GoPro purchase experience from goPro.com vs Amazon

I am using a standard 18-55mm lens and another 55-300mm lens for my Nikon. I was contemplating on buying a wide angle lens in addition. But wide angle lens alone were costing Rs 40000 onwards. Plus I hate the headache of having to keep changing the lens. Then I was exposed to the world of GoPro cameras. My skydiving pics were taken in a GoPro, we used it a bit to shoot on the go during December 2013 Thailand Bike trip and later, during March 2014 Scuba diving expedition, Nishant took lots of snaps in GoPro and made this beautiful video summary of our trip.

My Skydiving photos clicked using GoPro [More]


Scuba diving video made using GoPro

Gopro cameras take pretty good wide angle photos, can be used under water, can be mounted almost everywhere and hence are much more practical than regular point and shoot cameras or bulky DSLRs. Camera costs in the range of 30-40k, it is very small in size to fit into our existing camera bag and made lots of sense to buy one. (There will be no need to change lens)

Thus the idea struck me that I should consider buying a GoPro camera instead of a wide angle lens. Of course I will miss out on custom functions a DSLR  could offer- including preview, flash, various settings and so on, but the versatility of a GoPro made it a strong contender.

Having made my mind to buy one, next task was to decide “from where to buy”.

My options were as below

Option	Advantages	Disadvantages
Amazon.in	No additional customs duty Shipment included Faster Delivery	MRP high compared to go pro website No good mount choices
Purchase on GoPro.com	Cheaper rates More mount options	Customs extra Shipment Extra More delivery time than Amazon
Get via someone who is returning from US	Save considerable amount of money	May have to wait Extra work for people Risk of procuring wrong product

While many fancy the idea of procuring one from someone who'd be returning from US, I am not very big fan of that approach because of following reason.

• People who travel on work will usually have very hectic schedule. Asking us to go out and buy something for us would cause some inconvenience to them
• If they pick up a wrong product/version in a hurry, we will have to live with it
• Wait time will be very high depending on when someone travel

Hence I decided to buy online. I had to decide between ordering it in India vs ordering it directly on GoPro's official website (gopro.com)

Not many websites in India sell GoPro cameras. Only Amazon does (may be few others, not sure). I checked their price- Amazon India website listed a price tag of Rs 33500+ for Hero 3 black. Free shipping. I went to GoPro website directly to decide, it showed a price tag of USD 399 and USD 85 shipping charge. I also picked up a Headstrap + Quick clip, 3 way mount grip Arm tripod, an additional battery, total came to 510 USD. With 85$ shipping charge for FedEx Economy, total amount was just little less than 600 USD, which is about Rs 36000.

Because price difference was significant and because Amazon didn't have some of the good mounts that GoPro.com had, I decided to proceed with placing an order at Gopro.com

However, while placing international order, shipping cost and customs fee can make all the difference. At the time of placing the order, GoPro.com couldn't state exact amount we might end up paying for customs. Even email sent to GoPro support also didn't result in an answer. Some friends scared me that customs duty could be as high as 40-50%. This website put it at around 30%.

I  decided to take a chance. As long as I don't end up paying drastically more than Amazon.in, it would be a decent deal. I placed order on 29th June and the wait began. Gopro.com took about 3 days to ship the consignment and FedEx economy took another week to deliver from US to India. Finally got it delivered on July 8th.

Fedex called me and told me that I will have to pay a customs duty of Rs 8630. I did the math and found that overall it worked out just a little cheaper than Amazon.in

Component	Amazon.in	Gopro.com
Hero 3+ Black Edition	Rs 33580	USD 399 Rs 24000
Additional Spare battery	Rs 3120	USD 20 Rs 1200
Headstrap + QuickClip	Rs 1980	USD 20 Rs 1200
3 Way Mount Grip Arm Tripod	Not Available (Rs 7000, proportionate value)	USD 70 Rs 4200
Shipment	Rs 0	USD 85 Rs 5100
Customs	Rs 0	Rs 8630
Bank charges/Currency conversion for international trxn	Rs 0	Not known yet
Total	Rs 45680	Rs 44330

Above equation could tilt in favor of Amazon if they had the 3 way mount cheaper or if bank charges lots of money for international transaction. Amazon also would have incurred customs and shipment expenses which it would include in the price of the product.

The customs duty of Rs 8630 involves Rs 300 fedex service charge and various component as shown below. It is based on a declared value of Rs 31303 and comprises of 10% basic customs duty, 10% Counter veiling Duty, 3% Education Cess on these 2 duties, 4% Special Additional Duty, totaling to some 27%

These are made in China, shipped to US and then shipped back to India. If GoPro can arrange direct shipment to Asian countries from China, they could save some money.

Initial impression: No micro SD card is included in the pack- need to buy it separately. Also no stand alone charger is supplied- only way to charge the battery is to put the battery inside camera, connect the camera  to USB port or charging plug. Standalone charger costs Rs 3200, a 32 GB Micro SD card costs about Rs 1000. Factor these in your budget. It was very easy to learn operating it. Lots of videos are also available on youtube to help. Took some trial photos and videos and it came nice. More detailed review little later.

A Sample video and a sample photo are below (shot at 6AM)

Now that I have a new gadget, future trips are going to be a lot more interesting.

GoPro service in India: Go Pro doesn't have a service center. You either throw away and buy new one or send it abroad at your own expense for repair.

GoPro mount warranty claim experience *