GoPro Hero7 Black
A great action camera is now even better
GoPro claims HyperSmooth is the best in-camera video stabilisation of any camera
£379.99 FROM GoPro, shop.gopro.com FEATURES 4K video at 60fps, 1080p at 240fps, 12MP, HyperSmooth stabilisation, SuperPhoto, live streaming, waterproof up to 10m (33ft)
GoPro’s thinking for the new Hero7 Black flagship model is clearly less about boosting frame rates or packing more pixels, and more about improving user experience. The core specs are essentially carbon copied from the Hero6 Black – you get the same 12MP sensor and the same wide-angle lens, for example, and the top video specs of 4K at 60fps and Full HD to a maximum 240fps for 8x slowed-down footage are also unchanged.
Change and control
The front display, which shows key info such as current frame rate and resolution, has been condensed into a smaller space, and battery life and remaining card space is now easier to see. The 2in touchscreen is more smartphone-like in operation, with simple swipes to access modes, captured footage/ images and more. You can still alternate between shooting modes with a press of the Mode button, but you can also swipe. The screen is generally responsive, but occasionally fails to respond to touch.
Voice Control is once again on hand, recognising 12 commands to cover the main tasks. Audio performance has also been revamped. GoPro has expanded dynamic range, providing more natural bass tones and brighter mids, and has also redesigned the microphone membrane to eliminate vibrations, while ensuring it can capture more subtle sounds than before.
The new SuperPhoto is akin to a sceneintelligent auto option, which automates a handful of helpful features, like HDR or multi-frame noise reductions.
Alternatively, ProTune gives you the freedom to adjust things like exposure compensation, white balance, ISO range, sharpness and so on. You can capture 12MP stills as raw images or JPEG, and shoot bursts of images at a maximum 30fps, telling the camera how many images over how long a duration you want. In good light, details are crisp; sharpness extends to the peripheries of the frame. Close scrutiny shows a bit of processing, but results are very respectable.
The lens is uncorrected for distortion in its default Wide setting, so anything with linear details – particularly close-up subjects – will have that wide-angle look. You can, however, switch to Linear mode to capture images with corrected distortion, though at the slight expense of field of view. Touch Zoom gives a narrower field of view, although this acts like a digital zoom, maintaining output at 12MP, which degrades quality. An option to simply cut down resolution to compensate for how far you zoom would be welcome.
The most significant new feature is HyperSmooth, a form of video stabilisation. A combination of hardware and software, this is great for anyone who finds using a gimbal inconvenient. GoPro claims that its the best in-camera video stabilisation system not just of any action cam, but of any camera.
Unlike the Hero6 Black, which only allows regular stabilisation at 30fps when shooting in 4K, HyperSmooth can be used when capturing 60fps footage at full resolution (though not at 4:3). The only other time you can’t call upon it is when capturing Full HD 240fps and 120fps footage, though standard stabilisation is available at the latter frame rate.
Doing the TimeWarp
The new TimeWarp feature combines the idea of frame-by-frame time-lapse shooting (which you can still do) with HyperSmooth to create a stabilised hyperlapse. It allows you to capture time-lapse footage with the freedom to move the cam – time-lapse footage without a tripod!
You can set the factor by which footage is slowed. The cam even lets you know how much footage you’ll get at the settings you’ve chosen, and the timer that displays during recording keeps you posted on this.
You can capture Full HD footage at up to 240fps, which can be slowed by a factor of 8x to 30fps. Sound is recorded at the same time but, while footage can be played back in slowmotion on the device, it’s not possible to output this in slo-mo without going through GoPro’s Quik or other video editing software first.
The GoPro iOS app lets you auto upload images to your device, and those with a GoPro Plus subscription will find 250GB of cloud storage space to play with. Instagram users, in addition to having an easier time capturing portrait-orientation images, can also add their footage and images straight into Stories, and you can improve your captures with music, effects and GPS stickers as you see fit.
From the GoPro app you can view images and footage, control the camera remotely and upload footage and images to the cloud, and you can also set up a live connection to your chosen social account. The app also provides a far less fiddly way of updating your camera’s firmware, as you don’t need to remove the Micro SD card and load the update manually.
Live view preview isn’t quite rendered in the highest quality, but things sharpen up as soon as you start recording. Most of the time there’s only a tiny delay between the camera’s movements and this being relayed on the screen. You can set the app to auto upload to your device, and if you have a GoPro Plus account you get 250GB of cloud storage space.
Another nice new touch is the built-in capability to live stream. This works with Facebook at the time of writing, but is due to work with YouTube and more in the future.
So, no great shift in spec here and some elements that could still be improved – better recognition of voice commands and a Touch Zoom option that doesn’t scale images up to 12MP, for example – but the new features really make a big difference. The GoPro Hero7 Black is certainly the best action camera you can buy right now. Matt Golowczynski