- All right, I know.

You see a GoPro in a thumbnail,

you click on the video.

You expect to see Becca,

but you don't.

You see me.

That's because Becca's off doing Becca things.

- Talking about me?

- So you're gonna be stuck

with me for a little bit

because this GoPro video is

actually a little bit different.

(upbeat music)

This is GoPro Bones.

It is a GoPro made specifically for FPV drones.

You see, for some time now,

GoPro has been the camera of choice

for FPV pilots due to its size,

solid image quality,

great built-in stabilization

and even better post stabilization in ReelSteady

which is also getting an upgrade.

But for some pilots,

the one key element missing

from the Hero10 was

what was

not missing.

Specifically, about 100 grams of weight.

- My name is Reza Kurniawan.

I am a drone pilot

here in the San Francisco bay area.

Today we're gonna tear apart some GoPro Hero10s,

decasing them, entering 'em into naked GoPros.

- Here's the thing.

FPV pilots like Reza have been modifying their GoPros.

Now, GoPro obviously isn't the heaviest camera

to begin with,

but when attached to an FPV drones,

especially like Cinewhoop,

which already have very limiting batteries,

every gram is super valuable.

And it's also important

that the pilots keep their drones under 250 grams,

which is the weight cut-off

that the FAA said

before you had to register your drone.

So I reached out to Reza.

I've been following him on Instagram

for a while now.

And it was also the first place when I saw

someone just cut GoPros in half.

- So we're making them naked GoPros

to make them ultralight,

to put 'em onto microdrones

and to go under that sub-250 standard

by the FAA, to fly over people

and crowds and get really cool indoor shots.

- For the past year or so

Reza has been doing this to his GoPros.

Full invasive GoPro surgery,

every unnecessary bit,

every additional gram,

each element that is not essential

to making the GoPro operate,

winds up on the cutting room floor

or workshop tray.

I find that attention to detail fascinating.

They even use Mavik 1 ND filters

because the GoPro ones are just

that much more heavier.

- [Reza] So first thing is the battery.

That saves the most weight.

Then we take out the enclosure,

the heat sinks, microphone,

and we basically just keep the main board

and the image sensor.

We've been able to shave it down

all the way to 36 grams at its lightest.

You know, it's gotten faster over time

but now I've gotten down to

about an hour, hour and a half,

with some stress testing.

- So if you wanted the latest GoPro

that would one, fit on a microdrone,

and two, meet the FAA requirements,

doing this was pretty much your only option

or hiring people like Reza to do it for you

since he does this as part of his business.

That's why I wanted him to be the first person

we asked to try out the new Bones.

(upbeat music)

Okay.

So I left the Bones with Reza

for a few days to go capture footage.

And we'll check back

with him a little bit later.

For now, let's just go through

what you actually get with this camera,

starting with what's in the box.

Which unsurprisingly isn't much.

Bones, bare bones, bare bones, get it, get it?

Okay.

So here's the box that it comes in

and you get the camera,

these fingers as they're called

and a three pin cable.

That's about it.

Okay, now internally it is the exact same GoPro

as the GoPro Hero10.

You get the exact same image sensor,

the latest GP2 chip

and it can shoot 5.3K60 video

and 4K120 video.

You still have multiple options to control your camera

through the Quik app

or the GoPro mode,

or the QR codes.

Even a couple of physical buttons.

Lastly, this is obvious

but still worth mentioning.

This GoPro, probably like your drone, is not waterproof.

And it also has GoPro's latest

in-body stabilization in Hypersmooth 4,

which not everyone uses for FPV.

Most people tend to just go with ReelSteady

which has now been renamed to

GoPro Player + ReelSteady.

It's also just faster with a few more editing options

including more precise horizon lock

which you're looking at right now.

And here it is warded off.

There's a little bit more shake

and a bit more cropping.

But it still works very well.

Of course, with a device like this

it's more about what you don't have.

Obviously there is no display or speaker.

There's these two physical buttons we mentioned,

an LED indicator and a microphone.

But there's no battery.

It draws power directly

from the drone it is connected to,

and yeah, you do need to solder it on to it yourself.

There's no door, no GPS or metal enclosure.

It essentially does away

with all the same things

that Reza stripped from his Hero10.

And in some cases even more.

For example, there is no fan in here.

GoPro instead says

that the camera has a well-vented enclosure

that promotes airflow cooling.

So it is not exactly the same tear down.

Not that we would expect it to be.

But is it close enough to win over FPV pilots like Reza

and save them hours spent in the workshop

going full on Dexter on their cameras?

(tense music)

- I thought it felt pretty good.

Yeah.

When I took off it was noticeably a little bit heavier.

Of course we pre-measured it

and determined it was about 21 grams heavier.

Taking off you can feel it,

but it's not much.

Today we were flying with a microdrone or Cinewhoop.

I didn't really notice any changes in flight time,

but if I were to pay attention to it hard enough

and actually clock times, it would probably

be a slight flight reduction due to the 21 grams.

With the off-center mount I anticipated feeling something,

but I actually didn't.

I think there's still definitely a market

for decasing GoPro Hero10s

because they are 21 grams lighter,

doing it ourselves.

That's a very niche market I would say.

I'll keep doing it.

- Are you gonna buy one?

- I think I'll have to buy one, yes.

- If you're gonna buy one,

here's what you're looking at.

If you're an existing

or a new GoPro PLUS subscriber

you can get the device and

ReelSteady from 400 bucks.

And if you just want the camera

without the subscription,

then you're looking at 500 bucks.

If that sounds similar to the Hero10 pricing

that's because it is,

which is sort of interesting.

Sure, it is a niche product,

but you're getting less stuff.

Maybe not as much less as you think.

GoPro less Bones is 54 grams,

which is insanely light for a camera

that can do all this.

But if you're paying attention to our B-roll

you might have noticed that ours weighed in at 60.6 grams

which,

again is a big difference

when working with tiny drones.

It did still work for our intended purposes,

but just a reminder to weigh your gear yourself,

if you think you're pushing onto that 250 gram limit.

All in all,

it is an interesting first entry into

GoPro's new strategy of creating

what they call derivative or specialized cameras.

Now, I'm not sure how much mileage they will get

by simply repackaging existing cameras

to satisfy specific markets.

Sure, we see that with smartphones all the time

but GoPro isn't even selling this directly to retailers.

You buy it directly from their website.

It's actually not even featured on the homepage.

But making action cameras is what GoPro does best.

And after trying to expand into making

other products like drones,

high karma,

it just makes more sense

for them to create a camera that's better for drones,

instead of doing things the other way around.

Listen, learn GoPro.

Thank you so much for watching the video

and a special shout out to Reza

for making this video possible.

We couldn't have done it without him,

for disassembling the GoPros,

for putting GoPros back onto drones,

for flying the drones,

providing all the footage

that you've seen in this video.

Give him a follow on Instagram.

All the social links are down below in the comments

and don't forget to subscribe.