Go Pro Warranty (apparently waterproof unless it gets wet)

[Puddy Tat]

So I have a buddy who just bought a Go Pro Hero 2. On his first use of the camera, the housing leaked while he was diving in salt water at 20m depth. Go Pro is pushing back on warrantying this because they don't warranty water damage.

From their site all the marketing information under the product description tabs of the three Go Pro Hero 2 models (http://gopro.com/cameras/hd-hero2-outdoor-edition/) indicates

"waterproof to 197′ (60m)"

while elsewhere on their site their warranty (http://gopro.com/support/warranty-information/) states

"Because of possible user resealing error, this product is not warrantied against waterhousing leakage or any resulting damage."

Either the camera is waterproof or it isn't. I find this rather underhanded as between these two statements Go Pro is essentially saying the camera is waterproof unless it gets wet.

Absolutely stupid marketing/lawyer speak if you ask me. Makes me question whether I should buy one of these.

Dave

[Gcarve]

For what it's worth, I bought my GoPro Hero 1 at the end of last season. The first time I tried to open the battery door it broke. I sent an email with pics to GoPro. They opened a "case" file on my claim, gave me a claim number................................and have NEVER returned any of my emails since. Thanks for nothing GoPro

[davekempmeister]

I noticed that when I use mine on the nose of the board shawndoggystyle in spring slush, the display screen will show SOS sometimes. The first time it happened, I quickly took it out of the case, took it to the car and left it to dry because I assumed the case had been infiltrated with at least a small amount of water.

Something as seemingly insignificant as a hair trapped between the polycarbonate and the silicone gasket might do this.

[pokkis]

I've got few those SOS messages due bad memory card, yours could be also same due bad contacts due vibration.

[davekempmeister]

Pokkis - thanks for the insight. I assumed it was moisture because it was only happening when water came into play (slush). I've about a dozen SD cards that cycle in and out of the thing and a few have idiosyncrasies all their own. Whatever, it gets back up and running eventually. Tech like this amazes me when it works at all so I'll gladly put up with the downtime.

[Steve Prokopiw]

and it has it's weak points such as the cheesy little eyelets molded into the otherwise bullet proof case.I broke those off too many times(epoxied back on along with metal tape and washers)and changed to the wrist mount case for which I make all my own mounts.I did just break part of the little and brittle clip that closes the case. Basically their cases are weak and disposable, but do keep out water and protect the camera even if they don't stay mounted.

I have managed to keep the latest cases alive longer by pre reinforcing the case and by using multiple livestrong type rubber bracelets to keep the camera firmly anchored to it's mounts.I've had fun developing shock absorbing mounts and will soon post some split screen examples using the latest mount which I hope to manufacture.