After replacing four Hero7 Black cameras and after endless/meaningless discussions with GoPro Support I believe I have finally discovered why Hero7 Black stops working (in Photo time-laps and Lock screen) when used in any kind of water environment.
The problem is related to the touchscreen sensor becoming overloaded with “touches” from water splashes. You would think that locking the screen would prevent the sensor from misbehaving but actually that’s when the problem starts and the camera stops working after enough “touches”.
This clip shows what happens. https://youtu.be/kZZPi-35Ngk
And this proves the same but with water: https://youtu.be/PlQaCKNhCRA
GoPro Support and “the technical team” has done their best to misunderstand me and put out smoke screens the past months and I’m honestly not sure anyone over there has yet understood that this issue potentially affects all customers who wants to shoot continuous photo in ant type of water environment.
I need your help in the community (everybody out there with a Hero7 Black) to verify if this really is problem with all cameras, or something only I experience on my 4 cameras. Perhaps then we can have GoPro to adress this issue properly…
Symptoms of a Water Freeze (all at the same time)
- the counter on the front has stopped
- the counter on the back has stopped
- the red LED light has stopped blinking
- pushing Shutter button does nothing
- the camera has stopped shooting photos
How to recreate the Water Freeze
- Set the camera in Time Laps Photo 0,5 seconds (found in Preferences or in the App)
- Set the camera in Screen Lock (found in Dashboard)
- Start time laps by pressing Shutter button
- The front counter, back counter and red LED will start
- The screen will go black (if the screen isn’t black it isn’t locked and you will not get the freeze)
- Tap the screen continuously with your fingertip, varying tempo
- The camera will display "screen unlock" messages, and eventually freeze (if you don't see the message you don't have the necessary settings)
How to un-freeze the camera
- Keep Mode button pressed for approx 10s, then release and the camera restarts
Please let me (and GoPro if they listen in) know how your Hero7 Black works in this scenario. I really hope that I have been unlucky with my cameras and that there is chance I can get hold of one that works for surf photography.
