Source: GoPro
How do you know it’s September? The teachers threaten to strike, the traffic jams return to the roads and GoPro announces a new camera. At least that’s what we’ve gotten used to in recent years. And this time, after two tough years of Corona, closures and people not really traveling or going on extreme experiences – the world is returning to itself – and it seems that the color is returning to the cheeks of the American manufacturer, which today (Wed) is announcing 2 new GoPro HERO11 cameras.
Sensor and software upgrade
The main news that the new HERO11 series brings is the sensor. Instead of a 1/2.3-inch and 23-megapixel sensor, the new cameras come with a larger 1/1.9-inch and 27-megapixel sensor. The larger sensor allows shooting in an 8:7 aspect ratio photo format, which allows the camera to capture more length/height detail. In other words, GoPro understood where the wind was blowing and in the application you can also enjoy the video in the normal 16:9 format that is adapted for computer screens, televisions and YouTube, but also cut the video to the 9:16 format, the format of the various stories and, of course, Tiktok. Another advantage to the sensor and the almost square proportions is more image captured for cropping and digital stabilization operations.
If you’re less into Tiktok and more into professional video and image quality, another upgrade in the camera is the 10-bit video color depth. That is, instead of 256 degrees of each color channel (RGB) in 8-bit, which creates an image with 16.7 million shades, we can enjoy 1,024 degrees in each channel, which creates an image with 1,073,741,824 different color shades (exactly, we counted a shade). GoPro calls this upgrade “a huge leap forward in image quality compared to previous cameras”.
The rest of the innovations – following GoPro’s trend in recent years – are on the software side. For example, the camera comes with HyperSmooth 5.0, the 5th generation of its electronic stabilization technology. The technology actually cuts your frame and with the help of the information from the camera’s sensors – actually creates electronic stabilization. In the previous models the stabilization worked impressively, so we are quite curious to see how it will work in the new model. One of the more impressive features of this stabilization is Horizon Lock, which allows you to “lock” the image in a certain horizontal position and then rotate the camera as much as you want, while the horizon does not move one level to the right or left. In the demo we saw, Gopro attached a camera to the tail of an airplane that did a 360-degree flip, and the image remained stable and at the same angle as if it was attached to another object; Another innovation is HyperView – a new digital lens – which allows you to capture 16:9 images at an extremely wide angle – a great advantage when you are taking pictures of yourself, for example. This lens works in both 5K shooting at 60 frames per second and 4K at 120 frames per second. Another innovation, which at least to us sounds gimmicky and disposable, is a mode for shooting effects at night – to capture “light paintings”, trails of stars and car lights while driving.
Another innovation of Go-Pro Hero11 is in the battery – what the company calls Enduro Battery. Although we are in a hot September, as we know extremely cold weather is not good for batteries. The new battery is equipped with new technology, which according to GoPro will provide up to 38 percent more recording time than the battery of the HERO10. Of course we’ll wait for independent tests, but any improvement in battery performance will make skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts happy.
We talked about GoPro’s focus in recent years on software – but this is not its only change. In recent years, with each new model that is launched, we see more and more focus on its subscription, which is simply called GoPro Subscription. Now this subscription includes an interesting feature: every time you return home or to the hotel after a day full of activity, the camera will detect the WiFi, and back up all the information you have on the card in the original quality, and in addition, at the end of the process, you will receive a video that includes all the good and interesting segments The most – or at least what the company’s algorithm thinks are the best and most interesting clips, instead of them rotting on your memory card until you find someone who has the strength to make a video out of it.
2 more options
The mini version: GoPro Hero11 Mini. Source: GoPro
In addition to the usual GoPro Hero11, GoPro introduced 2 more cameras – approx. The first one is really a new camera called HERO11 Black Mini. This mini camera does not have a front screen and reminded us a bit of the forgotten Session from 6 years ago, and it is mainly designed for simple one-click operation. Apart from the front screen – another difference is that its battery is built in, so you cannot replace an empty battery with a full one, and if the battery is damaged for some reason – you will have to hospitalize the entire camera for examination.
Go-Pro is also launching the GoPro Creator Bundle, a GoPro kit that is mainly intended for vloggers, YouTubers and TikTokers, which includes, in addition to the camera, a VOLTA rod, which enables charging and extending the duration of the photo, a media holder, which includes 3 microphones for high-quality sound recording and a Light Mod flashlight.
GoPro HERO11 is already available in Israel, and the price will be 2,000 NIS, including a two-year warranty by the importer Ronlight. The bundle version for content creators will cost 2,900 NIS.