It’s almost September, which means we’ll almost certainly see both an iPhone 16 and a GoPro Hero 13 Black soon – and a major leak has just revealed what we can look forward to from GoPro’s latest flagship action camera.
A long thread by the ever-reliable GoPro and DJI leaker @Quadro_News on X (formerly Twitter) appears to reveal several photos of the Hero 13 Black, as well as many of its potential new specs and features.
So what’s new? First of all, it seems that GoPro has slightly changed the design of the action cam by adding a grille to the front of the camera and making its housing seemingly a little taller.
The reason for the latter could be to enable a higher capacity battery, which the leaks suggest has been increased to 1,900mAh (up from 1,720mAh), which apparently allows the Hero 13 Black to record over three hours of 1080/30p video or 90 minutes of 4K/30p or 5.3K/30p footage.
👉While @DJIGlobal gets its act together, we discuss the GoPro competitor with the new GoPro Hero13 camera. Part 1#GoPro #GoProHero13 pic.twitter.com/vYmtfYIssp29 August 2024
Third, there appear to be some new Lens Mod accessories. One of these will apparently be a macro lens, while another will be an ultra-wide-angle lens. It’s not clear how the latter differs from the existing Max Lens Mod (which also offers a 177-degree field of view for extra-strong stabilization), but judging by the leaked packaging, there also appears to be an option for an anamorphic lens.
Anamorphic lenses help you shoot video at cinematic aspect ratios like 2.40:1 while adding the halo and flare effects you want. It’s been possible to buy third-party anamorphic lenses before, but a GoPro-made lens would be interesting – especially when combined with a fourth leaked feature on the Hero 13, which is written on the box and is called “Lens Mod Auto-Detection.” That suggests the action cam will automatically choose the right aspect ratio or settings based on the mod you’ve attached.
Unfortunately, there’s no sign of a sensor upgrade for the Hero 13 Black, but the packaging hints at a few other possible spec upgrades. There’s the ability to record HLG HDR video, which should make your footage look more natural on HDR displays, and also the promise of “improved audio,” although this may refer to the ability to connect it to external microphones.
Finally, another leaked image has confirmed previous rumors that the Hero 13 Black will be joined by a new, affordable sibling that will simply be called the GoPro Hero. We don’t have any idea of pricing or a release date for either yet, but since the Hero 12 Black launched on September 13 last year, we probably won’t have much longer to wait.
What hasn’t changed?
👉How much better will the Action 5 Pro be than the GoPro Hero13. Part 2#GoPro #GoProHero13 pic.twitter.com/hGOAm68Vsr29 August 2024
While a previous leak about the GoPro Hero 13 Black suggested that the action cam will also get a DJI-style magnetic mounting system, these new leaks also suggest that not much has changed.
Like the Hero 12 Black, GoPro’s new flagship appears to feature HyperSmooth 6.0 image stabilization (which we think is excellent) and record video at the same resolution and frame rate as before (5.3K/60p and 4K/120p).
Combined with the “27MP photos” claim on the box, this suggests that the Hero 13 Black will feature the same sensor as before – which may disappoint those who were hoping for a new, larger 1-inch sensor.
Still, the new battery and lens mods might entice some GoPro fans to upgrade, and the new GoPro Hero model certainly looks interesting for budget-conscious buyers. The world’s best action cameras like the Insta360 Ace Pro may have beaten GoPro to the punch when it comes to 8K video, but the Hero series remains popular thanks to its ease of use and wide range of accessories.
We look forward to seeing how the Hero 13 Black compares to the leaked DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro when both launch soon—and hopefully learning more about the long-awaited GoPro Max 2.