GoPro for wife's Christmas present

Badger

Badger

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I don't know anything about GoPro cameras but my wife who is hard to buy for mentioned GoPro again. She plays a lot of tennis and goes for walks/hikes but not much else.
She likes whatever is the new "latest and greatest" but she will buy without researching to see if it will really do what she wants.
Is there a recent GoPro model that she can wear while she goes for hikes or use in the car? It would be for occasional use so it doesn't need to be top of the line when she gets bored with it?
I don't need a subscription service. This is for her to take videos and save on a disc or thumb drive.
Are there similar cameras other than GoPro that offer a good value that might also be good?

Thanks
Cheers!
 
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A GoPro can be fun. I have an older one I bought about ten years ago and liked it. Still have it, but seldom use it any more.

One thing I liked was mounting it on my helmet while skiing, and reliving some of those runs was a lot of fun. For hiking, I've seen people with one worn on a headband, which is the same thing. On our Antarctic cruise i used it that way on a couple of wild Zodiac rides and also enjoyed seeing them later.

Another time I had a very complicated set of directions to follow, and DW was going to have to do the same thing a couple of weeks later. So I mounted the GoPro on my dashboard and filmed the last few miles into the destination. She really appreciated being able to review that video before making the trip.

I'm sure others will have more uses for it, so I think you may be on to a good idea there.
 
Your wife has mentioned GoPro more than once - perfect, just find a decent model at a place with a good return policy.

Do not find a "just as good" other thing, even if it's slightly better and cheaper.

A woman who is hard to buy for has said the name of a thing twice to her husband? Don't mess around with that, count yourself very lucky!
 
If you buy the latest GoPro, you're looking at $500 easily after buying the camera, microSD card (required, not included) and some accessories (a couple mounts, extra battery?, etc.). IMO you should NOT try to pick one yourself, it's something she needs to be in on to make sure she gets what she needs/wants - GoPro configurations are endless. And I agree with the others, let her decide if she wants an alternative to GoPro, don't make that decision for her.

I used to have a GoPro, but they are nowhere near as popular as they once were, people are just using their smartphones now. I sold everything I had on eBay, probably got back 10 cents on the dollar. I made about 30 fully edited videos (up to 15 min), mostly sailing adventures, it was fun but not worth the trouble anymore. If you want to edit what you shoot and turn it into a production, the software is NOT free, and it's not easy to learn.
 
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Our kid has one. She pays $50 a year to GoPro for some service of some kind. I have no clue what. I told her to pay for it yourself. Just so you know there is some optional ongoing thing. She loves the GoPro.
 
I've had 2 or 3 GoPros, used them for hiking, etc. AFAIK, all GoPros can be used for hiking. Lots of attachments - headband mount, chest mount, bike mount, etc for hiking and biking.

I still have a GoPro 7 somewhere, but I use my iPhone for all videos now.
 
Aerides said:
Your wife has mentioned GoPro more than once - perfect, just find a decent model at a place with a good return policy.

Do not find a "just as good" other thing, even if it's slightly better and cheaper.

A woman who is hard to buy for has said the name of a thing twice to her husband? Don't mess around with that, count yourself very lucky!
Click to expand...

Starting to think my present of a mop is a bad idea...
 
Thanks for the replies. I wasn't aware of how pricey these have become. I don't think she does anything that would make a GoPro anything other than an expensive temporary toy that would be used a few times before she gets tired of it. As it has been posted she can always use her expensive cell phone to take videos. I will have to think about this a bit more.

Cheers!
 
Aerides said:
Your wife has mentioned GoPro more than once - perfect, just find a decent model at a place with a good return policy.

Do not find a "just as good" other thing, even if it's slightly better and cheaper.

A woman who is hard to buy for has said the name of a thing twice to her husband? Don't mess around with that, count yourself very lucky!
Click to expand...

+100
 
I had/have one that I used to mount on my motorcycle. I have many videos of rides in the mountains of N.Ga,TN,NC,Al,Ky,& Va. I still enjoy looking these videos over sometimes and then remember these trips. I was in an online motorcycle forum/club that would have "Ride ins" where folks from all over would meet for a long weekend for a time of fellowship and riding. I hosted several of these and would also then use it to film some of the goings on during these too. I don't use it much anymore but am thankful I had it then. I would say let her have one and if she gets tired of it she can still have those memories . Its only money but the memories last forever.
 
I may have found a compromise. Since her birthday is a couple of weeks after Christmas. I bought a good quality chest harness like she would use with a GoPro but also with her very nice cell phone. If she finds the cell phone works as she wants and still wants the GoPro then she will get that for her birthday.
That may not work and I may have to endure the couple weeks after Christmas but then I can surprise her on her birthday. I wish she had more interest besides tennis so I had more choices for gifts on the holidays.
What could possibly go wrong? :eek: :hide:

Cheers!
 
Also - there are Bluetooth shutter release fobs for cell phones. Keep the cell phone mounted on the chest harness and use the fob to take pics/ movies

GoPros have voice activated camera commands, but I found the their voice activation to use a lot of battery power
 
Badger said:
I may have found a compromise. Since her birthday is a couple of weeks after Christmas. I bought a good quality chest harness like she would use with a GoPro but also with her very nice cell phone. If she finds the cell phone works as she wants and still wants the GoPro then she will get that for her birthday.
That may not work and I may have to endure the couple weeks after Christmas but then I can surprise her on her birthday. I wish she had more interest besides tennis so I had more choices for gifts on the holidays.
What could possibly go wrong? :eek: :hide:

Cheers!
Click to expand...
Has she talked about editing, or just she just want raw video clips to view/send as is? Editing is a whole other discipline, easy (free) to do basic edits with a smartphone, somewhat to way more involved (expensive) with GoPro clips. If you want to do something like a YouTube video putting together a bunch of clips with graphics/titles, you're looking at 10X the time to edit versus the time to shoot raw footage.
 
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Fermion said:
Starting to think my present of a mop is a bad idea...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I got a mop for Mother's Day one time. Some new fangled sponge/roller system that my 2 sons and DH thought I'd love! They told me I was hard to buy for and the guy in the commercial had an Australian accent so it must be cool! One finger wringer!


Nope, nope, nope.....

That may be the year when I told them no more gifts.
 
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Sounds like she would be happy with a GoPro Hero 11 or even 10, forgoing the latest model 12. The later models have a few extra features that a causal user would not really miss, except if she is planning to post on different social media accounts the improved sensor for vertical and horizontal crops which is found on the 11 and later modes could be useful.

Needed mounts are trickier to research and judge, in that is difficult to know one's preference for using either a small selfie stick, head mount, chest mount, neck mount, clip on a hat mount, etc when going out for a walk until trying them out.
 
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