GoPro Hero3 White Edition (5MP)

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.