USER REVI EW | GOPRO HERO 8
The most popular GoPro gets even better, with image stabilisation that’s just stunning GOPRO HERO8 BLACK PRICE £379/$399
WORDS AND PICTURES ADAM DUCKWORTH
he GoPro is without doubt the most popular video camera in the world. It’s almost
You can set different levels of stabilisation including Boost, which does crop the image slightly but gives an incredibly smooth footage. Not all stabilisation options are available in all resolutions and frame rates. It might look like the earlier cameras, but now has a sleeker design where the standard base attachment now folds flat. There’s a redesigned battery door and GoPro says the lens has twice the impact resistance as the older Hero7. Instead of having a micro HDMI socket, the new body style means you can remove the battery door and GoPro will sell you different accessory modules to plug in, such as a shotgun mic, cold shows or an LED light. We just used it bare. The Hero8 Black records in up to 4K 60p or 240fps in HD for super-slow motion. And the field of view choices have also been updated to four modes: Narrow, Linear at 24.4mm, Wide at 16.5mm, and SuperView at 15.1mm. The widest settings give the tell-tale fisheye look that so many people associate with GoPro footage, so it’s best used sparingly if you are trying to mix it in to conventional footage. But the less wide angles do match in far easier. Controlling the camera is via the touchscreen but there are 15 voice commands. We never trusted it enough to use those, though. Other features we didn’t try are 1080HD streaming to Facebook Live while
exclusively bought to make point-of- view videos so the general public can record their adventures and post them on social media easily and quickly. That connectivity with technology, ease of use, incredible image stabilisation and affordability all mean they’re also a really useful addition to the kitbag of real filmmakers. From helmet cam action to crash cams, the ability to hide them away in small spaces and the fact that you don’t stand out in a crowd make them very good bits of kit to have around. And when you do go on holiday or take up an action sport of any sort, you’re already prepared. The new GoPro Hero8 Black is the latest, top-of-the-range camera with incredible new HyperSmooth 2.0 image stabilisation to produce smooth, gimbal-like movement at all frame rates. It takes stabilisation to a new level, as our back-to-back tests with the older GoPro cameras proved.
saving streamed videos to SD card, using it on its side for portrait-style vertical Instagram and Facebook story videos or to auto-transfer to your smartphone, or using GPS Performance Stickers to display your speed, distance, and location, or create QuikStories with the GoPro and Quick mobile apps. We might be old fashioned but we just used it in normal horizontal configuration as a POV action camera for editing later, as most pro filmmakers will. GoPro has tweaked its colour science and auto white-balance, with the result being more realistic skin tones but an overall punchier, more contrasty look that most consumers will like straight out of camera. There is a flat profile that is better for proper editing in post. When shooting in 4K or 2.7K, you can shoot at 100Mbps in HEVC h.265 which packs in a lot of data. The ideal use of a GoPro is as an action cam, and we found best results at the 2.7K setting in 120fps so it can be slowed down for super slow- motion and it still had HyperSmooth stabilisation. If you don’t want slow-motion, the 4K/30p in 4:3 with HyperSmooth takes some beating as it offers the best quality.
IMAGES The GoPro Hero8 Black has a sleeker
look than its predecessors and a host of new features
“THE NEW GOPRO HERO8 TAKES STABILISATION TO A NEW LEVEL”
54 DEF I N I T ION | MARCH 2020
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