Market / Spectrum: Action cam and extreme sports giant GoPro presented a whole range of new products in California yesterday, including the eagerly awaited new GoPro Hero 5. The recently troubled action cam pioneer also surprised with the presentation of Karma, the first self-developed drone. Development is also being pushed ahead in the software sector and will be relying on its own cloud service in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqZ-vEsnQoY
With an impressive launch event that doesn't need to hide behind Apple, Samsung and Co., the new GoPro products were presented yesterday in San Mateo, California. The event was awaited with great anticipation, also because the company had made the headlines in recent months due to falling sales. The recipe against this downward trend seems to be: innovation. In addition to the expected new GoPro Hero 5, a new video drone called Karma was also introduced, which is said to offer "Hollywood-quality" recordings. Even with the in-house software solutions, one does not allow oneself to be deterred from the chosen path and presents a new version of the established Quik software or app and the new cloud service GoPro Plus.
GoPro Hero 5: finally waterproof by design
The new GoPro Hero5 finally fulfills a wish that fans of its predecessors have been expressing for years: the almost iconic protective housing made of hard plastic is history - the new GoPro is waterproof up to 10m ex works. The new housing should also be robust, so there is nothing wrong with using it on a bicycle helmet. As with the predecessors Hero 4 Silver and Black, there is a compact touchscreen on the back, which measures approx. 2 inches diagonally in the new GoPro. It is not only used for a short view of the recordings made, but also for operating the action cam, which is otherwise done with a completely new menu structure.
Little has changed in terms of the technical data – however, the image quality of the predecessor was so good that there was hardly any room for improvement given the current state of the art. That means: 4K video recordings with up to 30FPS, photos with 12 megapixels and first-class image stabilization are back on board. The new GoPro Hero 2 will be available from October 5nd – price point: €429,99
GoPro Hero 5 Session: One for the essentials
The little sister model Session has also received a comprehensive upgrade: Technically in particular, a big step forward is made here and it can almost catch up with the top model: The video processor of the tiny one can record videos with 5k just like the big Hero 4 - but you have to be different when it comes to photos be satisfied with 10 megapixels and do without an output of the images in RAW format. There is also no room for a touchscreen on the compact housing of the GoPro Hero 5 Session and it is operated as usual via a button or via the integrated voice control.
The GoPro Hero 5 Session will also go on sale on October 2nd – for the small model, those who are interested have to shell out €100 less and can grab it for €329,99.
GoPro Karma: Take Hollywood with you
The presentation of the new Karma drone was a complete surprise. One is particularly proud of the first-class image stabilization, which – according to the full-bodied promise during the presentation – should make Hollywood-quality recordings possible. Another feature of Karma is its compactness: a robust and complex folding and folding mechanism drastically reduces the dimensions; a matching backpack is included. The drone is controlled via a special controller, which is reminiscent of a game console and has an integrated display.
From October 23, the GoPro Karma will be available in Germany in two variants:
- GoPro Karma without GoPro camera: €869,99
- GoPro Karma with Hero 5 Black: €1199,99