GoPro Hero 13 Black Hands-On: More Pro Without Getting More Complicated
This is the new GoPro Hero 13 black and I got to spend the day with one. So I'm going to give you a quick rundown of its new features and some new accessories you're really going to want if you get the camera and if that's not exciting enough, Gopro's also launching a new camera this year that we haven't seen in a decade. Let's get to it just to clear this up right away. The Hero 13 black is not vastly different from the 12 and I imagine a lot of people there won't be an immediate pull to upgrade and you might actually want to hunt down an older camera to save some money. That's not to say there aren't some good reasons to upgrade or make the 13 black your first Go Pro. And that has a lot to do with the accessories starting with some new lenses since the Hero Nine black GoPro has sold a max lens mod that's a twist on lens that creates a huge field of view that matches the one from the company's Hero Max camera. Gopro is expanding its lineup of add on lenses with four new options. There's the ultra wide lens mod with a one on one aspect ratio and it gives the camera an expanded field of view of to 100 and 77 degrees. Then there's a four pack of neutral density or ND filters making it possible to slow shutter speeds and create motion blur in bright lighting. And you can manually control shutter speed and exposure with the filters on. Also, there's a macro lens with a manual focus ring and focus speaking and it can focus down to 4.3 inches or 11 centimeters. And coming next year is an anamorphic lens that will give the camera the widest field of view ever for a GoPro with no circular distortion. It's the only one I didn't get to try but the others really do expand what you can do with the Hero 13 black. And the best part is you just twist the lens on and the camera automatically recognizes which lens it is and sets the camera up to use it. And it even unlocks features for that lens. Such is the focus. Speaking for the macro prices, for the lenses range from $70 to 100 and $30 and all. But the anamorphic lens will be available with the camera on September 10th. Another new accessory that makes setup easier is the magnetic latch mount GoPro isn't the first to have a latch system like this. But the addition means you've got three ways to mount this camera with either the flip down fingers on the bottom, the one quarter 20 ipod mount or the magnetic latch. And that lets you quickly flip the camera 100 and 80 degrees on this mount. There's one more important new accessory and, well, it's a battery door, but it's a nice battery door that lets you continuously power the camera with a magnetic link with or without a battery in the camera. The best thing about it is that it's waterproof to 10 m and you know, it's got magnets. Speaking of battery, the camera has a new higher capacity in duo battery, redesigned for improved efficiency. I tested the camera for about two hours with a variety of settings and GPS turned on while jet skiing on the Hudson river and for a brief time swimming in the Hudson river when I launched myself into it and my coworker just kept going anyway. After about two hours, I still had about 50% of my battery and that's obviously a full blown proof test. But I've been testing Gopros long enough to note that it is an improvement. The rest of the updates for the camera are smaller but still important. For example, there's uh for fans of slow Mo GoPro added new burst, slow motion settings, letting you shoot at higher resolutions and faster frame rates up to 400 frames per second. Gopro also added a hybrid log gamma HDR option that meets broadcasting HDR. Standards with 10 bit and rec 2100 color space and a wider color gamut. Then there are some enhancements like Wi Fi Six for faster uploads, optimized audio tuning to prioritize voice over ambient sounds. And if you use the camera's quick capture feature, you can immediately initiate another recording. You press the shutter button within five seconds of ending one to prevent the camera from fully shutting down. And as I mentioned earlier, GoPro added GPS back in after removing it for the Hero 12 black. Now, if all this sounds like the Hero 13 black and its $400 price is more camera than you need meet the new $200 gopro Hero. The last Hero camera was about a decade ago. And while the basic concept here is the same, a small streamlined camera for casual use, the features and design are vastly improved as you might expect. After 10 years, this one is considerably smaller shoots four K 30 video and has a touch screen on back. So that's a quick look at the new GoPro Hero 13 black again, not a lot of shooting option changes, but the accessories are a huge part of the story here. I'd love to hear what you think. So let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching as always and you'll see me when you see me.