Mehul Reuben DasJun 19, 2023 11:12:35 IST
Pros:
– Excellent video quality with 10-bit colour
– HyperSmooth 5.0 Video stabilisation is as good as it gets
– Captured footage can be easily repurposed for different platforms
– Easy to use
– Quik is a great companion app for this device
– Rugged build, water and shock-proof design
– 360-degree Horizon lock
– Improved battery backup with the bundled Enduro battery
Cons:
– Low-light performance needs improvement
– Still photography is not as good as similarly priced smartphones
– Expensive
Rating: 4/5
Price: Rs 51,500 (at launch), Rs 41,000 (currently)
It is vacation time at the moment in India. And if your vacation involves a bit of adventure, you need more than a smartphone to capture those special moments. While smartphones have pretty much-taken care of most still photography needs, high-quality videos remain a domain of only a handful of premium phones.
And you certainly cannot put your phone at risk to capture your thrills in several adventure sports or if your vacation involves a monsoon getaway. You need something more rugged and weatherproof that can do the job well.
When you think of those attributes, the first name that comes to mind is GoPro, which has become synonymous with an action camera. And believe it or not, it’s been over a decade since the first of its name was released. We now have the 11th iteration, the GoPro Hero11 Black that takes the game to a new level. This time it doesn’t restrict itself to just action videography and offers certain features that should have the new-age content creators interested. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest GoPro.
What we liked about the GoPro Hero 11
Build and design
The Hero11 Black sports a trademark GoPro design that’s not too different from its predecessor, Hero10. You get a 2.27-inch touchscreen LCD at the back and a 1.4-inch preview screen up front. But what we liked best is its compact yet rugged build. It is an action camera in every sense that can withstand a few drops and can survive immersion in up to 10 metres deep water.
Despite the sturdy exterior, the camera weighs just 154 grams with a battery. The battery, microSD card slot and USB-C charging port are located under a flap to protect them from the elements. At the base of the camera are the mounting flaps (or fingers, as the company likes to call them) that let you hook up the camera with various mounts and accessories. There are only two buttons on this camera – the camera shutter to start the recording or click the photos, and a Mode button to bring up the menu. Clicking either turns the camera on.
Ease of use
GoPro cameras have always been extremely easy to use. While there are a bunch of tweaks available a level deep in the settings, it is essentially as easy as point and clicks and record. The Hero11 continues that tradition. When accessing the settings using the touchscreen at the back, the user interface is quite simple. One can just swipe on the screen horizontally or click the Mode button to choose between photo, video and time-lapse modes. Swiping down on the screen brings up more settings, and swiping up from the bottom shows the captured footage.
Tapping on different icons on the screen lets you adjust the resolution, aspect ratio, frame rate and other options. The chosen mode and video settings are visible on the preview screen at the front too, along with the remaining battery and storage space in terms of recording time or number of photos at the chosen settings. A quick glance tells you all you need to know. The camera automatically switches off after a few minutes of inactivity. So if you forget to switch it off before putting it in the bag, there won’t be much of a battery drain.
The versatility of the new sensor
The GoPro has continued with the same processor used in the GoPro 10 here too but has opted for a newer, larger sensor with an unusual default aspect ratio of 8:7 that supposedly packs in 13% extra height in your video footage. That squarish frame seemed odd on paper, but the idea behind it, as well as the implementation, is brilliant. The Hero11 allows you to shoot the footage in the stock aspect ratio and then crop it horizontally in a 16:9 format for say a YouTube channel or vertically in a 9:16 ratio for Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts.
So a single video can take care of multiple needs, thus simplifying the life of content creators present on multiple platforms. Clipping the video in different ratios is almost as easy as cropping an image. All thanks to the Quik app that one needs to install on their Android or Apple smartphone/tablet to easily edit the captured footage, publish it, share it or store it on a cloud server. It can also turn your smartphone or tablet into a remote control for your GoPro. The app is available free, but one needs to pay Rs 499 per annum to unlock its full potential; money well spent.
The GoPro Hero11 Black also lets you click still images in up to 27MP resolution in Photo mode with a broad FOV. The image quality is pretty good in proper lighting but not spectacular. But what’s special is the option to pull high-quality images from videos. When you shoot at 5.3K resolution with an 8:7 aspect ratio, you can actually grab 24.7MP images from the video frames, which adds to the versatility of this camera.
Excellent video quality with great stabilisation
The video quality of GoPro cameras has always been very good and the Hero11 takes it a couple of notches higher. You get 10-bit colour and HDR support here making the colours look more lively with better contrast and hardly any banding. The GoPro Hero11 Black can shoot in multiple resolutions with different aspect ratios. If you do not prefer the default 8:7 frame, you can record 5.3K footage even with a 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio at up to 60 fps.
Similarly, you can opt for 4K as well as 2.7K resolutions. Speaking of those two, you can record slow-motion videos at 4K with 120 fps and at 2.7K or 1080p with 240 fps which lets you slow down the footage 4 to 8 times. The slow-motion footage is smooth and free of stutter. Even the normal 4K footage looks lively and detailed, but the best part about this camera is the video stabilisation.
The GoPro Hero 11 Black uses the new HyperSmooth 5.0 video stabilisation, and it is easily the best I have come across in this category. In fact, the captured footage looks smoother than videos shot on some of the best smartphones around. And some of the footage I captured looked a lot smoother than it should have, given the terrain it was shot on. You can check the footage to get an idea. And not to forget the Horizon Lock feature, which brings me to my next point.
360-degree Horizon Lock and the licence to get creative
Simply put, the Horizon Lock feature keeps the frame steady even if you turn around a full 360 degrees. So even if your hand shakes and the camera tilts, the horizon stays level throughout the video giving you that feeling of stability. Check out our video to understand it better. Beyond that there is so much more you can do with this camera, right from playing with the lights at night to create light paintings to light trails – be it stars or vehicle lights. And of course, you have time-lapse videos that you can also schedule to start at a particular time. I can go on and on but I will pause here and let your creativity take over.
Improved battery backup with the new Enduro battery
GoPro bundles a higher capacity 1720 mAh Enduro battery with the Hero11 Black which promises 30% more battery backup as compared to that of its predecessor. That’s good news, but since we haven’t reviewed the GoPro Hero10, we cannot verify that claim. But what we can verify is that the extra capacity does not make the camera heavier, which is good. While I cannot term the battery backup as great, it is pretty decent.
Your mileage will obviously vary depending on the resolution you shoot in and the frame rate chosen. The higher the resolution and frame rate used to record videos, the lower the battery backup. During our usage over a period of time, we managed to get a full hour of 4K recording at 30fps, and straight half of that at 120fps. An hour of 4K30 footage is acceptable for a device this size, given the quality of output. If your daily recording needs are more than that, you may want to carry a spare battery or a power bank along.
Good collection of accessories
No GoPro camera is complete without its accessories. Unfortunately, you have to pay extra for them, but the good part is you get a nice spread for various needs. We tried three very interesting options – Gumby flexible mount (Rs 4,750), Suction Cup mount (Rs 3,150) and 3-way Grip 2.0 (Rs 6,350). Gumby can only be described as rubber twisties that let you attach the GoPro to a variety of objects like pipes, branches, bike frames and more, limited only by your imagination and physics.
The Suction cup, as the name suggests, lets you attach the GoPro firmly to a car or a bike’s fuel tank or even a helmet to capture your travel logs. And last but not least my favourite, the 3-way Grip 2.0 which is a camera grip + tripod + selfie stick/extension arm all rolled into one compact device. It measures about 20 cm when folded and can extend up to half a metre. It has a built-in ball joint that lets you tilt your camera or swivel 360 degrees, providing you with great flexibility to record your footage from interesting angles.
What we did not like about the GoPro Hero11 Black
Low light performance needs improvement
This point is a result of the expectations set by the camera in good lighting. While the results aren’t bad in low light, there is definite scope for improvement when the light is lower than ideal. The video stabilisation works perfectly fine in low light too, but there is a noticeable amount of noise in the captured footage. While our expectations weren’t unrealistic, we were expecting better results given the large sensor the GoPro Hero11 comes equipped with.
Still photography could have been better
Similarly in still photography, it can do better. Yes, we know that this camera is largely meant for videos, but that doesn’t mean it cannot be great at stills too. The GoPro Hero11 can capture 27MP images in Photo mode. Again, the results are not bad at all, but when you compare the performance in this department with similarly priced phones, they come up short. The edge distortion in particular needs a bit of improvement in wide-angle clicks.
Quite expensive
The GoPro Hero11 Black was priced at Rs 51,500 in India at the time of launch, which is quite expensive. A few months since, it can now be purchased on Amazon India for a good 9K to 10K lower with either one year or two years comprehensive warranty, depending on the option you choose. Needless to say, that’s a much better deal, but the price is still on the higher side. Also, factor in the cost of accessories that you will need on day 1 and going ahead. It doesn’t come bundled with any, barring a couple of adhesive mounts, buckle and thumb screws and a USB cable.
Final words
I did term it as expensive, but that depends on what you intend to do with the GoPro Hero11 Black. If you just plan to use it on vacations or for occasional activities, it is expensive. But if you are a content creator or a contributor to various social media platforms, then I would say this camera offers great value for money purely for its versatility of letting you quickly repurpose the footage in different resolutions for different platforms without breaking a sweat. And of course, the quality of captured footage is excellent.
As for alternatives, I haven’t had a chance to test its competitors first-hand. So I can only compare it to the last two generations of GoPro. Incidentally, the price of the 11 is quite similar to that of the GoPro Hero10 at the moment, which makes the Hero11 a straightforward choice. The GoPro Hero9 sells for close to Rs 28,000, which makes it a nice entry point for someone who hasn’t used an action camera before or just wants one for occasional use. For everything else, the Hero11 Black is the best GoPro out there with significant and useful improvements on most fronts.
