Waterproof action camera with front LCD and touch rear screen, 5K Ultra HD video, 20MP photos, and great stabilisation. There are endless things you can do with this small camera, it has a true crossover appeal for videography.
Smartphones can capture photos and videos in just about any situation, but GoPro is just one game ahead. GoPro has plenty of upsides. I liked the feature that with a single click you can start recording and I also like the feature that you don’t have to tweak hundreds of settings. GoPro 9 has an improvement that I really like, the horizontal levelling.
The video and photo qualities are good but not excellent. It produces everything within the frame to be in focus for a clean visual. Panning the camera around is smoother. It has a downside in terms of quality when it comes to low light situations.
It has a rugged ability to withstand harsh conditions. Put it on a pole and hold it outside a moving car. Take it down into the water to record under the water. Leave it overnight outside to make a time-lapse of the stars.
The folding-in/folding-out finger mount is really useful. It was introduced with GoPro 8. With the foldable mount, an external case for mounting is no longer required. Hence making the camera minimal in size.
I don’t do sports-action videography but I use GoPro a lot when travelling. Mount it on a clip and let it hang on your bag while you are passing the airport. Record a take-off. Then for running or hiking. There are no moving parts, so there’s nothing to be worried about. I even used GoPro to record my presentation at university!
Note: Upgraded to GoPro Hero 10 Black (August 2022), solely because it can record 5.3K at 60 fps and 4K at 120 fps.
Videography
GoPro is well known for its recording ability. One can choose to record at a bitrate of 100Mb, which means more details for editing.
HYPERSMOOTH
A new HyperSmooth 3.0 digital image stabilization with in-camera horizon levelling lets you produce even smoother, more stable videos without a gimbal.
HORIZON LEVELLING
What really sells for this GoPro is the Horizon Levelling. This was the main reason that I upgraded from GP8 to GP9. Walk around and hold it without a gimbal, the outcome is still levelled. However, the maximum tilting is up to 27?.
VIDEO RESOLUTIONS
It captures up to 5K up to 30 fps and maintains high detail even when zooming in. This is one of the two main reasons why I upgraded. (It still captures 4K at 60 fps, similar to GoPro 8).
TIME WARP FEATURE 3.0
Record time-lapse scenes as you walk or drive. Quite a cool feature. I used this recording when in moving vehicles as the effect looks much cooler. TimeWarp 3.0 condenses time. With features like Speed Ramp, you can select Real Speed or Half-Speed while recording is ongoing along with the audio.
Limitation
The stabilisation does not work well at night (or in low-light situations). The snapshots are coming out jerky.
Photography
Use SuperPhoto option to automatically pre-process photos right from the camera to get the best shot. However, I am not a big fan of GoPro’s photos as the output can be too punchy. I use the RAW output function that only has the Wide lens option. I chose the GoPro colour so the JPEG version will be pre-edited by GoPro and if I choose to edit, then I will do so on the RAW files.
My Setup
The reason that I upgraded from GoPro 7 was that I dislike the fish-eye effect when recording in 4K, I very rarely shot in wide. I prefer the linear mode and it is only in 2.7K resolution.
Video
ISO Min: 100
ISO Max: 200
Sharpness: Medium
- Ulanzi VIJIM VL 30 5600K CRI95+ (340 lux at 0.5m) 750 mAh.
- Swivel clamp/clip holder mount kit.
- Surf bite mouth braces mount kit.
- Suction cup mount kit.
- Tempered glass protector for front and back screens.
- Mini storage protection case (it can be used to protect the GoPro without the need to unmount from the tripod)
Technical Information
Focal length: 3mm (At crop factor of 5.62 = 16.86 mm)
Aperture: f/2.8 (At crop factor of 5.62 = f/15.8)
The angle of view: 5K 16:9, Linear + Horizon Levelling 27º 1https://community.gopro.com/t5/en/HERO9-Black-Digital-Lenses-FOV-Information/ta-p/1023549
Minimum focus distance: 30 cm
Dimensions (W × H × D): 71 × 55 × 33.6 mm
Weight: 158 g
Sensor type: 1/2.3″ (6.17 × 4.55 mm)
Sensor resolution: Sony IMX677, effective at 23.6MP but only utilises 20 MP for JPEG stills. It produces 23MP for RAW.
Native ISO: 100 – 6,400
Battery: 1,729 mAh
Released date: September 18, 2020
Field-of-view (FOV) 2https://projectgo.pro/gopro-field-of-view/
SuperView: 16mm
Wide: 16mm – 34mm
Linear: 19mm – 39mm
Narrow: 27mm
Other Interesting Features
It has plenty of interesting features, but I haven’t used them.
- Scheduled recording.
- Front-facing screen (which can be disabled).