The GoPro Hero 13: A Camera That's Been Improved with Care

One of the most significant changes to the new GoPro Hero 13 is the addition of an entirely new battery system. This new battery promises anywhere between 40 and 60 minutes of continuous filming, as well as up to 20 minutes of general use with Airflow and similar conditions. While I'm still waiting for my final test results, I've had some positive early signs from this new battery. During our 2.5-hour jet ski trip, I only needed to swap out the battery once, which is a significant improvement over previous models. Additionally, I've seen about a 20% increase in performance when filming continuously while walking outside with both cameras at 65°F.

I recently conducted a few tests on this new battery system. My first test was a simple one: comparing the Hero 12 and Hero 13 in 5.3K at 30 frames per second. The results were encouraging, with the Hero 13 showing a noticeable performance increase of around 20%. However, my next test, which involved filming 4K at 60 frames per second with both cameras running continuously and hyper-smooth on high bit rate 10-bit color standard profile, revealed an even more significant improvement. The Hero 13 managed to keep going until it drained its battery, while the Hero 12 turned off with only 40% of battery left. This suggests that the thermal management of this new battery is much better than previous models.

Another new accessory for the Hero 13 is a DJ Osso Action Mount, which is designed to work seamlessly with the camera's magnetic design. I've had a chance to test this mount, and it works beautifully - it's easy to use and provides a secure hold on the camera. Additionally, GoPro has kept one of my favorite accessories from previous models: the classic fingers. These are still recommended for use when there's a lot of vibration or motion involved.

However, I do wish that GoPro had considered adding a feature for native vertical filming with just the camera itself, without the need for additional mounting accessories. While this might be something that could be added to future protective cases or accessories, it would be a welcome addition nonetheless. Finally, GoPro has also introduced a new waterproof magnetic charging option, which is optional and costs $79. While I'm not a huge fan of proprietary cables, this does make it easy to charge the camera without having to open the side door - especially when doing time-lapses or other activities that require frequent power ups.

One feature that's been added for the Hero 13 is a slow-motion mode that films in short bursts up to 15 seconds. The footage produced by this mode is still shot at 8-bit, but it looks surprisingly good and is one of those features that sets the GoPro apart from other cameras on the market.

The GoPro Hero 13: A Camera That's Been Improved with Care

In recent years, the action camera market has plateaued, with minimal changes in terms of hardware. However, GoPro has been working hard to address customer concerns and introduce new ideas that set it apart from the competition. While the stabilization on this camera hasn't changed significantly, GoPro is trying new things to improve its overall reliability year-over-year.

One of these initiatives is the expansion of GoPro's ecosystem with its lenses. These lenses are designed to work seamlessly with the Hero 13 and provide a range of creative possibilities for users. Additionally, GoPro has introduced its Cloud subscription service, which allows users to offload footage from their camera as soon as it's plugged in and charged. This feature alone makes it difficult for me to consider other cameras when choosing a new one - even if they might have better batteries or image quality.

The Hero 13 is also becoming increasingly hard to justify upgrading every year. However, that decision ultimately depends on which GoPro you're using and what your needs are. If you're already invested in the ecosystem and love the Hero camera as much as I do, it's unlikely that you'll want to upgrade anytime soon.

Finally, one of the coolest things we did for this video was take the Hero 13 out for a spin on a jet ski on the Hudson River. This was a fun experience - and also a reminder of why I love using my GoPro so much. While it might not be the most conventional use case, the Hero 13 performed beautifully in these conditions, capturing stunning footage that I couldn't have achieved with any other camera.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthere's a new magnetic Mount three new lenses redesign battery magnetic charging these are just some of the highlights from the latest Flagship GoPro the hero 13 earlier this year GoPro promised us more cameras coming from the company and some of you were hoping for a 1-in sensor hero camera it's not here yet I don't know if it's coming some of you are hoping for the new 360 camera it's not here yet but apparently it's coming today GoPro announc the hero 13 bunch of new lenses and the smaller hero camera but not everything is available today so let's talk about what is and also is GoPro doing enough to fight off competition okay first things first GoPro Hero 13 isn't introducing any major changes to its specs it is still 5.3k up to 30 frames per second 4K up to 120 frames per second it can still film in glog and it has 10 bit colors photos are 27 megapixels video grabs are 23 it's hypers smooth stabilization it's still the same and gopro's image quality was already pretty good but I think this sensor is showing its age but there are some changes the one big change is that we're getting proper hlg HDR filming it's not that easy to show in this video so I've attached comparison files in the description below for you to download and another change is that GoPro is including in camera noise reduction it works well and you can select how much noise reduction you'd want to include so yeah there is some low light Improvement but I still wish maybe GoPro went for a slightly larger sensor I think performance of these cameras past ISO 400 800 just doesn't cut it for me anymore the other big new thing this year is actually the accessory ecosystem for GoPro so let's talk about these lenses GoPro is introducing three of them macro Ultra wide and an morphic I'm very excited by the last one but it will not be available till 2025 all of these lenses get autodetected by the camera once you attach them and they customize your menu option as well which is super neat I really like how this works the macro lens is available now and I think a lot of people will find this useful it creates some subject separation it gives your GoPro a new look something that has been missing for a few years the focus ring feels nice and solid however the closest distance they can focus at is about 4 in and that really isn't that close for a macro lens so if you're looking to get some gritty detail shots you'll probably better off with just a phone that has macro capabilities you can turn on Focus peing so you can tell what is in Focus easier but I really think it's time for GoPro to also make this back screen larger I'm having a hard time seeing what I'm focused at and some shots turn out worse because of it okay ultra white is nice next I was excited to try out the ultra wide lens because I just love that Ultra wide look but I was a little disappointed once I realized that optically this is the exact same lens as the maxma 2 from last year the Year of year changes actually with the camera the GoPro Hero 13 can now film in 10bit and log while using one of those lenses as opposed to 8bit in standard color with the max mod on the hero 12 if you're stick to your old Max mod 2 the only real thing that you're losing is the autod detect feature and lastly not a new lens but gopro's own ND filters they're kind of like smart ND filters these get autodetected by the camera for folks who want to stick to lower frame rates and get more motion blur it's super useful it is also useful that the camera itself will let you know if your ND filter is a little too weak or too strong and if you need a swap it out it is super handy feature that eliminates fiddling with settings and makes it a lot more approachable to people who just don't want to spend time learning about this stuff gopr is all about getting the best shot in the easiest way possible and this neat feature truly speaks to that mission I think these MDS might be my favorite accessory released this year but the bad news is that none of these lenses will work with any of the older hero cameras this is hero 13 onwards so those are the lenses and there are some new other improvements and some old features that are making it come back GPS is back so you can add overlays like GeForce speed maps and such it was removed from hero 12 people got mad myself included and now it is back there is an entirely new battery and the battery has always being gopro's weak point it would constantly make your GoPros just turn off at the worst possible time this 1900 million battery here promises anywhere between 40 and 60 minutes of continuous filming and night 0 minutes of General use with airf flow and such I still need to do a little bit more testing but my early signs are positive I had to swap out the battery once during our 2 and 1/2 hour jet ski trip and overall I'm getting about 20% better performance when filming continuously while walking outside with both of these cameras in 65° weather oops okay A little bit of context on the battery test that I did by the way I'm talking to you through the airbuds that are connected to the GoPro so tell me how that sounds it didn't sound that great like last year maybe it's better this year so my first test was 5.3k 30 frames per second between the 12 and the 13 that's where I got the 20% performance increase my next test which happened yesterday was 4K 60 frames per second both cameras running continuously hyper smooth on high bit rate 10bit color standard profile and the hero 12 turned off with 40% of battery left while the hero 13 it just kept going until it drained its battery so so the first test showed the 20% increase which is decent but the second one actually showed us that the thermal management of this battery is a lot better than before so if that's your use case we'll be pretty happy with that I'm glad to see improvements here but I'm not blown away by this battery but it is better DJ osmo action while I haven't tested it rates there is for 2 and 1/2 hours this magnetic Mount is also new and it works great I'm also glad that GoPro kept the classic fingers in fact GoPro still recommends using those if there's a lot of vibration I do wish there was a way to mount the camera just on its sides for Native vertical filming but maybe this can be added to a protective case later on one more new accessory there is the new waterproof magnetic charging which is optional and it will cost you $79 and it is fine I don't necessarily love proprietary cables and I will likely stick to USBC when traveling but it does make it easy to charge the GoPro without needing to open the side door especially if you're doing a time lapse or something and lastly there is a super slow motion mode I can't believe I'm talking only about it now but it films in short bursts up to 15 seconds and that footage is 8 bit but it still looks pretty good I think it's one of those features that's very unique to the GoPro and I really like it and that's the GoPro Hero 13 now look we've been talking about the action camera market plateauing for for a little while now and to some extent I have to agree even though its stabilization is great it hasn't changed in a few years and again I think GoPro is getting as much as they can out of the smaller sensor I wish they went for the bigger one and rest of the hardware remains unchanged aside for some cosmetic touch-ups but GoPro is trying some new ideas here while addressing customer concerns and I'm glad there is a new battery system I'm glad there's a new Mount and a proper HTR the company has done well with improving Hero's overall reliability year-over-year as well and I am very curious to see more of new lenses and what this actually leads to gopro's Hero camera hasn't changed drastically this year but they have expanded their ecosystem with their lenses and another part of that ecosystem is its Cloud subscription which is awesome it enables one extremely useful feature as soon as you plug in your camera to charge it offloads footage to its Cloud this feature alone makes it hard for me to even look elsewhere when picking a new camera even though I'm fully aware that some of the other cameras have better batteries and better image quality and the hero remains one of those cameras that will always find a room in my bag and each summer and winter I get reminded why I love using them so much but it is increasingly hard to find reasons to upgrade your GoPro year-over-year that decision truly depends on which GoPro you're using right now and what do you actually use it for the most one cool thing that we did for this video is went to jet ski on the Hudson which sounds disgusting and it is but I survived um and honestly I haven't been able to lift my arms or walk properly ever since that day so yeahthere's a new magnetic Mount three new lenses redesign battery magnetic charging these are just some of the highlights from the latest Flagship GoPro the hero 13 earlier this year GoPro promised us more cameras coming from the company and some of you were hoping for a 1-in sensor hero camera it's not here yet I don't know if it's coming some of you are hoping for the new 360 camera it's not here yet but apparently it's coming today GoPro announc the hero 13 bunch of new lenses and the smaller hero camera but not everything is available today so let's talk about what is and also is GoPro doing enough to fight off competition okay first things first GoPro Hero 13 isn't introducing any major changes to its specs it is still 5.3k up to 30 frames per second 4K up to 120 frames per second it can still film in glog and it has 10 bit colors photos are 27 megapixels video grabs are 23 it's hypers smooth stabilization it's still the same and gopro's image quality was already pretty good but I think this sensor is showing its age but there are some changes the one big change is that we're getting proper hlg HDR filming it's not that easy to show in this video so I've attached comparison files in the description below for you to download and another change is that GoPro is including in camera noise reduction it works well and you can select how much noise reduction you'd want to include so yeah there is some low light Improvement but I still wish maybe GoPro went for a slightly larger sensor I think performance of these cameras past ISO 400 800 just doesn't cut it for me anymore the other big new thing this year is actually the accessory ecosystem for GoPro so let's talk about these lenses GoPro is introducing three of them macro Ultra wide and an morphic I'm very excited by the last one but it will not be available till 2025 all of these lenses get autodetected by the camera once you attach them and they customize your menu option as well which is super neat I really like how this works the macro lens is available now and I think a lot of people will find this useful it creates some subject separation it gives your GoPro a new look something that has been missing for a few years the focus ring feels nice and solid however the closest distance they can focus at is about 4 in and that really isn't that close for a macro lens so if you're looking to get some gritty detail shots you'll probably better off with just a phone that has macro capabilities you can turn on Focus peing so you can tell what is in Focus easier but I really think it's time for GoPro to also make this back screen larger I'm having a hard time seeing what I'm focused at and some shots turn out worse because of it okay ultra white is nice next I was excited to try out the ultra wide lens because I just love that Ultra wide look but I was a little disappointed once I realized that optically this is the exact same lens as the maxma 2 from last year the Year of year changes actually with the camera the GoPro Hero 13 can now film in 10bit and log while using one of those lenses as opposed to 8bit in standard color with the max mod on the hero 12 if you're stick to your old Max mod 2 the only real thing that you're losing is the autod detect feature and lastly not a new lens but gopro's own ND filters they're kind of like smart ND filters these get autodetected by the camera for folks who want to stick to lower frame rates and get more motion blur it's super useful it is also useful that the camera itself will let you know if your ND filter is a little too weak or too strong and if you need a swap it out it is super handy feature that eliminates fiddling with settings and makes it a lot more approachable to people who just don't want to spend time learning about this stuff gopr is all about getting the best shot in the easiest way possible and this neat feature truly speaks to that mission I think these MDS might be my favorite accessory released this year but the bad news is that none of these lenses will work with any of the older hero cameras this is hero 13 onwards so those are the lenses and there are some new other improvements and some old features that are making it come back GPS is back so you can add overlays like GeForce speed maps and such it was removed from hero 12 people got mad myself included and now it is back there is an entirely new battery and the battery has always being gopro's weak point it would constantly make your GoPros just turn off at the worst possible time this 1900 million battery here promises anywhere between 40 and 60 minutes of continuous filming and night 0 minutes of General use with airf flow and such I still need to do a little bit more testing but my early signs are positive I had to swap out the battery once during our 2 and 1/2 hour jet ski trip and overall I'm getting about 20% better performance when filming continuously while walking outside with both of these cameras in 65° weather oops okay A little bit of context on the battery test that I did by the way I'm talking to you through the airbuds that are connected to the GoPro so tell me how that sounds it didn't sound that great like last year maybe it's better this year so my first test was 5.3k 30 frames per second between the 12 and the 13 that's where I got the 20% performance increase my next test which happened yesterday was 4K 60 frames per second both cameras running continuously hyper smooth on high bit rate 10bit color standard profile and the hero 12 turned off with 40% of battery left while the hero 13 it just kept going until it drained its battery so so the first test showed the 20% increase which is decent but the second one actually showed us that the thermal management of this battery is a lot better than before so if that's your use case we'll be pretty happy with that I'm glad to see improvements here but I'm not blown away by this battery but it is better DJ osmo action while I haven't tested it rates there is for 2 and 1/2 hours this magnetic Mount is also new and it works great I'm also glad that GoPro kept the classic fingers in fact GoPro still recommends using those if there's a lot of vibration I do wish there was a way to mount the camera just on its sides for Native vertical filming but maybe this can be added to a protective case later on one more new accessory there is the new waterproof magnetic charging which is optional and it will cost you $79 and it is fine I don't necessarily love proprietary cables and I will likely stick to USBC when traveling but it does make it easy to charge the GoPro without needing to open the side door especially if you're doing a time lapse or something and lastly there is a super slow motion mode I can't believe I'm talking only about it now but it films in short bursts up to 15 seconds and that footage is 8 bit but it still looks pretty good I think it's one of those features that's very unique to the GoPro and I really like it and that's the GoPro Hero 13 now look we've been talking about the action camera market plateauing for for a little while now and to some extent I have to agree even though its stabilization is great it hasn't changed in a few years and again I think GoPro is getting as much as they can out of the smaller sensor I wish they went for the bigger one and rest of the hardware remains unchanged aside for some cosmetic touch-ups but GoPro is trying some new ideas here while addressing customer concerns and I'm glad there is a new battery system I'm glad there's a new Mount and a proper HTR the company has done well with improving Hero's overall reliability year-over-year as well and I am very curious to see more of new lenses and what this actually leads to gopro's Hero camera hasn't changed drastically this year but they have expanded their ecosystem with their lenses and another part of that ecosystem is its Cloud subscription which is awesome it enables one extremely useful feature as soon as you plug in your camera to charge it offloads footage to its Cloud this feature alone makes it hard for me to even look elsewhere when picking a new camera even though I'm fully aware that some of the other cameras have better batteries and better image quality and the hero remains one of those cameras that will always find a room in my bag and each summer and winter I get reminded why I love using them so much but it is increasingly hard to find reasons to upgrade your GoPro year-over-year that decision truly depends on which GoPro you're using right now and what do you actually use it for the most one cool thing that we did for this video is went to jet ski on the Hudson which sounds disgusting and it is but I survived um and honestly I haven't been able to lift my arms or walk properly ever since that day so yeah\n"