Hey, folks. Been a while, but I’ve been busy. I’ve been researching the GoPro Hero Max 2. Now, for those of you who don’t know, there was an image leaked within the past few weeks of what the GoPro Hero Max 2 looks like. Only I think personally think it’s a fake. Some reviewers and BETA testers for GoPro are claiming it’s real. One of those such people is the one and only GETHYPOXIC
If you haven’t heard of GETHYPOXIC before. This is a website that basically specializes in GoPro Hero tear-downs, telling you exactly what hardware is inside and the changes from model to model. They think the leak is real. I say it’s fake. So in this article we’re going head-to-head with GETHYPOXIC and we’re going to look at the reasons I think the below image is fake.
The above picture is supposed to be the GoPro Hero Max 2. Now I have a few issues with that claim and I’m going to go through them and hopefully do a mediocre to good job at explaining why this image appears fake to me (that joke was funnier in my head). If GETHYPOXIC wants to do his own write up on why this image is real, I’ll let him do that on his website.
First off, I’m going to show you the original GoPro Hero Max and the GoPro Hero Fusion to show you what the design of GoPro’s 360 cameras are really like and why this image could be fake.
GoPro’s 360 cameras have a very specific design. As you can see the lenses on both the Fusion and the original Max have been offset. This is because of GoPro’s patented way that they stitch their footage together. I believe this offset was applied to try and lesson the appearance of chromatic aberrations that usually plague curved lenses which if true, would be a huge advantage that the GoPro has over the competition.
However, if we take a look at the leaked image of the GoPro Hero Max 2,it has a centered, camera lens. Now people say that will get rid of a nadir issue, but I have my doubts overall.
Then we have what appears to be fins covering the camera that one would assume is for heat dissipation. This doesn’t make much sense as GoPro cameras have always had a rubberized silicone type covering on them which allows for the camera to absorb impacts from dropping it or being subject to flying debris. So, what’s the problem? Well, they can’t possibly be heat dissipation fins because rubber is a heat insulator. Think about it. If you’re barbecuing or picking up hot dishes, usually those gloves that you have to protect you from burning yourself are made from silicone rubber (an insulator from heat). This means that these “Fins” would be completely useless at dissipating heat as the heat would not be conducted by the silicone rubber. So, there is zero point to them being there (unless the photo is a fake!)
The next question we have to ask is what is that large rectangle under the lens? Well, you know, it’s not a screen because again, it’s covered by these fins. You wouldn’t be able to press anything on the screen if it’s covered by fins. So it can’t be a touch screen. What if it’s a large metal heat sink? Yes that could be a heat sink to dissipate the heat. Only again, they’ve covered it with soft silicone rubber fins. And how are you going to attach that to the bare metal there. I mean that’s just going to end up peeling off breaking. Again, it makes no logical sense as you’d be covering a heat-sink with something which doesn’t transfer heat.
Another clue is the GoPro logo on the camera. Whoever photo-shopped that on didn’t spend much time on it as it doesn’t deform with the surface of the camera. If that logo was really there, you’d expect it to be stamped and maybe raised and depressed with the contours of the camera, but instead it’s completely flat.
So, if this is a fake photo, what type of camera could this possibly be? Well, if you’ve looked at police body cameras, they do have a center lens mounted design and a large stop start button that the wearer can press to stop and start recording even while wearing thick protective leather gloves. Later cameras, the start/stop feature would be integrated into a sliding lens cover. This I feel, is an earlier model police body camera with some bad photo-shopping done to it.
The final nail in the coffin for this being a faked image is the source which was Quadro news. Now, if you don’t remember, Quadro News leaked a picture of the GoPro Hero 12 last year with a one inch sensor. What’s the problem with that? Well, obviously the GoPro Hero 12 did not have a one inch sensor.
The photograph itself was actually proven to be fake because it was actually lying on top of old promotional materials a previous GoPro release. A closer examination of the photo also revealed that “1” sensor” claim had been badly photo-shopped.
Here’s the thing, in my opinion, Quadro News is a DJI site employee or contracted writer. Quadro News only (and consistently) posts nothing but DJI news, DJI specs, video footage of leaked DJI, drones in flight and DJI cameras photos.
Last year when the GoPro Hero12 leak with the one inch sensor came out, I also think that was a bit of corporate sabotage by DJI. Tell everybody the Hero 12 is going to have a one inch sensor, put the fake picture out there and that way when the GoPro Hero 12 was released and it didn’t have a one inch sensor everybody was really disappointed and really angry with GoPro saying they weren’t going to buy the camera.
On top of this, if you look at how the leak regarding the GoPro Hero 12 came to be, basically Quadro News quoted another site that was “re-quoting” Quadro News saying something along the lines of “congratulations on this getting this leaked information out there”. The thing is, the “Quoted” post never existed in the first place. The account that was congratulating Quadro News was actually defunct and hadn’t posted anything since 2017 and suddenly it became active again and choose to make one post congratulating Quadro News? Fake Fake Fake!
Now this brings us back to……. GETHYPOXIC!
Now in my opinion GETHYPOXIC is simply one of the best sites out there. I really do like their GoPro teardowns and technical information. I suspect that they may themselves be a beta tester for GoPro (if not, they should be). If they are, they may want to throw people off the scent or whatever. So for GETHYPOXIC to say “I think this is real”, I think there’s more to the story that they aren’t sharing.
Now, I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is. I basically challenged GETHYPOXIC and told them that if this is a fake picture and I’m right, GETHYPOXIC has to display one of my DEMONVIEW LLC car magnets on the back of their car for an entire month. And if I’m wrong, GETHYPOXIC will send me one of their stickers and I’ll display it on my DemonView mobile for a month.
That bet was met with complete silence ………………….. until it wasn’t. Yes, GETHYPOXIC got back to me and said, “I will take that bet”. I look forward to winning this bet easily, I just wish I knew what type of car he was driving, I prefer my magnet to be on something classy ya know!
Folks, since I’m all about keeping things upbeat, no matter what, there will be a winner and it could be YOU! Head on over to my YouTube channel and check out the latest video, I’ll be doing a giveaway associated with this Hero Max 2 leak and I’ll be selecting 2 winners. There will be more details in the video, so make sure you check it out!
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