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GoPro HERO 7 Black
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Customer reviews
- GoPro HERO 7 Black
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- Customer reviews
Top positive review
It's worth it for HyperSmooth Alone ! One Major ISSUE!!!
October 2, 2018
The first six hours with this camera were frustrating and I'm a techy. Before you do anything disable WIFI Calling on phone and reboot then download the app and let it update the camera. Life is good after that.
797 people found this helpful
Top critical review
Great video, frustrating as hell features and use
October 9, 2018
First - the good. The 4k 60fps video is amazing. The hyperstabilization works really well. The low light video is a bit grainy, but other than that, it's beautiful.
The bad - and there's a bunch of it.
-You can't live stream and record in 4k. The most you can do is 1080p. To me, this is a total waste - why would I live stream with a high end camera like this, and skip the most important function of the camera. Some product manager needs a kick in the nuts.
-Battery life is pathetic. Get a very large external battery pack if you're going to record in 4k 60. Seriously, unless you take 2 minute videos, it will die before you capture anything.
-You can cook eggs on this thing when you're recording. If it's even remotely warm outside, it will shut down occasionally, from what I can only assume is overheating.
-There's no preview available while recording in 4k 60. My Hero 5 Blacks have it, why not this new one? Seems like a giant oversight.
-I had to go to youtube to find out how to set up streaming for something other than Facebook. Seriously GoPro - your documentation, both on-line and included with the camera, sucks.
-The whole streaming process is really funky. I keep having to delete the camera from the GoPro app in my phone and re-connect it whenever something needs to be changed.
Long story short, I'll use it for recording the same content I did with my Hero Black 5's, but won't be using the streaming features - which was the only reason I even though about upgrading. I wish GoPro had documented or at least given specifics on the new features. I have a feeling they purposefully held that information back because they knew it would piss people off and no one would pay to upgrade.
The bad - and there's a bunch of it.
-You can't live stream and record in 4k. The most you can do is 1080p. To me, this is a total waste - why would I live stream with a high end camera like this, and skip the most important function of the camera. Some product manager needs a kick in the nuts.
-Battery life is pathetic. Get a very large external battery pack if you're going to record in 4k 60. Seriously, unless you take 2 minute videos, it will die before you capture anything.
-You can cook eggs on this thing when you're recording. If it's even remotely warm outside, it will shut down occasionally, from what I can only assume is overheating.
-There's no preview available while recording in 4k 60. My Hero 5 Blacks have it, why not this new one? Seems like a giant oversight.
-I had to go to youtube to find out how to set up streaming for something other than Facebook. Seriously GoPro - your documentation, both on-line and included with the camera, sucks.
-The whole streaming process is really funky. I keep having to delete the camera from the GoPro app in my phone and re-connect it whenever something needs to be changed.
Long story short, I'll use it for recording the same content I did with my Hero Black 5's, but won't be using the streaming features - which was the only reason I even though about upgrading. I wish GoPro had documented or at least given specifics on the new features. I have a feeling they purposefully held that information back because they knew it would piss people off and no one would pay to upgrade.
1,042 people found this helpful
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October 9, 2018
First - the good. The 4k 60fps video is amazing. The hyperstabilization works really well. The low light video is a bit grainy, but other than that, it's beautiful.
The bad - and there's a bunch of it.
-You can't live stream and record in 4k. The most you can do is 1080p. To me, this is a total waste - why would I live stream with a high end camera like this, and skip the most important function of the camera. Some product manager needs a kick in the nuts.
-Battery life is pathetic. Get a very large external battery pack if you're going to record in 4k 60. Seriously, unless you take 2 minute videos, it will die before you capture anything.
-You can cook eggs on this thing when you're recording. If it's even remotely warm outside, it will shut down occasionally, from what I can only assume is overheating.
-There's no preview available while recording in 4k 60. My Hero 5 Blacks have it, why not this new one? Seems like a giant oversight.
-I had to go to youtube to find out how to set up streaming for something other than Facebook. Seriously GoPro - your documentation, both on-line and included with the camera, sucks.
-The whole streaming process is really funky. I keep having to delete the camera from the GoPro app in my phone and re-connect it whenever something needs to be changed.
Long story short, I'll use it for recording the same content I did with my Hero Black 5's, but won't be using the streaming features - which was the only reason I even though about upgrading. I wish GoPro had documented or at least given specifics on the new features. I have a feeling they purposefully held that information back because they knew it would piss people off and no one would pay to upgrade.
The bad - and there's a bunch of it.
-You can't live stream and record in 4k. The most you can do is 1080p. To me, this is a total waste - why would I live stream with a high end camera like this, and skip the most important function of the camera. Some product manager needs a kick in the nuts.
-Battery life is pathetic. Get a very large external battery pack if you're going to record in 4k 60. Seriously, unless you take 2 minute videos, it will die before you capture anything.
-You can cook eggs on this thing when you're recording. If it's even remotely warm outside, it will shut down occasionally, from what I can only assume is overheating.
-There's no preview available while recording in 4k 60. My Hero 5 Blacks have it, why not this new one? Seems like a giant oversight.
-I had to go to youtube to find out how to set up streaming for something other than Facebook. Seriously GoPro - your documentation, both on-line and included with the camera, sucks.
-The whole streaming process is really funky. I keep having to delete the camera from the GoPro app in my phone and re-connect it whenever something needs to be changed.
Long story short, I'll use it for recording the same content I did with my Hero Black 5's, but won't be using the streaming features - which was the only reason I even though about upgrading. I wish GoPro had documented or at least given specifics on the new features. I have a feeling they purposefully held that information back because they knew it would piss people off and no one would pay to upgrade.
November 12, 2018
First GoPro and do not like this. Bought for diving and picture quality is very blurry even when on dry land. The battery is horrible. Took two 5-minute videos and then it died. When charging the battery, the device gets extremely hot. I thought it was going to burn a hole in my table. Ordered a replacement, but haven’t used it yet. Return process is also terrible. I had to take it to an actual UPS store and PAY to ship it back. What a waste of my life.
December 31, 2018
Never have I ever had such a difficult time being able to record footage. Initially, the GoPro did a great job capturing footage in beautiful 4K. After about a week, the camera kept crashing in mid-recording and couldn’t save files once it crashed. Apparently, overheating is a common issue and there is no warning of it hapoening. I visited the forums and I followed the advice of using a recommended microSD card, keeping the camera away from heat, and lowering quality settings. All of these suggestions did not resolve any problems. I missed a lot of opportunities to film and I’m really disappointed with this purchase. The battery doesn’t last too long either. If you’re using 4K stabilized (when it decides to work), expect less than an hour of recording time.
The two stars is for the quality of footage. After owning a couple of the previous gen GoPros, I can say that this provides the best image quality. Although, it’s not by much.
The two stars is for the quality of footage. After owning a couple of the previous gen GoPros, I can say that this provides the best image quality. Although, it’s not by much.
January 15, 2019
The photos and videos are ridiculously beautiful, but I had a problem that was astonished. I have a GoPro Hero 4 and when I use it with the cover in the pool, river, or in the sea, I have never had problems. But when I buy this GoPro Hero 7 Black camera, the gopro website says that it resists up to 10 meters, but it was not like that, I entered it as 30 in a pool, without the super suit, everything was perfect, the photos and the perfect videos, then I turned it off while I was inside the pool and then I tried to turn it on and it did not turn on. Then I left the pool with the gopro and immediately checked inside the camera and noticed that water had entered the camera.
I already started the warranty process, it goes directly to Californonia to be reviewed and await answers if I am going to receive repair or replacement.
What I was surprised, when I had the chat with the customer service of GoPro, the person who took care of me, he said that it is advisable to always use the Super Suit for the GoPro Hero 7, so I feel cheated with what the camera promises versus what the customer service tell me.
Even so, I'm going to buy another GoPro while the other camera goes into the warranty process. I love the camera shots and also allows me to record any time or extreme action.
I already started the warranty process, it goes directly to Californonia to be reviewed and await answers if I am going to receive repair or replacement.
What I was surprised, when I had the chat with the customer service of GoPro, the person who took care of me, he said that it is advisable to always use the Super Suit for the GoPro Hero 7, so I feel cheated with what the camera promises versus what the customer service tell me.
Even so, I'm going to buy another GoPro while the other camera goes into the warranty process. I love the camera shots and also allows me to record any time or extreme action.
July 11, 2019
My last gopro was a hero 4 black. It still works great. I wanted to get the stabilization from the 7 so i took the plunge.
The menu system is way different and some would say not intuitive at all, the truth is that it takes a few times before you get comfortable with it...like anything else in life. So menu navigation was not bad at all.
The image is great but not really that much better than my gopro 4...but still great. The stabilization is amazing, simply awesome, enough said in other reviews and videos online...believe the hype! And 60 fps is simply great to have.
The hero 7 black has some serious issues with it however. I happen to have a beast of a PC...alienware with all the ram i can possibly need and a video card with 11 gig of ram...so computing power is not an issue. I also use Black Magic Davinci Resolve Studio to edit my videos...so video editing software is also not an issue.
Gopro records in HVEC format and it is too new...so i hear...so the gopro video is not friendly with most hardware that you will be using to edit it or even view it. Make sure, really make sure, that your hardware and software you will be using can work with the gopro video. I had to convert 269 videos shot on my hero 7 black from HVEC h265 to h264 in order to edit/work with them. Not a huge deal, but if you are looking for a simple plug and play camera, this may not be your first option.
The main problem that i have with this camera is the fact that it is an action camera and it does not do well when it gets wet. I took it to the sea of Cortez in early June, the water was not super cold nor was it super warm. Water temperature should not have been a problem...and it was. The gopro has a touch screen on the back of it, when i set it to record, go underwater the water acts like my fingers on the screen and change settings, open the menu, and ultimately get my camera to be ready to change everything that i had set up before going in the water. It never stopped my recording, but if you do not notice that the menu is open and you simply start "recording" again, you may now be taking a time-lapse, or a warp-lapse or a photo instead of the video you thought you were taking. As you can imagine this is very upsetting since when you are diving or snorkeling you may not be placing undivided attention to the settings on your camera...specially if you think you already set them up perfectly.
This problem is completely unacceptable, this camera is made to get wet, to go underwater and it simply fails at that and becomes unreliable and the user needs to constantly make sure he/she is still in the desired setting. Of course, the solution is to turn off the touch screen every time you are planning to go in the water but to me that is not a proper solution, gopro should not expect the user to disable a feature because it is broken, they should fix it!
So, the image is about the same as the older gopro cameras, the file format is too new for now and will most likely require file converting software to change it to a usable format, and the biggest issue...you cannot get it wet and expect it to work the same every time...it will fail you, guaranteed. And when the sea lion is bumping the camera with its nose and you thought you had it all on video you may later realize that you took a photo when you pressed the "start video" button 3 minutes earlier and the rest of the time you were floating around pointing your camera around without doing anything. Perhaps the sea lion was telling me to turn the darn thing on.
I do not think the camera was ready to be released, they needed more testing and time to fix the problems.
Thankfully i had more than one camera going and was able to catch "most" of my video without issues...but that is not a realistic expectation for most of us.
The menu system is way different and some would say not intuitive at all, the truth is that it takes a few times before you get comfortable with it...like anything else in life. So menu navigation was not bad at all.
The image is great but not really that much better than my gopro 4...but still great. The stabilization is amazing, simply awesome, enough said in other reviews and videos online...believe the hype! And 60 fps is simply great to have.
The hero 7 black has some serious issues with it however. I happen to have a beast of a PC...alienware with all the ram i can possibly need and a video card with 11 gig of ram...so computing power is not an issue. I also use Black Magic Davinci Resolve Studio to edit my videos...so video editing software is also not an issue.
Gopro records in HVEC format and it is too new...so i hear...so the gopro video is not friendly with most hardware that you will be using to edit it or even view it. Make sure, really make sure, that your hardware and software you will be using can work with the gopro video. I had to convert 269 videos shot on my hero 7 black from HVEC h265 to h264 in order to edit/work with them. Not a huge deal, but if you are looking for a simple plug and play camera, this may not be your first option.
The main problem that i have with this camera is the fact that it is an action camera and it does not do well when it gets wet. I took it to the sea of Cortez in early June, the water was not super cold nor was it super warm. Water temperature should not have been a problem...and it was. The gopro has a touch screen on the back of it, when i set it to record, go underwater the water acts like my fingers on the screen and change settings, open the menu, and ultimately get my camera to be ready to change everything that i had set up before going in the water. It never stopped my recording, but if you do not notice that the menu is open and you simply start "recording" again, you may now be taking a time-lapse, or a warp-lapse or a photo instead of the video you thought you were taking. As you can imagine this is very upsetting since when you are diving or snorkeling you may not be placing undivided attention to the settings on your camera...specially if you think you already set them up perfectly.
This problem is completely unacceptable, this camera is made to get wet, to go underwater and it simply fails at that and becomes unreliable and the user needs to constantly make sure he/she is still in the desired setting. Of course, the solution is to turn off the touch screen every time you are planning to go in the water but to me that is not a proper solution, gopro should not expect the user to disable a feature because it is broken, they should fix it!
So, the image is about the same as the older gopro cameras, the file format is too new for now and will most likely require file converting software to change it to a usable format, and the biggest issue...you cannot get it wet and expect it to work the same every time...it will fail you, guaranteed. And when the sea lion is bumping the camera with its nose and you thought you had it all on video you may later realize that you took a photo when you pressed the "start video" button 3 minutes earlier and the rest of the time you were floating around pointing your camera around without doing anything. Perhaps the sea lion was telling me to turn the darn thing on.
I do not think the camera was ready to be released, they needed more testing and time to fix the problems.
Thankfully i had more than one camera going and was able to catch "most" of my video without issues...but that is not a realistic expectation for most of us.
February 5, 2019
I like the camera but there's two reason make me disappointed 😒 first one the battery die so fast so quick
and the second is there is nowhere you can't charge it or replace the battery unless you take out the cover.
Now here's the problem the case is made with hard plastic and it's too tight it takes me two minutes to figure out how to take out the camera from the cover I have to push the camera with my fingers from all the corners so I can take out the camera
GoPro please fix that case cuz we can't use it without the case cuz if it's drops will break right away.
and the second is there is nowhere you can't charge it or replace the battery unless you take out the cover.
Now here's the problem the case is made with hard plastic and it's too tight it takes me two minutes to figure out how to take out the camera from the cover I have to push the camera with my fingers from all the corners so I can take out the camera
GoPro please fix that case cuz we can't use it without the case cuz if it's drops will break right away.
February 24, 2019
This is a great camera, but I am very frustrated by the fact that there are serious problems with the telemetry data stored in the MP4's: it is *impossible* to show GPS tracks and other accumulated data for videos longer than 8:50-9 minutes.
The camera limits individual video files to less than 9 minutes - it will create a new file every 9 minutes to keep file size down. There is no way to later combine these files and show GPS tracks for anything longer than 9 minutes.
I've spent hours trying to do this. Their GoPro Quick software does not merge files. Dashware, an outdated piece of software that GoPro may or may not own, has an option to merge video files, but it doesn't work.
FFMPEG, a public domain command line utility, *is* capable of combining the video files along with GoPro's metadata track, but GoPro Quick and Dashware will not use the telemetry in these files because they don't see the two other tracks that GoPro adds to the MP4 files.
Other features, quality, user Interface, image stabilization are all terrific but the fact remains that this camera doesn't do everything it promises.
The camera limits individual video files to less than 9 minutes - it will create a new file every 9 minutes to keep file size down. There is no way to later combine these files and show GPS tracks for anything longer than 9 minutes.
I've spent hours trying to do this. Their GoPro Quick software does not merge files. Dashware, an outdated piece of software that GoPro may or may not own, has an option to merge video files, but it doesn't work.
FFMPEG, a public domain command line utility, *is* capable of combining the video files along with GoPro's metadata track, but GoPro Quick and Dashware will not use the telemetry in these files because they don't see the two other tracks that GoPro adds to the MP4 files.
Other features, quality, user Interface, image stabilization are all terrific but the fact remains that this camera doesn't do everything it promises.
December 2, 2018
I bought this is order to record some cool footage while snorkeling in Tahiti. I had SERIOUS issues...
* You cannot use the touchscreen in the water, even in one inch of water. It does not work.
* If you want to zoom in, you have to get the camera out of the water, zoom in, and then go back in the water.
* You cannot zoom while filming! What's up with that!!!
* The camera kept switching from photo, to video to time lapse by itself while in the water.
* Battery is weak to say the least.
And don't get me started on the Quik app... It keeps freezing up on me. Overall, not happy at all. $399 down the bin.
* You cannot use the touchscreen in the water, even in one inch of water. It does not work.
* If you want to zoom in, you have to get the camera out of the water, zoom in, and then go back in the water.
* You cannot zoom while filming! What's up with that!!!
* The camera kept switching from photo, to video to time lapse by itself while in the water.
* Battery is weak to say the least.
And don't get me started on the Quik app... It keeps freezing up on me. Overall, not happy at all. $399 down the bin.
November 26, 2019
I bought this camera SPECIFICALLY for a trip to Hawaii where I would be doing a lot of snorkeling and scuba diving among other adventures. It worked phenomenally well for all of it, EXCEPT the once in a lifetime SCUBA night dive we did with the giant manta rays. That was only 35-40 feet down AND I had a waterproof housing on it (even though it's supposed to be able to handle those depths without a housing). I wanted to be SURE it would work to capture the amazing experience that I might never have again and it FAILED. From what I could tell, the pressure basically imploded the buttons so that they were impossible to press. I even removed the housing at one point under water to try to press the buttons manually but nothing happened. Not a single button worked. It wouldn't turn on, it wouldn’t record, nothing. In fact, the diver next to me on the sea floor had a gopro as well and his failed too!!! Once I re-surfaced, the camera worked just fine once again. I was SO upset that as soon as I got back from my trip I returned it. Shame on you, Go Pro, for betraying your customers by assuring us it would work underwater when it clearly doesn't, at least not for SCUBA depths. Besides the problem under water, I really liked it! My favorite parts were the ease of use to start recording video with the press of one button, the incredible picture quality and the ease of transfer from camera to iPhone via the app and from the app to my camera roll. I'm sure the Hero 8 is an awesome upgrade, but I highly doubt they have fixed the water pressure issue and they still have that STUPID worthless grey screen on the front. It's time they take a page out of DJI's book and put a front facing color screen on it and a mode button that you can use to easily toggle modes without having to touch the screen with your finger (impossible with gloves on or under water). The next action camera I buy will be the DJI Osmo Action for those reasons. If you're buying this for anything above 10 feet in the water, I can recommend it with certain caveats, but for diving, STEER CLEAR!
February 2, 2019
Camera is awesome. Supporting software is BAD. You should feel bad for designing something so bad. Buy a bunch of memory cards if you are traveling. Getting anything off this camera overseas is frustrating. The app DOES NOT WORK WELL. You can not simply attach a cord and extract data. WILL NOT WORK. Stupid. They want you to use their app and use their cloud. And make you pay money for it. Can not attach a cord to your phone and extract data. Can not attach a cord to a PC and extract data without the app, a Bluetooth device and wifi. What kind of device WILL NOT WORK WITH A CORD. WILL NOT ATTACH to phone over just Bluetooth. So if it's on a helmet, and you want to control with your phone, it will not work unless you have wifi and Bluetooth. Which is stupid. Seriously. If I want to start my camera recording before a ski run, I have to take it off my head. Should be able to control from phone. Dumb. I have to delete the cameras info from my app every single time I connect to it. The software is BAD. I can't say it enough. THE APP IS BAD. I am horribly unimpressed. Camera itself takes amazing video and photo. If you can't tell I'm traveling right now. I'm going to wake up early tomorrow and try and find a place with a memory card.
