Hello and welcome to the show!
My name is Alex and this is TechFlow!
Today, we're looking at the GoPro Hero 5 and I've had this, pretty much, since the launch week.
Let's do this!
So, kicking things off - first off, we're going to talk about the price tag.
Now, don't let this small, tiny camera fool you.
This thing can capture 4K and there's not many cameras on the market that are under
£350 that can do this - just bear that in mind when you're thinking about its price tag.
Yes, this thing is small and mighty - we've got that down.
GoPro have made some absolutely, massively significant changes since the last Hero which
was the Hero 4 black edition, I believe.
Now, we don't have a case involved to keep it waterproof - now this is next level.
So, let's first off take a look around the GoPro.
It's absolutely awesome because there isn't a case involved so this is pretty much what
you get - you've got the front of the GoPro with its lens, a little screen and, well,
there's no buttons on the front now - brilliant stuff; I can't accidentally knock them like
I could on the previous generation.
The buttons have been moved to the top side and the side of the unit and, on the back,
we've got an LCD touch screen.
On the bottom is where you will find your battery door with the removable battery inside
- I'm so happy that GoPro still do removable batteries because it means that you can physically
bring another battery with you to hot-swap and replace if your battery runs out (more
on battery life a bit later).
And under this seal flap, you've got a USB type C port, which is a little bit annoying,
and a micro HDMI port.
Now, I'm a little bit annoyed about the use of a USB type C port on this camera - everyone
carries around a micro USB cable because, well: What device doesn't use a micro USB
cable nowadays?
They've put a USB C port on this camera - I can totally see why they've done it - future
proof and what not - I totally respect that but it's just a little bit annoying to have
to carry around extra cables and if you don't have another USB C cable, because USB C cables
are quite new, if you lose the cable you are going to have to buy a new one which is fairly
annoying considering that this is an action camera and you're meant to take it different
places with you - pretty much everywhere with you.
That's what it's for - it's tiny.
So yes, this thing is without a case is fully waterproof - you can submerge it fully underwater
and it will be absolutely fine and it comes with the skeleton housing which I really do
like - you have access to all of your ports when it's in the housing - obviously though,
if you have the port cover open, you lose the water proof capabilities but, still, it's
a great option to have because, with the last GoPro, if you put it in its house, to mount
the thing, you had no access to ports so you couldn't charge it and use it at the same
time and that was just a no-go unless you bought a third party skeleton housing - this
comes with it, however.
And the GoPro just seems significantly more well-built than all of its predecessors.
Now, I'm really happy to report that on the inside of this camera, the brains inside of
this camera reflect the awesome qualities of the outside of the camera.
Now, GoPro's have never necessarily been slow but the fact that this thing has a full-blown
touch screen on the back of makes it very, very responsive.
It makes changing settings an absolute breeze, changing modes an absolute breeze and you've
got yourself a quick menu so that you can change things like the Protune and, on the
screen, you can quickly change, very quickly, with literally just a tap, your resolution
and frames per second and you can do up to 120 frames per second in 1080 now.
And this thing can shoot 4K at up to 30 fps and let me tell you - there's no compromise.
This thing makes proper, sharp and crisp 4K.
Now, the GoPro also has built-in WiFi and its own protocol to connect to the wireless
remote which I have but never use.
I really like that the GoPro has WiFi in it because you can compare this with the capture
app on your iOS or android device and, essentially, your phone is a wireless viewfinder so you
can put the camera up on your helmet and angle it, whilst looking at your phone, to see if
you've got the right angle - it's really cool stuff and it's a live feed and it doesn't
lag really at all.
It's really, really crisp and really, really cool.
One of my favourite features of this camera is the wireless functionality to your smartphone.
Now obviously on the smartphone you have all of the capabilities that you do with the touchscreen
on the back - you can change every single setting, format the card, turn the GoPro off
if you want to, and the GoPro will obviously leave the WiFi on so that you can turn the
camera back on when you want to.
You can also look back at your footage and save footage offline and, with the app, you
can also download it and share it to GoPro's media platform where everyone's sharing all
of their awesome skiing clips and GoPro clips that they've recorded.
And you can that with the touch of a button over 4G or WiFi.
Really, really, really cool and it's a really nice little community that GoPro are building here.
Now, this camera is brilliant when paired with the Karma drone - they work in unison
together but, unfortunately, I don't have a Karma drone to test this.
Now, I can sit here all day and tell you that the quality on this GoPro is well, pretty
much phenomenal when you bump it up to 4K and its low light mode is fairly good and
the only thing I'd say is when you're using higher frame rates, it introduces a little
bit of noise into the image.
So, the battery life on this GoPro is the best, the best, I have ever seen.
I can go for a couple of days of shooting, maybe a two hour session each day, with this
GoPro and still have a good 30% left.
It is honestly really, really, really good.
I record car sessions with my GoPro when I'm going on long haul trips to, for example,
London from where I live in Nottingham and this thing is at the front of my car recording
for hours on end and it just, well, I can't seem to kill it to be honest with you.
I don't think I've ever not been able to turn this GoPro on because of a battery problem
at all - with previous iterations of the GoPro, I was constantly finding myself having to
reach for that charger so that's really good news.
Now, it does have a little screen on the front which gives you some information, tiny bits
of information, like if it's recording, the time it's been recording for and the mode
that it's in and all different bits and bobs like that.
You also do have numerous LEDs around the camera - so on the front, back, sides and
on the top so no matter what angle you're looking at the GoPro, you seem them flashing
and you know that you're recording.
The camera also has image stabilisation - now this is both a good and a bad thing; it can
kind of look a little bit odd when mounted to the exterior of a car because you can physically
see the sensor sort of moving, or it's sort of cropped in a little bit, and it's a little
bit odd so sometimes I do find myself turning this off - it's not like I need to have this
thing on 100% of the time, but if you're trying to get a nice cinematic shot, an hand-held
shot with the GoPro, this is a welcome improvement but not for when it's mounted to an object
- I would turn it off then.
So, this is by far my most favourite feature of the GoPro Hero 5 and it's a reason to upgrade
from a previous GoPro if you own one and it's also a reason to go ahead and buy the GoPro
Hero 5 if you don't have a GoPro and you're wondering which one to get.
Right, watch this: "GoPro, start recording."
"GoPro, stop recording."
How cool is that?
You can say certain things like "GoPro, take a burst shot" or "GoPro, start recording"
or "GoPro, stop recording," "GoPro this," "GoPro that."
If it's on your head and you don't want to touch it and you don't know what's going on
- just talk to it and it'll do what you want it to do - it's really, really cool and intuitive
and it works 99% of the time.
But guys, that's pretty much it - that's pretty much the full GoPro review in, well, around
how ever long this video is and that's what you're getting for £350.
Honestly, if you need an action camera, and you want to spend the money because you want
to get the good results, I would recommend this bit of kit.
My name's been Alex, this has been TechFlow and we'll catch you in the next one.