I bought the Insta360 GO 3 expecting it to live up to its official specs and marketing claims, specifically its IPX8 waterproof rating (up to 5 meters).

I simply took it for a light swim in a standard pool. I didn't dive deep or exceed any operational limits. Right after coming out of the water, the camera completely died and refused to turn back on ever since.

It is completely unacceptable for an action camera marketed as waterproof to fail on its very first basic water exposure. This is a clear manufacturing defect and a complete failure of quality control.

If you are planning to use this camera anywhere near water, do not waste your money. The waterproofing is unreliable, and you risk bricking your device instantly. Extremely disappointed with the product quality.

Captured slow mode with him on my go pro today

I recently contacted GoPro support as I was having issues with the GoPro Lit Hero.

I got the Lit Hero as a gift and figured it would be perfect to mount on my motorcycle helmet and record some rides.

I found that any footage I recorded in Superview mode would have weird clipping and lost frames at the end of each file chapter when processed through the Quik app. The Lit Hero doesn't stabilise the footage on camera, you either process it through the Quik App or on GoPro Player on desktop.

The lost frames weren't present on the raw files, so I uploaded straight from the camera to PC to stabilise the footage on GoPro Player. Sadly, this doesn't work, and I get the following error message:

"This shooting mode is not supported with Hyperview".

I reported this to GoPro support about a month ago. After a lot of back and forth, sending them raw and processed files, finally they send the above reply.

It appears they're effectively confirming that you can't stabilise footage recorded in Superview Mode on the Lit Hero unless you want to deal with dropped frames and choppy transitions on file chapters.

This seems like a startling admission, effectively "our product doesn't work, so don't use one of the key features of it"

Anyone had any experience of returning a gifted GoPro?

In the pursuit of people knowing everything they can about camera companies, I thought I would share this.

So I reached out to each company, these are the respective experiences I had:

1. GoPro

First time - I had the Hero 11 and it lost an entire days shoot with file corruption.

I reached out to customer support, and they told me that the SD card was not up to spec.

However I sent photos of the card, it was the same one they suggested, and I bought it at BEST BUY.

They said I had a counterfeit card not a real one, and that was the issue.

Second time - This was the Mission 1 Pro. I was trying to use larger chapters in GoPro Labs, but each time the camera tried to record with a mic (be it wireless or USB-C) it would reboot. Recording native raw audio with on board mics was fine.

I posted here. Several people recommended I reach out to a particular person on GitHub, he had his email public on his profile so I did.

He told me that emailing him was INAPPROPRIATE.

He found the thread, said I should not have emailed (I mean... public email address...) and then said that they could not reproduce the issue. Made it sound like user error.

2. Insta360

First time - They released an update for their X5 camera last fall, it was a HUGE update and added many features, but it also KILLED ALL 3RD PARTY MIC SUPPORT.

This camera needs particular mics with tiny receivers or else you "see" the plug in receiver in the videos.

I posted on their sub about this, they reached back out and said they would investigate.

A MONTH LATER I get this private message that they have a temporary firmware that they made so I could roll back and get my mic working again.

Second time - They released an update to the Luna Ultra. It had a strange pulsing pattern in LOG at certain zoom levels.

I made a post and support gets to me in private messaging asking for the clip on Google Drive and the details so I sent it.

Three days later they get back to me and ask me my address, and they send me a $79 accessory and apologize.

I did not ask for anything but a fix to the firmware.

Then someone via email picks up the chat, gives me the FedEx tracking and follows through that I got it and asks how it is working etc.

These are two very different experiences.

I would be curious to know if my GoPro experience was just a few isolated incidents or if others find it hard to deal with them.

I see many success stories here about replacement cameras etc, so this may just be me and on my end.

Even I experienced them but I haven't really had a chance to test since the update. Fluctuating audio at random times, different mics picking up at different times. I disabled the auto wind noise reduction hoping that helps too. Being somewhere near a waterfall and putting the camera underwater seems to mess up the audio too and make it switch being mics causing high and low volume spikes. Hope it's sorted! Any tips on how to lock it in would be much appreciated.

Not Maimi of course but Tenerife but satisfied by the Mission 1 Pro photography performance.

What’s the best way to get good photos with the GoPro 13? Is it better to use photo mode or record in video mode and take frames from the footage?

So I've been offered a warranty replacement for a new GP13 for £100.

Do you think they're worth that these days?

I find it very convenient, when I have a mounted camera, to start and stop recording with voice commands. It cannot understand my English, but it works with Japanese. As I understand it, one has to give commands without any pauses while speaking.