GoPro HERO4
September 2014
In September 2014, GoPro announced the HERO4, available in Black Edition and Silver Edition, which replace their respective HERO3+ generation predecessors. The HERO Session, a budget camera, was also announced.
The HERO4 Black Edition still has a 12-megapixel (MP) CMOS and a fixed maximum aperture of f/2.8 and focus-free. It adds Bluetooth connectivity, Highlight tag, Protune Available for photo and a new processor claimed by GoPro to be twice as fast as that of the HERO3+ Black Edition, doubling the frame rates in most resolutions. The HERO4 Black Edition can record 4K UHD video (3840×2160) at a frame rate of 24, 25 and 30 fps. In Superview mode, 4K is only possible at 25 fps. Many other rates and resolutions are available. The HERO4 Black Edition still shoots stills at a maximum of 12 MP with a maximum burst rate of 30 fps. With Wi-Fi disabled at 4K/30, GoPro claims the HERO4 Black Edition battery life to be 65 minutes, increasing to a maximum of 1 h 50 min at 720p/240. The HERO4 Black battery is in a different form factor than its predecessors. Initial side-by-side comparisons of HERO3+ and HERO4 Black edition video results suggest that the newer model has more detail at long range and similar performance at close range.
The HERO4 Silver Edition is basically a HERO3 Black Edition with the addition of a micro speaker, built-in touchscreen display, Protune for photo and highlight tag (the first GoPro with this), a lower clocked Cortex-A9 and missing the Black Edition's integrated analog-to-digital converter, which supports a wider variety of professional low-sensitivity external microphones. The video modes supported by the HERO4 Silver Edition are similar to those of the HERO3+ Black, due to the higher processing speed and thermal requirements of encoding 4K video (3840×2160), but it supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and contains the same Ambarella Inc. A9 system on a chip (SoC) as in the HERO4 Black.
The HERO4 models maintain the H.264 video codec of previous versions and MP4 file formats. GoPro claims the mono microphone in both the Black and Silver Editions has twice the dynamic range of that in the HERO3+, and that the HERO4 Black and Silver Editions have improved low-light performance.
