Well, the launch price of the Hero 9 is $449.99 / £429.99 / AU$699.95. Share. It remains great, without any mind-blowing generational changes. Engadget is part of Verizon Media. This makes the camera a true abuse-ready workhorse. And the main takeaway in a Hero 8 versus Hero 9 Black comparison is deliberately increased contrast. GoPro Hero 9 Black review: More power, more affordable 5K video, 20-megapixel photos and a whole lot more James Trew, @itstrew. And if you should upgrade it or not. The GoPro Hero 9 Black is the most important action camera of 2020. GoPro Blacks have simply looked the same for so long, any change seems momentous. We may earn a commission if you click a deal and buy an item. GoPro has also fixed the one part I categorically didn’t like about the Hero 8 Black. It’s complicated. It’s a neat idea and enables the “unbreakable” stabilisation feature of the 360-degree GoPro Max, if not exactly a cheap add-on at £90. GoPro’s Hero 9 Black ProTune controls let you switch to a “flat” colour profile and reduce sharpness. Read this: Trusted Reviews’ GoPro Hero 9 Black Review. I bought the latest GoPro HERO 9 Black, and this is my brutally honest review with 15 pros and cons! The GoPro Hero 9 Black’s most important changes are to do with ease of use rather than image quality, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Its rear screen measures 2.27 inches across, the front screen 1.4 inches. They are both excellent, and a major relief having come from using the tiny-screened Insta360 One R for weeks. In most shooting scenarios you’re not going to notice much difference. Tweet . GoPros are used in a million different ways. This is made possible by a jump from a 12-megapixel sensor to a 20 megapixel one. This comes with another annoyance, of course. Its videos “pops” more, although this style also tends to minimise some visual elements you might want to keep, like far-away fog. Read our GoPro Hero 9 review to find out. It’s the follow-up to the Hero 8 Black , and is GoPro’s latest effort to maintain its lead over companies like Insta360 and DJI. Water resistance sticks at 10m (33ft), which means most of us won’t need to use a diver’s case too often, if ever. 5K capture at 5120 x 2880 consists of more than 12 million pixels, and GoPro needs even more than this native resolution as it shoots 5K at a cropped “wide” field of view. The GoPro Hero 9 Black’s lens also has a slightly narrower field of view than the Hero 8 Black, which makes stabilisation harder to achieve. By TechRadar on September 16, 2020 80 . Information about your device and internet connection, including your IP address, Browsing and search activity while using Verizon Media websites and apps. #mc-embedded-subscribe-form input[type=checkbox]{display: inline; width: auto;margin-right: 10px;} 5K renders fine natural features like far-away leaves better than 4K, meaning you have better scope to crop into the footage in post and avoid it looking like a cropped view. Hypersmooth alone is well worth it and the new front facing screen is going to make using your GoPro that much easier too. Still, if GoPro hadn’t made this move we’d all be complaining it didn’t make use of that extra room in the casing. Since GoPro is practically the inventor of action cameras, you’re probably at least partially familiar with the GoPro Hero. The Hero 9 also … This is how we make money. Review: GoPro Hero 9 Black The company's newest action camera adds a full-color front screen, 5K, and software enhancements that make capturing the moment easier than ever. But it holds charge very well and routinely has a good chunk of battery left when the Hero 8 Black runs dry. In the last few weeks I’ve had the mixed blessing of an opportunity to use a whole stack of $50-150 action cameras from tiny brands, and several feel more responsive than the GoPro Hero 9 Black. GoPro HERO 9 Black review: Supercharged specs, a big battery boost, and finally a front-facing screen GoPro has done it again. GoPro continues to use the flip-out lens mount fingers, further reducing the real-world impact of the larger size. The GoPro Max was announced alongside the Hero8 Black in 2019 and it is the successor of GoPro Fusion.. 16th September 2020 Written by Gordon Laing; The GoPro Hero 9 Black is the 2020 model in the popular action camera series. It has a front-mounted LCD with live view in addition to the traditional touchscreen on the rear. The image-quality conscious can tweak some of this anyway. We and our partners will store and/or access information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies, to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. However, there’s a more obvious difference in the processing. You can compose your shot right there from the front screen, and horizon levelling adds even more pro gloss, if you don’t mind the cropped field of view. I never felt the GoPro Hero 8 Black’s rear display was too small. GoPro says it lasts for 101 minutes of 1080p capture, a 30% increase over the Hero 8 Black. This comparison also typifies the 4K image character of the GoPro Hero 8 Black versus the 9 Black. /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. The GoPro Hero9 Black action camera features a 20MP sensor and is capable of taking 5K/30p as well as 4K/60p, 2.7K/120p, 1440/240p and 1080/240p footage. … The Hero 9 Black does at least work with most other Hero 8 Black mounts and accessories (not the remote), so that’s something. #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; width:100%;} Read our full review and learn why the GoPro Hero 9 is worth the upgrade. This is an excellent feature that lets you shoot professional-looking footage more easily. GoPro’s been updating the Hero every September so the 9 arrives like clockwork one year after the 8 which remains on-sale. If you're a GoPro fan and a vlogger, this new addition is definitely going to excite you. There are two little annoyances here. #mergeRow-gdpr {margin-top: 20px;} It’s in-camera this time. GoPro Hero 9: https://amzn.to/3iEb42R (link helps support the channel, thanks!!! The GoPro Hero 9 Black has a widescreen rear display and a square front one. First using the GoPro Hero 9 Black is like going from a double bed at home to a King size one on holiday. They let you make your GoPro Hero 9 Black feel like your own. 5K video capture is one of the GoPro Hero 9 Black’s main improvements. GoPro Hero 9 Black review. Much like GoPro’s image quality, stabilisation was great last time. These presets specify things like the resolution, frame rate, stabilisation mode and field of view. While most of you will shoot 16:9 video rather than the 1:1 aspect here, you can choose whether the preview fills the space, or shows “real” shape with black bars on top and bottom. It has a 1720mAh battery, physically bigger in every dimension. The newer camera plays with contrast and sharpening a little more. The front screen is great too. That’s important given it is the GoPro Hero 9 Black’s main new feature. Worth the upgrade? This, obviously, means you can’t use your current diving housing for the new model, if you have one. And the two displays’ brightness is linked. The 4K clip also has less purple colour noise, although you’d only notice it in the 5K shot when you dig deep into the image. Check my GoPro Hero8 Black review.. As you already know, GoPro Max is a 360-degree camera but it can also be used to shoot standard videos in Hero Mode. In indoor lighting you’ll see some blurring around the corners of the frame, caused by motion blur, but in a bright environment, it’s near-invisible. Not only do you get an extra display, the one on the back is significantly larger than last time, up from 1.95 inches. The new GoPro Hero 9 has a 23.6-megapixel sensor, compared to the Hero 8 that has a 12-megapixel sensor. Probably not for Hero 8 Black owners unless you’re desperate for the vlog-friendly screen. GoPro’s stabilisation was already so good, there was no obvious way to make it better without an internal mechanical gimbal. The GoPro Hero 9 Black is the most important action camera of 2020, Andrew Williams is a technology writer, who has contributed to Stuff, WIRED, TechRadar, T3, Wareable and, of course, Trusted Reviews. The GoPro Hero 9 Black is the most important action camera of 2020. You can’t make the front screen subtle, the rear one bright, which makes me miss the subtle screens of older Black cameras. GoPro is one of the biggest producers in the action camera market with some of the most successful models especially on sites such as Amazon, in this blog, we review the GoPro Hero 9 a powerful high-end sports cam. This keeps the, you guessed it, horizon level even when you roll the Hero 9 Black left and right significantly. It’s a stabilisation magic trick, one that came to GoPros with the 360-degree Max. Some of you probably will. In any other condition the GoPro Hero 9 Black is great, though. It is a big increase which enables Hero 9 to shoot 5k video and snap 20 megapixel still images. Today GoPro announced the new GoPro Hero 9, which adds a front-facing screen and 5K resolution, though also slightly increases the price.Sorta, kinda, not really…it depends. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. There’s less need to pack an extra battery too, as the GoPro Hero 9 Black lasts longer between charges. GoPro Hero9 Black Review: Two steps forward, one step back By Daven Mathies September 25, 2020 GoPro Hero9 Score Details “The Hero9 Black is … Let’s hope it doesn’t go any further. The camera also has altered image stabilisation, HyperSmooth 3.0 in place of HyperSmooth 2.0. However it’s not so large the use cases change. I shot some clips at 4K/30 and 5k/30 to see if there’s much difference. A small sensor with none of the low-light gymnastics used by some of the top phones means truly dim scenes reap borderline unusable footage. As in older GoPros, you twist the outer lens housing to remove it. It’s based around presets. Front-facing Display – the GoPro Hero 9 is better for vloggers. A bunch of everyday ones are pre-programmed in from the start, but the GoPro enthusiast will want to bin them all and make their own, if only to rename them “dogcam”, “bikecam”, “family trips” and so on. The GoPro Hero 9 Black’s interface is much the same as the Hero 8 Black’s. But if your reaction to a front display is “why would anyone want that”, a £150 saving may mean sticking with the older GoPro is the right choice. Right down at pixel level you can see some disparities. Our comprehensive GoPro HERO 9 review, complete with all the new features, comparisons with old cameras, and an honest opinion on whether you should upgrade or not. Find out more about how we use your information in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. GoPro seems to have judged this shift to a slightly more crowd-pleasing image processing approach well. Yep, pretty much, although the price hike to £429 is daunting. The GoPro Hero 9 action camera is more robust in almost every way: 5K video, larger battery, and a more robust 20-megapixel sensor. 4K footage brings no more detail than we see in that camera, and the 4K mode is really more practical than 5K for the average action cam owner. GoPro has released the Hero 9, a new action camera capable of 5K resolution with 30fps, more battery time, and a lot of new better specs! GoPro Hero 9 Review. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. A new design . GoPro has moved with the times and made an action camera much more comfortable to use for vlog-style videos. GoPro Hero 9 Pricing. 5K capture isn’t going to change how many people shoot, and the main image quality change we see here versus the Hero 8 Black is increased contrast. The front screen has no touch layer, which is for the best. #mc-embedded-subscribe-form .mc_fieldset{border:none;min-height: 0px;padding-bottom:0px;}. For $449, there is … The interface can feel slow to respond. Changes for this generation include dual screens, some tweaks to the already incredible stabilisation and a rise in max resolution from 4K to 5K. Facebook But they are either not quite well optimised enough, or the processor isn’t really suited to this style of visual gloss. In most cases you’re not going to see a significant change in image quality in the GoPro Hero 9 Black, if you already own a Hero 8 Black. However, GoPro needs to give its interface a speed injection. */ Part of this is down to GoPro’s use of smartphone-like transition animations. A larger screen is not really an excuse for the larger shell, though, as there are still big blank expanses around the panel.