GoPro announces Hero12 Black at $400 and Max Lens Mod 2.0 at $99

GoPro now says you don’t need to fall out of the plane to go fully vertical with its cameras. The company’s latest motion product in the Black Line supports a new portrait mode for shooting those TikTok-worthy adventures, and now the company has said that users should expect longer playback times, even when shooting HDR and 4K video.

The $400 GoPro Hero 12 BlackAnnounced on Wednesday, it shoots in a 16:9 aspect ratio when shooting vertically and can maintain the same aspect ratio even when the camera is held in its normal horizontal position. The new portrait mode supports up to 2X slowmo instead of the 8X wide lens at 2.7K. Otherwise, it’s still there HyperView and Horizon Lock were first introduced with Hero 11. The TimeWarp, Time Lapse, and Night Lapse features, which allow for some unique light panels and capture of the night sky, are available in an aspect ratio of 8:7, allowing for a longer field of view.

GoPro also dropped the new and improved $99 Max Lens Mod 2.0 Wednesday, which boosts the sensor to a 177-degree field of view and supports 4K video at 60fps. With the lens installed, the GoPro Black 12 can enable a new mode called Max HyperView using an 8:7 sensor. GoPro claims this setup is for more wide video capture—several times wider and longer than a standard lens.

One of GoPro’s biggest claims to fame is its survivability, and the company promises that the device won’t be easy to destroy at all, even with the extra lens. GoPro said this lens should be tougher than the previous iteration with more scratch-resistant glass and a hydrophobic lens coating to resist stray water droplets. During a media Q&A, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman said he “got hit hard” with the Max Lens Mod installed while shooting a promotional video on a biking trip, and the device survived unscathed.

Aside from the image quality additions, the company is touting the uptime of the new action camera. GoPro has claimed that its improved power management allows for up to 70 minutes of continuous recording at 5.3K video rate and 60fps Ultra HD with HyperSmooth 6.0 turned on. This timeframe is double the Hero11’s stated uptime, although the higher resolution does cause the device to run hot. Previous reviews I noticed a similar 5.3KB life in the latest version of Hero, so how long the camera will last will depend on the user. There’s still the option to enable QuickCapture mode to turn on the device and start recording with the press of a button, which is a good way to save battery.

Most casual GoPro users are fine with the company’s mounts, but the company is finally offering more options for standard mounts. Between the mounting fingers now has a 1.4-20 mounting thread hole, meaning the Hero12 is compatible with most tripods right out of the box. It also means it’s able to link to a new 48-inch collapsible extension pole that includes a detachable Bluetooth remote shutter, which will arrive sometime in October.

the Hero12 It still retains the 8:7 aspect ratio option introduced with the Hero 11, but there are also now additional color correction options in GP-Log for professionals using a GoPro in a more professional setting. It’s mostly a feature professionals will use in the post-production process, but it’s an additional sticking point for an increasingly crowded market with devices like the Insta360 Go 3 stepping into action camera territory. The device still supports up to four simultaneously connected Bluetooth devices, including earphones or microphones, and the software also includes wireless timecode synchronization to facilitate editing in post.

The other big update this year has to do with the company’s cloud software. The company unveiled the GoPro Quik app last year, allowing those who pay for a subscription to more easily download their content from their camera to the cloud. The app launched shortly after the release of Hero 11, but the desktop and mobile versions must now sync together so users can quickly download their content from the cloud for quick editing. The Quik desktop app will only be available on Mac starting November 1. The Windows version should be available sometime next summer.

the GoPro Hero 12 black Pre-order starts Wednesday, with the full release set for September 13th