BackGoPro Hero6 Black review: Time for action
The new GoPro and its range of accessories create a photography ecosystem in themselves
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At a time when smartphone cameras are better than ever before and rugged phones come with waterproofing capabilities, the question really is: Do you still need a separate camera? The answer, perhaps, lies in the specific term “action camera". The GoPro Hero6 Black isn’t your run-of-the-mill camera, but something you can take with you while bungee jumping, rafting, trail biking, or even on a spin around a racetrack. This rugged camera can be mounted in different ways, on possibly any type of object you can think of. Be it your helmet, your bike’s handlebars, the roof of your sports car or even your skateboard—the camera can be placed strategically to get the most vibrant and breathtaking shots.
But more than just the look, it’s what’s inside the Hero6 Black that makes it worth your time, and money.
GoPro has largely retained the design of the Hero5 Black. This is great news for anyone upgrading, because all the accessories you may have purchased over time will work with the Hero6 Black, which is waterproof up to a depth of 10m.
A lot has changed on the inside, though. The Hero6 Black comes with a new GP1 chip which enables faster frame rates for higher-resolution videos, and improves electronic image stabilization. This means the camera can record 4K videos at 60 frames per second, compared with 30 frames per second by its predecessor. It may not make much difference for most video recordings, but these videos will be smoother when you are looking for that bit of extra detailing. If slo-mo videos excite you, the Hero6 Black can record full high-definition (HD) videos at 240 frames per second, compared with 120 frames per second in the Hero5 Black. What you get is well-detailed, dynamic and accurate visuals.
The Hero6 Black uses the same 12-megapixel sensor as its predecessor. However, the changes in the behind-the-scenes hardware and image processing make a difference. We quite liked the dynamic range that the camera is able to reproduce, and sudden light changes don’t always result in a jarring switch. You might occasionally still see some artefacts in low-light visuals, and, while the overall performance is better than before, it is still far from perfect—this is the Hero6 Black’s only real weak link. The updated stabilization performance does mean movement and judder is less prominent in videos, but they are not completely eliminated.
With the Hero6 Black, GoPro has shifted to the High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC), which means the same resolution photographs and videos now take up less space, without any loss of detailing or crispness. At present, you get native support for HEVC content in Microsoft’s Windows 10 and Apple’s macOS computing devices, as well as the newer Google Android and Apple iOS operating systems for phones and tablets. Chances are that the device you copy the GoPro camera footage to will be supporting the new codec—but in case you are still using a really old PC or tablet, you will have to go through the pain of using video converter software to convert the HEVC videos to the more compatible and older H.264 format.
The entire experience of using a GoPro camera mandatorily involves using the app in your phone, tablet or computing device to transfer the visuals to edit and then share. If you had large video files till now, the process would have been a tad slower. Now, however, the Hero6 Black gets support for 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks, which means transfer speeds from the camera will be faster.
If you intend to use the GoPro extensively for endurance shooting sessions, you will probably end up buying either a spare battery or carrying a battery bank along and utilizing the faster charging speeds that the Hero6 Black’s USB Type-C port allow. The 1,220 mAh battery will last a little more than an hour of continuous 4K video recording, with Wi-Fi turned off.
The GoPro Hero6 Black comes with a hefty price tag of Rs37,000, with a gamut of accessories that you can purchase separately. Nevertheless, it is a genuine improvement over its predecessor, and no rival comes close. Adrenalin junkies will love it, safe to say.
Accessories to watch out for
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