"GoPro CEO Nick Woodman announces the GoPro HERO3: the smallest, lightest, most powerful way to document your life.
The Wi-Fi enabled HERO3: Black Edition is the most advanced GoPro, ever. No expense was spared during its development,
resulting in a GoPro that is 30% smaller, 25% lighter and 2x more powerful than previous models.
HERO3 video premier & HERO3 pre-order going live on GoPro.com at 12:01 AM PST TONIGHT
ooooh, ooooh , gotta get one, already have 2 GoPro's Hero2 , but 4 GoPro's is better than 2. Like my wife says, my death will be very well documented........
A lot more specifics on what is being offered appear at the link above along with an intriguing video shot with the new GoPro3 Black camera in a bunch of action sports below.
Here's the thing, if you would be happy kiting exclusively with say a 1998 8.5 m Wipika Classic or a 1999 Fone ATK ram foil kite, I agree. The thing is most of us like new technology like BOW or high depower C kites and all the major added capabilities they can bring.
I started using GoPro's over three years ago, with the WIDE, now four camera generations in the past. It was an amazing small, inexpensive camera that was rated to 130 ft., was out of focus underwater, ran out of power in about 45 minutes, took over a day to recharge the relatively expensive Nickel Metal Hydride AA cells, was WAY shifted into blue spectra, didn't work with larger than2 G SD cards but had a remarkable fairly flat wide angle view. The small size and "relative" image quality vs. price were fairly unique at the time. I didn't know when I called GoPro headquarters in California that they only had seven employees, it was a small startup on the brink of big things.
Here is an image of me in the Red Sea shooting a pod of dolphins with a GoPro WIDE camera in September 2009 and the video that came out of that dive. It is out of focus but still pretty interesting.
Things have come very far in just three years. The lower light capability (equivalent to 2 f stops?), faster processing, sharper lens, better audio, numerous shooting modes, corrected UW housing, built-in WIFI and on and on of the new GoPro3 Black camera are light years ahead of the shooting limits of the now obsolete WIDE and in many important respects the far more recent HD2 camera.
So, use great new technology bringing substantial new capabilities or go with the more limited old gear, shooter's choice.
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3 NEW GoPro HERO3® Cameras (White, Silver, and Black Edition) and a LCD Touch BacPac
were recently announced. This video was shot 100% on the new HERO3® camera -
3 NEW GoPro HERO3 models !
WHITE EDITION $199.99 (think smaller HD Hero1 w/ built-in Wi-Fi)
SILVER EDITION $299.99 (think smaller HD Hero2 w/ built-in Wi-Fi)
BLACK EDITION $399.99 (brand new technology, specs, w/ built-in Wi-Fi)
All 3 Hero3 cameras share a new form factor which is the same rectangular shape
(which lends itself to be mounted anywhere, including the Chest),
but it's much thinner than the HD1/ HD2
(by comparison, the Hero3 + BacPac is the size of today's Hero2 camera.)
All three models will come shipped with the new housing which now
incorporates an underwater lens and an improved locking latch.
GoPro Hero3 series cameras now employ the Micro SD Card format.
Along with the Hero3 announcement comes the $79.99 LCD Touch BacPac
which upgrades the original LCD display in terms of quality and
also offers touchscreen features for the first time.
For the guys and gals mounting to the kite it,s lighter and has narrow field of view on the specs. Add in the built in wifi and you can turn it on without landing your kite. 2.7 at 24fps with manual wb and the new protune bit rate and color profile for the cinema geeks. I want to see what the flow detachment on my board looks like at 240 fps. Oops the cat just nocked my hero cam into a pot of boiling acid. Bad kitty.
Last edited by gbleck on Thu Oct 18, 2012 1:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
So, based on facebook updates it seems that all the sponsored riders received their HERO3 kits early this week.
Any reports on how the performance is on the new rig? As always, color accuracy and sharpness would be the improvements most needed. And battery life, but I didn't hear any claims on that regard...the camera got smaller, I'm guessing so did the battery.
My guess is the camera will use less power but maybe have less battery capacity to match it. And now that Wifi is included (which is good) you will also have that drawing on the battery. AND, noticeably they are promoting the extended battery back option pretty heavily.... They should have just made the camera the same size and given it 3X battery life. It's great to have the camera up there watching, but it does no good up on your kite when the thing is dead because you forgot to power it off between shots on your epic downwinder....