GoPro Hero9 Black hands-on - A monster camera with a ton of tools

The New Gopro Hero 9 Black: A Comprehensive Review

Gopro has just released its latest addition to its camera lineup, the Hero 9 Black, and it's packed with some impressive features. One of the standout updates is the addition of 5K resolution for video recording. This means that users can now shoot high-quality video and pull stills, making it easier to decide between photography and videography. Gopro wants to keep up with what its users want, and as a result, they've added this feature to cater to the demand.

The Hero 9 Black also retains some of the features from the previous model, such as Hyper Smooth for image stabilization. However, this has been improved in version 3, which provides boosted stabilization in all settings. For example, on the Hero 8, users couldn't use Boost at 4K with the Super View Lens, but on the Hero 9, they can apply that extra bit of stabilization to make their clips look as smooth as possible. Another feature that's been improved is Gopro's brand of hyperlapse, which is now version 3. This allows users to pause in the middle and slow down the video to real speed, but then quickly tap on the back of the screen to return it to regular time warp. Additionally, this version also includes recording audio.

In terms of new tools, Gopro has added three new features: Scheduled Capture, Duration Capture, and Hindsight. Scheduled Capture lets users pick a time they want the camera to turn on automatically and start recording, making it easy to capture things like sunrises without having to be up early. Duration Capture allows users to set a timed recording from 15 seconds all the way up to three hours, giving them more flexibility when shooting videos. Hindsight creates a 15- or 30-second buffer constantly, so as soon as the user presses record, it starts with a video stored in the buffer.

Another notable feature of the Hero 9 Black is its ability to be used as a webcam out of the box on both Windows and Mac devices. This makes it easy for users to quickly switch between capturing photos and videos or using their camera as a regular webcam.

Now, let's talk about pricing. Gopro is offering some bundle options at launch, which can make things a bit confusing. The Hero 9 Black itself costs $449, but if you sign up for the service within the first year, you can get it for $349. Additionally, there's a new bundle available for $4.99 that includes a second battery, a floaty grip, a magnetic swivel clip, and a micro SD card. However, users should note that the bigger body of the Hero 9 Black means they won't be able to use the old batteries in the Hero 8 or Hero 7 cameras, and the Hero 8 Media Mod won't fit on it either.

Gopro is also getting rid of its plastic packaging with the new camera. The Max Hero 8 and Hero 7 remain in the lineup at reduced prices. Overall, the Hero 9 Black offers a lot of exciting features that make it an excellent choice for users who want to capture high-quality video and photos on-the-go.

In conclusion, the Gopro Hero 9 Black is a powerful camera that's packed with innovative features. From its 5K resolution to its improved image stabilization and new tools, this camera has something for everyone. Whether you're a professional photographer or just starting out, the Hero 9 Black is definitely worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eni'm recording this with gopro's new hero 9 black and one of his coolest new features is called hindsight and it captures up to 30 seconds of video before you even hit record um that way you can look back and see just how i ended up like this so this is it uh it's the hero9 black and everything about it is bigger including its actual size i mean look at the difference between the hero9 and the hero8 the 9 is taller and wider and it's heavier too but it's all for a good reason and that's battery life the hero 9 has a much larger battery pack here it is against the hero 8's battery battery life was always a problem because the cameras were small but by going bigger this pack will last 30 percent longer than the eights and gopro says it works better in the cold too i used it a bunch in the past few days and while i don't have any hard numbers yet it lasted noticeably longer with whatever settings i used so you've got the bigger body with a bigger battery and inside is a bigger image sensor it's not physically larger but it's now 23.6 megapixels and with it you can shoot 20 megapixel pictures and 5k video at 30 frames per second in addition to 4k at up to 60 frames per second 2.7 k at 120 and 1080 at 240 when you really want to slow things down with more resolution you also get more of gopro's digital lenses basically these let you get tighter or wider on your subjects and you can just slide between them with the touch screen shortcut for example if you're shooting in 4k you can change from a narrow view to a linear view with horizon leveling which is now done in camera instead of being in extra step editing and then you can go to just a linear lens and then switch to the gopros traditional wide view and then you can bump all the way up to super view for the widest tallest picture but for the most immersive shots you can add on the 99 max lens mod gopro had dropped the twist on lens cover for the hero 8 but it's back for the 9. it adds to the size but means you can replace it easily and use other lenses with the max lens you get a huge view just like what you get with the gopro max cameras lenses you can record it up to 2.7 k and it can be used with the wide digital lens or the super view lens for a really big picture next to the lens is the hero9's worst kept secret and that's the new big color display gopro's not the first to have a front display like this but it's a great addition and you can set it to show you just the information a full widescreen picture so you can frame your shots or a tighter center shot the rear display is large too so it's just easier to see what you're shooting and change all your settings the camera i tested had pre-launch firmware on it so the touchscreen was a little slow to respond uh but gopro says the launch firmware improves the sensitivity as well as some of the image quality although the image quality was already really good overall the body feels actually tougher than the a2 and the battery door is easier to open as well and the micro sd card is easier to remove it's still waterproof down to 10 meters too okay so those are some of the top new features i'll get to a couple more later on in the video but i wanted to go back to the 5k video for a second now i thought that was a bit much but apparently uh gopro says that a lot of their users wanted 5k and gopro wants to keep up with what its users want and what's available and to push the boundaries of what their cameras can do so they added 5k now for the average joe gopro user like me i don't necessarily need 5k but what it does do is give you enough resolution that you can shoot video and pull stills so if you can't decide between taking a photo and taking video you can set it to 5k record video and then go back and get stills probably stills that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise so uh in the end 5k it's a nice addition to this camera oh it's going to take off by mr seagull a lot of the features from the hero 8 carry over to the hero hero9 but there are enhancements throughout gopro's hyper smooth for instance the image stabilization it was already amazingly good on the hero 8 and it's just improved for the hero 9. here's some side by side footage of the hero 8 9 so you can judge it for yourself what's more is that with hyper smooth 3 you get boosted stabilization in all settings for example on the hero 8 you couldn't use boost at 4k with the super view lens with the hero 9 you can apply that extra bit of stabilization to make your clips look as smooth as possible and just to show you how good the stabilization is on this camera here's what it looks like with it off and here's what it looks like next to it with it on gopro's brand of hyperlapse it's a stabilized motion time lapse mode it's on version 3 now as well so with the new time warp 3.0 you can pause in the middle and slow down the video to real speed but then when you're ready to go back up you just tap on the back of the screen and it goes back to regular time warp however now you can record audio just like i'm doing right now so along with all the shooting modes in the hero9 gopro added three new tools scheduled captures duration captures and hindsight which you saw at the beginning of this video it creates a 15 or 30 second buffer constantly so as soon as you press record it starts with a video uh stored in the buffer as long as you turn off the camera beep you'd never know you used it in the final clip duration capture lets you set a timed recording from 15 seconds all the way up to three hours and scheduled capture lets you pick a time you want the camera to turn on automatically and start recording so that way you can capture things like a sunrise without actually having to be up with the sunrise there are a handful of other small updates but one that's actually pretty relevant right now is that the hero9 can be used as a webcam out of the box on both windows and mac so how much does all this cost now with the pricing it's a little confusing this year because gopro is offering some bundle options at launch here's the rundown the hero9 black is 449 or on gopro.com you can get it for 349 when you get a one-year subscription to gopro service so for 349 you're getting the camera and a year of service which gets you things like no questions asked camera replacement cloud storage and enhanced live streaming and discounts on other gear for 4.99 you can get it in a new bundle that comes with a second battery a floaty grip a magnetic swivel clip and a micro sd card and again you can get 100 bucks off if you sign up for the service either way you get this nice case too because gopro is getting rid of its plastic packaging the max hero 8 and hero 7 all stay in the lineup with the 8 and 7 at reduced prices and i know i didn't mention it earlier specifically but in case it wasn't clear the bigger body does mean you can't use the old batteries in the hero 9 and the hero 8 media mod won't fit on it either but gopro is making one for the hero9 so there you have it that's the new gopro hero 9 black in a nutshell i really like having the front screen and i'm okay with the extra size and weight to get the removable lens cover and of course more battery life what do you think are the updates worth upgrading for let us know in the comments and check out more details on the new camera on cnet.com thanks for watching okayi'm recording this with gopro's new hero 9 black and one of his coolest new features is called hindsight and it captures up to 30 seconds of video before you even hit record um that way you can look back and see just how i ended up like this so this is it uh it's the hero9 black and everything about it is bigger including its actual size i mean look at the difference between the hero9 and the hero8 the 9 is taller and wider and it's heavier too but it's all for a good reason and that's battery life the hero 9 has a much larger battery pack here it is against the hero 8's battery battery life was always a problem because the cameras were small but by going bigger this pack will last 30 percent longer than the eights and gopro says it works better in the cold too i used it a bunch in the past few days and while i don't have any hard numbers yet it lasted noticeably longer with whatever settings i used so you've got the bigger body with a bigger battery and inside is a bigger image sensor it's not physically larger but it's now 23.6 megapixels and with it you can shoot 20 megapixel pictures and 5k video at 30 frames per second in addition to 4k at up to 60 frames per second 2.7 k at 120 and 1080 at 240 when you really want to slow things down with more resolution you also get more of gopro's digital lenses basically these let you get tighter or wider on your subjects and you can just slide between them with the touch screen shortcut for example if you're shooting in 4k you can change from a narrow view to a linear view with horizon leveling which is now done in camera instead of being in extra step editing and then you can go to just a linear lens and then switch to the gopros traditional wide view and then you can bump all the way up to super view for the widest tallest picture but for the most immersive shots you can add on the 99 max lens mod gopro had dropped the twist on lens cover for the hero 8 but it's back for the 9. it adds to the size but means you can replace it easily and use other lenses with the max lens you get a huge view just like what you get with the gopro max cameras lenses you can record it up to 2.7 k and it can be used with the wide digital lens or the super view lens for a really big picture next to the lens is the hero9's worst kept secret and that's the new big color display gopro's not the first to have a front display like this but it's a great addition and you can set it to show you just the information a full widescreen picture so you can frame your shots or a tighter center shot the rear display is large too so it's just easier to see what you're shooting and change all your settings the camera i tested had pre-launch firmware on it so the touchscreen was a little slow to respond uh but gopro says the launch firmware improves the sensitivity as well as some of the image quality although the image quality was already really good overall the body feels actually tougher than the a2 and the battery door is easier to open as well and the micro sd card is easier to remove it's still waterproof down to 10 meters too okay so those are some of the top new features i'll get to a couple more later on in the video but i wanted to go back to the 5k video for a second now i thought that was a bit much but apparently uh gopro says that a lot of their users wanted 5k and gopro wants to keep up with what its users want and what's available and to push the boundaries of what their cameras can do so they added 5k now for the average joe gopro user like me i don't necessarily need 5k but what it does do is give you enough resolution that you can shoot video and pull stills so if you can't decide between taking a photo and taking video you can set it to 5k record video and then go back and get stills probably stills that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise so uh in the end 5k it's a nice addition to this camera oh it's going to take off by mr seagull a lot of the features from the hero 8 carry over to the hero hero9 but there are enhancements throughout gopro's hyper smooth for instance the image stabilization it was already amazingly good on the hero 8 and it's just improved for the hero 9. here's some side by side footage of the hero 8 9 so you can judge it for yourself what's more is that with hyper smooth 3 you get boosted stabilization in all settings for example on the hero 8 you couldn't use boost at 4k with the super view lens with the hero 9 you can apply that extra bit of stabilization to make your clips look as smooth as possible and just to show you how good the stabilization is on this camera here's what it looks like with it off and here's what it looks like next to it with it on gopro's brand of hyperlapse it's a stabilized motion time lapse mode it's on version 3 now as well so with the new time warp 3.0 you can pause in the middle and slow down the video to real speed but then when you're ready to go back up you just tap on the back of the screen and it goes back to regular time warp however now you can record audio just like i'm doing right now so along with all the shooting modes in the hero9 gopro added three new tools scheduled captures duration captures and hindsight which you saw at the beginning of this video it creates a 15 or 30 second buffer constantly so as soon as you press record it starts with a video uh stored in the buffer as long as you turn off the camera beep you'd never know you used it in the final clip duration capture lets you set a timed recording from 15 seconds all the way up to three hours and scheduled capture lets you pick a time you want the camera to turn on automatically and start recording so that way you can capture things like a sunrise without actually having to be up with the sunrise there are a handful of other small updates but one that's actually pretty relevant right now is that the hero9 can be used as a webcam out of the box on both windows and mac so how much does all this cost now with the pricing it's a little confusing this year because gopro is offering some bundle options at launch here's the rundown the hero9 black is 449 or on gopro.com you can get it for 349 when you get a one-year subscription to gopro service so for 349 you're getting the camera and a year of service which gets you things like no questions asked camera replacement cloud storage and enhanced live streaming and discounts on other gear for 4.99 you can get it in a new bundle that comes with a second battery a floaty grip a magnetic swivel clip and a micro sd card and again you can get 100 bucks off if you sign up for the service either way you get this nice case too because gopro is getting rid of its plastic packaging the max hero 8 and hero 7 all stay in the lineup with the 8 and 7 at reduced prices and i know i didn't mention it earlier specifically but in case it wasn't clear the bigger body does mean you can't use the old batteries in the hero 9 and the hero 8 media mod won't fit on it either but gopro is making one for the hero9 so there you have it that's the new gopro hero 9 black in a nutshell i really like having the front screen and i'm okay with the extra size and weight to get the removable lens cover and of course more battery life what do you think are the updates worth upgrading for let us know in the comments and check out more details on the new camera on cnet.com thanks for watching okay\n"