GoPro Goes 4K with HERO4 Black, Adds Touchscreen to HERO4 Silver, and Debuts $130 Entry-Level HERO

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Late last week, we broke the first full leak of the GoPro HERO4 Black and Silver editions, followed by a rundown of what you could expect from the new entry-level GoPro HERO. But the time for rumors officially ended this morning when GoPro unveiled the official details themselves.

So say hello to what the company is calling “nothing short of the ultimate GoPro”: The GoPro HERO4 Black and Silver editions.

GoPro HERO4 Black Edition

As with previous iterations, the Black Edition is the big boy, the professional tier action camera that sacrifices some convenience in the name of sheer performance. And that sheer performance goes by the name “4K30.”

Video quality is where GoPro put most of their money with the HERO4 Black. 4K video rolls in at 30fps, 2.7K at 50fps and 1080p at slow-motion 120fps. This will allow you to pull 8.3 megapixel stills from your 4K footage, and if you need more resolution, the camera can also shoot 12MP “magazine quality” photos at 30fps in Burst.

There’s not a touchscreen on the HERO4 Black, so you do sacrifice some convenience for the sake of power, but there is now a dedicated button that makes switching settings much easier and more intuitive. GoPro has also doubled the speed of the WiFi built in and added Bluetooth capability.

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The HERO4 Black arrives in stores on October 5th at an MSRP of $500, and amateur action camera enthusiasts need not apply… this one is for the serious folk.

GoPro HERO4 Silver Edition

That’s not to say that GoPro wasn’t thinking of the ‘pro-sumers.’ That’s what the HERO4 Silver edition is for: a camera that makes the opposite tradeoff of the Black Edition. Instead of sacrificing convenience for performance, the Silver Edition makes action cam capture much more convenient, but doesn’t quite reach the video quality heights of its big brother.

The headline feature of the Silver edition is the touchscreen on the back: a GoPro first and a feature that will no-doubt make the camera much easier to use.

Like the Black, the Silver Edition can also shoot 12MP photos at 30fps burst, but the video capture capabilities max out at 2.7K at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps and 720p at 120fps. It, too, features WiFi that is twice as fast as the HERO 3+ models and the addition of Bluetooth.

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The HERO 4 Silver Edition is targeted at, “those who value convenience and ease-of-use over… no-holds-barred performance,” and as such will cost you a bit less than the Black Edition. Also arriving on October 5th, the Silver Edition costs $400.

GoPro HERO

If both the HERO4 Black and Silver editions seem a bit rich for your blood, but you still want to get into this whole action cam thing, GoPro has you covered with an all-new entry-level model that aims at the same market as the old HERO3 White Edition.

Dubbed simply the GoPro HERO, the entry-level model downsizes the video quality even further, does away with the touchscreen, and builds it all into a waterproof case that cannot be removed (although you can open the back door in order to charge the built-in battery).

Footage can be captured at 1080p and 30fps and 720p at 60fps, stills max out at a lower 5MP, and Burst Mode can only handle 5 of those per second. Fortunately, all of these sacrifices in power translate into some serious savings.

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The GoPro HERO, which the company believes will make GoPro “accessible to everyone,” will cost you only $130 when it lands alongside the HERO4 Black and Silver Editions on October 5th.


To find out more about any of these cameras, head over to the GoPro website by clicking here.

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