Review: GoPro 13 Hero Black (Part 1)

It’s taken a while as the actual camera was released quite some weeks back now, but I finally have my hands on the new GoPro 13 Hero Black. Not only that, I also have the UltraWide and Macro Lens Mods.

I’m going to create the review over a few stories as while on the surface, there is not a lot to say that hasn’t been said about the previous model – yes, they are that close in specification – in reality there is a bit more to the GoPro 13 Hero Black than meets the eye.

Unboxing

Hands up those who remember trying to get a brand-new GoPro out of the plastic case they used to be shipped in. That was a nightmare in futility, and usually ended up requiring a big hammer, or better, a chainsaw I found.

Well, thank fully those days are long gone, and the camera now ships in a paper bound recycled cardboard box. And no, you don’t get those natty and also-very-handy-for-other-things zipped cases any more.

But you do get a basic mount and threaded screw, the battery of course and a USB-C cable along with copious bits of mostly useless paper. And a sheet of different coloured GoPro stickers. I also got a 64GB Sandisk SD card (but no adaptor), but I don’t think that is standard in the basic version.

And that sets you back around the AUD$540 mark (shop around).

The battery needs a special mention. Y’see, it is a brand-new type that GoPro says has 10% better life than previous batteries. Yay! But it doesn’t fit earlier models. Boo!

Mine came with a minimal 20% charge in it, just enough to perform the auto download updates via the GoPro app and this whole process took around 5 minutes. This is done via a barcode you scan with your phone and then rest is pretty auto-tragic.

Setup

The date and time, time zone and other details were all correctly updated without any intervention, although it insisted I wanted an NTSC not PAL video setting.

And it worked first time. Numerous times I have performed this update procedure with earlier models and it had a tendency to die half way through as either the temporary Wi-fi connection between GoPro and smartphone died, or the GoPro update server karked it.

The update and setup process asks you whether you want the GPS – yes it’s back in the 13 after they dumped it from the 12 – and voice control activated, and what language and dialect to use.

Now, the biggest gripe in the many, many GoPro forums on the internet is about overheating right?

This overheating more often than not is caused by having every single feature of the GoPro, regardless of model, turned on. Apart from voice control and GPS, there is stabilisation, high frame rate, the front AND back screens, HDR and more, and each of these chews up processing power and therefore generates heat.

So right from the start at setup make sure you have turned off anything you find unnecessary. You can always turn them on later if you find the need.

One thing I do not like about GoPros, and this goes back a few models, is the style of the hatch that covers the battery, USB-C and SD card slots. It seems to vary from camera to camera, but on some of them, it is so stiff it is almost impossible to open and that sliding part will not budge.

Many a broken nail ensues.

This particular one wasn’t too bad, but was still stiff enough to be a slight irritation.

The menu structure is still pretty much as it was and it only took a few minutes to configure things the way I like them such as the grid on, timeout to 5 minutes, screen brightness at full so I can actually have a stab at seeing it in the bright WA summer sunlight and the front screen off (I don’t do selfies).

Conclusion

So, at this stage, would I say you should you jump from a previous model to the GoPro 13 Hero Black?

I’d suggest if you already have a 12, then unless you desperately need the GPS, the answer is no. But there is a little more to it than that as you will see in the next instalment!

If you have an earlier version, certainly before the 11, I’d say yes. The improvements are well worth it and I’ll explain all those too, as well as cover the optional lenses and also ND filters.

Stay tuned!