GoPro today launched the Hero 6 Black action video camera, which doubled the processing power of its Hero 5 Black predecessor and thus improved image stabilization and transfer speed to smartphones, among other things.
The GoPro Hero 6 Black is on sale now for $499 / £499 at shop.gopro.com.
- Check out our GoPro Hero 6 review for our initial impressions
- Best GoPro and other action cameras
A new GP1 custom processor is "at the heart of what makes Hero 6 Black so awesome," company founder Nick Woodman said at the product's live-streamed launch.
Woodman touted the interaction between the Hero 6 Black and the company's improved app that can edit the camera's footage. Using accelerometers, face recognition and GPS, GoPro can extract the most compelling moments with a video-edit feature called Quik Stories.
BikeRadar videographer Reuben Bakker-Dyos takes the GoPro Hero 6 out on the bike and into the studio
GoPro Hero 6 Black specs
- same body as Hero 5 Black
- touchscreen
- voice control
- waterproof to 10m / 33ft
- video quality up to 4k at 60fps, and 1080p at 240fps
- 12MP resolution
GoPro Fusion pricing announced at $699
Also at the launch, Woodman showed up the upcoming dual-lens Fusion camera that shoots front and back with spherical lenses and splices the footage together for 360-degree video.
The Fusion uses something called OverCapture, where 360 degrees of footage is always recorded, but then you can select a moving frame within that range for standard video. This allows for a few things, including letting users film an entire environment, and then edit the footage to look as if a camera was tracking on them.
Fusion also has a few presets like 'angel view', where a pole-mounted camera flies in front of the user with the pole being erased from the video, and 'little planet', where the spherical footage is manipulated into a small circle as if the whole earth fits inside a little circle.
The Fusion will be available in the coming months for $699. UK and EU pricing were not announced.
GoPro Hero 6 Black vs Hero 5 Black
At a glance, the two video cameras are quite similar. The body design is the same, as are the front and rear screens.
Both are waterproof to 10m / 33ft. And both feature 12MP resolution.
One key difference is the Hero 6's enhanced slo-mo capability. The Hero 6 can shoot at a higher frame-per-second rate at both 4k and 1080 than the Hero 5, which makes for smoother footage when slowed down for effect.
The Hero 5 Black shoots in 4K resolution at 24, 25 and 30fps. The Hero 6 Black can shoot 4K in those same settings, plus 50 and 60fps.
Similarly, the Hero 6 Black shoots 1080 at a range of settings up to a whopping 240fps. The Hero 5 Black only goes up to 120fps in 4K.
The Hero 6 also has better image stabilization than the Hero 5, GoPro claims, thanks to the stronger processor.
And, of course, there's a price difference. The new one is $100 / £100 more.
GoPro Karma bundled with Hero 6 Black
GoPro's drone Karma can be bought individually for $799 / £869 or with the new Hero 6 Black for $1,199 / £1,299.
GoPro Hero 6 Black pricing and availability
The Hero 6 Black is available for $499 / £499 on GoPro.com as of September 28.