GoPro - HERO7 Silver

I have a Hero 7 Silver and a Hero 10 Black I bought last weekend. I used the 10 to make a running video yesterday and I can’t believe how much better the stabilization is. It’s an amazing camera so I’d say that’s my favorite.

I use a GoPro 7 silver in a 3d printed seat post mount. I set it on time lapse to preserve the battery and it has lasted about 9.5 hours for me, enough for my longest ride. The frequency is enough to catch details of cars, although my state no longer requires front mounted licence plates on cars so it's a bit less useful. Even a dummy GoPro with a blinking red light would help keep people in their best behavior.

What about issues with the cameras crashing? I have a GoPro 7 a friend gave me and I do want to upgrade at some point but my biggest issue is with the crashes causing me to lose footage. I've heard is still an issue on the new cameras plus overheating problems. The 7 doesn't overheat luckily but it's annoying resetting it once or twice a day if I'm filming. And I'm using the recommended SD card. 

Does this firmware help the older models? I have a go pro 7 that has a crashing problem. Probably once or twice every few hours of filming, usually after you start or stop a video it will crash. I'm using the suggested SD card. 

A GoPro 7 or 8 then. I don't recommend less know action cameras brands like Akaso, not terrible but not great either. Sound quality is really bad and the image stabilization performance is inferior compared to the GoPro or the DJI Action cameras.

7 was a big improvement for sure and the last to work with the gimbal. Big downfall was that it overheated with ease.

Within reason, whatever you've got. I had a GoPro 7 for years and took that thing around the world. It never let me down. We've now upgraded to DJI Action 5s. They're great, but not *that* much better. Horizon leveling is great and all, but the 7 still took good video.

An iPhone 17 pro would be far, far better than a GoPro. GoPro is intended to be an action camera, meaning it’s great for video. It *absolutely sucks* for still photography, especially smaller stuff or macro. I will note that if you plan on using your iPhone, please make sure that you have AppleCare+, or a separate rider on your homeowner/renter’s insurance. Given a long enough timeline, every housing fails. All it can take is a piece of your hair falling on the seal as you close it to end up with a flooded case and totally ruined phone. Last, always back your phone up before you go diving (or at least, before your trip, assuming that you’re OK with the possibility of losing anything added that isn’t also in the cloud since your last backup). Oh yeah, and have a game plan for how you will communicate if your phone does flood - for example, bring along an unlocked older gen iPhone to use until you can get yours replaced. As others have mentioned, you need a light source if you want to have the best results. The fact that you have a new phone doesn’t change that. As you descend further underwater, certain colors (like red) gradually disappear - that’s just physics for you.. a new phone won’t magically add that red back into the water. So yes, if you plan on shooting ambient light photos deeper than snorkeling depth, you’ll need a light source or red filter. Or an app like dive+ to do post processing in. If you have the money, I’d recommend a used Olympus tg6 and backscatter mf2 strobe for macro and small critters. Pt059 housing. It’s the best combination of quality and affordability.

For video I use my GoPro without lights then run it through the dive+ app. Sometimes I use my tg6 if I need to zoom, but for the most part, video = GoPro. If you check out my posts from around March to June of this year, and a year before that around the same time, you can see various shots with both devices. Actually, I’ll just link a sample of a few of them below. Regarding your friend, without seeing the video, I can’t really comment… But most of my GoPro video are natural light. I use a strobe that has a guideline, but it’s not powerful enough for a video work. Not unless it’s super small critters. If you usually shoot video, yeah, I would go with something like a GoPro, DJI osmo, or insta 360. I haven’t really seen many videos shot on an iPhone underwater, but of the few that I have, I do remember the quality being pretty good.. so if I had to answer, I would say that you could pick either/or. Although one of the benefits of the GoPro in my opinion is that you can throw it on some pair of cord with a bolt snap, and then just clip it off to a d-ring when it’s not being used. That’s how mine is set up, so I don’t have to think about it. Here’s what it looks like: https://imgur.com/a/yclKbMG One of the drawbacks to GoPro is that you can’t really do much in terms of optical zoom - whereas with a iPhone, you can. So an iPhone would definitely be more versatile if you’re going to do stuff like small seahorses and also large manta rays. GoPros generally are best for wide angle videos, not small stuff. Edit: GoPro 7 with dive+ processing: https://www.reddit.com/r/scuba/s/fGUw8MIpaT Tg6 video with dive+ processing: https://www.reddit.com/r/scuba/s/Xvj8FEWy4o Tg6 macro photos with mf2 strobe: https://www.reddit.com/r/nudibranch/s/iSzO8AJhEu Tg6 small critters with some macro + mf2 strobe: https://www.reddit.com/r/scuba/s/PlQgpBBuyP

I use a GoPro Hero 7. https://www.instagram.com/riderofcopenhagen

Just get whatever is on sale right now for cyber monday or older cheap/used options. I wouldn't go older than GoPro 7. The 7 is decent, the 8 is quite good. So just find the best model for the lowest price. The best alternative for a teenager is an insta360 model, such as the standard ace model. But they are awkwardly hard to find. May be easier to just get the ace pro or ace pro 2 on sale. Another option is the DJI Action, but those cameras are arguably best for tinkerers who want to use settings to get the best image quality possible (at the cost of getting the settings wrong and getting a terrible image). It comes more so from the legitimate camera world and the drone flying world. But if you find one for cheap, you can consider it. I would just suggest a used GoPro or a new Insta360 ace on sale. I wouldn't recommend the newer GoPros, though they are decent. So depends on sales. But GoPro has been surpassed in features (by insta360) and image quality (by DJI action). Only reason to get GoPro would be if you like their walled garden of apps and stuff, but I don't even use those. source; long time gopro user, my GF bought an insta360 ace and i basically steal her camera every time I ride solo. It's just so much more reliable.

I treat my cameras as true action cams - almost everything I shoot is downhill‑mountain‑bike POV (with some snowboarding stuff in the winter). My two kids and I rotate between two GoPro Hero 7s and a Hero 11, and in bright daytime conditions the footage is consistently crisp. I also own an Insta360 One X2 and X4; they’re great for occasional 360‑degree shots (especially when we’re filming the kids in the snowboard terrain park), but their image quality still lags behind the GoPros in the daylight settings we ride, in my opinion. Lots of sponsored “reviews” frame these cameras as vlogging rigs, which shifts the conversation toward low‑light performance and front‑facing features. That’s useful if you’re shooting downtown at midnight, but for daytime action sports I’d rather see companies double down on ruggedness, stabilization, and ease of use than chase vlogging use cases. Bottom line: today’s action cams are all solid, yet GoPro remains my default. I’m still curious about the DJI Osmo Action 5, though. I’d like to see whether DJI can match the reliability I’ve come to expect from their drones.