GoPro Hero 9 Review & Samples

TechTronic9000

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The new GoPro 9 marketed as "More Everything" is an interesting approach as it has solved some of the nagging issues of the GoPro 8 and comes with some true upgrades such as the front facing LCD a large 20mp image sensor making it much more better for taking photos, a considerably larger battery for more runtime, a better engineered media mod, even better stabilization, horizon lock and the 5K resolution for more details.
But will it be a worthy upgrade? Let's find out together through a a series of video reviews and tests.
In today's part we'll unbox it, go though the initial setup, update the firmware, check some of the new features and do some comparisons with the "old" GoPro 8



Entitled: "World's Most Versatile Light" went through it's proper review, you can check bellow if it's worth it or not.



The Media MOD brings extra functionality for you GoPro 9, you get an HDMI port, 2 cold shoe mounts, an external mic input and last but not least an improved microphone array that lest you choose front shotgun mic and rear mic, thus improving sound quality.




Testing out the 5K resolution of the GoPro Hero 9 in Linear lens mode with hyper smooth enabled and horizon leveling while riding my Fiido D2 eBike. The video was not color corrected or adjusted in any way it just went through a render with the free OpenShot to cut and adjust the wanted sequences.





A side by side comparison between of the image stabilization capability of the new GoPro Hero 9 Hypersmooth 3.0 with and without Horizon Leveling feature activated, the Hero 8 Hypersmooth 2.0 and the Xiaomi Mi 8 with "EIS" and fitted on a budget 3-axis Blitzwolf gimbal.

 
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Another media mod,,,,,, i am surprised. :eek:
 
Another media mod,,,,,, i am surprised. :eek:
Yes as the GoPro 9 is considerably bigger, so the old MOD would not fit. Will post a MOD related video soon.
 
Bigger dont matter to me, at least as long as it is not a whole lot bigger, but from what i can see from pictures ASO the 9 are only a little larger than the 8, i am not sure how it relate to the insta360 one R.
Lets hope they can save the flop that was the media mod for the GP8, personally i think action cameras should have or support BT microphones, clamping things on or plugging things in are stupid in my eyes.
 
Bigger dont matter to me, at least as long as it is not a whole lot bigger, but from what i can see from pictures ASO the 9 are only a little larger than the 8, i am not sure how it relate to the insta360 one R.
Lets hope they can save the flop that was the media mod for the GP8, personally i think action cameras should have or support BT microphones, clamping things on or plugging things in are stupid in my eyes.

Well personally I use the media mod a lot, I don't vlog and I don't care about the fake shotgun microphone. For me it's perfect to use the "rear microfone" while I do my eBike / eScooter reviews. Rgardles of how fast I ride and regardless of the wind I get super good sound of my voice, a problem i was having heaps of trouble to solve with older action cameras, external microphones, dangling wires etc. As for the size it's not a lot bigger, but it also accommodates a larger battery and if you don't use the new front screen you get better battery life.
 
**added the media mod video in 1st post.
 
Testing out the 5K resolution of the GoPro Hero 9 in Linear lens mode with hyper smooth enabled and horizon leveling while riding my Fiido D2 eBike. The video was not color corrected or adjusted in any way it just went through a render with the free OpenShot to cut and adjust the wanted sequences.

 
A side by side comparison between of the image stabilization capability of the new GoPro Hero 9 Hypersmooth 3.0 with and without Horizon Leveling feature activated, the Hero 8 Hypersmooth 2.0 and the Xiaomi Mi 8 with "EIS" and fitted on a budget 3-axis Blitzwolf gimbal.


 
This is all helpful, so thanks for sharing. Any low light testing footage of the 9 versus earlier models? Just wondering if the 9 has a better sensor. My only hesitation with jumping into GoPro is with its rep for poor low light performance.
 
It is okay for what i can see online, but not a dealbreaker for these little cameras.
I have the osmo action and i have no plans for replacing it anytime soon, it do what i like, though i might add a gimbal to it so i dont have to use rocksteady and so can record stable 4K30 HDR footage too.
 
This is all helpful, so thanks for sharing. Any low light testing footage of the 9 versus earlier models? Just wondering if the 9 has a better sensor. My only hesitation with jumping into GoPro is with its rep for poor low light performance.
It's OK-ish I say that because even though it has a newer sensor it also has now 20+mpix on the same size vs the GoPro 8 12mpix sensor, so light sensitivity is still better with the Hero 8 model. I will make a comparison video, thanks for the idea.
 
Yeah not enough pixels there to do a 4 in 1 bin for good or at least better night performance like so many phones do today.
I am still not sure given same sensor size if a resolution / pixel count just enough to give 4K are better than a resolution 4 X larger but then binned 4 in 1 are better or it is just the same.
I think 4 in 1 bin on the same size must be a bit worse as you loose some space in between all those smaller pixels VS same sensor size but fewer larger pixels with fewer gaps in between the pixels.

Ideal i think fewer larger pixels are better, and then go up in sensor size for larger pixel count ( just enough for the resolution you want ), even if you on same large sensor could then do a 9 in 1 bin with the many more smaller pixels there would be room for on such a large sensor.

I assume the new +100 mpix phone cameras do a 9 in 1 bin for around 10 megapixel night shots with that sensor, or maybe it have a smaller sensor with larger pixels for that job.
 
Here the Hero 9 vs Hero 8 in low light.

 
From my last night ride, I've put up this short video taken with the Hero 9 of some of the Christmas lights and of course some of my ride with the XT750.

As some of you might ask for the Hero 9 settings:
Resolution 4K/30
Lens SuperView
Hypersmooth OFF
BitRate High
Shutter Auto
ISO Min 100 - ISO Max 800
Sharpness Medium
Color GoPro

 
Nice to see other country that understand that cyclists / bicycle paths, and sidewalks, you cant do too much keeping those isolated from the road, so curbs / trees / boulders / banisters / parked cars, anything you can put in between the crazy cars and unprotected people are good.
 
Nice to see other country that understand that cyclists / bicycle paths, and sidewalks, you cant do too much keeping those isolated from the road, so curbs / trees / boulders / banisters / parked cars, anything you can put in between the crazy cars and unprotected people are good.
Sorry to say this, but on that video it was all of our bike lanes and that is ~ 2% of mi ride to get to them. We basically have no bike lanes. Those dedicated strips are just around the center of the city going from nowhere to nowhere, ending in a ditch, on a construction zone or simply disapering totaly when your ride it in one direction.
 
well at least you are trying, hopefully your future will be glorious and everyone in the traffic will be safer.
Traffic in Denmark say in the 30ties, it was pretty much like any town in India today.
 
With the latest Hero 9 users quick fund out that their trusty GoPro remote that was working fine on previous models it is no longer compatible. The plot thickness as the Hero 7,8 and 9 use the same GP1 chipset. They do have different Bluetooth and WiFi modules, but it wouldn't been impossible to keep the compatibility. So GoPro chose to make another remote which is for the Hero 9 but it's also compatible with the Hero 8 thus demonstrating the compatibility of the platforms. OK so we pass this info, we shell out the money and get the new "Smart Remote" which is sincerely utter garbage! Why is that bad, you can find from the video.

 
Nice video :LOL:

$80 - you can buy an action camera for that!

I got a bluetooth remote control for taking photos/video on my phone recently, they cost about $4 on ebay, but they are really so cheap that mine came free with something else and they are often built into selfie sticks ... it turns on every time, and takes photos every time, 100% reliable :)

Maybe they could get the GoPro to pair with one of those reliable generic bluetooth remotes?
 
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