The most successful GoPro series is definitely is HERO 3…where GoPro went public in Year 2014…
Just hours after GoPro’s disappointing Q4 2017 report—in which the company outlined a cost-cutting plan and announced that it would no longer be making drones—CNBC is reporting that the action cam giant has “put itself up for sale.”
The report cites “people familiar with the matter” who asked not to be named, but who told the network that GoPro hired J.P. Morgan Chase “some months ago” to find a buyer. The sources claim no buyer has come forward as of yet, but GoPro CEO Nick Woodman himself confirmed that the company would be open to a partnership or buyout.
If there are opportunities for us to unite with a bigger parent company to scale GoPro even bigger, that is something that we would look at.
GoPro has suffered setback after setback since it went public in 2014, with lackluster action cam sales due at least in part to increased competition from smaller manufacturers, a disastrous launch (and recall) of the Karma drone, multiple rounds of layoffs, and its unceremonious exit from the drone market today. The stock price chart is… not pretty:
Still, despite a market cap of a little over $1 billion, you can bet that any potential buyer will be eyeing a price well below that mark unless the company’s plan to “[turn] the business around in 2018” starts to show some results.
Californian action camera manufacturer GoPro has laid off between 200 and 300 staff, according to a report by TechCrunch. The report claims the redundancies have been made in the division of the company that builds it aerial offering—the Karma drone—and that GoPro cited a need to “better align our resources with business requirements” as the reason for the layoffs.
GoPro has suffered in recent times, with its share price taking a hammering and profits showing in negative figures. One of the main reasons for this was the much-anticipated Karma drone, which had to be recalled after it was discovered the battery could shake itself loose, causing the device to lose power mid-flight and plummet back to Earth.
The company claims that, since returning to stores, Karma has been the number 2 best-selling drone priced above $1,000 in the US for a period of six months up to September 2017. Even so, it would have faced (and still does) stiff competition from former partner DJI.
GoPro’s November report to shareholders announced increased revenue of $300 million, up 37% on the same quarter last year, and a gross margin of 40%. The company was in profit too, making $15 million against a loss of $104 million in the third quarter of 2016. However, the share price has remained low, with current trading at $7.51 against a high of $90 in October 2014.
After 370 job cuts in 2016 and early 2017 the company stated that it employed 1,327 people, but that number is now set to drop to close to 1,000, according to the TechCrunch report.
GoPro, which has been operating under the name since 2004, hasn’t commented on the claims, but the job losses have come between the end of the financial year (December 31st) and the company’s annual report, which would seem the logical time to do it.
A more powerful processor is at the center of GoPro’s Hero6 Black announcement today, enabling features like 4K/60p video recording and improved dynamic range compared to its previous Hero action cams. The custom-designed GP1 processor also enables 1080/240p slow motion video, and claims that improved image stabilization and better low light performance come with the package.
Like the Hero5, the Hero6 is waterproof without a case to a depth of 10m/33ft. It also supports GoPro’s QuikStories, a mobile app feature that analyzes footage and automatically assembles short clips of what it identifies as the highlights of your adventure. GoPro says that the new GP1 chip offers advanced machine vision and computer learning capabilities to analyze scenes and create better automated stories.
Other improvements include 3x faster offloading speeds and a new digital zoom feature. The Hero6 comes of course with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as GPS, accelerometer, and gyroscope sensors to track all of the action.
The GoPro Hero6 Black is on sale today for RM2399.00 in Malaysia. You can get it online at ShaShinKi.com or any other physical retail stores.
At IFA, Sony revealed the RX0, a tiny (just 59 x 40 x 30mm) camera that Sony hopes will be start a new type of camera segment, something it is calling multi-view recording. The RX0 is small enough to mount almost anywhere, making it possible to capture a scene or event from multiple viewpoints. Think: mounting cameras on every musician’s instrument at a live show, film people singing karaoke in private automobiles without shooting through a windshield, or capturing point-of-view footage of Hobbits from inside a floating barrel. The RX0 could do all of this without sacrificing image quality, thanks to its 1″ Image Sensor, ability to output uncompressed 4K video, waterproof and shockproof build, and ability to record and sync timecode metadata wirelessly between multiple cameras.
It is tempting to compare the RX0 to action cameras based on its diminutive size and waterproof bonafides, but there are a few notable differences that make this camera distinct. First, the RX0 has a much larger 1″ sensor, more than four times as large as the 1/2.3″ sensors typically found in action cameras. Another difference is that the RX0 has a 24mm equivalent lens. While 24mm is relatively wide, it might as well be telephoto when compared to the 12mm equivalent lenses you see on most action cameras. This camera is for something different.
Before the RX0, if there was a shot you wanted that required the camera to be tiny and light, the only option available was action cameras. In fact, in the past few years an entire cottage industry has sprung up to try and make consumer action cameras work in a professional workflow, from camera modifications that replaced the soft, distorted lenses with higher-end optics to custom timecode generators that attach to the back of cameras. Even with those modifications, the resulting video quality was still hampered by the small image sensors, rolling-shutter artifacts, and low-bitrate recording to which consumer cameras are typically limited.
The lens of the RX0 is a ZEISS Tessar 24mm equivalent f/4.0 lens. Low-light fanatics hoping the four-times-larger image sensor would lead to four-times better low light might be disappointed by this. But the f/4 lens was a necessary compromise to get it into a package this small. However, there are plenty of other advantages to a larger sensor. With the RX0, you should see significantly better dynamic range, less noise at low ISOs, and increased overall clarity when compared to cameras that have a wider aperture on a smaller sensor. Also, thanks to the stacked CMOS sensor with DRAM on the chip, the rolling shutter on the RX0 will be greatly reduced.
One side effect of combining a larger image sensor and a narrower field of view is that the RX0 needs some sort of focus system. The RX0 has Auto Focus and Manual focus modes, with a minimum focusing distance of 20″, and the infinity focus point is at 39″.
The RX0 can record video internally in up to 1080p at 24, 25, 30, 50, and 60 fps, as well as 720p at 100 and 120 fps, all at 50 Mb/s in the XAVC codec. Advanced picture profile modes like S-Log are also available. For even higher-quality video, the RX0 outputs uncompressed UHD 4K video via HDMI for external recorders. The lack of internal 4K recording is a bummer, but even larger cameras with a 1″ sensor like the RX100 IV tend to overheat when recording in 4K, so it’s not really a surprise.
The camera can be controlled directly via on-camera buttons, or remotely via the Sony Play Memories app from an Android or iOS smartphone. Up to five cameras can be connected to one phone at once with no additional hardware, and more than five can be connected if there is a wireless router available. Via the app, you can control recording, as well as timecode, which should allow for the cameras to be edited easily in post. A wired solution through Ethernet hub to connect and control even more cameras will be available soon, expanding the multi-view capability further.
The RX0 is not designed to capture vacation surfing videos—its narrower, less distorted field of view will make it harder to see your feet while you surf, and extra features like timecode and the ability to focus on something other than infinity are probably over most people’s heads. What the RX0 allows is for professional videographers to mount cameras in places they have never been able to before and still get high-quality, timecode-synced video that can be integrated easily into a normal production workflow.
Funsportz, the official GoPro distributor in Malaysia has just announced their RAYA promotions for the HERO 5 Black edition! A big slash of RM230 of GoPro HERO 5 from the original SRP of RM1979! Price after discount = RM1749.00
You may purchase GoPro HERO 5 Black online at ShaShinKi:
