if you're in the market for a new action camera one of these cameras is absolutely fantastic and
one of them you just shouldn't buy well at least not yet hey my name is Jake and I create content
here to help solo Critters on the go so I test to review lots of drones cameras lenses and other
filmmaking equipment here in Alaska and I give you tips and tutorials on how to use them if that's
something it's just you consider subscribing I spent the last couple of weeks testing the
action 3 and the GoPro Hero 11 together to get a sense of what each one of these cameras is best at
and which one of them has weaknesses in what area and also to give you a good solid recommendation
on which one you should buy if you're going to spend your money on an action camera this year
and I came away with one definite conclusion one of these is absolutely worth the money and
one of them is not but before we go any further I need to let you know that I purchased both of
these cameras with my own money nobody paid me or sponsored this video in any way so these opinions
are my own while I don't consider either one of these cameras to be really photo cameras they
both do take photos the action 3 takes up to 12 megapixel Stills which are decent they're you know
12mp pixels not bad whereas the GoPro takes up to 27 megapixel Stills which is a massive difference
between the two so if you're gonna do more photo more photo work the GoPro definitely wins on
that then we come to video modes and there is a significant amount of difference between the two
cameras and this is where I discovered one of the first problems with one of these cameras to start
off with the GoPro shoots up to 5.3 K 30 or 60 frames a second it will shoot 4K up to 120 frames
a second and it will shoot 2.7 K up to 240 frames a second and of course you can do 1080p up to 240
frames a second that's where the GoPro really stands apart it has much higher resolution and
a lot more frame rate modes at higher resolutions than the action three the action 3 is 4K it will
shoot 4K up to 120 frames a second which is good but it will only shoot 1080p up to 240 frames a
second and if we put them side by side here you can see there's a pretty significant amount of
difference in the detail between 240 frames at 2.7 K and 240 frames at 1080p however resolution isn't
everything we've also been promised 10 bit color on the action 3 it has not been released yet the
GoPro has 10 bit color it's not 10-bit 422 which gives you a massive amount of data to work with
it's 10 bit 420 but that is still more information and more data when you go to color grade it or
tweak it push and pull the colors in post however I've also found that the GoPro has much better
dynamic range than the action 3. gopro's image quality here is just better than the actions
is and I'm sorry to say it wins kind of hands down you can see here in the Shadows the GoPro has more
dynamic range it handles the Highlights better and also I noticed that when the sun is hitting
directly on the action and on the GoPro the lens flare on the GoPro is much better controlled and
looks much better than the lens flare on the action you can see those examples right here
so in this case the GoPro definitely wins out in the image category when it comes to stabilization
both of these cameras stabilize really really well and will do a fantastic job of giving you stable
footage handheld regardless of your environment or whether you're running across rocks or anything
like that as you can see here me running across rocks handheld in my hands with both these cameras
you get extremely stable footage and they both will do Horizon leveling but the action 3 is
limited to 45 actually what I found to be more like almost 80 something 75 to 80 degrees before
the image tips you can see here where the GoPro You Can level The Horizon in the full resolution
5.3 K 360 degrees so the GoPro definitely gives you a little more options in that regard here is
where the major issue with the action 3 comes in and why I would not recommend it and why I'll be
sending mine back is it has a focusing issue close distance Focus now DJI says it should be able to
focus just as close as nine inches to Infinity but you can see here clearly my face I am not in Focus
everything else around me is sharp and click crisp but I am not in focus and they did release it uh
an update actually today so I ran out to test it really quick and see if it made it any better and
in my opinion yes it made it a little bit better but it is still not in perfect Focus as far as me
carrying it around now if you push it way out on the end of a selfie stick here it looks a little
bit better but the image quality just does not match the GoPro especially when you shoot with
the GoPro in 5.3 K the GoPro looks significantly better at this point in time but the action 3 does
beat the GoPro in a few areas and so I think if DJI can fix the focus issue maybe in future
units or maybe via firmware I don't know how you could because I really feel like it's a lens issue
but he does win in a few places and one is battery life the action 3 has ridiculously
long battery life I didn't wasn't able to test it fully just because I didn't have time but I
can say I never once ran out of battery with the GoPro I would get down to 25 ish a couple
of times on longer days where I was running around shooting with it and another area
the ends is the action three comes out at 329 where the GoPro comes in right now I think at
450 if you sign up for the GoPro subscription it comes in a little bit less that'll be up
on the screen here so right now I think the GoPro is definitely the better deal but if
DJI fixes the focus issue then the action 3 is going to be obviously the more budget friendly
here's a walking on incredibly uneven ground test
I feel like we should do a running test as well right
do the running tests okay let's transitions to the Shadows
all handheld there's a lot of wind still I'm curious to see how the noise reduction does or
the wind reduction does between these two cameras now both of these do have quick shot modes so you
can see here if I push the record button they'll both turn on and start recording the GoPro is a
little bit faster than the action 3 in this case but you know they both have nice front screens
both have very nice rear screens both of the touch screens are very responsive and work
well as you can see here if you want to change any of the settings you can go here change the
settings it's very easy to do you want to go into your different modes you can switch between
your different modes here and you can access the main menu really easily through here everything's
really fast really responsive the same thing's true with the GoPro it's very fast responsive I
do like these quick uh access buttons where you can change the field of view here if you want to
and you can change between different presets and resolutions really easily which is great
and of course you can also get into the menu same thing now here they have a lot of quick options
for menus or you can go over here and go into the preferences and go into the deep menu here there
are some other things to be aware of the action 3 this this front filter screws on where the GoPro
it is a kind of twist lock on and off system I did not use either one of these with ND filters
when I was working with them just to make sure it was as even as possible and one thing I do
like about the GoPro is the fingers being built in that has become very handy for me from time
to time the action 3 doesn't have any fingers on it but it does work with the action twos magnetic
holder thing so if you go and just snap it in it snaps like that and you can buy a cage for
it but honestly right now uh I prefer the way the GoPro attaches just because I feel like it's more
secure and it it works better and I've you know stuck it on the outside of airplanes helicopters
without worrying about it because the fingers are directly attached whereas the magnetic system I
wouldn't trust without using some sort of cage in that particular instance they both come with
an app they both update through the app and they both respond quickly to the app connect quickly
to the app the problems I've had in the past with the GoPro having real issues connecting
to the app or dropping connection a lot pretty much all been solved since the hero 10 the hero
11 has been Rock Solid very responsive and very quick to connect and control using the app the
same is true with the action 3. definitely not the not when I started testing testing it's my
honest opinion right now that until DJI irons out the focus issues it's not worth a 330 dollars for
the action 3 which is unfortunate because I really loved the action one but if you want
to see how other action cameras compare click or tap there I'll see in one of those videos
as always if you have questions ask me in the comments below or join my live stream Wednesday
nights at 4 pm Alaska time 8 PM Eastern I'll see you again soon in the next video cheers