GoPro Hero3 White Edition user reviews (5MP)

Pros Light, cheap-ish, just works...usually. Armored case is well made.

Cons EXTREMELY poor low light performance with the white edition, far worse than the admirable job the Hero 2 did. Electrical noise using internal microphone. Proprietary external mic adapter.

Summary I bought this camera after borrowing a friends Hero 2, which which I was HUGELY impressed, thinking that the Hero 3 would be better. I was greatly disappointed, and returned two in a row thinking there must be something wrong with the camera. Now on my third camera (from a different store), it turns out that the white edition is just crap.

1. Horrible low light performace: In bright sun, between 6 inches and 5 feet, it's crystal clear and beautiful. Beyond that, it starts getting fuzzy. In a normally lit room indoors, forget it; its blurry and grainy at all resolutions.

2. While using the built in microphone, if you have the wireless enabled, there's a constant low ticking noise. Using an external microphone seems to lessen the effect.

3. The GoPro app frequently refuses to connect, requiring that you restart the wifi on the camera, but....

4. The wifi will not turn off. No combination of button pressing will make the wifi turn off consistently. Instead, I have to pull the battery out to restart it.

Pros Small Size
Light-weight
Excellent Video Quality (when working)
Water-tight housing

Cons Complex clunky interface
Screen provides poor information
Downloadable (only) instruction manual not informative
Persistent freezing of firmware
Ridiculous, wasteful packaging

Summary This item left me high-and-dry on a week-long trip of scuba-diving and reef snorkeling. It only worked once, recording a couple test videos and a few useless hotel photos. After that, I could never get it to record a video, take a picture, or even be recognized by the USB on my laptop; it would just freeze. On a couple occasions, the battery got very hot and rapidly self-discharged.

After several days of removing the battery to reset it after the firmware froze (this happened probably 50 times), I found out that there was an update. I downloaded the update, followed the instructions to the letter and it never did update. It would just freeze. Browsing around on the internet reveals hundreds of people with identical experiences.

This camera was released by GoPro without sufficient testing or was just released (with full knowledge of the problems) in time for holiday shoppers. I tend to think the latter is the case. I will be returning this with its totally mangled packaging and looking for a different brand of similar product.

That said, the couple videos that it did capture were excellent quality.