Today, GoPro unveils its latest camera: The Hero 12 Black. This time around, the updates are mostly on the user experience, with a slight focus on pro users and creators. Perhaps the most exciting new “feature” for regular GoPro users will be the claimed extended battery life. The company says “Up to two times” the runtime of previous cameras. Battery life has long been a pain point, so we’ll be keen to see what that looks like in real terms.
There are some new shooting modes, with 8:7 (full sensor) recording now available across the board, including TimeWarp and the Night Effect modes for the first time. Recording in 8:7 allows you to “punch out” different aspect ratio content from the same source material while maintaining a high resolution. The camera’s HDR mode has also been tuned for even better handling of mixed lighting conditions. Hypersmooth, GoPro’s in-camera stabilization is now on its sixth iteration —- but it’s been solid right from the start, so we’re interested to see what difference this makes in practice.