HERO4 Black from GoPro: Record 4K or 1080p 120fps
It’s been an awesome time here in Vegas – I’ve been covering a conference and during the down time I’ve been playing with this – the GoPro HERO4 Black edition. This is the newest GoPro camera for live action recording.
You might have seen skydivers, skateboarders, custom car owners, and other groups create some awesome video and this little device is ususally taking the video. As you can see, its a little larger than a box of Tictacs – with the waterproof case you could easily fit it in your pocket ready for any life moment to happen.
There are three buttons on the HERO4 – a power button, shutter button and settings button. Each button has multiple options so you can create video, take stills or continuous shots.
The best part is the quality of the HERO4. This camera can take a 4K video at 30 fps! It can also take 1080p video at 120fps. This means you can slow down a video to 25% of the original speed and not experience any blurry or choppy frames.
About the GoPro HERO4
The photo camera side takes 12 MP pictures and can take 30 pictures a second. As you notice, there is no LCD viewfinder – thats to keep the size of the HERO4 down. You can connect up via Bluetooth and WiFi to your phone to see whats going on.
The HERO4 is waterproof up to 40 meters with the case on. The 3.1 ounce camera can attach to many different items like helmets or tripods with add-on accessories.
And there are a plethora of resolutions to record from. WVGA to 720, 1080p, 2.7K and even 4K resolutions.
So this is the specs, but is the camera worth the price? When we come back, I’ll put it all together for you.
Pros and Cons of the HERO4
This camera can record up to 4K at 30fps. But is this the right camera for you and your home movies? Let’s look at the pros and cons.
First, the camera takes some getting used to. The LCD is small and has no back-lit option. That really sucked in low-light situations where I needed to see the settings.
The button system gets confusing. The power button is the most annoying out of the three. If I press the button down, I would want it to turn on as fast as possible. Instead, I am waiting and sometimes the HERO4 doesn’t turn on.
On the side of the camera is the card, USB and HDMI connections. The door to this completely removes. That means I have a small piece of plastic that could disappear really quick. For best waterproof results, its best to keep that little plastic item.
I am not sure why they didn’t make a rubber attachement so the door stays on the HERO. When I have it plugged in, I am not planning to get it wet…
The lens is fixed, but uses a Fish eye lens. That is what gives the sides a curvy look. You can straighten that out with the GoPro software or other 3rd party programs.
I had some problems connecting the Wi-Fi to my phone. It took a few tries and wasn’t always successful. Since a lot of people do this and the settings haven’t changed from HERO3, I’ll give it another go when I get home.
The videos download as MP4 files. A 30 fps video is 12 Mbps and 120 fps video is about 56 Mbps.
Although I get a case and a couple mount arms for it, I didn’t have one of the simplest attachments – one that lets me mount it to a tripod. I had to pay another $20 for that small piece of plastic.
Speaking of price, the HERO4 Black is $499. That is about $161 per ounce. In all, this camera does the job and I can add it to my recording rig whereever I need to.
If 1080p 120 fps or 4k video is not something you care about, then the HERO4 Silver might be better. The lowest end HERO is great in its own right at $129.99 – shooting 1080p at 30 fps and 5 MP photos.