If you’re anything like me you may have been captivated by POV street photography videos from the likes of Paulie-B or even the works from Sarah & Jeff Ascough- AKA Walk Like Alice and have wanted to purchase one of the best action cameras for yourself.
Well, I have been at this stage for a while now, thinking do I really need the 5.3K of the GoPro Hero 12 Black, the whopping 8K of the Insta360 Ace Pro, or the amazingly tiny 4K Insta360 Go 3S that I could fit on my camera hotshoe. Each is a great action cameras in their own right, but all seem just to have too many features for me.
Even our highly-praised DJI Osmo Action 4, which I was very tempted to spend my hard-earned cash on, still didn’t appeal to me due to it having a front screen, which I don’t need. I thought to myself that what I want is a simple 4K camera that’s small enough to do POV street photography, while also not having a front screen, and having a good battery life.
When I took a look at all the options on the market before the new GoPro Hero was announced, I would think that they all looked great and offered a lot, but in reality, they all offered too much for me to justify the cost of a POV camera for YouTube.
They either had 5.3K video resolution which I still don’t see the need for when many YouTube videos are watched in 720p, even in 2024, and most of them have one thing that I don’t want on an action camera – a front LCD screen!
Now that might sound like total madness, but I don’t want to use an action camera for vlogging. I just want something discreet for POV videos.
(Image credit: GoPro)
The Insta360 Go 3S did catch my eye due to it being SO tiny but I also ideally wanted a rear screen to be able to make sure the angle was correct before hitting record, yes I can use my phone to preview, but I just want a simple one device solution, and not have to use everything to get something recording.
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Enter the new GoPro Hero, the action cam giant’s solution to mine, and I’m sure many other people’s problems with ‘too much tech’. This fantastic device has a rear screen only – tick, does not have a front screen at all – tick. And it comes with just three video modes; 4K30, 4K25, and 1080/60 and a simple selection of ratio to record in of just 16:9, 9:16 for social media, or a 4:3 aspect ratio
What a godsend this little device is, and it is a rather tiny thing too weighing in at just 86g! That makes this new GoPro Hero 35% smaller and 46% lighter than the new GoPro Hero13 Black – this is a winner winner, chicken dinner in my book!
Want some even better news? – the new GoPro Hero is charged via USB-C for its built-in battery, so I can even rig it to a power bank while out and about on long street sessions, what’s more, I think it is probably the best-priced GoPro ever – at just $199/£199 it now makes sense for me to buy a brand new GoPro rather than the discounted GoPro Hero 11 Black Mini!
Yes, the Hero11 Mini, on paper, has much better specs than the new GoPro Hero… but I don’t want or need all those specs; the new GoPro Hero is perfect, and I’m putting my money where my mouth is and picking one up on September 22!
