herzog wrote:How did the Canons and Sonys of the world miss this boat so badly that a little guy steps up and creates a billion dollar business from nothing?
Simple. Different markets. Canon aren't really into the cheap video market so to say but Sony is now playing catchup and is utilising its software/techinical side to gain lost time. They tend to focus on mass consumer cameras (point and shoot cameras that a todler to grandma can use) and on high end photographic equipment. Only recently has that transitioned into consumer video production using their photographic products aswell. None is better than the other. Flatout quality wise GoPro holds nothing compared to them. Price wise gopros are in another world being a couple hundred bucks all up and not a few thousand for the lens + a few more thousand for the body. You can mount GoPros on nearly anything but cameras are very limited. GoPros are lighter than a bag of chips while cameras and lenses can weight more than some airlines allow for checked baggage. The GoPro might not be able to read a number plate 600m away but with my camera I sure can. The market for small action video cameras was very small and GoPro captured that market. Just as Fuji, Canon and Sony captured the high end professional video market. The first GoPro which was a film camera that only took photos wasn't a huge success at first but as it evolved over time it became a more powerful, more usable and way more marketable. They really only started to gain in popularity with the first of the HD Hero series (GoPro HD960). I think the GoPro Hero 3 is the 7th generation of camera that they have made.
, but on the upside I can now video myself doing pathetically slow training rides 
