Which One? GoPro Hero 12 Black or DJI Action 4. I Picked the …

The gloves are now well and truly off with the recent releases of the GoPro Hero 12 Black and the DJI Action 4. So similar are these so-called ‘action’ cameras that it is inevitable they will be compared.

They look the same and are aimed at the same market demographic. So how do they shape up against each other?

Here’s a blow-by-blow comparison.

Price:

First and foremost, for many people, the price is a determining factor. Working on the base unit and not any of the “combos” or bundles, the DJI Action 4 starts at AUD$629 and the GoPro Hero 12 Black is a further AUD$20 at AUD$649.

If you add any accessories, these prices can balloon out to AUD$819 in both cases and there is a special DJI Action 4 Ultimate Pack that will set you back AUD$899 which includes 3^rd party accessories from PGYTECH, Samsung and SunnyLife.

Waterproofing

DJI says the Action 4 out of the box is good for 18 metres, way above the GoPro at just over 10 metres. For most users though, to be fair, 10 metres is more than enough as we are getting in SCUBA territory here, not just snorkelling and swimming. If you need to go deeper with a GoPro, then of course there is a housing available giving waterproofing to a whopping 60 metres, and this will set you back a further AUD$89. DJI has a similar housing by the way, also priced at AUD$89

I would venture to suggest that after reading copious posts on Facebook forums about GoPros dying an unnatural death in the water when there is no extra housing, the purchase of one would be a wise investment.

My guess is that most of these failures are caused by some grit or other foreign matter getting under the battery door – a fate we encountered ourselves with a Sony RX0 Mk II a few years ago whilst holidaying in Broome in WA’s north west.

Battery Life

There are many variables here including the number of functions that are live on the camera (voice control, Bluetooth, Wi-fi etc) and the ambient temperature, so I’ll only use the factory quoted numbers.

DJI say out of the box their batteries you’ll get 160 minutes operating time. GoPro are a little more circumspect, quoting different times for different resolutions, but the maximum you’ll get is 150 minutes shooting at 1080p. In the real world, this difference is neither here nor there.

Resolution

Both the DJI Action 4 and GoPro Hero 12 Black will shoot 4K video even in slo-mo mode, but the GoPro takes this a step further with 5.3K also being available. A big advantage of the GoPro is the new addition of HDR (High Dynamic Range) giving more vivid imagery. The GoPro also offers higher frame rates under certain circumstances, and for still images, the GoPro blows the Action 4 to the weeds with 27 megapixels versus 10. Unless in low light as mentioned below.

Both models support 10 bit colour and gave Log profiles if colour grading is your thing.

Stabilisation

GoPro used to have the edge here, but DJI has caught up in this area and it is hard to tell them apart. One area the GoPro is better is with the Horizon Lock although DJI has caught here too from the Action 3, with 360° “Horizon Steady” now standard.

Low Light and Vertical Shooting

The Action 4 wins here simply as it has the bigger sensor. For many though, this could be offset by the better control over vertical shooting in the Hero 12 due to its sensors ratio of 8:7 letting you shoot vertical without turning the camera sideways as you do with the Action 4. This does vertical shooting by way of a vertical mounting bracket. If you don’t use TikTok or shoot in the vertical format, then this is a moot point of course.

GPS

Now normally this would be a big tick for GoPro, but not any more as the company decided to remove the GPS chip from the Hero 12. Why GPS? Because with it there, you can display your speed, altitude and other data as overlays. DJI lets you do it with an optional GPS remote, but if you want that sort of functionality, at this stage anyway, on the GoPro it’s a no-no.

Other

If you habitually use a Selfie Stick (shudder!) then you’ll know how annoying it is to get the see the stick in your footage. DJI has minimised this with “InvisiStick” using software to mask the stick out, and while not perfect, does the job most of the time.

Another area the GoPro wins though – sort of – is in audio, as you can pair Bluetooth mics with the Hero 12 and also monitor back if you have combo Bluetooth mic / earbuds such as the Sennheiser TW Momentums.

DJI does not have this, instead opting to support its own DJI Mic Wi-fi system, which just quietly, is bloody good and equivalent in my opinion to those put out by RØDE and Hollyland, but maybe not quite as good as the Sennheiser systems – which of course cost a lot more.

The external design of both models is pretty much the same with the major differences being that the DJI supports a full front touch screen (yay!) which the Hero 12 does not, and the “finger” mounting system is magnetically attached letting you remove it as needed. The drawback there is that if you forget to put the mount on, there is no way you can attached the Action 4 to anything whereas as the built in GoPro way means it is always there.

Livestreaming is supported by both (under the right conditions of course) and if you are a pro and need to sync up multiple cameras, both cameras offer Timecode Synch and also both have the export to gyro based data if you need the best image stabilisation possible (Blackmagic Cinema Cameras do this too with DaVinci Resolve although I have never tried it).

Conclusion

So, at the end of the day, it depends a lot on what you are shooting, where you are shooting and how you are shooting.

The GoPro has the better video and still resolution generally speaking, but suffers under low light conditions. When it comes to long term shooting, anecdotally (and it’s a LOT of anecdotes), overheating still seems to be a GoPro issue that you never hear of in the DJI Action series.

I also prefer the DJI software interface; GoPro seems to keep mucking around with theirs and as just as soon as I have finally worked out the Hero 11, the 12 has some bits tacked on and seemingly changed the name of others.

But, as I have said many, many times, you can read all the reviews, comparisons and criticisms you like, but at the end of the day there is nothing quite like going into a decent camera store (like a Camera House say), asking questions of those in the know, and having a bit of a play to see which ‘feels’ the best.

What would I choose?

As a pure action camera at this time, I’d go for the Action 4.