Today, GoPro is announcing its latest flagship action camera—the GoPro Hero13 Black. With interchangeable lenses and a familiar magnetic mounting system, it’s been upgraded with some nice quality-of-life features. Under the hood, resolutions, and frame rates are all nearly identical to the older Hero12 Black. Be sure to watch the video below to see it in action.
Overview
What sets the Hero13 apart from the Hero12 the most is a series of a-la-cart options. Expanding upon the Hero12’s Max lens mod, GoPro is debuting its HB-Series line of lenses.
GoPro is announcing and taking pre orders today but units aren’t expected to ship until September 10th. The standalone camera comes in at $400, or there is a creator edition for $600 that includes a media mod, light mod, and Volta Power Grip.
The HB-Series of lenses includes an Ultra-Wide lens, a four-pack of ND filters, a Macro lens, and the not-yet-released anamorphic lens mod. These lenses all have their own features and benefits. They quickly mount onto the camera by lining up the blue dots and they retain the Hero13’s waterproof capabilities.
On Hero13, the GoPro will automatically recognize what lens has been attached and cater the settings and available menu options to that specific lens.
In addition to the Hero13 Black, GoPro is also releasing a stripped-down $200 Hero. Able to shoot 4K, the Hero is aimed at being an even simpler way to quickly capture action footage.
Hero13 Black: Video
Design
Design-wise, Hero13 Black is similar in dimensions to the older Hero12 with a few updates. That also keeps it smaller and lighter than the Insta360 Ace Pro, but it does lack the flip-up screen of the Insta360.
The front has been slightly updated around the microphone area under the lens. The area around the front screen is also slightly updated but more-or-less the same.
It is also a new battery design. Batteries from the Hero12 will not work on Hero13. Granted, the Hero13 Black has incrementally better battery life, but that is always a bummer when upgrading cameras.
New mounting options
One update that I’m the most excited about is the addition of a third way of mounting the camera. In addition to the fingers that flip down for a secure connection and a ¼”in-20 thread, Hero13 has a new optional magnetic mount.
This looks and acts very similar to the connection Insta360 has on some of its cameras like the Ace Pro. It has two spring-loaded arms that snap into the bottom of the camera. To release the camera, just squeeze the ends of the mount, and it pops off.
This magnetic quick-release makes changing mounts super fast and also makes it easy to view footage and adjust image parameters quickly.
I tend to test GoPro cameras mostly when riding motorcycles. Being able to quickly detach the camera from a mount and review what I just recorded or change settings has been a huge time saver. It’s a $25 accessory, but for how I use these cameras, it’s a must-have.
Hero13 Black: Video quality
When it comes to resolution and frame rate, Hero13 is nearly identical to Hero12. They both go up to 5.3K at 60fps. They can also do 4K at 120fps. All of the images in this review are highly compressed so be sure to click on the YouTube video to get a better idea of what the image looks like. YouTube compresses the video as well, but it’s closer than the images in this written review.
Hero13 Black does have a couple of new tricks up its sleeve, though, with Burst Slo-Mo that does 5.3K at 120fps for up to 5 seconds of real-time recording. It also sports HLG HDR recording. This records in 10-bit color and sports a wider color gamut. However, an HDR-compliant monitor is required for playback.
Another new trick is the ability to shoot in a 1:1 aspect ratio. This allows footage to be cropped into either a horizontal 16:9 or vertical 9:16 for different publishing platforms.
Lens Mod: ND Filters
Using ND filters helps keep the shutter speed low in bright scenes, giving them a more cinematic look, thanks to motion blur. The $70 four-pack of ND filters work in various exposure settings. With metering, the GoPro can even detect and suggest what ND filter to use. It will show an arrow pointing up or down if it thinks a different filter would be best.
For the most part, I loved how this footage turned out. Having a bit of motion blur baked into the footage brought the production quality up right out of the camera. In the comparison below, an ND filter was used in the first image, and no filter was used in the second image on the right.
I did have some odd issues, though. On one occasion, when riding a motorcycle, there was some odd movement in the trees with the highest ND filter installed. It almost seemed like a weird codec setting where the camera was trying to minimize data being recorded by saving pixels between frames but the only time I noticed it was with the pattern in the trees when using an ND filter.
That said, I still plan on using the ND filters often, as I like the look of the native motion blur.
Ultra Wide Lens Mod
For POV shots, the $100 Ultrawide lens mod takes the field of view up to 177°. The 1:1 aspect ratio is also still available with the ultra-wide lens mod, making it a very versatile option for capturing footage and editing it for multiple platforms.
Macro Lens Mod
GoPro is also debuting its first lens with adjustable focus. The Macro lens mod enables users to get up close to a subject and simultaneously blur the background. With the adjustable focus ring, you can do manual focus pulls from objects in the foreground to the background.
Hero13 Black: Audio
Mostly, the microphone sounds as you would expect on the GoPro Hero13 Black. When riding at highway speeds, wind noise was kept at a minimum unless I turned my head to the side. It will try and adjust which microphone it is using to minimize wind noise but that’s a challenge for any action camera. I run into the same issues with the Insta360 Ace Pro.
Hero13 Black: Battery life
Battery life has always been an issue with action cameras. Hero13 Black does see marginal increases, with a max run time of 79 minutes while shooting 5.3K at 60fps.
But GoPro has another accessory that I’m excited about – a quick-charging magnetic battery door called the Contacto magnetic door and Power Cable kit. Unfortunately, GoPro didn’t send one of these out for the test, but from my understanding, it replaces the standard door with one that has a magnetic charging contact. It also comes with a connector that will snap onto those contacts and has a USB-C connector on the other end. That way, you can connect your own external USB-C power source to keep the camera running much, much longer than the standard battery.
In the past, I’ve removed the battery door completely from my Hero8 while recording to have the camera plugged in at all times for a long recording duration. This has its limitations, obviously. The $80 price tag seems a little pricey but I see the Contacto magnetic door as a must-have for the way I use GoPro cameras.
Electronicsforward’ Take
While there are marginal updates to the actual camera itself, for me, it’s all about the accessories for the Hero13. The ND filters, magnetic mount, and Contacto battery door are all things that I will use nearly every time I use this camera.
Buy GoPro Hero13 Black
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