gopro hero+ camera with lcd touch screen review free sample

GoPro considers the Hero+ LCD an entry-level camera and, looking at its specs and capabilities, it has stripped of much of what you"d find on the higher-end Hero4 Silver and Black models.

The GoPro Hero+ LCD puts a live-view touchscreen on the back of a camera that"s capable of very good 1080p video capture at 60 frames per second. Built-in wireless lets you use your phone or tablet to remotely control the camera.

The camera is permanently in its polycarbonate housing; the battery is nonremovable; limited shooting options compared with others in its price range and a significant drop in features and performance from the $400 Hero4 Silver.

The GoPro Hero+ LCD isn"t exactly a bargain for its entry-level specs, but if you appreciate a streamlined feature set and its built-in touchscreen, it"s worth the extra money over the very basic Hero.

The Hero+ LCD"s price, on the other hand, does not say "entry level." At $300 in the US and £250 and AU$430 in the UK and Australia, respectively, this is a somewhat pricey camera for the category given what it can do. The $130 (£100, AU$169) Hero model is truly entry level in price and features. That"s a considerable price gap between it and the Hero+ LCD.

For one, you get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that can be used to connect to GoPro"s Smart Remote (not included), which basically replicates the camera"s controls so you can remotely change settings and shooting modes and start and stop recordings and take pictures.

The wireless is also used to connect to an iOS, Android or Windows mobile device to use GoPro"s app to control the camera and change settings as well as remotely preview and review your shots and transfer them to your device for sharing.

Beyond that, the Hero+ has a higher-resolution sensor -- 8 megapixels as opposed to 5 -- and instead of just a single 0.5-second time-lapse interval setting you get seven. You"ll also get a loop record feature, so you can more easily use this as a dash cam and it supports GoPro"s HiLight Tagging, which lets you quickly mark a section of your video for easier editing later on.

It does have that screen, though, which again isn"t something you"ll find from most of the competition. If that"s a must-have feature for you and you just need good-quality video for sharing online, your search is over.

That is, as long as you"re willing to put up with the rest of the Hero+ LCD"s design. Like the Hero, this camera is permanently in its rugged housing. Some might find this to be a plus since it means the camera can"t fall out and is always protected. However, since you can"t pull the camera out, if you damage the housing you"re not easily swapping it for a new one. While it can certainly handle a lot of abuse, if you manage to scratch the lens glass, you"re stuck.

Next to the screen are the microSDHC card slot supporting cards up to 64GB and a Micro-USB port. So what"s missing? The Hero lacks a Micro-HDMI port letting you playback directly from the camera to a display or HDTV. Not a huge loss, but still it"s a loss.

With its standard solid plastic backdoor, the housing is waterproof to 131 feet (40 meters). There is also a waterproof touch backdoor that"s good down to 10 feet (3 meters) as well as a skeleton door that lets more sound reach the built-in mic. External mics, by the way, are not supported on this model.

Along with the backdoors you"ll get a Micro-USB cable for charging and transfers; two adhesive mounts, one flat and one curved; a quick-release buckle to use with the mounts and a rubber-locking plug to keep the quick-release buckle from accidentally releasing from a hard impact.

Shooting options are better than the Hero, but just barely. Video resolutions include 1080p at 60 frames per second and 720p at 60fps. There"s also a 720p at 60fps with GoPro"s SuperView feature, which basically takes 4:3 video and digitally stretches it at the sides so you get a taller 16:9 video. To help you out when you lose daylight, GoPro"s Auto Low Light feature can be turned on, dropping the frame rate so your video isn"t too dark when shooting in dim light.

The touchscreen is no doubt the easiest route and GoPro simplified navigation compared with the Hero4 Silver. Instead of swiping and tapping your way through menus, you just tap on the right side of the screen to bring up the mode menu, while the left side opens a context-sensitive menu related to what mode you"re in. One other nice addition: You can trim out 5-, 15- or 30-second clips or grab a still from a video on camera.

Of course, the more you use the touchscreen or wireless, the less battery life you"ll have for recording. Even with both of those off you"re looking at a maximum of 2 hours of continuous recording at 1080p at 60fps or up to 2 hours and 30 minutes set to 720p at 60fps in SuperView mode.

The camera"s QuikCapture feature, which allows you to turn on the camera and start recording with a press of the record button, helps maximize battery life. However, if you"re not careful about how you store the camera, you can easily turn the camera on accidentally and drain your battery.

On its own, the video from the Hero+ LCD is very good and stands up to other models priced around $300 such as the Drift Ghost-S and Replay XD Prime X, though only the former has a live-view screen. Sony"s Action Cam Mini with its Live-View Remote is another option and is better in image quality and features, though it"s not as easy to use.

For casual viewing on a smartphone or tablet and posting to YouTube, you likely won"t be disappointed with what you get from the Hero+ LCD. As with most cameras in this category, when viewed at larger sizes you"ll see compression and motion artifacts and details are pretty soft and mushy. These things only get more pronounced when shooting in low light.

If you want to view your videos at larger sizes like on an HDTV, you"ll want to spend the extra money for the Hero4 Silver. You"ll get fewer artifacts, sharper fine details, better color performance and greater dynamic range.

It"s pricey for its shooting options and performance, but the GoPro Hero+ LCD is also one of the few action cameras available with a built-in live-view screen. That"s a feature that"s tough to beat, especially if you"re looking to simplify your shooting experience.

Every year this action camera company tries to change the game, but did they pull it off leading into 2023? We’ve been busy putting the new camera to the test to bring you our comprehensive GoPro HERO 11 review! We dive into the new features, what they’ve improved (and what they missed) and give our honest opinion on whether the GoPro HERO11 is worth the upgrade over previous models.

No other camera company has managed to turn a product into a lifestyle brand quite the way GoPro has, which is one of the reasons we’ve personally been using their products since 2010 (holy moly, more than 12 years now).

We put our GoPros through hell. Snowboarding, scuba diving, mountain biking and just generally pushing them to their limits through our jobs as travel content creators.

So in our expert GoPro HERO11 Black review we dive deep into what sets this camera apart from its predecessor, how it performs in the real world and whether or not GoPro have missed the mark.

Last year’s slogan for the GoPro HERO 10 was ‘A New Era’, and this year GoPro have opted to go with ‘Finally to 11’. Quite fitting for the 11th series in what has become a bit of a legacy.

You see in 2023 the new camera has a range of moderate improvements, which we’ll get to shortly, but the real highlight is that everything just works, well, nicer.

There’s the new larger sensor, 10-bit colour and buttery HyperSmooth 5.0 with 360 degree horizon lock (how the hell they make it so smooth is beyond us, but we’ll take it).

These things alone mean the GoPro HERO11 Black is superior over the 10, but that’s not what makes the GoPro Experience a step above anything else they’ve done.

They’ve also introduced a new lighter version dubbed the HERO 11 Black Mini, which is almost as good as the main camera but without a few features such as LCD screens.

GoPro have really tapped into the creator market now, without forgetting their core origins for adventure athletes and general travel photographers/videographers, by endeavouring to make the entire shooting, editing and uploading workflow as seamless as possible.

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GoPro have managed to introduce a whole bunch of new features that make the latest camera a joy to use in any scenario, while also ticking a few boxes for professionals out there.

Here are some of the new and major features of the HERO 11 Black. It’s not a full revamp of the previous model, but the changes that are there are quite significant.

With this monster sensor squeezed into the tiny camera we can now shoot using a new 8:7 aspect ratio, which captures a huge perspective allowing for all kinds of crop factors in post.

GoPro know that almost everything getting shared these days is shifting to vertical aspects, like what we find on Instagram and TikTok, but native width content like on TV and YouTube isn’t going anywhere.

So rather than having to choose whether you shoot in landscape or portrait mode, you can use the 8:7 aspect ratio on the larger sensor which gives plenty of room for cropping later without losing any image quality.

This also introduces the bigger 27MP screen grabs, and a new immersive digital lens called HyperView, which is perfect for those POV (point-of-view) action thots.

This, matched with the revolutionary GP2 processor introduced on the HERO10, makes the new GoPro HERO11 Black a versatile, diverse and high quality powerhouse.

Using the entire 8:7 ratio on the new sensor, we can now use HyperView, which GoPro claims adds an ‘ultra-immersive’ video that best suits action POV, big selfies and large spaces in tight areas. Think architecture.

There’s also an update in the pipeline that will allow users to jump into the GoPro Quik app and change between all the digital lens options after the fact. So you can leave it on one setting and not be kicking yourself later.

That enormous improvement means that the colours you see in your videos are more like what you see with your own eyes, with more vivid details, less colour banding and smoother gradients.

HyperSmooth essentially removes the need to use a gimbal, and once you’ve seen it in action you’ll wonder why anybody deals with shaky footage anymore.

This uses the processor to determine what level the horizon is on, and then keeps your shot in that position, even if you rotate your camera a full 360°.

When GoPro first introduced video presets it was a Godsend. We literally use them multiple times every single shoot and they save us so much time and headaches.

Pick what you want – photo, video or TimeWarp – and GoPro will select the best settings for the situation. Kind of like using Auto on a modern digital camera.

Almost every trip we go on around the world we have people come up to us with a brand new GoPro and ask if we can help them with their settings. We get it – if you’re not a pro, camera settings are extremely confusing,

Set your GoPro up on a bridge over a highway or in the median strip of a busy street, click the button and watch the headlights of cars burn themselves into your shot.

While not a new feature and not directly related to the HERO11, we can’t really do our GoPro 11 review without talking about the app that goes along with it.

And if you sign up for the GoPro Quik Subscription, the app will auto-upload your footage to the cloud so you can clear the SD card and keep shooting without losing your footage.

There’s also rumours or a new feature coming soon where GoPro will use AI technology to make highlight reels of your footage in the cloud. Who needs a video editor, huh?

It’s basically a slightly watered-down version of the GoPro HERO 11 Black camera, without the LCD screens and instead having dual mounting fingers at the bottom and back of the body.

Why? Well not having an LCD screen sucks. You can’t frame your shots properly (unless you’re using your phone as a live view) and you can’t review your footage on the fly.

Well that’s all changed now. We recently bought the Media Mod for the HERO10, and now using it on the HERO11, and are so much happier with the audio improvements.

Never fear, friends. We have your back and have been super busy throwing the camera into all kinds of situations as part of our review of the GoPro HERO11 Black.

The initial setup of the camera was very quick and easy. Turn it on, pick your language, connect it to the GoPro Quik app on your phone, do an update and away you go.

The LCD touch screen is very fast and responsive, and when we did a side-by-sude comparison with the HERO10 we didn’t notice a big difference compared to the old camera.

It’s hard to tell on the little screen, but we could see a lot more of the scene. It was only when we imported the footage into Adobe Premiere Pro though that we could really see just how much more vertical room we had to play with.

At our core, we are photographers, and we’re pleased to say that in our GoPro HERO 11 review we’re very satisfied with the quality of images the little camera produces, and how far we can push the edits in post production without losing quality.

The lag time though while the camera buffered the images was painfully slow. This could probably be reduced though by using a faster speed SD card, so we’ll report back in the future when we upgrade this.

We’re always honest in our gear write-ups, and being an honest GoPro HERO11 Black review we actually tried our best to find something wrong with the camera.

We love the iconic GoPro perspective, but it’d be nice if we could grab a 2x or 3x optical zoom as well to get closer to our subjects and create some lens compression.

We’ve explored all the updates and what’s new in our GoPro HERO 11 Black review, and unless you’re very familiar with the old models you may be left wondering what the difference is between the most recent versions.

The HERO11 has a number of major updates compared to the HERO10, most specifically around the larger sensor and 10-bit colour, but the engine behind it being the GP2 processor is more or less the same.

You’ve almost made it to the end of our GoPro HERO 11 review, and you’re just about ready to either take the plunge and invest, or stash your cash for another day.

If you’re in the market for your first ever GoPro and are wondering if this is the model worth buying, then here’s the advice we give to our closest friends and family:

No matter your style, whether its general travel, action sports, lifestyle, underwater (remember it’s waterproof to 10m) or shooting YouTube videos, this model is pretty close to being one of the best travel cameras out there.

If you have the HERO9 or an earlier model such as the HERO 8 or HERO 7, and wondering whether now is the time to upgrade, then our answer is yes, you should.

The HERO11 takes the legendary cameras to a whole new level, and the larger sensor matched with the GP2 processor means it’s like night and day compared to the older versions.

Of course the new larger sensor is excellent. 8:7 aspect ratio is extremely useful. 10-bit colour is something pros have been screaming for. And the Night Effects along with 27 megapixels to play around with is worthwhile.

If that doesn’t sound like you though and you already own the 10, don’t feel like you need to rush out and sell your old camera just yet (unless of course GoPro are doing a crazy sale on the 11).

Also if you literally just bought a 10, don’t get upset and throw it away. It is still an amazing camera, and as long as you are having fun getting out there and shooting content, it’s more about creativity than gear anyway.

You’ve made it to the end of our GoPro HERO11 review, and after intense use and a serious deep dive into all the new features, build quality and ease of use, we’ve given it a solid 9/10.

Thanks very much for reading our GoPro HERO10 Black review. If you have any questions please leave a comment below and we’ll answer them as soon as possible.

DISCLAIMER:Some of the links in this article are affiliate links, which means if you book accommodation, tours or buy a product, we will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These commissions help us keep creating more free travel content to help people plan their holidays and adventures. We only recommend the best accommodations, tours and products, and regularly review these. Thanks for your support, kind friend!

The GoPro HERO11 offers a substantial upgrade over the HERO10 thanks to the larger 1/1.9″ sensor, 10-bit colour, new 8:7 aspect ratio and HyperSmooth 5.0 over the previous model.

If you have the HERO9 model or earlier, use your GoPro more than twice a week or make social media content, then it is definitely worth upgrading to the GoPro HERO11 to make full use of the new larger sensor and 8:7 aspect ratio.

With the new 27 megapixel, 1/1.9″ sensor being powered by the GP2 processor and full RAW capabilities, the GoPro HERO 11 is a fantastic camera for taking still photos.

Our comprehensive GoPro HERO 9 review, complete with all the new features, comparisons with old cameras, and an honest opinion on whether you should upgrade or not.

After years of being the world’s number one action sports camera, GoPro managed to deliver another stellar product in 2020 as an upgrade to the wildly popular 8 series.

From travel to snowboarding, scuba diving to mountain biking and just about everything in between, we’ve put our GoPros through some tortuous environments.

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Perhaps the biggest upgrade for the HERO9, especially considering it has been wanted by the community for years, is the complete overhaul of the sensor.

According to us, this is one of the biggest ‘game-changing’ upgrades this year. We’ve tested out the sensor alongside our high-end professional cameras, and are amazed at the photo quality the GoPro HERO9 produces.

The in-built image stabilisation was so good, you could literally point the camera and walk (or run, or mountain bike) while filming, and still come away with buttery smooth footage.

The main difference is that now the GoPro HERO 9 Black has horizon levelling built directly into the camera, which automatically adjusts the crop to ensure your horizon is as close to level as possible.

Previously you would have to do this through the GoPro app or in post-production. So this feature saves you time in the future when editing your videos.

First introduced in the HERO7, TimeWarp got an upgrade on the HERO8 to allow the user to tap on the screen to toggle between quick-time and real-time.

TimeWarp 3.0 goes two steps further, and now with a simple tap of the larger rear screen you can not only set the hyperlapse to real-time, you can then drop it to slo-mo!

The most obvious upgrade straight out of the box, and something we can’t fail to mention in this GoPro HERO 9 Black review, is the inclusion of the colour front display LCD screen.

That’s not a problem anymore though, because with the GoPro HERO 9 Black, you can now set the exact time you want to start recording at, put your camera in place then walk away.

Perhaps one of the best things about GoPros isn’t necessarily the action cameras themselves, but all the incredible accessories you can get along with them!

The GoPro Media Mod is a housing that your HERO9 slides into that features a bi-directional microphone, cold shoe mounts, USB-C input/output and a 3.5mm microphone jack.

The latest and greatest modular accessory is the Max Lens Mod. Leaning on the ultra-wide capabilities of its bigger 360-degree sibling, the Max Lens Mod replaces the original lens cover on the GoPro Hero 9 Black to give it a super-wide perspective with excellent field of view.

Ok, you’ve read through all of the above specifications and are now thinking, “Wow, that camera sounds epic! I should run out and buy one right this second!”

We’ve taken it on all kinds of cool adventures, including road tripping around Far North Queensland, snorkelling with turtles on the Great Barrier Reef, downhill mountain biking and general travel vlogging.

In fact if we’re going out with friends or heading out on any adventure, we’ll have the GoPro HERO 9 Black in our bag and leave the big cameras at home.

On all of our multi-day hikes in fact, we use the HERO9 for vlogging because it’s just so damn versatile, light and easy to use (plus the footage looks great).

Surely it wouldn’t take much to have this feature, and considering they push the camera as a fantastic vlogging setup, we think it should be included without the need to buy an additional unit.

And the last thing that we’re not completely happy about with the GoPro HERO 9 Black is that it isn’t compatible with older GoPro HERO batteries or the HERO 8 Black media mod.

Now that we’ve run through all the major new features in this GoPro HERO 9 Black review, you’re probably wondering what sets this action camera apart from its predecessors.

If you don’t currently own a GoPro, and are looking for a camera that you can use in a range of environments, then the HERO9 is absolutely worth buying.

Whether you want a durable, waterproof camera, something for vlogging or just an all-round travel camera, the GoPro HERO 9 Black is one of the best action cameras on the market.

If you’re sitting on the HERO7, or perhaps one of the earlier models, then upgrading to the HERO9 is going to completely change your perspective on just how powerful these little action cameras can be.

The jump from the HERO6 to HERO7 was huge, from HERO7 to HERO 8 Black less so. But going from the HERO7 directly to the HERO9 is a worthy choice, especially if you’re in the market for a new product.

While, in our opinion, the HERO7 to HERO8 was a minor upgrade, the HERO8 to HERO9 is a fairly major one with the inclusion of the front-facing screen, 5k, new camera sensor, etc.

On the other hand, if you’re the kind of person who would use their smartphone 90% of the time and only pick up the GoPro now and then, we’d say save your money and perhaps buy a couple of awesome accessories instead.

Wait what? When is the GoPro HERO 10 being released? If historical dates are any indication, you can expect to see the GoPro HERO10 in September 2021. HOWEVER with the current chip manufacturing shortage in Taiwan and the fact that zero rumours have come out about any new camera, there’s a high likelihood that there isn’t going to be a release this year. If you need a camera now, don’t wait. Just get this current model.

DISCLAIMER:Some of the links in this article are affiliate links, which means if you book accommodation, tours or buy a product, we will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These commissions help us keep creating more free travel content to help people plan their holidays and adventures. We only recommend the best accommodations, tours and products, and regularly review these. Thanks for your support, kind friend!

We"ve put the new camera to the test in this comprehensive GoPro HERO 9 review. Dive into the new features, how it performs and whether it"s worth upgrading.

Exactly one year ago today GoPro announced the Display Mod, as part of the larger Hero 8 suite. At the time, a year before the Hero 9 would come out, it promised a way to see yourself from the front of the camera, aimed somewhat at vloggers, but realistically anyone that just wanted to frame the subject from in front of the camera (which I think is way more people than just vloggers). Undoubtedly it was a response to the DJI OSMO Action with its dual front and rear color screens.

Unfortunately, with delay after delay after delay, it wouldn’t finally see the light until just a week or two ago. By then, the GoPro Hero 9 had launched, which featured a similar front-facing screen as the DJI OSMO Action, negating the value for most people. Still, plenty of people have the Hero 8 cameras, and the Display Mod also offers a larger screen than the Hero 9’s front facing display. So perhaps there was still some value there – it was time to find out!

To begin, the Display Mod comes with both a USB-C charging cable (just like a normal GoPro would), as well as a small case for it, keeping it safe for when it’s not on your camera:

The GoPro Display Mod requires the GoPro Media Mod. In the case of the Hero 8, that’s the Hero 8 Media Mod, and in the case of the Hero 9, that’s the Hero 9 Media Mod. These are different models and aren’t cross-compatible because the GoPro Hero 8 and Hero 9 are different sizes, thus their shells are different sizes:

But, the good news is that as long as you have the appropriate Media Mod for the right camera, then you can use the same Display Mod with either. Also, for fun, I tried using the Media Mod with the GoPro Hero 7 (which has an HDMI port on it), and while it would illuminate, it would only show a gallery view of existing content on the card (like plugging into a TV), except half the navigation icons are cut-off, so you’re basically navigating blindly with the Hero 7 Mode & Power Buttons, hoping you don’t delete anything in the process.

Then, you’ll go ahead do a funky twisting snake maneuver with the cable to get it into its micro-HDMI hole without it flopping all over the place. It’ll look like this when done:

Now, you’ll twist up the Display Mod, which has the screen on the front-facing side. This hinge seems well built in terms of up/down movement, but wouldn’t do well with a strong shear (lateral) or twisting force on it. Long term I think disconnecting and re-connecting the wire is probably what will break first.

Next, go ahead and hold down the left button, this turns it on. If you have the screen on, but not yet the GoPro, you’ll see this (which assumes you haven’t connected the cable). You’ll also see the battery state in the corner (of the display mod). Once you turn on your GoPro, you’ll see yourself on the Display Mod, and the GoPro Hero 8 or 9 back screen will turn off:

On the front Display Mod screen you’ll only ever see the exact same thing: Yourself and the Display Mod battery. Meanwhile, on the front GoPro status screen you’ll see the recording time details more or less like normal. You’ll see the mode you’re in, recording time, battery life of the GoPro, etc…

At first you’re like – OK, no biggie, right? Except…biggie. See, you can’t adjust any settings now unless you literally turn off the Display Mod (which means it’s now sitting there flipped up and off – cause if it’s flipped down, it blocks your rear touchscreen):

See, the Display Mod isn’t a touchscreen, and it *NEVER* shows display settings, or allows you to adjust settings. It just shows yourself. That’s it. Again, it only shows yourself. Take for example this super cool new audio feature on the Hero 9 Media Mod (green lines at the bottom) – this is when the Display Mod is turned off:

Or, perhaps you want to adjust from Wide to the new GoPro Hero 9 Linear Horizon Leveling mode. Nope, you can’t do that either without shutting off the Display Mod, waiting for it to slowly disconnect itself, and then illuminate the other screen. And then of course once that’s done, you’ll turn back your Display Mod on.

So when you’re not having the Display Mod in use, then you can flip down the screen like this (shown partially, it goes all the way down as shown above elsewhere):

And that’s fine, you can still see the GoPro screen. Except it doesn’t go to sleep like the normal screen does. So it’ll just burn battery forever. Also, again, you can’t adjust any settings, or even see the recording times from the back – because that’s only on the status.  Mind, you, all this is the same on the Hero 8 or Hero 9.

Further, it ignores the GoPro display timeout settings as well. It’ll just stay on forever, until the GoPro turns off physically, in which case two minutes later the Display Mod turns off too. But this doesn’t match the normal settings where the displays go to sleep (timeout) earlier to prevent battery drain.

As in, there’s nothing else to talk about. That’s the sum total of the GoPro Display Mod’s capabilities. It’s basically a simple non-touchscreen display that you clip on the top and it reduces the functionality of your GoPro, by only very slightly increasing one aspect (seeing yourself on the front if on the Hero 8, or slightly bigger on the Hero 9). But that’s a massive tradeoff for the functions.

No, the Media Mod is required for either the Hero 8 or Hero 9, since neither camera has a micro-HDMI port. The Media Mod does, which is required for the Display Mod.

The screen measures 2” diagonal and has a resolution of 480×320, the exact same as the GoPro Hero 8 rear screen (but smaller than the Hero 9 rear screen).

No, it has its own battery that you must charge separately. Meaning, you’ll need to plug in two cables (one to your GoPro to charge that battery, and one to your Display Mod to charge that battery). The Media Mod doesn’t have an internal battery, so no need for a third cable there.

No, according to GoPro “Current hardware limitations prevent output to the Display Mod and enabling the full functionality of the Hero 9 Black back touchscreen at the same time”. Which, is exactly what I’ve seen. It will show status on the Hero 9 front display screen, just like the Hero 8 front display screen.

When GoPro announced the Display Mod, it was clearly in response to DJI. Some day we’ll find out for real whether this was in the hopper before DJI announced their OSMO Action 5 months earlier. My guess is it might have been on a napkin somewhere, but that’s about it. When GoPro held various media events leading up to the Hero 8 launch last September, the Display Mod was nowhere to be found, save under a glass case…untouchable. Yet, it was still slated to be released by December 2019 (something I was skeptical on at the time).

Fast forward to January 2020 and the Display Mod made its first appearance at CES in the booth for all to touch and caress. From briefly playing with it then, it was clear it was a hot mess. Which, probably explains why it was delayed and delayed and delayed until now.

I’ve bought literally almost every product GoPro has made. Every action cam, almost every mount, and even that drone. Yes, the remotes and accessory cables too. And ultimately, I think this is the most disappointing thing GoPro has made.  It’s as if the concept never really left the napkin stage and went through a proper productization. It’s as if someone shipped the napkin off to a manufacturer in Asia, and they shipped back this hardware with a coffee-stained half-ripped sticky note that says “KThxBye!”.

For Hero 8 users this would have helped bridge the gap, and sure, if you’ve already got the Hero 8 + Hero 8 Media Mod, and don’t care about changing settings or often changing the direction of your camera to point at something else, then maybe this is a good intermediate option for ya. But if you’ve got a Hero 8 with no Media Mod, you’re basically looking at $160 for both the Media Mod + Display Mod, which is about half-way to the cost of a Hero 9 assuming you’ve got GoPro Plus.

Even in the case of the Hero 9, there’s so much real potential for the Display Mod for its intended target audience – vloggers. Why couldn’t GoPro have put the audio levels on the screen? Why not an exposure graph? Why not additional ProTune metrics on the screen like ISO or shutter speed? Why not the ability to change zoom levels like the Hero 9 screen? Why not a 16:9 overlay when recording 4:3 content? Why not even GoPro GPS-based metrics that are available through the app, like speed? Why not dual-screen support like their actual product page originally showed? Why doesn’t it auto shut–off the screen per the GoPro screen savings settings? Why can’t I change settings when the Display Mod is enabled?

While I can hope some of those things happen, the reality is that I suspect they won’t. Which is too bad, as I think there actually are some use cases for the Display Mod, but as of today I’d have a really hard time recommending it to anyone. But hey, on the bright side – the Hero 9 Media Mod and Hero 9 Max SV Mod are actually mostly pretty cool…so more on those shortly.

Hopefully you found this review useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well.

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Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible. And lastly, if you felt this review was useful – I always appreciate feedback in the comments below. Thanks!

Hopefully you found this review useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well.

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And of course – you can always sign-up to be a DCR Supporter! That gets you an ad-free DCR, access to the DCR Quarantine Corner video series packed with behind the scenes tidbits...and it also makes you awesome. And being awesome is what it’s all about!

Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible. And lastly, if you felt this review was useful – I always appreciate feedback in the comments below. Thanks!

Early last month GoPro completed their annual October ritual of releasing a suite of new units.  Like past years, GoPro doesn’t tend to make massive upgrades in their units, but rather works to add incremental features and performance bumps.

The thing is: These incremental bumps serve to stay just ahead of most of the competitors out there. But with these incremental bumps also came a rather unusual bump in price at the top end, while inversely dropping the lower-end unit significantly in price.

The question is, did this strategy work this time, and are they competitive in the market? Over the last month I’ve beat the crap out of the cameras, which I bought myself, to find out.  From testing out the different new high resolution and high speed video modes to understanding the impact on battery life, I dive into it all.  Let’s get started!

It’s somewhat rare that I group this many products into a single review.  Sometimes I’ll do two minor variations of the same product in a single post, but I think this is the first threesome I’ve had around these parts.  When it comes to the GoPro packaging though, all three units are pretty similar actually. They all include the following:

– The camera itself (duh) – The battery for the camera – A mini-USB cable – An underwater case rated to 40m/131ft – An alternate/secondary door for the case that allows for better audio – A small stack of GoPro stickers – A small quick-start guide and other paper junk – A flat adhesive mount – A curved adhesive mount – A loss prevention rubber stopper

In addition, the Hero4 Black and Silver also include a little adapter arm for the mounting system to change the direction a bit.  Of course, because everyone wants to see exactly what comes in each package, I’ve included the unboxing for each of them below.  I’ve abbreviated it a little bit though on the Silver/Base just to keep things non-redundant.  Sound good?  Let’s tear apart some boxes…

To begin you’ll find the boxes of the Black and Silver fairly similarly designed, with only the Base Hero slightly different with cheaper packaging materials to save weight and cost.

Here’s what you’ll get inside the Hero4 Black box.  It’s all the items noted above, but one little piece that many people accidentally miss – which is the flat black baseplate that the Hero comes on.  It can in effect act as a handy little tripod, yet many folks simply throw it away.

Next, the standard mini-USB plug that can be used to both charge the unit as well as download photos.  Note that this USB cable (and your attached GoPro) can be plugged into any USB outlet on the planet.

Both the Black and Silver come with the same set of mounts.  You have two adhesive mounts, one being pancake flat, while the other is slightly curved (such as for a helmet).  Behind it are two different mount pieces, one that holds the camera a little further back, while the other has less extension (it’s attached to the baseplate to begin).  Meanwhile they also include a few extenders and direction changers seen to the right.

Finally, we get to the camera itself, which comes in the waterproof housing.  There is a secondary door (seen up above), that allows sound to be heard relatively clearly versus the fully sealed waterproof housing where it’ll be rather muffled.

The bottom opens up identically on the Black and Silver, which is where you’ll place the battery.  There’s a small little button you’ll press that’ll then pop open the door.  It’s a much better design than the annoying battery cover found on previous GoPro units.

The only difference in the box is the case doors.  The Silver edition includes three doors (instead of two), and two of these doors are designed to allow you to operate the touch screen. In the below photo, the two lower doors allow touch screen operation.  The left one is completely open, while the right one has a thin flexible plastic.

Here’s the front of the camera, as you can see, it’s virtually identical to the Hero4 Black.  Though, strangely in my case it actually has a small manufacturing defect on the front of the LCD screen.  It hasn’t bothered me though, and I’m too lazy to deal with returning it.

The 2014 GoPro Hero base unit is packaged slightly differently.  For example it lacks the top plastic ‘dome’ found on the other/past units, as well as the plastic baseplate.  Obviously at a fraction of the price they were looking to cut costs that were unnecessary, which, is completely reasonable.

Below are the components within the box.  You’ll find the two adhesive mounts (flat/curved), but only one mounting attachment piece between the GoPro and the adhesive mounts.  Don’t worry, you still get stickers.

Now – and this next piece is really important to understand – the Hero base unit does NOT detach from the case.  It’s molded into the outer plastic shell.  Said a third way, you cannot remove the grey camera from the outer clear plastic case.

This is an obvious departure from the past.  Though, in using it – there’s actually very little issue there in most situations for action cams.  The main reason some people remove the camera from the case is to get it a bit smaller for various placement locations, or, to get rid of the glass off the front of the case (using the skeleton mount).  But, for most people – heck, even kids – this makes it much harder to kill the camera.

When it comes to size, the Hero4 is identical to that of the Hero3, so there’s no changes there.  It’ll fit into all the same mounts, cases and locations that the Hero3 did.  This is particularly interesting even in the case of the touch-screen display included on the Hero4 Silver.  Of course, if you add a touch/display screen to the Hero4 Black then it’ll increase the size accordingly.

Case included the solid-door backing, and the semi-flexible backing for the Silver case. It includes a single Micro-SD card, as well as the default battery.  You can see that the Hero Base is actually a fair bit lighter, interestingly enough.

Looking at other units on the market, the GoPro remains the smallest unit with the highest quality video.  No doubt you can look at something smaller like the new Polaroid cube, but with that comes incredibly rough video (stabilization-wise).  While the baseline Polaroid 1080p video isn’t horrible when just sitting still, it’s not at all awesome with any movement at all.  And given the point of an action cam is…action, that’s sorta limiting:

Meanwhile, if you compare it to something like the Sony series of action cams, it’s sorta a wash.  The Sony cams are longer, but thinner.  While the GoPro’s appear a bit chubbier.  Both can go sans-case, though neither should be taken underwater without their respective cases.

Turning to something like the VIRB series, the GoPro is much smaller without the case, though only somewhat smaller with the case.  The VIRB doesn’t require a case unless going deeper underwater (splashing around in a pool is fine).  But, the GoPro is also roughly the size of a Twinkie compared to that of a kiwi fruit (not the bird, nor the New Zealander’s) with the Garmin VIRB.  Note that both the VIRB and VIRB Elite share the same outer shell.

Of course, to some degree comparing sizes with the GoPro is somewhat academic.  It’s well established as a completely acceptable sized unit within the marketplace – with the case.  And without the case the options are pretty much unlimited.

Let’s start off with establishing some of the basics, things that are largely common to all units.  To begin, you’ll turn on the unit by holding down the front-facing button (Mode).  This will get the GoPro ready to record, but won’t start recording:

Alternatively, on all units you can enable a single button press mode (‘Quick Capture’) that will automatically turn on the camera in recording mode and start recording video as soon as it has started up.

Each of the units will require a MicroSD card to record to.  These are super-cheap though and can be found starting at about $12 for quality 16GB ones.  The Hero4 Black and Silver support card sizes up to 64GB, whereas the Hero base only supports 32GB. Note that when it comes to speed of cards, it’ll depend a little bit on how you plan to use the units.  For generic 720p/1080p content in the 24-30FPS mode, it’s frankly not going to matter too much how fast of a card you have.  But if you start recording 2.7K/4K footage at full frame rates you’re going to want fast cards to be able to keep up.

For those curious, in the Black/Silver I’ve been using the SanDisk U1 64GB Extreme Plus cards, without any recording issues.  Again, for the Hero base, this would be beyond overkill (it couldn’t use it if it tried).

With the camera powered on, all units have a front-facing LCD screen.  This screen will show you which mode you’re in, for example, video, photo, time lapse, etc…  You can simply tap the front mode button to iterate to the next mode.

New to the Hero4 lineup though on the Black/Silver models is a direct settings button found on the side.  While the button has always been there, it’s been for enabling WiFi.  Now, it’ll do both.  If you short-tap it, it’ll open up the settings menu for just that particular mode.  If you long-hold it, it’ll enable/disable WiFi.  It’s a beautifully elegant solution.

The same is true of photo modes, allowing you to then change how many shots it might take, and the resolutions of those.  It’s without question one of my favorite features of the Hero4 lineup. Of course, you can still dive into the traditional settings menu using the mode button, but now those options on the Black/Silver pertain more to whole-camera options.

For example, this is where you would change the orientation of the camera (Black/Silver/Hero), as well as change which mode the camera starts off in, for example, photo instead of video (Black/Silver).

In the February 2015 update, they also enabled the ability to do automatic orientation.  This means that the Hero4 Silver and Black can now automatically be oriented based on whichever way is determined as ‘up’.  You can also just leave it manually as well.

And, you can enable the ability to automatically shut off after a preset time.  I like 5 minutes, because that’s typically longer than I’d wait around for any action sequence to happen – and usually means that I’ve forgotten about the camera.  Since the GoPro doesn’t save too much battery sitting in standby versus recording – I prefer to keep it off as much as I can.

Now, note that on the Hero base, you’ll have considerably less options.  For example, there is no option to change which mode it starts in, nor the option to automatically shut off.  Though, those are hardly deal killers.

Also note that unlike the Black/Silver, the Hero base can’t have settings changed via the phone apps, but more on that later. Next, when it comes to actually record something, you’ll start/stop the recording (or photos) by pressing the top button on the GoPro (with the red circle).

And again, to stop it, you’ll just press the same button.  By default the unit will chirp/beep and then the red recording light will blink.  You can change the volume of the chirps.  I do that if I plan to use the unit indoors where the chirps can get a bit annoying (Side Note: I fail to understand why there is a 100% volume, 75% volume, and 0% volume level…but no 25% or 50% level).Outside of course, it’s handy to have the chirps though if mounted on a helmet. With those basics covered, let’s get onto the Silver-only touch screen, and then I’ll cover many of the features individually.

The GoPro Hero4 Silver sports a new addition to the Hero lineup, a touch screen.  While you could in the past attach a LCD screen to the back of units, it always came at the cost of increased space as well as just being sorta clunky.  With the Hero4 Silver though, it’s embedded into the back of the unit while remaining exactly the same size as previous models.

The screen is both there to display what the camera is shooting, but also to act as a touch screen to change settings.  To do so, you’ll press the little red dot and then slide down and hold a few seconds.  This ensures that you can’t accidentally bump it on, like butt dialing, but for action cameras (which, upon reflection could be really awkward).

Once you have it unlocked, it’ll show you a touch menu that you can go into and modify settings for each of the modes.  You effectively get all of the modification capabilities of the front LCD + buttons, with the back screen:

Now of course while recording, you can use this to frame your shots ahead of time and then keep an eye on things while recording.  By default it’ll shut off the screen shortly after recording to save battery. I’ve gotta say, when I first saw the marketing images of the screen I figured it’d be like the Garmin VIRB screen.  In that while the VIRB screen was marketed to look like a orgasmicly colorful experience, in reality it was like 1930’s black and white silent film.

Thankfully, the Hero4 Silver is legit color.  Brilliantly colorful and just as crisp and pretty as the marketing shots look.  It’s a bit tricky to take photos of because of the light differential between foreground and the LCD screen, but, you can get a little bit of a feel for it in some of the below:

And on top of that, it will playback sound as well.  When it comes to a screen on an action camera, this is perfect for me.  Or rather, for my wife.  I actually didn’t use it nearly as much as her – who loved being able to see exactly what she was shooting and play it back without a phone (as was the case with her cannonballs seen later).

Now with all that praise, do keep in mind one thing: For most folks, the screen is merely used for framing a shot.  So while the color is much appreciated, I wouldn’t say it’s a complete deal-breaker.  I’m able to frame shots on the 1930’s style black and white screen VIRB just as easily as the Hero4 Silver.

When it comes to video quality in an action cam, nobody has higher resolutions than the GoPro.  Period, end of story.  Well, at least today. So what does that mean from a practical standpoint?  Well with the Hero3+ Black, GoPro offered 2.7K at full frame rates.  In this case, full frame rates are anything above 24FPS.  Below that and you’ll start to get degradation viewable to the human eye in most situations.  So in the case of the Hero3+ Black, it had 4K footage…but at 15FPS. With the Hero4, things simply shifted.  The Hero4 Black got full 4K at 24/25/30FPS, while the Hero4 Silver got 2.7K at 24/25/30FPS, and 4K at 12.5/15FPS.  So basically, the following happened:

Here, let this short video clip explain things a bit.  In this case I wanted to shoot just the cycling head unit and have it be super-crisp and readable for another post I was doing.  It’s tough to do that though while riding and just hand-holding it.  But with Premier afterwards I was able to crop down and stabilize just that portion of footage, and still get 1080p detail.

As you can see, I took the 4K video, but then cropped down just a chunk of it to 1080p.  Note that cropping is different than downscaling.  Cropping means you cut some of the image away.  Whereas with downscaling (aka ‘to downres’), you simply convert the entire video down to a lower resolution.  You don’t lose any of the picture, but you just lose quality. To explain some of the differences between the two resolutions, here’s a segment where I had all three cameras mounted side by side.  Here’s the Hero4 Black (be sure to set the resolution to 4K):

Can you tell the difference?  For most on smaller screens – probably not.  But that’s likely just because you’re viewing it on a device too small to notice the differences.  But, this is a key point in deciding whether or not it’s worth the money to pay extra for what is 4K/2.7K over just 1080p resolution found on every other device out there.

Now when it comes to resolutions, keep in mind that while GoPro has action cam dominance today, tomorrow that might change (hence why it’s always good to check out the Product Comparison Tool).  In general, I wouldn’t expect any changes between now and the end of 2014.  But I fully expect that to change starting with CES the first week of January.  CES is the annual and massive Consumer Electronics Show, where everyone in the gadget world comes out with their new stuff.

In addition to high resolution video, the GoPro series can also do high speed video.  High speed video refers to the idea of increasing the frame rate (frames per second) recorded in order to then play it back at ‘regular’ speed and achieve a slow-motion effect.  Take for example 120FPS footage.  It’s captured (wait for it) at 120 frames per second.  But, when it comes to playback, it might be played back at 30FPS, which then results in that one-second moment of action taking 4 seconds to play back.  Thus achieving gloriously smooth slow-motion.  You can see this below with a Hero4 Black and a touchscreen attached.

Smooth slow motion is a factor of how many FPS you can capture at, combined with the resolution you can capture.  In general, each year the bar gets moved higher and higher for capture rates. So like past years, once again we saw a bump in resolution.  This becomes important when trying to incorporate slow-motion video into normal HD programs.

With these higher frame rates at higher resolutions, you’re no longer having to make sacrifices in quality or frame rates for slow-motion footage. Like other settings, on the GoPro you can modify these within the app, or within the camera itself.  In the case of base GoPro Hero, you’re only getting 1080P-30FPS, or 720P-60FPS. The exact frame rates offered for each resolution I’ve included within the comparison table at the bottom of the review.

So what does this look like?  Well, no better way to test this than a canon ball into a swimming pool.  The perfect way to illustrate slow-motion, in this case with a common 120FPS 720p clip (from the GoPro Hero4 Silver):

Now I could have gone to 240FPS on the Hero4 Black, but that reduces the resolution.  Previous to February 2015 it was WVGA, but now it’s 720 – which makes it potentially a fair tradeoff.  Still, for those wanting to keep it 1080p or higher, you could instead look to slow it down further with the GoPro studio and take the hit on frame rates instead of resolution.  In this case, I went with 20% speed playback.

Note that the GoPro Studio offers the ability specify the exact moment in time that you switch from regular playback to slow-motion playback by simply splitting the clips.  This allows you to keep at normal speed until just the moment of action, such as this where I kept it regular rates for the first few seconds, then slowed it down when she was mid-air, and then let it get back to half-speed towards the last few seconds.

Further, GoPro has also introduced what they call ‘Flux’.  The idea behind it is a bit smarter interpolation of the frames when slowing down video, allowing you to get cleaner video.  In the above case I used Flux for the middle section of slow-mo, though, it’s not really required since I shot at 120FPS already and there was plenty of slow motion as-is. But it’s more noticeable if you really wanted to slow things down even further than that.

For example, if you wanted to turn what would have been 4-5 seconds at playback speed into 8-10 seconds.  In that case you’d lose so many frames that it might be tough to get smooth video. Note that Flux is all done after the fact within GoPro Studio, and is not something done on the camera itself.  It does not require you do anything on the unit itself.

Ultimately, the Hero4 lineup offers the most diverse options in the marketplace today when it comes to high speed frame rate offerings as well as higher resolutions at those frame rates.

The Hero4 introduced a new night capture mode to the lineup, which aims to compliment the other photo modes found within the unit.  Before we dive into the night mode, it’s probably good to start with a quick overview of all the major modes found on the Hero lineup:

Single Shot Mode: This is the most basic, you press a button, and a single photo is taken.  I find this best when you know exactly what you’re taking the photo of, without any action-sport ambiguity.  For example, you might use this in a marketplace or other non-action setting.

Burst: This is is for capturing up to 30 photos in one second.  Or basically, a burst of photos, as the name implies.  This is best when you’re capturing a quick moment of action and you don’t know exactly what might make the perfect shot for later.  You can tweak the capture rate a little bit over the course of upwards of 3 seconds.  So you could do 10 photos/second for 3 seconds, for example.  Or, with the February 2015 update you can do 30/6 as well (30 photos in 6 seconds, or as few as 2 seconds).

Night Photo: In this case the unit takes the photo mode but adds the ability to customize the exposure setting.  This means you can get more light into the camera and take clearer night photos, as well as get photos with light streaks and the sort.  Again, more on that in a moment.

Night Lapse: This is the same concept as time lapse, but with with night photos.  In this case you can get longer exposure photos that can be merged later as part of a time lapse.

Ok, with those basics out of the way, let’s get to some shots and how I use it.  In most cases, when I’m using the GoPro as a camera, I’m shooting in the highest possible megapixel arrangement with the wide option.  This is because the way the GoPro works is that even if you were to select a medium crop image, it’s simply taking the 12MP wide image and cropping that automatically.  Thus it’s much better to take the higher resolution and do the cropping yourself. For example, below if I wanted just the fish from this GoPro image, I could crop to just the fish and the sea anemone.

But what situations would you want medium over wide?  Well, for those where you didn’t want to deal with cropping.  For example, The Girl (aka, my wife), borrowed the GoPro Hero4 Silver for the day while snorkeling.  She didn’t want the super-wide shots that were coming in on wide mode, and instead preferred the zoomed in aspect of the medium mode.  For her, she’s not going to want to deal with cropping the photos afterwards on the computer or her phone.  She just wants to be able to take them and post them to whatever platform she wants – no editing.

The good piece is that both options are there (see table later in review for exact options per model), so you can do whatever you’d like. Next, when it comes to how many photos to shoot for each button press, I tend to go with three photos.  That allows me a bit of flexibility in case I fudge the shot, and since sometimes they might be slightly-action based (riding or running), I can pick the best out of the three.

Finally, let’s look at some night shots.  In this case, I used the Night Mode to get a longer exposure with the unit.  I toyed around with a few different exposures (aside from Automatic), but decided that a 2 second exposure worked out the best.  Here’s the un-edited shot from the Hero4 Black:

The GoPro series includes a time lapse mode.  In this mode the unit will take a series of photos at a preset interval, such as every half a second.  You can then take those photos and compile them together to make a video time-lapse. Alternatively, this mode is ideal when you want to simply have photos of/during an event, but don’t know when the moment of action will come (or won’t be in a position to press record).

For example, you might be mountain biking downhill and want to easily capture photos along the way (instead of video).  Just plop it in time lapse mode and it’ll capture photos at the defined interval. Why use this instead of video (and then take a screenshot)?  Well, the resolution is substantially higher with photos over video.  Further, you tend to get crisper photos this way. The GoPro series supports different intervals depending on the model.  Here’s the run-down for the 2014 series:

Next, you’ll need some software to turn these all into a pretty video.  Of course, if you don’t want a video, then you’re just done as-is. For the video, GoPro Studio enables you to drag the photos into the software and it’ll compile it into a video.

There’s two ways of doing this.  The first is to just drag the first photo in the series into GoPro studio (and it’ll do the rest automatically).  Or, you can manually put them all in a folder and then drag the folder in.  Whatever floats your boat:

With that, you can then adjust how fast playback will be.  At this point you’ll need to do a bit of mental math on how long you want the video to be.  In general, most times you’ll playback video at 24 or 30FPS.  In my case, I sped it up 5 times, as the original length was going to be 2 minutes and 20 seconds, which is an eternity sitting watching a single view out my hotel window.  So, 1/5th of that seemed appropriate.

Now some of this you’ll want to think through before you even start shooting, adjusted on the camera itself.  By default the unit will shoot at .5sec increments.  You’ll need to figure out how long you want your completed time-lapse for to determine which settings you’ll use.

Now, while this is quite functional – it can be a bit complex for the beginner.  This is one area that I’ve previously preferred Garmin’s method with the VIRB.  In their case they just build the video for you on the device itself.  So as it records each image it automatically compiles it.  You can see examples of this in my review within the VIRB In-Depth Review time lapse section. Of course, there are pros and cons to each option.

However, with the February 2015 update for the GoPro Hero4 Black and Silver, it’ll now create that same video for you within the GoPro unit itself.  I’ll discuss that in the next section.

In February 2015, GoPro introduced a new time lapse mode that automatically exports out a video file when you end the recording of the time lapse.  This means that when you hit finish on the time lapse on the camera, you immediately have a video file – instead of a huge pile of photos that need additional processing.  This option was made available to only the Hero4 Black and Silver models, via a free firmware update.

When you look at the configuration options, they’re identical across both the Black and Silver units.  You’ll select ‘Time Lapse’ as an option under the Video settings.  Then within that you can select the interval for how often to take a photo to add to the video.

With that