The latest GoPro Hero 10 has just arrived! So let’s break down what’s new, what’s the same, and whether it is worth your hard-earned money.
What is New:
The recording resolution of the camera has been slightly increased from the previous Hero 9. You can now record up to 5.3k video at 60 fps and then also 4k at 120 fps, this is double what the previous version was able to record. Even the 240fps mode is now able to shoot at a much larger 2.7k compared to the previous 1080p limit.
On the next list of big upgrades is a new GP2 processor for the Hero 10. This is actually the first major processor upgrade since the Hero 6 was released. This new processor has already proven to improve the speed of well nearly everything. This speed upgrade is most notable when processing and saving videos, (espcially HDR photos) something which used to be painfully slow.
One of the coolest features that GoPro has released in the past was Hypersmooth. And now we are getting the 4th iteration of this technology in the Hero 10. If past versions of hypersmooth are anything to go off this new one is guaranteed to be very useful. One of the new features is the ability to now tilt the camera up to 45 degrees whilst keeping the horizon of the camera level. This is honestly great for those crazy action pieces that you want to film whilst not looking like a Jason Bourne movie.
A few other new features include higher quality stills (19.6MP) that can be pulled directly from video and also 23MP images when using photo mode. The New hero 10 is also compatible with many of the mods created for the Hero 9 so if you have some dont get rid of them just yet.
What is the same:
The outside design of the hero 10 has stay mostly the same from the Hero 9, the only difference being in the addition of blue branding and a very minor weight change (to make the camera actually lighter)
The other things that have not changed are its waterproofing (still down to 33ft submerged) and as I will mention in more detail shortly the battery.
What is not so good:
One thing GoPro did not really cover in their press release was that the Hero 10 uses the exact same batteries from last year’s Hero 9. Now when you consider that the Hero 10 has had considerable jumps in video recording quality it is highly likely it is also going to draw more power to do so. As it’s the same batteries but the GoPro will be drawing more power we are most likely looking at a shorter battery life.Other negatives are most likely due to the global chip shortage we are looking at an increased price for the Hero 10 compared to the Hero 9. The low light footage also has still not been greatly improved, hopefully, GoPro starts implementing soon more machine learning technology that is currently used in phones to help improve this.