20 Years of Awesome Action

It's taken me a long time to understand what GoPro is really all about.

When I first saw one, I couldn't get my head around the way users would just point and shoot, often without paying any attention to how things were lined up or focussed or... or anything.

It reminded me of the old days when you used to take your film into the chemist to get developed only to discover most of the friends in your shots had glowing red eyes and the rest of them were blurry. 

And yet, people have been using and loving GoPros for two decades now. What was I missing?

It wasn't until I started using them, really using them I began to understand the point of it all. The genius of GoPro is you just trust it to capture everything. Push record and do whatever it is you do - the GoPro will take care of the filming; you focus on the adventure. 

Of course, what really blew me away is how good a job these little cameras did.

This year is GoPro's 20th anniversary and as a result, I've heard a little bit from some of the guys who actually design and make them. That's also given me a real insight into why this product performs its tasks so brilliantly. These guys are crazy. And they want other people to see just how crazy they are.

The HERO11 Black looks very similar to its predecessor which in turn, looked pretty much the same as the HERO9. But with GoPro, it's what's inside that counts. The HERO10's GP2 processor marked a true evolution in performance and this year the addition of a larger 1/1.9" sensor has taken things to an even more impressive level. Sensor and processor combine to offer higher resolution photos - up to 27MP, a significant upgrade to GoPro's already standout digital stabilisation tech, HyperSmooth 5.0 and perhaps most eye-catching and brain-bending of all; you can now shoot at up to 5.3K in an all new 8:7 aspect ratio.

This last feature essentially means you now get all the benefits of GoPro's legendary wide-angle capture both vertically and horizontally - an acknowledgement that a lot of unmissable action happens up and down, as well as side-to-side. Obviously, this can be cropped to other aspects depending on your preference using the Quik app - without losing any of the new, incredible image quality.

In saying that, I did run into a few challenges with my all new, uber high-res footage when it came to editing. Quik still remains an unbelievably user-friendly, phone-based editing tool. The way you can use the Studio feature to automatically create an AI-generated highlights video is insane - instantly swapping out formats, themes and music beds. If you have the Auto-Upload setting activated, GoPro now even sends you an edit of your footage - you don't even have to do anything.

However, it was a different story once I tried to add my flash, new highlights package to the video below - to be fair, I was only using iMovie to mash my videos together but it did not respond well to my super-res footage and I had to compress it to get it to play nicely with the rest of my files. Don't you just hate it when your movie is too professional for your editing skills?

That being said, hopefully you still get the idea...

Another new option made possible by the new image sensor is HyperView; here the HERO11 takes your 8:7 footage and digitally transforms it into an even wider-angle 16:9 video. This is not really for distance shooting as there's a kind of wall-eye distortion to it but it's a fabulous way to film action selfies. The effect is like you're bringing the viewer inside the video with you - particularly immersive for activities like surfing, riding and skating.

Ah, there's so much to share here; 10-bit colour brings even more life to what were already stunning images. Horizon Levelling now keeps things straight at angles up to 27-degrees. And now you can use Horizon Lock instead; even if the camera rotates completely (jumps, tumbles, crashes) the viewer won't be disorientated as a result.

There are new time-lapse modes that let you take scintillating Star Trails, Light Painting and Vehicle Lights vids. Like I say, there's a lot to dig into with this new camera.

There's even a new battery; specifically developed for better cold-temperature performance. GoPro promises up to 38% longer recording time in normal temps over previous batteries. More battery life is always good news.

And I haven't even touched on the accessories! As you'll see from the video below, GoPro continues to come up with just the best accessories. Not to mention the best action cameras. Twenty years in the business pretty much guarantees the HERO11 Black delivers unprecedented performance, still in a typically tiny package. What's more, yet again I can't believe the price; right now cheaper than most smart phones, on special for NZ$729.99.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the GoPro HERO11 Black.

Click here for more information and pricing on the GoPro Gumby Flexible Mount.