So stoked to use my new Go Pro Hero 8 to capture the kids skiing in Beaver Creek/Vail last week. Kept walking past that 4K Display stand in the Ski Shop and Best Buy and watching the epic shots of dudes carving through chest deep powder and in spite of the price tag I splurged. Figured the memories it would capture would more than make it worthwhile. Did some research on best shooting methods and tips. Bought the extras kit with Chesty, periscope tri-pod, extra battery and the helmet rig. Even bought an off brand kit of accessories with selfie sticks etc. What a F'g waste of money. Turned it on in 31° weather and 10 seconds later it turned off. Continued like this two more times and never came back on. Thought the battery had drained but got home, plugged in to find 60% battery life. Tried using hand warmers to keep battery warm. No luck. Twenty seconds later, done. Swapped the battery and same thing happened. So there I am filming my kids on my Samsung S10+ for the rest of the trip. The only thing that made this experience go from discouraging and thoroughly disappointing to infuriating was when I called Go Pro Customer Service to have them tell me that the Lithium Battery doesn't work well in the cold and did I go to their helpful hints page which would have told me to buy a case. Boy did I feel foolish. Here I am a sales executive, little did I know I also work for Go Pro R&D with insider knowledge to the shortcomings of their top of the line Sports Cameras. How stupid of me to not to presume an Action Camera advertised for capturing winter sports can't actually function as advertised in cold weather. What a maroon! So after being insulted by Go Pro Customer service and told there's nothing they can do, they suggested I contact the 3rd party retailer Best Buy since I didn't buy it directly from the Go Pro website. Best Buy was even more useless since I had bought this $450 paper weight 17 days prior and sadly I missed that return/refund window by 2 whole days. If I'd only cut my trip short to get that piece of crap back to them in time. Since I don't design GoPros or the batteries that don't charge them, my mission now is to help convince as many people as possible not to waste their money on a 2.5 season action camera that does not work as advertised. So, just to recap:
1. If you want to capture winter sports such as skiing, snowboarding, sled dog racing etc; don't waste your hard earned money on a Go Pro.
2. If you're in the market for a handsome paperweight that works great at capturing action shots like Bikram Yoga, summer meditation sessions, mountain biking in Moab in August and interpretative dance at Red Rocks, well then you're in luck because this might just be your thing.So stoked to use my new Go Pro Hero 8 to capture the kids skiing in Beaver Creek/Vail last week. I kept walking past that 4K Display stand in the Ski Shop and at Best Buy; watching the epic shots of dudes carving and sticking insane landings in chest deep powder and regardless of the steep price tag, I splurged. I figured the memories it would capture would more than make it worthwhile. Before the trip I did some research on best shooting methods and tips. I bought the extras kit with Chesty, periscope tri-pod, extra battery and the helmet rig. I even bought an off brand kit of accessories with selfie sticks etc. What a F'g waste of money. I turned it on the first day in 31° temps and 10 seconds later it turned off. I continued like this two more times and then it never came back on. I thought the battery had drained but got home, plugged it in only to find 60% battery life. I tried using hand warmers to keep the battery warm but no luck. Twenty seconds later, done. I swapped the battery and same thing happened. So there I am filming my kids on my Samsung S10+ for the rest of the trip. The only thing that made this experience go from discouraging and thoroughly disappointing to infuriating was when I called Go Pro Customer Service to have them tell me that the Lithium Battery doesn't work well in the cold. Really? You don't say. The customer rep then asked if I went to their helpful hints page which would have told me to buy a case to help keep the camera warm. Boy did I feel foolish. Here I am a sales executive, little did I know I also work for Go Pro R&D with insider knowledge to the shortcomings of their top of the line Action Cameras. How stupid of me not to presume an Action Camera advertised for capturing winter sports can't actually function as advertised in the cold weather that sometimes accompanies Winter. What a maroon! So after being insulted by Go Pro Customer service and told there's nothing they can do, they suggested I contact the 3rd party retailer Best Buy since I didn't buy it directly from the Go Pro website. Best Buy was even more useless since I had bought this $450 paper weight 17 days prior and sadly I missed that return/refund window by 2 whole days. If I'd only cut my trip short to get that piece of crap back to them in time. Since I don't design GoPros or the batteries that don't charge them, my mission now is to help convince as many people as possible not to waste their money on a 2.5 season action camera that does not work as advertised. So, just to recap:
1. If you want to capture winter sports such as skiing, snowboarding, sled dog racing etc; don't waste your hard earned money on a Go Pro.
2. If you're in the market for a handsome paperweight that works great at capturing action shots like Bikram hot Yoga, summer meditation sessions, mountain biking in Moab in August and interpretative dance at Red Rocks in June, well this might just be your thing.
