Hero GoPro5 Review

GoPro Hero5 Black  Review

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It’s been two years since the last major GoPro Hero launch.  No, I don’t count the Session last year.  I’m talking about a multi-camera launch like GoPro has typically done each fall for the majority of its history.  Back in September GoPro launched three new cameras, alongside a drone and a gimbal.  I cover all the basics of that launch day here.

This post is all about the GoPro Hero5 Black.  You’ll find a GoPro Hero5 Session In-Depth Review coming up shortly (a few days), and then the Karma Drone and Gimbal reviews later this month.  But even more exciting for consumers is that for the first time in a long time, we’ve got a legit high-end competitor to GoPro with the Garmin VIRB Ultra 30.  These cameras were released a mere 19 days apart, and have an amazingly close feature set.  Both have their pros and cons, which I’ll touch on throughout the review (as well as discuss in a round-up at the end).  Without question these are the best two action cams on the market today – and that competition will only make these cams better over time.  All of which is great for consumers.

With that – let’s dive into things with an unboxing section, before seeing how they size up in the weight and dimensions category!

UNBOXING:

Now, I’ve got two options for you on the unboxing front.  You can either watch the full video below, or skim through the photos.  I recommend both.  There’s plenty of interesting commentary in the video.

As for the photo side, we’ll start with the Hero5 Black in the box.  It sits atop it within the clear case, making it easy to see how big it really is:

Next, if we remove the outer shell we’re left with the camera on a baseplate and a small white box:

That base-plate can actually be used later on as a simple mount.  So don’t throw it away!

Then we’ve got the contents of the box removed.  There’s not much there.  With no need for an external housing, gone are the days of additional housing doors and such.

Let’s go ahead and remove the GoPro from the stand to expand it out a bit:

There we go, now you can see all the parts.  First up are the two sticky mounts.  One flat, and one rounded.  Don’t worry, you can buy tons of these on Amazon for cheap.

Then there’s the mounting adapter for that sticky mount, plus the thumb screw used for any GoPro mount.  You’ll notice the mounting adapter has a small rubber protector, that’s used to prevent the unit from sliding on a faulty mount.  It replaces that little white rubber piece you used to get that you never knew what to do with.

Don’t forget the manual/quick start guide!

Then we’ve got the USB-C cable.  Yup, USB-C.  No longer mini or micro-USB here!

Then there’s the ‘Cage’ mount that the GoPro itself came in.  This has the standard GoPro mount on the bottom, and then also a hole on the side for accessing the ports (to charge while in the case, either at home or even while recording):

Then we’ve got the GoPro Hero5 battery.  It’s different from any past GoPro batteries, sadly.

Finally, the GoPro Hero5 Black by itself, sans case.

Next we’ll move onto size comparisons.

SIZE & WEIGHT COMPARISON:

Now if you watched the above unboxing video (previous section) you saw that I compared the unit to a bunch of other cameras, as well as the weights of each of those.  That’s the last few minutes of that video, in case you want to skip above to it.

Still, here’s some photos of how it compares.  First, the GoPro Hero5 Black vs GoPro Hero4 Silver/Black (identical size):

Next, the GoPro Hero5 Black vs the Hero5 Session:

Then we’ve got the GoPro Hero5 Black vs the Garmin VIRB Ultra 30:

And here it is with the waterproof case:

 Finally, the weights.  I showed the weighing in of each of these during the video, but here’s the consolidated version in text:

GoPro Hero5 Black 117g
GoPro Hero5 Black with frame case 144g
GoPro Session5 73g
GoPro Session5 with frame case 89g
GoPro Session4 73g
GoPro Session4 with frame older case 90g
GoPro Hero 4 Silver 88g
GoPro Hero 4 Silver with waterproof case 142g
Garmin VIRB Ultra 30 89g
Garmin VIRB Ultra 30 with waterproof case 158g

Phew…time to get onto the good stuff!

THE NEW FEATURES:

While the GoPro Hero5 has many of the same specs as the previous generation when it comes to video and photo resolutions, there are some new features in it.  Individually no single feature is a massive leap forward in the action cam industry, but collectively they represent a notable and substantial difference over the Hero4 Black.  This section is mostly focused on these new features, while the remaining sections take a deeper dive into the core functions of the camera, as well as touch on these new features in more detail.

Fully Waterproofed: Probably the most notable item is that the GoPro Hero5 Black is now fully waterproofed without the need for a separate case, just like the GoPro Hero4 Session was.  In fact, it has nearly the same rubberish material on the outside.

This means that you can take it to 10m/33ft deep without concern for killing the camera.  If you want to go below that (such as diving), you’ll need to pick up the dive case (called Super Suit, down to 60m/196ft).

Now it actually gets a bit more interesting.  See, the front lens is removable (in case you scratch it), so you can replace it. But even without the lens on, the unit is still waterproof to 10ft (~3m), so you need not worry if somehow that gets horribly bonked.  Though, it’s actually quite tricky to take off, so it’s not likely to happen by accident unless you slam into a rock at high speed, in which case the lens case is the least of your concerns.

What is of more concern though is the USB-C/HDMI port door.  This door pops off for placement into the Karma gimbal/drone, as well as just for charging:

Now this won’t easily pop-off while it’s locked in place, as you have to press a button down to open it (plus slide it).  But, the trick will be not losing it after charging your camera or while the charging cable is attached.  GoPro does sell the door as an accessory (albeit over priced), and I know I plan to buy an extra door and then seal it up somewhere special in my backpack/suitcase for traveling.  Because I guarantee you that I’ll lose it at the most inopportune time on a trip to some beautiful watery location and be unable to take pictures of The Girl underwater in a bikini without the door.

Speaking of doors that we don’t want opening up, we’ve also got the battery compartment down below.  That holds both the battery as well as the micro-SD card:

Touch Display: The Hero5 takes the touch display found on the Hero4 Silver and advanced it forward.  As you might remember, the Hero4 Black actually lacked a display.  This was one reason that the Hero4 Silver was actually a more day to day favorite of mine than the Hero4 Black was.

However, the touch display acts and feels significantly different here than the Hero4 Silver.  The entire menu system has been redone to make it more intuitive to find settings.  Along the bottom it shows you the basics for that mode.  For example, in the video mode it shows you resolution and frame rate.

You can tap on it to change these specs.  Only the available frame rates will display for a given resolution.  In theory this looks beautiful, but in practice it’s actually more cumbersome than I expected.  I think this is because there’s just too many resolutions too closely together for a normal sized finger to hit the right resolution on that small display.

On the right side of the display you can enable various advanced settings for that mode, such as ProTune, Image Stabilization, and Audio Control.