GoPro launched the HERO11 Black, claiming it was essentially the most superior and user-friendly HERO to this point — a daring declare that I made a decision to place to the check.
I bent the duty of testing the HERO11 right into a surf journey, setting out on a weeklong tour of the PNW coast with boards in tow and GoPro rolling.
Video has by no means been my main medium. However alongside the way in which in testing the HERO11 Black, I amassed a number of the finest footage I’ve ever shot. And modifying in Quik (GoPro’s video editor) proved way more intuitive than I anticipated. I returned with a brand new software on my belt as a content material creator and a brand-new YouTube channel to show it.
I discovered some enjoyable waves, dreamy campsites, and a brand new ardour for creating video content material with the GoPro HERO11 Black.
In brief: The GoPro HERO11 Black makes capturing high-definition footage and pictures straightforward, and with the Quik app, modifying is streamlined. Some superior options, just like the AI Auto Highlights, could be a profit or a frustration relying on what you’re doing. However total, the digital camera makes filmmaking enjoyable and uncomplicated.
Area-Testing the GoPro HERO11 Black
Straightforward/Professional: GoPro HERO11 Black Modes
GoPro launched a handful of latest options and capabilities that make the HERO11 Black virtually foolproof to function. Chief amongst them are the dueling consumer interfaces: Straightforward and Professional modes.
Straightforward Mode automates settings to make utilizing the digital camera simple and uncomplicated. Then, Professional Mode opens the hood and lets the consumer dictate way more intricate settings.
I began testing in Straightforward and rapidly transitioned to Professional with out trying again. Among the coolest options — star path timelapses, for instance — are solely accessible in Professional Mode, and navigating it’s surprisingly easy.
Prolonged Battery, Computerized Shutoff
One in all my largest frustrations with the early GoPros was that they had been at all times dying. I’d go away them on unintentionally, or overlook to cost them, or the chilly would kill them. The HERO11 presents a number of options to treatment that.
The primary is the Enduro battery. Enduro is GoPro’s extended-runtime battery, which was an adjunct for the HERO10 however is the default for the 11. I used to be in a position to movie for nearly 2 hours at 1080p on a single cost.
Even higher, this digital camera holds a cost in freezing temperatures, which I examined by placing the digital camera in my freezer in a single day. It was a dangerous transfer, however the digital camera fired up the following morning with loads of juice. Gone are the times of wrapping my GoPro in a hand hotter to take it snowboarding.
Capturing surf periods from a tripod on the seashore referred to as for GoPro’s highest decision and largest body: 5.3K at 30 fps with an 8:7 crop. This eats up a completely charged Enduro in below an hour.
In these instances, I plugged the digital camera into a transportable charger whereas filming and was in a position to seize over an hour of browsing. The SD card ran out of area earlier than the battery died.
When the battery did die, I used to be in a position to cost it from useless to 100% in lower than an hour. However that not often occurred.
Killing the battery by unintentionally leaving it on is now not a priority — after 5 minutes not in use, the digital camera turns off mechanically. The one draw back was that it generally shut down whereas I used to be managing content material in Quik, and I needed to flip it again on and reconnect.
Timelapse Modes, Mild Path Capturing
For me, essentially the most spectacular upgrades of the HERO11 Black are the sunshine path modes: Star Trails, Mild Portray, and Automobile Mild Trails. These modes seize a long-exposure trailing impact, automating the gradual shutter approach that may be tough to execute on a conventional digital camera.
These modes yield spectacular timelapse footage. As you possibly can see within the video above, I had an exceptionally good time testing that out. Mild path portray actually makes me really feel like a child once more.
Hyperview: GoPro’s Most Immersive Area of View But
Motion cameras are in all probability finest recognized for his or her unparalleled capability to seize POV footage, and Hyperview takes that to an entire new degree.
Just like a fisheye lens on a DSLR digital camera, the Hyperview digital lens expands the digital camera’s perspective for an ultra-wide body. Paired with a helmet or chest mount, this may undoubtedly be the brand new customary for athletes seeking to seize POV footage.
I didn’t have a helmet or chest mount to check it. However I did check it on a selfie stick whereas skating a pump observe. And paired with the brand new picture stabilization and horizon lock options of the GoPro HERO11 Black, the footage turned out unbelievable.
It’s virtually as succesful because the bare eye at capturing the periphery, which makes it excellent for POV footage. But it surely does distort the picture across the edges some, so I favor Superview or Large mode for some instances.
Greatest Picture Stabilization But, 360-Diploma Horizon Lock
GoPro’s picture stabilization tech primarily offers gimbal-like stability with out the necessity for an attachment. It has been impressively succesful because the HERO7.
Final 12 months, the HERO10 launched 360-degree horizon lock and made it even higher. With the horizon lock on, the digital camera will be turned utterly the other way up; in the meantime, the horizon stays degree and upright.
It was probably the most coveted capabilities of the HERO10, however it was solely out there with the addition of Max Lens Mod, which was an attachment accent that value $100. Max Lens Mod is constructed into the digital lens of the HERO11 Black, making 360-degree horizon lock a inventory possibility with none attachments.
I discovered horizon lock to be useful however not good. Throughout turbulent instances the place the digital camera flails round abruptly (like skating the pump observe), horizon lock lags simply sufficient to be noticeable.
Nonetheless, it’s incomparably higher than capturing with out it.
Greater Sensor, Higher Decision
The HERO11 Black is the primary GoPro to come back with an 8:7 sensor. That means that you can shoot with a big, almost sq. area of view. Paired with the brand new capability for capturing video in 5.3K at 30 fps, customers can shoot a large, sq. body at excessive decision, then crop into no matter side ratio is desired after the actual fact.
It’s a handy asset for creators posting to a number of mediums with completely different body sizes. They’ll now not must shoot completely different fields of view for various purposes like TikTok or YouTube. The 11 primarily presents one body to rule all of them.
Spectacular Picture Resolutions
On the HERO11 black, 27-megapixel images are customary, up from 23 megapixels on the HERO10. That interprets to hundreds of thousands extra pixels and higher picture high quality for images.
Though, given the excellent definition of GoPro video, it’s a lot simpler to shoot video and pull a nonetheless body from the footage. Even GoPro suggests this technique nowadays.
Extra Correct Colour High quality
The place the HERO10 noticed with 8-bit shade, the 11 sees with 10-bit. Meaning it’s able to seeing 1 billion shades of shade versus the HERO10’s 16 million.
This solves a problem that was frequent with previous GoPro footage, the place shade gradients lacked cohesion. Blue skies, for instance, had been susceptible to showing stripey.
It additionally permits for extra intricacy in post-production shade modifying and grading.
HERO11 Black: Subscription Is a Cut price
The HERO11 Black is most helpful when mixed with the complete GoPro ecosystem, which incorporates the Quik modifying software program and subscription service. GoPro presents the HERO11 Black packaged with a yearlong subscription for $400.
In any other case, the 11 prices $550. Alone, the subscription prices $50 per 12 months.
With a subscription comes limitless cloud storage, auto-uploads and highlights, reductions on GoPro.com, and no-questions-asked digital camera alternative. Subscribers can swap out as much as two damaged GoPros per 12 months for a alternative price between $69 and $99.
Limitless Cloud Storage, Auto-Uploads
GoPro just lately launched a few worthwhile new options particularly for subscribers. It now offers limitless cloud storage, auto-uploads, and use of the Quik app — which, collectively, make managing content material handy.
Connect with Wi-Fi after a shoot, and the auto-upload characteristic mechanically saves new content material to the cloud. That retains your SD card free and doesn’t take up area in your telephone or pc.
After I was dwelling and in a position to hook up with Wi-Fi, the auto-upload characteristic labored nice. However I used to be on a visit with out Wi-Fi for a big portion of the testing interval. I ended up transferring a variety of content material manually.
AI Edits
Auto-highlights is one other new characteristic of the subscription service, which makes use of AI to drag footage from a shoot, piece collectively an edit, and ship it to the consumer’s telephone mechanically.
GoPro designed this characteristic to attraction to customers who wish to go from the shoot to the ‘gram rapidly and brainlessly. It does a fairly good job by AI requirements. So long as you’re not a perfectionist about your edits, it serves the aim.
HERO11 Black Quik Editor: Execs & Cons
Quik works nice as a content-management platform, as content material will be saved there indefinitely. From there, you possibly can switch it to your telephone or pc to make use of at your want. For me, it was much less spectacular as video modifying software program.
I used Quik to edit the video above. Whereas the method was intuitive, at the same time as a first-timer, it was additionally irritating. I’m not an enormous fan of automated edits, which is why I didn’t depend on the auto-highlights characteristic to create the video.
However even when manually modifying content material, Quik’s AI acquired in my approach. Each time I pulled a clip into the Quik studio, the AI took the freedom of chopping it right into a spotlight.
The spotlight was by no means the precise clip I needed, so I needed to re-trim every clip each time. The difficulty was palatable at first (a minimum of they’re making an attempt to assist). However my frustrations escalated when, as an alternative of saving my edits, Quik reverted them to the AI choices, and I needed to edit the identical clips a number of instances to get them proper.
For a TikToker making an attempt to mass produce easy, particular video shorts with minimal effort, Quik’s automations are in all probability an asset. Paired with a good assortment of royalty-free music and automatic beat syncing, it actually does make primary video modifying accessible to anybody.
However at the same time as a newbie, I favor extra management and fewer automation, so it’d be good to have the choice of turning AI off totally. Nonetheless, I used to be proud sufficient of my Quik edit to put up it on YouTube, and altogether, I’m past proud of the GoPro ecosystem at massive.
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Coming Quickly: HERO11 Black Mini
On Oct. 25, GoPro is releasing the HERO11 Black Mini. It’ll have all the identical performance packed right into a extra compact, simplified digital camera with a one-touch seize system. We’ll be testing that out subsequent.
‘Mini’ Headlines GoPro HERO11 Launch; Meet the three Newest Motion Cameras
