GoPro has now confirmed through a YouTube teaser video that its highly anticipated Hero 11 edition of the famous camera line is coming on September 14th. We now know that the action camera’s specs and other details will be revealed as of 9 am Eastern Time (New York City, U.S Eastern Seaboard).
As we’d suspected previously, the video from GoPro also reveals that the company will be releasing not just one but two new versions of the camera. A new standard flagship model will be made available for buyers and will be accompanied by a smaller version that lacks a front display screen.
You can watch the video about the upcoming reveal for yourself below, but bear in mind that it’s pretty scarce on further details, though it’s worth a look.
To recap a bit on previous rumors and hints about what GoPro might focus on with its 2022 Hero plans, let’s start with some words during a February 2022 stock meeting from company CEO, Nick Woodman, “At the end of 2022, we plan to increase our hardware offerings from two product types we have today, HERO and MAX, to four distinct camera products. We expect to expand that further by the end of 2023″.
What this seems to indicate is that GoPro will be delivering a sort of “lite” version of the action camera for general consumer use and a professional model that might be more in-demand with users with serious action documentary filmmaking needs. Another statement by Woodman strongly suggests this, “We think it’s important to build very differentiated specialized solutions for different use cases to appeal to entirely new groups of users”.
The “specialized solutions” in question almost certainly mean performance specs and features that make professional action video recording better and easier overall with the camera. This would indeed be useful, given that previous Hero releases have caused complaints from some users about being either too feature-rich or not having enough pro features.
By releasing two distinct cameras that cater to wholly different needs, GoPro can simply cater to both use cases while possibly increasing sales and further cementing its already strong reputation. The company already did this to a certain extent in April of this year when it unveiled a simplified version of its Hero 10 model, which was designed for drone use.
For the professional end of the user spectrum, Hero fans do have the option of a modified version such as those sold at premium prices by the company Black Bone, which includes special additions like improved lenses and infrared shooting. This however isn’t the same as a formal Hero camera release from GoPro itself with all sorts of new pro specs baked right into it.
What Else to Expect with the Hero 11
The latest current edition of the Hero 11 features 5.3K shooting at 60fps and 4K UHD video at 120fps. It’s likely that the Hero 11 will increase things to at least offer faster recording speeds for both resolutions. GoPro might even bump its 5.3K up a notch to 6K, but we’ll see.
Another major improvement would be low light performance. With action cameras of all types, this is often a major problem because of their tiny size and consequently small sensors. If GoPro can improve this either through a slightly bigger sensor or some other technical improvements to its lens and processing technology, it would be a wonderful thing, especially for serious documentary filmmaking.
As for the appearance of the upcoming Hero 11, from what the video and certain leaked images have shown, it’s going to be similar to the Hero 10. Price-wise, it will probably cost modestly more than the Hero 10 did, but we’ll see how this plays out between the two different versions coming onto the market.
