I have this GoPro Hero 5 Black camera a few weeks now. As I purchase it for using in the Mini on the tracks I have not really put it to use, except perform a suite of checks to make sure the camera functions as I expected. Overall I am quite pleased with it, though there are some shot comings. It is supposed to be a keeper.
the camera was bought to prepare for next season using on the track
However I notice the camera will hang with a blank screen of death under a use case. It will freeze up when I press the Shutter button to start a video recording while the camera is in sleep (off). If you are not familiar with this camera. Normally a user will first switch on the camera (wake it up from sleep) by first pressing the Mode button. Once the screens are on, then press the Shutter button to initiate a video recording.
With the quick record method that I use, once it starts to record a video, you can press the Shutter again to end the recording. Doing so the camera will save the recording and return to sleep. The camera will hang 1/3 to 1/5 times, so it is intermittent. I set the video to 720p/60 when I encounter this problem. As there are so many permutations I did not have a chance to try others. Initially I thought it happens infrequently, but as I performed more test, the failure rate is very consistent.
Once it freezes with the blank screen (no image shown but the legends are on the screen), the only way to get out of this is by pressing the mode button for like 10 seconds. I realize from experiment that sometime it will drain a fully charged battery to 0% very rapidly. That is when I realize my window (30 days) for returning the camera back to Amazon is rapidly closing.
blank screen of death
Time is of the essence. I immediately requested for a return from Amazon. There was only 3 days left before the return window closes.
I gathered up all the pieces that it was shipped with
I even saved the happy doggy screen protection film
back to Amazon I went
I am really bummed as I really like the camera. It has been so much work that I put into the research and testing. I did some search on the web and apparently other owners are encounter hangs. I will get another one, and I hope this is not a very common problem. What I fear the most is when it freezes when I set up the camera for time lap photo or video and fail because of this kind of hanging.
Costco did not have Hero 5 Black when I bought mine from Amazon. Costco at the time was only selling a bundled Hero 5, which has no screen. Costco just begin selling a bundled Hero 5 Black but the extra pieces are not that attractive as a whole.
Costco's Hero 5 Black bundle - the 16GB SD card, battery charger, and the head strap are not that attractive so I am going to get another camera only from Amazon
I purchased a 1.3 meter USB-C extension cable despite my reservation. I want the cable so the external microphone module does not have to be hung off the camera.
In the photo the external microphone module hangs off the side of the camera with the analog mic cable connected. On the track a USB-C cable will also be connected and I want a tidier arrangement, hence the extension cable. My reservation with extension cable is I infer they are not compliant to the USB-C spec. Extension cables have always been deem illegal by the USB IF even starting with USB version 1.1 spec, as user can daisy-chain extension cables. Each addition of extension cable degrades the electrical signal and will cause the communication to fail. Additionally when the cable gets long enough the propagation time exceeds the timeout by the host or the device and that also break the communication. I even went and downloaded the USB-C cable spec and try to get to the bottom if it is indeed illegal.
So when the 1.3 meter extension cable arrives, I eagerly set out to test it out. It was not as easy as it seems as the GoPro camera's UI is very clumsy and I have to make sure it is not the internal mic when it works. Each time I used the extension cable with the microphone adapter dongle, the video recorded has no video. Just in case the dongle requires power from outside, I supply it with power with another USB-C cable.
My test conclude this extension cable, for whatever reason, cannot be use for data communication in my use case. It does deliver power and it is all this $9 cable is good for. Back to Amazon it will go.
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