GoPro HERO11 Black Creator Edition - Includes HERO11 Black, Volta (Battery Grip, Tripod, Remote), Media Mod, Light Mod, Enduro Battery, and Carrying Case

Product Information

It’s been a journey, and the new GoPro Hero 10 Creator Edition is the latest travel companion for those supremely confident in their bodies’ healing abilities. So what’s new this year? With the app, you can control all aspects of the camera, including powering it on and off remotely (thanks to Bluetooth Low Energy, an always-ready connection), adjusting video or photo quality settings, switching shooting modes, lens styles and much more. You also have a remote live view of what the camera is seeing, which is helpful if you're trying to set up remote shots or position the camera in an awkward position. During my testing, it felt seamless and worked very well. Voice Controls and Wireless Audio

Raw files look cleaner, with better fine detail. Keep in mind, however, that you're only offered the 'Wide' lens when Raw is enabled; no Linear, SuperView or HyperView digital lenses.Given GoPro is renowned for point-and-shoot simplicity, this feature is therefore a little niche. It's also slightly at odds with the fact that GoPro doesn't offer any desktop editing software, and is instead funneling everyone towards its Quik app instead. But it's definitely something that'll please pro shooters who are looking to drop GoPro footage into a timeline shot by more advanced video cameras. The Volta offers a full 4 hours of 4K 30fps video shooting when combined with the built-in camera battery. Shooting extensively with the Creator Edition, I found this to equal many days of shooting, since I rarely record more than a few minutes of video at a time. I would feel comfortable taking the Creator Edition with the Volta on a week-long trip, with the knowledge that I might not have the chance to recharge it. Of course, your mileage may vary. The Hero 10 also claims a new removable lens cover with “water-shedding hydrophobic glass” is more scratch-resistant and helps reduce ghosting than the Hero 9’s lens. The Quik App gives you full remote control of your GoPro camera. You can start and stop recording, see a live view from the camera, power the camera off and on, and adjust the overall UI/control scheme of the camera (Easy vs. Pro Control mode).

First of all, with the whole kit assembled, the Volta battery grip is only waterproof when connected to the Hero 10 through an included replacement door for the battery compartment. This means that you can use Hero 10 with the Media Mod or the Volta and have it be waterproof, but not with both. Andy Zahn / Digital Trends Perhaps the best thing about the Creator Edition is that if you take advantage of GoPro’s subscription discount, it’s an amazing value for money. There really isn’t anything at this price point that can do everything that the Creator Edition can. It really feels like a culmination of all of GoPro’s innovative product development these past several years. Is there a better alternative?While the look and feel may be underwhelming, the performance is where GoPro’s tweaking pays dividends. Aside from the sensor and image quality, GoPro has clearly dedicated some time and effort to improving battery life, interestingly making some serious gains (when you look at it as percentage improvement) at the higher resolutions. Advanced options like wireless audio support, GP-Log and a feature-rich mobile app experience really give enthusiasts and professional creators a lot of flexibility to use a GoPro action camera in many applications. The benefit of this approach is that, rather than taking a crop from a horizontal frame, you still maintain very high image quality with the vertical exports. For example, if you shoot in 8:7 and export a 9:16 vertical video from that footage, its resolution will be about 20% higher than 4K. So this feature is certainly a big boon for social media creators, particularly those posting on platforms that are stylistically different like YouTube and TikTok. The Wide Lens is the default, native lens style of the camera and is the sole lens offered when shooting stills in Raw+JPEG mode. The other digital lenses, such as Linear, SuperView and HyperView, are 'digital' in that the images are stretched to fit the wider FOVs. Objects towards the edges of the frame using these wider FOV 'lenses' can appear warped and very curved, so keep that in mind. We reviewed the Hero 10 Creator Edition, which includes not only GoPro’s latest flagship camera but also a 32GB microSD card; the Volta battery grip; the Media Mod, which is a case with a built-in external mic and cold shoes for attachments; and the Light Mod, which is, as expected, a small light you can attach via said cold shoe mounts.

It can shoot up to 5.3K video (up from 5K in the Hero 9) at up to 60 frames per second (fps), 4K at up to 120 fps and at 1080p at a ridiculous 240 fps for super-slow-mo footage. The new processor also enables an upgraded HyperSmooth 4.0 stabilization function. In our testing, which did not include shredding anything, the digital video stabilization practically eliminated the need for a physical gimbal. The GP2 also boosts the resolution of still photos to 23 megapixels (up from 20 megapixels) and includes GoPro’s proprietary SuperPhoto setting with HDR. GoPros are known to be extremely rugged, and all of the accessories in the Creator Edition are similarly durable. The waterproofing issue makes it prone to damage in that regard, but as long as you’re careful about keeping it out of the drink, it should hold up to long, hard use. One of the other notable new features is 'HD'R video, in both 5.3K and 4K resolutions for video. To be clear, this is 'HDR' in the sense of capturing a wider dynamic range and tone-mapping it into an standard dynamic range space, not true HDR that uses a PQ or HLG curve to present a wide dynamic range in a natural-looking manner on an HDR display. This achieves a neat balance for GoPro - no compromise of the ‘idiot mode’ that we’ve come to know and love, but also the more granular control that the ‘pros’ demand.The Creator Edition lives up to GoPro’s reputation for durability. As long as water is not involved, this thing can take a hit. Although the DJI OSMO Action 3 cuts a few corners, only a few users will notice these shortcomings. The compact yet rugged body and the wider-than-usual field of view offer opportunities for people to create unique footage both under and over the water line. Unless you're keen on shooting in low-light conditions, the OSMO Action 3 is one of the best value-for-money action cams you can buy. Read Matt's full DJI OSMO Action 3 review.