42 MARCH2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE385
SPECIFICATIONS
SENSOR^1 /2.3in CMOS•SENSOR PIXELS12 megapixels•
MAXRECORDING RESOLUTION4K (60fps)•
AV CONNECTIONSNone•DIMENSIONS49x66x28mm•
WEIGHT126g•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILS
http://www.gopro.com•PART CODECHDHX-801-RW
BEST BUY
THEGOPROHEROserieshas proven
successfulenoughthatmajorchangesaren’t
strictly necessary,but while the new Hero 8
Black keeps things familiar forGoPro devotees
–it’sasimilarshape and size as the Hero 7
Black (Shopper372),and has asimilar menu
system –itdoes itsbest to shake thingsup
within thoserestraints.
Once again,it’swaterproofto10m without
needing acase, but unlike the Hero 7Black it
doesn’t need to be snapped into aplastic
frame before being attached to amount.
That’sbecause it hasapair of fold-out
mounting fingers embeddedinits base: flip
them out,slotthem into your helmet, chest-
or tripod-mount and you’re ready to go.
This might add acoupleofmillimetres to
itsheight and width,but it’sstill more
compact than aHero 7Black in its mounting
frame.There’s another bigupside,too: you
can now removethe battery without havingto
unclip thecamera andpull it out of its frame.
It’s afar more elegant design in general, and
that’s not even mentioning how thelens
housing protrudes lessfrom the front,
reducing wind turbulence when you’re moving.
SHAKE OUT
It’snot alldirectupgrades:there’s no longera
Micro HDMI input, andthe new shorter lens
housing means anyfilters youmay have
purchasedfor previous models now won’tfit.
Neither will anycases, thanks to theslightly
enlarged dimensions.
Still, you’llbeable to takeadvantageofthe
Hero 8Black’s improvementstovideoquality.
Electronic stabilisation, forexample,has been
upgraded to what GoPro calls Hypersmooth
2.0. Youhavetohit the Boost button to see a
bigimprovement over the Hero 7Black’s
previous smoothing tech, butdoing so means
footagetakesonanuncannyalmost
GOPRO Hero8Black
★★★★★
£329•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
GoPro’s flagship camera goes big on little
enhancements, adding loads of convenient
features in the process
ACTIONCAMERA
gimbbballl-lllikkkesmoothhhness, atthhhecostofffamore
compressed look overall. It’s very impressive,
althoughBoostmodeisn’t availableatthe
highest 50fps and 60fpsframerates.That
said, Hypersmooth 1.0 wasn’tavailableatall at
these framerates previously,sobeing able to
use unboosted smoothingisstill an upgrade.
TimeWarp,GoPro’s timelapse feature,has
become TimeWarp 2. This adds an Auto mode
thattakesthe guesswork out of whichspeed
to setyourtimelapse video at, basing settings
on your motion and the scene you’re capturing.
This worked extremelywell forus, producing
perfect timelapsesofeverything from asimple
stroll to ahectic mountain bike run.
There’s ahost of smaller newfeaturestoo,
our favouriteofwhich is the presets facility.
This allows you to set up to 10 user capture
modes and name them forquick recall.When
you’re outshootingand would rather not be
memorising settings and scrolling through
multiple screens to gettothe optionsyou
need, this is extremelyhelpful, and you can
also customise certain onscreencontrols.
QUIKFIT
It’sworthnoting the significantchanges
GoPro has made to itsaccompanyingmobile
app.Thankfully, Quik –the semi-automated
editing software–is finally partofthe main
app insteadofaseparate one,and we
generally foundremote-controlling the
camera and previewing video framingtobe
much morereliable with the Hero 8Black
thanitwas on previous generations.
Thesame goesfor the UI on thecamera
itself.Despitehaving the same processor as
the Hero 7Black, the new model somehow
feels faster,and certainly less prone to
freezing. However,the sheernumber of modes
and settings remainsbaffling, and wrapping
yourhead around it allwill take some time if
you haven’t owned aGoPro before.
With the same 12-megapixel sensor,
lensand S1 image processing chip,itwon’t
surprise you to findthat theoverallimage
qualllity on offffffer isn’’’tallllllthhhatdddifffffferentfffrom
that of theHero 7Black.Assuch, the
recording resolutions arethe same, too.
The camera can record16:9 video at 4K,
2.7K,1440p,1080pand 720p resolutions,
mostlyat60fps; only the widest SuperView
fieldofviewrestricts youto30fps.
Slow-motion clips can be shot at 2.7K at
120fps, and240fps at 1080p or 720p.
And you cancapture at bitrates of up to
100Mbit/s in 4K and2.7K modes, too, whichis
the highest bitrateGoPro hasever deployed
on its action cameras. That’s equivalent to
200Mbit/sinMP4, and is a22Mbit/s
improvementover the Hero 7Black’s
78Mbit/s. Regular,orLow,bit-ratevideos
arerecordedat60Mbit/s in 4K and 2.7K.
Video quality is excellent throughout, with
consistentlywell-judged exposures, solid
colour reproduction and ahigh levelof
detailacross allmodes.
GOOD LISTENER
Audio quality is great,too,withthe Hero 8
Black’snew lens housingdesign working
remarkably well to cut wind noisewhen
you’re on themove. With the microphone
positionedonarucksackstrap,wefound
voice pickup wouldbecome atouch muffled
when moving at speed,but the wind
reduction was remarkably effective.
Whilenone of itsimprovements is outright
groundbreaking,then, the Hero 8Black makes
enough small improvementstorepresent a
very bigupgrade.The DJIOsmo Action
(Shopper382) is cheaper, but GoPro’s latest
takesits placeasthe kingofactioncameras.
JonathanBray
footagetakesonanuncanny,almost
