History – GoPro

When it comes to the world of live action cameras, nothing fares better than the GoPro brand name. And though GoPro is not a very old name, founded only in 2002, the company has captured a major share of the action camera market as of today. Initially, it was known as Woodman Labs, Inc., after the company’s founder Nick Woodman. Besides manufacturing action cameras, GoPro is also known to offer mobile applications and software for video editing. Of late, the company even came out with its first quadcopter drone, known as Karma.

GoPro’s founder, Nick Woodman had been on a surfing trip to Australia, where he wasn’t able to take quality action photos. This was due to the high price of quality equipment and also that professional photographers could not get close enough for captures. Such an instance motivated him to start a company for producing cameras that could capture photos from professional angles. It also gave GoPro its name.

While GoPro started in 2002, it wasn’t until 2004 that the company released its first product, HERO that used a 35mm film. The HERO went on sale from 2005 onwards.

In 2006, GoPro went digital and added video taking capabilities. This happened with the release of the Digital HERO. 2007 and 2008 saw the Digital HERO 3 and 5 that had improvements in the video.

GoPro then introduced wide angled lens. The models released were HD HERO and HD HERO 960.

By 2010, when high-definition has become the buzzword, GoPro went ahead and added on this feature in its upcoming Hero2 action camera the very next year. This was then followed by the release of the Hero3 in 2012. The Hero3 came in three editions – black, white and silver. These editions differed in terms of their specifications.

The Hero3+ was released in 2013. There were two available editions, namely Black and Silver, with the former boasting of better specifications. A similar trend was followed for the following year, when the GoPro Hero4 Black and Silver editions made its way into the markets.

In 2015, the company introduced the HERO4 Session, which was a smaller and lighter model compared to the other releases by GoPro. Then came the Hero+LCD and the HERO+, the latter being an entry-level camera from the maker.

The Hero5 Black and the Hero5 Session was released in September, 2016. The company also released the Karma drone the following month.