Back in November, we were told by an unknown source that Canon and GoPro were working on a partnership, we dismissed it a viable rumor and didn't bother posting about it on this site.
Other sites have started to post about a Canon & GoPro partnership. So we figured we'd also address it, as readers have already started emailing us about this.
The original source told us the following:
Canon will sign a cooperation deal with GoPro. They are interested in the digital image stabilisation and video capabilities of 4K without a crop. GoPro will profit by getting the Canon colour science and undisclosed other key technologies
Canon doesn't seem to be a company that is much into these types of partnerships, and with GoPro being for sale, it seems like an acquisition Canon could make quite easily if there was a business case for it.
Stranger things have happened, but be mindful of the [CR0] rating on this one.
GoPro gets a lot of flack, but they make fantastic cameras!
However GoPro's themselves are pretty good and always have been from the start.
I've always found them reliable. Yes overheating in hot weather was a problem but not in normal weather. I've had Canon shutting down overheated too. Certainly no more unreliable than any other gear. Very robust too and excellent waterproofness. I'd highly recommend them as an action camera.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/08/03/gopro-frames-its-return-to-profitability.aspx
https://gopro.com/help/articles/block/Open-Source-Software
Canon could certainly use some GoPro expertise to ditch their aging and proprietary Digic platform.
What kind of features could this actually enable? How about:
- Voice control
- Computational photography
- Better drivers and UI for 802.11 ac / Bluetooth wireless.
- Auto sync to Dropbox / Android / NAS etc
- Animated menus
- h.265 / AV1 video encoding
- Encryption
- Face detection / tagging
- Auto lens micro adjustment
Software ... IMHO, this is where Canon is falling the most behind. Some of these features would bridge 'Entry Level' cameras for cell phone shooters looking to upgrade, and that's a sizable chunk of the market.