GoPro have just dropped the price of the tiny HERO4 Session to $199.99 US. Just in time for the holiday season it is now half the price it was at launch in the summer. It is the second major price reduction the camera has had in its short life.
GoPro completely miscalculated the demand for such a product when it was originally priced at $399 US and this even affected the company’s share price. In fact CEO Nick Woodman admitted this in an interview with CNBC back in October. He said “If Session had been stronger out of the gates, if we hadn’t mispriced it, and if we had backed it up with the marketing it deserved, I think we would have had a very different earnings call yesterday,”
The camera itself is small enough to be mounted practically anywhere, but the image performance is not as good as the top Hero4 models. The highest resolution is 1920 x 1440p and there is no 4K mode. Even in HD many users have not found the Session to be as good as the other cameras in the Hero4 range. For this reason it has not proved as popular with professionals.
At the new price this may well change. Even though the image quality is still not on par, the low price might be enough to attract some users.
At the new $199 US it is a certainly a much more attractive proposition. Better still, if you buy through B+H it’s available with a free 32GB Lexar memory card and GoPro head strap. Even more of a bargain.
Whether this is enough create a major turnaround in GoPro’s fortunes remains to be seen.
