GoPro Hero 6 Black IRL: Smoother 4K shots and slower slow-mo
September 30, 2017 GoPro Hero 6 Black IRL: Smoother 4K shots and slower slow-mo 0 Comments

Hands-on with the the company's $499 camera that looks like its predecessor, but a new ingredient means big improvements.

The GoPro Hero 6 Black isn't quite the complete overhaul that its predecessor was, but it does raise the bar on what you can expect out of such a small freakin' camera. It's essentially the whipped cream and chocolate sauce on top of the awesome sundae that is the Hero 5 Black (dammit, now I'm hungry).

The outside doesn't change (it's still waterproof to 10 meters (33 feet), but the addition of a custom-designed processor, the GP1, is responsible for a whole lot of improvements. CEO Nick Woodman said in the past GoPro was building its cameras around off-the-shelf processors. Those chips were available to competitors as well, though.

The GP1 ends that by allowing GoPro to make a camera with the capabilities it wanted. For starters, that means faster frame rates at higher resolutions. The Hero 6 Black can record 4K 2160p-resolution clips at 60fps, which can give fast action a smoother look. And if you're into slow-motion clips, you can record in 1080p at 240fps.

GoPro also claims the chip improves tonal range, color accuracy and low-light quality, as well as extra power to speed up and smarten its QuikStories automated editing feature with face detection and more. Judging by my initial test clips from the Hero 6, it does appear to be improved from the Hero 5, certainly for low-light shots, but I'll need to do a proper side-by-side comparison to be sure.

The processor gave them the headroom to improve the Hero 5's electronic image stabilization promising gimbal-like performance. While I haven't pored over all my videos yet, at first glance this does appear true. Granted, it occasionally looks a little jerky, but I'll take that over nauseatingly unwatchable shakiness any day. It's worth mentioning, too, that it's not available at all frame rates, including 4K at 60fps (you'll have to drop down to 30fps).

Also added is a new digital zoom. Double-tap on the screen and up comes a little slider on the right side. It's nice to have, particularly when paired with the Karma drone, but it only gets you a tiny bit closer, it degraded image quality, and you can't use it once you've started recording. But if you're in the "something is better than nothing" camp, which I generally am, the option is there.