The GoPro Hero 5 is official, ushering in a new age of action camera greatness…or something. And it's even got a new buddy: the GoPro Hero 5 Session.
Today, GoPro announced the new GoPro Hero 5 Black action camera at a dedicated event near Lake Tahoe in the USA. It’s the new flagship model for the year, and lands as GoPro’s most expensive action cam. It features a 2-inch touch display, 4K video capture, a 12-megapixel camera, image stabilisation, and GPS. Speaking at the launch, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman said: "Over the years, GoPro has become very well known for enabling amazing photos and videos. From ordinary, to extraordinary: GoPro.”
But the biggest improvement comes courtesy of the new all-black rubberised design that makes the GoPro Hero 5 Black the first GoPro to be completely waterproof (to a depth of 30 feet) without a separate housing. GoPro has also embedded three microphones in the camera that no longer suffer from the muffled sound wrought by waterproof housing. Better still, the GoPro software cherry picks the best sound from each microphone actively when you record, so your audio should always sound great.
Another great new feature is voice control, which is a first for GoPro cameras. You can use commands like "GoPro take photo" to control the device. GoPro has added support for seven languages, including: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese.
There's also a new cloud connection feature that will see your GoPro Hero 5 start uploading new footage to your GoPro+ account over Wi-Fi when you put it on charge. You can then use the new GoPro+ mobile app to edit your footage. To make this easier, GoPro has also released a new Quick Key fob that features a built-in SD card slot, so you can quickly transfer content from your camera to your smartphone. Once you've got the footage into GoPro+, it will even create edits for you, saving you all the hard work.
The GoPro Hero 5 will retail at $399 at launch.
For comparison, the previous top-end GoPro – the Hero 4 Black – featured waterproofing to 131 feet, a smaller 1,160mAh battery, Bluetooth, and built-in Wi-Fi. It came equipped with a 12-megapixel camera capable of shooting 4K footage at 30fps, and could snap shots with an ultra-wide, medium, or narrow field of view. It didn’t feature a touchscreen display, however, or housing-free waterproofing.
GoPro also announced the GoPro Hero 5 Session, a smaller spin-off device that boasts many of its bigger brother's features. This includes 4K video capture, 10-megapixel photos, voice control, and enhanced low-light performance.
The GoPro Hero 5 Session (below) costs $299 – that's $100 less than the full-fat Hero 5.
