this particular model worth the price compared to the significantly lower price of the Hero 7 which has many of the same features, including TimeWarp. To put it simply, if you own a GoPro Hero 6 or older, I would say it is well worth upgrading to the Hero 8. However, if you own a Hero 7 and are wondering if it’s worthwhile upgrading to the Hero 8, I would actually say it’s not, unless you have about $500 burning a hole in your pocket. I think that compared to the Hero 7 Black, there aren’t enough new features on the 8 to justify paying the full price unless you NEED the improved stabilization and framerates, because that’s really the only difference in my experience. But like I said, if you have an older GoPro or are looking to buy a GoPro for the first time, you definitely won’t be disappointed with the Hero 8!

I didn’t mention anything about the audio quality on this GoPro because frankly I would never rely on or expect GoPro audio to be good. If you’re buying this camera, it should be for videos and/or photos. If recording quality audio is important to you, I would suggest looking into an external microphone, or a different camera altogether. I think the audio on the 8 is likely the best GoPro audio there is, but in my experience, GoPro audio has always been pretty underwhelming (to put it nicely).

PS – GoPro batteries from the Hero 5, 6 and 7 models will all still work with the 8, as long as they are official GoPro batteries and not third-party batteries (GoPro removed support for third-party batteries through a firmware update several years ago, much to the disappointment of many GoPro owners including myself) – however, it is also important to be aware that only the new GoPro batteries (with the blue bottom) will support the use of HyperSmooth 2.0 on the Hero 8. The compatible batteries from previous GoPro models will let you use any other mode/feature but HyperSmooth 2.0 requires the new battery model in order to work properly.