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GoPro Goes 4K in a Smaller, Faster, Lighter Camera

By Scott Simmons   /   Oct 17, 2012

It was a fun Tuesday night here in San Francisco as GoPro Founder and CEO Nick Woodman took the wraps off the company's latest little camera, the Hero3. This new product in the GoPro family ups the ante for helmet-cam to vehicle-strapped action cameras in a few major ways: It's 30% smaller, 25% lighter and has a 2x faster image processor. Sounds great, but the main question we really wanted answered is, what are the specs and, also, what can this little baby do?

Try 4K at 15fps, 2.7K at 30fps, 1080p60, 1440p48, 960p100, 720p120 and WVGA at 240 frames per second. Those are all the maximum frame rates the camera will deliver per resolution. When you see the size of the new Hero3 Black Edition in person you’ll be amazed that you can get 4K images out of this little thing, and all for just $399.99. There are two other editions, the $299.99 Silver Edition and the $199.99 White Edition that scale back some of the formats, frame rates and features, but when you consider the $79.99 Wi-Fi remote comes in the top-level Black Edition, there’s not a lot of reason to buy anything else. Check out the video at top for a look at the amazing images out of the camera.

In addition to all the video specs, the Black Edition will shoot 12 megapixel photos and has significantly improved low-light performance, double that, in fact, of the previous GoPro camera, the Hero2. These kinds of action cameras can't really be about the glass, but Hero3 does have a much sharper lens, reduced distortion and (thankfully) improved sound. Wi-Fi is now built in. Sadly, we don’t get to shoot direct to the CineForm codec in this new version, though I got the feeling that’s something coming in the near future. However, if you run the recent Protune firmware update, that will raise the bit rate to 45/Mbs.

There are a ton of new gadgets and accessories that go with the Hero3, including a new "LCD Touch BacPac," a touchscreen that makes accessing the different settings much easier than the two buttons on previous versions of the camera. A new waterproof housing also lets you take this camera much deeper underwater, up to 197 feet. Check out GoPro.com for all the details.

6 Comments

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  • Anonymous

    It appears the new housing has a standard flat window over the lens, which should remove the underwater focusing problem caused by the dome-shaped window of the Hero2 housing. I previously had to purchase a custom built flat window for my underwater housing to get decent underwater shots. The advantage to the custom window was its round shape, allowing me to add screw-in filters as needed. The disadvantage is clipping of corners of the image in wide zoom mode.

    The rectagonal shape of the window pictured above will not allow addition of standard filters but should also not cause clipping of the image in wide zoom mode.

    Looks like a new toy for my toy box!

  • SeeCraig

    No mention of live streaming to the internet yet?
    I’d like the ability to send to Telestream Wirecast at least.

    • http://www.facebook.com/virtualchuck Chuck Pullen

      That would be very cool to be able to send a couple of these through Wirecast!

  • http://www.facebook.com/michael.nistler Michael Nistler

    Right, so the Hero3 definitely has a different form factor/size that doesn’t appear to fit in existing Hero2 enclosures but at least they seem to be keeping the same mounting system so we can reuse our holders for tripods, chest/head straps, suction/stickers, etc.

  • http://twitter.com/editblog Scott Simmons

    @seecraig – there was specific mention of live streaming to the web via a smart phone app as future functionality.

    And all the mounting is the same but there is a new suction cup mount that is supposed to produce much less virbration than the old.

  • John

    Twice as sensitive in low light as the GoPro2? That means it will be the first GoPro to shoot good video in low light at all. The GoPro2 sucked. I use my GoPro1 all the time and the ’2′ collects dust on the shelf. And I won’t get excited about 4K until it’s 30fps. 2.7k is something to get excited about. I’ll wait.