(upbeat music)
- All right, I know.
You see a GoPro in a thumbnail,
you click on the video.
You expect to see Becca,
but you don't.
You see me.
That's because Becca's off doing Becca things.
- Talking about me?
- So you're gonna be stuck
with me for a little bit
because this GoPro video is
actually a little bit different.
(upbeat music)
This is GoPro Bones.
It is a GoPro made specifically for FPV drones.
You see, for some time now,
GoPro has been the camera of choice
for FPV pilots due to its size,
solid image quality,
great built-in stabilization
and even better post stabilization in ReelSteady
which is also getting an upgrade.
But for some pilots,
the one key element missing
from the Hero10 was
what was
not missing.
Specifically, about 100 grams of weight.
- My name is Reza Kurniawan.
I am a drone pilot
here in the San Francisco bay area.
Today we're gonna tear apart some GoPro Hero10s,
decasing them, entering 'em into naked GoPros.
- Here's the thing.
FPV pilots like Reza have been modifying their GoPros.
Now, GoPro obviously isn't the heaviest camera
to begin with,
but when attached to an FPV drones,
especially like Cinewhoop,
which already have very limiting batteries,
every gram is super valuable.
And it's also important
that the pilots keep their drones under 250 grams,
which is the weight cut-off
that the FAA said
before you had to register your drone.
So I reached out to Reza.
I've been following him on Instagram
for a while now.
And it was also the first place when I saw
someone just cut GoPros in half.
- So we're making them naked GoPros
to make them ultralight,
to put 'em onto microdrones
and to go under that sub-250 standard
by the FAA, to fly over people
and crowds and get really cool indoor shots.
- For the past year or so
Reza has been doing this to his GoPros.
Full invasive GoPro surgery,
every unnecessary bit,
every additional gram,
each element that is not essential
to making the GoPro operate,
winds up on the cutting room floor
or workshop tray.
I find that attention to detail fascinating.
They even use Mavik 1 ND filters
because the GoPro ones are just
that much more heavier.
- [Reza] So first thing is the battery.
That saves the most weight.
Then we take out the enclosure,
the heat sinks, microphone,
and we basically just keep the main board
and the image sensor.
We've been able to shave it down
all the way to 36 grams at its lightest.
You know, it's gotten faster over time
but now I've gotten down to
about an hour, hour and a half,
with some stress testing.
- So if you wanted the latest GoPro
that would one, fit on a microdrone,
and two, meet the FAA requirements,
doing this was pretty much your only option
or hiring people like Reza to do it for you
since he does this as part of his business.
That's why I wanted him to be the first person
we asked to try out the new Bones.
(upbeat music)
Okay.
So I left the Bones with Reza
for a few days to go capture footage.
And we'll check back
with him a little bit later.
For now, let's just go through
what you actually get with this camera,
starting with what's in the box.
Which unsurprisingly isn't much.
Bones, bare bones, bare bones, get it, get it?
Okay.
So here's the box that it comes in
and you get the camera,
these fingers as they're called
and a three pin cable.
That's about it.
Okay, now internally it is the exact same GoPro
as the GoPro Hero10.
You get the exact same image sensor,
the latest GP2 chip
and it can shoot 5.3K60 video
and 4K120 video.
You still have multiple options to control your camera
through the Quik app
or the GoPro mode,
or the QR codes.
Even a couple of physical buttons.
Lastly, this is obvious
but still worth mentioning.
This GoPro, probably like your drone, is not waterproof.
And it also has GoPro's latest
in-body stabilization in Hypersmooth 4,
which not everyone uses for FPV.
Most people tend to just go with ReelSteady
which has now been renamed to
GoPro Player + ReelSteady.
It's also just faster with a few more editing options
including more precise horizon lock
which you're looking at right now.
And here it is warded off.
There's a little bit more shake
and a bit more cropping.
But it still works very well.
Of course, with a device like this
it's more about what you don't have.
Obviously there is no display or speaker.
There's these two physical buttons we mentioned,
an LED indicator and a microphone.
But there's no battery.
It draws power directly
from the drone it is connected to,
and yeah, you do need to solder it on to it yourself.
There's no door, no GPS or metal enclosure.
It essentially does away
with all the same things
that Reza stripped from his Hero10.
And in some cases even more.
For example, there is no fan in here.
GoPro instead says
that the camera has a well-vented enclosure
that promotes airflow cooling.
So it is not exactly the same tear down.
Not that we would expect it to be.
But is it close enough to win over FPV pilots like Reza
and save them hours spent in the workshop
going full on Dexter on their cameras?
(tense music)
- I thought it felt pretty good.
Yeah.
When I took off it was noticeably a little bit heavier.
Of course we pre-measured it
and determined it was about 21 grams heavier.
Taking off you can feel it,
but it's not much.
Today we were flying with a microdrone or Cinewhoop.
I didn't really notice any changes in flight time,
but if I were to pay attention to it hard enough
and actually clock times, it would probably
be a slight flight reduction due to the 21 grams.
With the off-center mount I anticipated feeling something,
but I actually didn't.
I think there's still definitely a market
for decasing GoPro Hero10s
because they are 21 grams lighter,
doing it ourselves.
That's a very niche market I would say.
I'll keep doing it.
- Are you gonna buy one?
- I think I'll have to buy one, yes.
- If you're gonna buy one,
here's what you're looking at.
If you're an existing
or a new GoPro PLUS subscriber
you can get the device and
ReelSteady from 400 bucks.
And if you just want the camera
without the subscription,
then you're looking at 500 bucks.
If that sounds similar to the Hero10 pricing
that's because it is,
which is sort of interesting.
Sure, it is a niche product,
but you're getting less stuff.
Maybe not as much less as you think.
GoPro less Bones is 54 grams,
which is insanely light for a camera
that can do all this.
But if you're paying attention to our B-roll
you might have noticed that ours weighed in at 60.6 grams
which,
again is a big difference
when working with tiny drones.
It did still work for our intended purposes,
but just a reminder to weigh your gear yourself,
if you think you're pushing onto that 250 gram limit.
All in all,
it is an interesting first entry into
GoPro's new strategy of creating
what they call derivative or specialized cameras.
Now, I'm not sure how much mileage they will get
by simply repackaging existing cameras
to satisfy specific markets.
Sure, we see that with smartphones all the time
but GoPro isn't even selling this directly to retailers.
You buy it directly from their website.
It's actually not even featured on the homepage.
But making action cameras is what GoPro does best.
And after trying to expand into making
other products like drones,
high karma,
it just makes more sense
for them to create a camera that's better for drones,
instead of doing things the other way around.
Listen, learn GoPro.
Thank you so much for watching the video
and a special shout out to Reza
for making this video possible.
We couldn't have done it without him,
for disassembling the GoPros,
for putting GoPros back onto drones,
for flying the drones,
providing all the footage
that you've seen in this video.
Give him a follow on Instagram.
All the social links are down below in the comments
and don't forget to subscribe.