GoPro Hero 9, Quick review and a few things to consider before you buy one.

Go pro is so popular that it needs no introduction. What it does is awesome, if we talk about the high resolution motion pictures and videos that you can take. I love it. This is my first GoPro. I went for the best they have released so far.

Go pro is a great camera, do not get me wrong I am not criticising it. The camera itself is top notch. The content it produces is high quality and it’s accessories are great. It is just what the camera comes with doesn’t quite do justice, the cloud is very slow and the touchscreen is laggy.

There are plenty of advancements in it. They have updated their camera with 20MP and it is detachable lens, you can get a max lens for wider angle view. It has got 8x Slo-Mo, Touch Screen, Voice control, Front screen and many more advancements.

I mainly bought it mainly for putting it on the motorcycle and make videos. I am also thinking of some shooting other adventures like beach walks and walks in the national parks etc.

There is heaps that you can do with a go pro. I just went for a test run on the motorcycle. It is so sturdy. The go pro itself feels very solid and so are it’s accessories. When you lock your go pro in a mount, it sits in really well and it feels very secure. I was scared to start off, that how stable go pro is going to be on the motorbike.

Things that are awesome

Okay, I went on a motorbike ride to the rainforest today and went for a nice walk. So I filmed the whole experience to test the go pro. Sharing what I found was great.

1. The setup,

it was super easy to set up on the motorbike with handlebar mount or using it when walking or jogging with a shorty tripod.

The settings on the GoPro device are very simple when filming, there are three modes video, time lapse and photo. So basically there were two modes I was using normal video mode and time lapse, which is like a fast paced video.

2. Quality,

The quality of the video and the sound quality is extremely good. I selected the 5K video setting. I would recommend at least 4K video. It might take more space but the quality would be great when you play it on bigger devices like HD TVs, Computers. You do not want a low quality video, that ruins the whole experience.

3. Editing,

I love the raw video footage without any editing. I think it adds to the whole adventurous experience. But if there is editing you want to do to the videos it is super easy in the app. You can remove sound, crop video and much more.

The options are very straight forward, very easy to follow. There is also another GoPro app dedicated to video editing, it is called Quik. I had a quick look at it, this app allows you to select multiple videos and photos and combine them to make a film, add your own music and there are heaps of effects you can add to your content.

4. Front screen,

This is so great when taking a selfie or simply filming yourself. It gives you the idea which way to face the camera to film on a better angle.

5. Battery life,

Hero 9 has bigger and better battery, which is meant to be 30% more battery life. It is really handy as the battery drains really fast when filming High Definition videos. I bought a spare battery anyway to avoid any inconvenience.

6. Voice control,

This sounds like a great feature. When you can just use commands to start recording videos and stop recording and switching between modes.

7. Accessories,

Hero 9 has got great accessories to upgrade the camera with features like max lens and media mode to turn your camera into professional vlog equipment and the the flash light is a great feature for filming during night time or dark locations.

Things that are bit tricky.

1. Compatibility,

Let me explain as simply as I possible can. It will be different in every situation. But for me, I have the iPhone 6s and an older MacBook Pro. So both these devices are compatible with GoPro videos.

So either I can take lower resolution videos like 1080p instead of 4K or 5k videos. Or get an apple device that has A10processor or bigger, as apple processors go up to A14.

That’s what I had to do. Yesterday I bought the GoPro with few extras like handlebar mount,extra battery and shorty tripod. It overall cost me around A$650 and today I had to go and buy an iPad(Air 4),which has doubled the cost, I was not expecting another A$899 to my bill. As I said it would not be same for everyone.

2. Subscription,

So the GoPro gives you no choice but to get the subscription. As if you want to buy it outright(without subscription) it will cost you couple of hundreds more. You rather buy with subscription and save money and get unlimited cloud storage, that’s exactly what I did.

Although I t said unlimited cloud storage, but it is taking hours to just upload couple of clips on the cloud, it was meant to be quick upload.

I made few videos today and tried uploading like 20 clips at 3 pm today. It is 4:15 pm and not even 1 video has been uploaded. I am using Telstra wifi, one of the best in Australia. Uploading content on GoPro is really slow. What I am thinking is, putting the videos on upload when I go to bed and not worry about them. It is annoying checking the progress of the uploads, that is taking forever.

3. Touch,

It is my first GoPro and it is their latest released device, but the touchscreen doesn’t feel very user friendly to me. You literally have to keep touching the screen for it to respond. Sometime I have to tap it really hard for it to respond.

When I was filming in time lapse mode, there was an option on the screen to switch the video to real speed, so from fast forwarded video to normal speed and vice-versa. But this feature did not work as the touchscreen doesn’t respond at times. So I kept hitting the tab and it took like 15 seconds to work and again it took ages to switch it back to time lapse.

4. Camera replacement,

You get a go pro if you drop it or something, twice an year with premium subscription. No questions asked, but you do not get a camera for free. You pay A$100 or more + delivery fees to send the camera to GoPro for a replacement.

I do not think it is something I would need as I look after my products really well. I have an iPhone for nearly 5 years, never dropped it. It is in immaculate condition.

But still, it is good to have such option just in case the camera gets run over by a truck or something lol. After all it is an action camera.

Conclusion

When you buy a GoPro, you definitely get a solid product which has great features. And it comes with a great community support and the company itself is continuously updating their software to make it better. Their hardware is super solid, meant for outdoor adventures.

It is no doubt, a bang for your buck. You will not regret buying a GoPro Hero 9. That’s for sure.