Technology jumps. Most of the time it’s not worth making the leap, instead saving your effort, and money, for the real game-changing moves. The Hero3 promises enough to tempt an upgrade, and as shown in this GoPro Hero3 Review, it’s black – sort of.
Just in case you’ve had your head in the sand for the last three years, GoPro has taken a massive chunk of POV camera market.
And thanks to its compact design, range of mounts and dedication to building products tailored to the adventure sports world, it’s the deserved market leader.
GoPro Hero3 Review
So what’s new this time?
Before we get into this it has to be said that the GoPro, with it’s boxy, uncluttered surfaces, looks a lot like an old compact film camera, and as an object unclad from the sports housing, it’s rather beautiful.
GoPro Hero3 Review: Bigger
Tech-wise it’s bigger: video performance is doubled with 2x the frame rate and resolution; still photo performance is staggering, with it knocking out 12MP burst capture at a rapid 30 frames per second; and a very clever continuous photo mode that takes shots at 3,5 or 10 photos per second.
Physically it’s smaller, considerably smaller. The Hero3: Black Edition is 25% lighter and 30% smaller.
You can look here for all the GoPro HD Hero3 Black Edition Surf features
GoPro Hero3 Review: Better
And it’s better: there are three choices of zoom, helping you create a wider range of angles; a flatter waterproof housing with less distortion; and an f/2.8 6-element aspherical lens to help improve image quality at low light.
And they’ve improved audio capture – to make sure you record the screams…
Actually, there’s a host of features which come as standard with this package to really tempt a purchase. Most interesting is perhaps the built-in Wi-Fi, with remote included.
The remote is also built for outdoor holidays and beach breaks; waterproof, it can be used while surfing to set off up to 50 Wi-Fi enabled GoPros – can’t wait to see someone try this – and you can shoot from your mobile or tablet using the GoPro App.
GoPro Hero3 Review: Blacker
There are three models in the range: white, silver and black.
GoPro Hero3 Review: Conclusion
These products don’t come cheap, so if you are going to do it, I’d suggest first deciding what you want from your box of tricks before looking across the range.
Technically, the GoPro3 is definitely a leap forward; most impressive is the doubling of frame rate and resolution in what was already a powerful product. For adventure sport freaks wanting the best performance, we’d opt for the Black Edition.
