GoPro Hero10 Black shoots 5.3K action at 60 frames per second

The 10th generation GoPro Hero Black camera doubles the frame rate capability.

Taken with a GoPro Hero10 Black action camera. Supplied.

It‘s 19 years since GoPro’s American founder Nick Woodman made his fateful trip to Australia and wanted to capture high quality surfing action. The legend goes that Woodman, who later would be a billionaire, sold beads and shells as well as raise capital from his parents to build the first GoPro.

It was a small camera designed for videoing fast, close-up sports action. The first Hero camera came to market in 2005, along with a roll of Kodak ASA 400 film.

It was the birth of the GoPro camera range which soon was also renowned for its mounts; you could attach a GoPro to anything – a surfboard, mountain bike, ski, bike helmet, backpack, scooter or car – and create compelling close-up video.

GoPro quickly moved into digital photography and by 2017 was using its own-designed chips in cameras, the first chip being the GP1.

Nineteen years on from its genesis, GoPro today is unveiling the 10th generation of its Hero Black camera and it‘s a world away from those earlier models. It’s new GP2 chip further extends its capability.

The tiny Hero10 Black shoots 5.3K action video at 60 frames per second, 4K video at 120 frames per video, and 2.7K video at 240 frames per video; the high frame rates lets you dramatically slow down the action.

GoPro Hero10 Black action camera

You can snap 23 megapixel photos and, using the GoPro Quik app, you can pull 19.6 megapixel stills from video.

The GoPro also captures time lapse video; place it on a tripod, and you can film a sunrise, using the duration capture mode to set the start and end times of videoing. You can capture time-lapse as a series of still images for processing later, or as time lapse video.

GoPro later added a mode called TimeWarp which captures smooth time lapse video as you go speeding along on a mountain bike or surfboard or run. The camera’s software levels the horizon between frames, levelling up to 30 frames per second of 5.3K video in real time, and 120 frames per second of 2.7K video. GoPro is up to version four of what it calls “HyperSmooth”.

This is double the frame rate of what GoPro Hero9 Black offered.

Then there are the shooting modes. Hindsight mode buffers the last 30 seconds of video before you hit record, so if you are trying to video your children playing sport, you’ll never miss the start of an impressive kick for goal.

You can also shoot live bursts of images and schedule captures up to 24 hours in advance.

This latest GoPro is waterproof to 33 feet (1 atmosphere) without a case; you can add a transparent case if you go deeper.

Hero10 Black can automatically upload your vision to GoPro’s cloud whenever you plug it in to charge. Alternatively you can wirelessly transfer footage to your phone for processing or transfer it by cable.

GoPro has produced the Quik app so that users can edit footage straight after shooting and then share it.

Not everything has gone well for GoPro. In 2016 it began selling a drone called Karma which would let you supplement action footage with overhead vision. You could shoot yourself riding a bike from above with other vision being captured from the handlebars.

Karma was plagued with production issues and was eventually discontinued in January 2018.

From today, GoPro will sell the Hero10 Black for $599.95 which includes a one-year GoPro subscription which lets you store as much video as you want in the cloud. You pay more for the camera alone if you turn your nose up at the subscription – $749.95.

The Australian will be testing the GoPro Hero10 Black.

GoPro Hero10 Black action shots