Gopro Video Solutions

Gopro Review

The good: The GoPro Hero3 is smaller, lighter, and features built-in Wi-Fi connectivity. The Black Edition offers a number of ultra-high-resolution capture modes and high frame rates for standard HD resolutions; burst speeds for still photos has been greatly improved.

The bad: GoPro's control scheme has a longer learning curve than the simpler slide-n-go setup of the Contour cameras. Only 15fps on 4K video renders this selling point mostly moot for action videography.

The bottom line: The GoPro Hero3 Silver and White editions are strong contenders in the sports camera market, but the faster, more powerful Black Edition is head and shoulders the best sports camera on the market today.

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Not only can it shoot 720p at 120fps like the Sony, but it's the only one that has the horsepower to shoot 1080p at 60fps, for full-frame slow motion. It can also shoot 1080p at a cinematic 24fps. It was the best in low light, and images had very little noise. Pros will appreciate the option to record raw video at a high bitrate, which allows serious post-production tweaking. Audio quality is very good.

Wi-Fi is built in, and while the smartphone apps aren't yet ready for the Black Edition, the included Wi-Fi remote control works extremely well from as far as 60 feet away. The remote screen mirrors the camera screen, so you know exactly what you're switching to. You can choose from a ton of options on resolution, frame rates, burst speed, time-lapse rate, and more. Most of those can be selected on the camera itself using the LCD screen (which doesn't display images). It also has the looping video feature that the Drift does.

The Hero 3 is the smallest and lightest of the group, making it easily the most comfortable to wear. There are a ton of mounts and accessories, including various "BakPaks" that give it an LCD touchscreen for viewing video, or up to a 2x boost in battery life. It comes with a bunch of mounts, and a waterproof case for 197 foot deep adventures.

It ain't perfect, though. Take a look at those two bike clips. Despite the fact that all the cameras were shooting simultaneously, the GoPro looks like it was at shot dusk. The others look like more like footage from the actual time—11am. This is because the Hero 3's metering can be a bit off. It seems to adjust for the brightest thing in the frame, and everything else gets pushed down.

The Hero 3 can flip its image on the horizontal access, but the lens doesn't rotate, so you can't adjust to off angles. That really needs to be fixed in the next version. The apps (for smartphones and desktop) were not yet updated for the Black Edition, so we couldn't get into the minute details (for exposure, contrast, etc) which aren't available on the camera. Speaking of, while we love how tweakable it is, there are so many settings that flipping through them with the camera's two buttons is a pain in the ass.

The biggest gripe, though, is battery life. The Hero 3 tapped out at just 88 minutes. That's third place—the Contour was 32 minutes better, and the Drift was almost twice as good. Totally unacceptable. Had it not been for this flaw, this probably would have been a 4.5 star product. Still, this is far and away the best product here. Your Battlemodo winner is simply way ahead of the others. $400

GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition Specs
1:Field of View: 170°, 127°, or 90°
2:Storage: up to 64 GB microSD
3:Frame Rates: 4K (16:9 and 17:9) @ 12, 12.5, 15fps; 2.7K (16:9 and 17:9) @ 30, 25, 24fps; 1440p (4:3) @ 48, 30, 25, 24fps; 1080p (16:9) @ 60, 50, 48, 25, 24fps; 960p (16:9) @ 100, 48fps; 720p (16:9) @ 120, 100, 60, 50fps; WVGA (16:9) @ 240fps
4:Dimensions: 2.30 x 1.55 x 0.08 inches
6:Battery: 1050mAh li-ion

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