Leaked specs for the upcoming Hero 4

[Brian Cassar]

I was planning to buy my first Hero 3 in the coming weeks when today I stumbled onto the following pages:

GoPro Hero 4 specs get leaked, can shoot 4K video at 30fps - GSMArena Blog

GoPro Hero 4 . What We Might Expect. 4K 30 fps. 2K 120 fps. Wide Open Camera

I know that one can argue that there is always a new model ready to come out - but this might seem to be might seem pretty close.

So...should one wait a bit longer?

[Bernd Eller]

Over the last few weeks several websites posted this rumor claiming that Ambarella now has released the specs of A9 which will be used in Hero4. To my knowledge, these specs were already published back in January and at the moment no one knows for sure if GoPro will use A9 at all. Chances are high though because they used A5 and A7 in the past. I would take the information from these websites with a grain of salt, because it shows at the best what A9 is capable of. But we don't know if all features will be implemented in the next GoPro, even if A9 becomes the heart of Hero4. Maybe there would be thermal problems? Or the already bad battery life of Hero3 Black would get even worse?
At least I guess it's safe to think that we will see the Hero4 in the near future, which means any time between now and January 2014, and then we will know what we are going to get. One of the most important aspects of course won't be sensor or processor, but the firmware. With the prematurely released Hero3 GoPro messed it up completely, so let's hope they learned a bit from this disaster.

[John Wiley]

This article does not contain anything which hasn't been known since the start of the year.

It tells us nothing concrete at all about the next GoPro - only about the new Ambarella A9 chip.

[Brian Cassar]

It's true - the articles just talk on the new A9.

But anyway...the Hero 3+ has just been launched!

See here:

Unveiled: New GoPro HERO3+ Cameras, Mounts, and Accessories | BH inDepth

[Dean Sensui]

I just got the GoPro Hero 3+ today and started to take a look at it.

You will need to download the new GoPro App into your iPhone to update the network name and password in order to make use of the WiFi link. Once you do, there's the usual full access to all the settings at a glance.

A big deal: the WiFi preview is a lot faster. Perhaps a half-second delay. Certainly less than a second. It will make setting up the camera easier. With ProTune turned "on" you will not get a preview. However, with ProTune turned "off", you will.

The second battery "BacPac" will fit this new camera as the height and width of the camera is identical to the GoPro 2 and 3. But the housing is smaller. So the BacPac's door will not fit on the new housing design.

The batteries from the GoPro 3 will fit in the GoPro 3+. The new camera's battery is now rated at 1180 mAH, 12 percent more milliampere-hours than the previous batteries, rated at 1050 mAH.

I haven't done any duration tests yet. Still waiting for the battery to fully charge. It looks like card capacity is about the same, with a 64 GB card providing about 6 hours 44 minutes of recording time.

[Craig Chartier]

The processor in the 3+ is running much faster, and required a better battery, the older battery will not last long in the 3+. Because of the faster processing the camera gets hotter and that required a new thinner case. It is not a good idea to run the 3+ in the older case at it will heat up sooner. the Wifi is greatly improved. The new battery is backward compatible with the older 3.

[John Wiley]

Craig, is this just speculation or do you have factual evidence.

If anything, I would expect the updated camera to run cooler, seeing as they're claiming the new hardware is more power efficient. And I wouldn't see any reason (unless you can provide evidence, of course) to believe that the case was made thinner for any other reason that to reduce size and weight.

[Dean Sensui]

BTW, batteries from the GP3+ is thicker than the GP3 batteries, and might not fit in third-party chargers.

[Dean Sensui]

I've been doing duration tests with the original "Battery BacPac" attached to the back of the GoPro 3+. This is the setup I use when rigging the camera to run constantly in order to capture action that takes place without warning.

With the BacPac on the GP3+ I've been getting run times of at least 3:00 hours and as much as 3:20.

With the GP3 Black I was getting run times of about 2:45.

It looks like the run time with the GP3+, using the older battery that's rated at 1050 mAH combined with the 1100 mAH GoPro 2 battery, might be around 15% longer than what I was getting with the GP3 Black.

The new battery is rated at 1180 mAH, about a 12% increase.

The estimated increase of 15% run time, plus the 12% increase in battery capacity, would account for the claim of 30% increase in running time.

[Dean Sensui]

I should make a correction in my earlier post:

With ProTune turned on, you will not get a preview DURING RECORDING. You will get a preview with the GoPro powered up and on standby.

With Protune turned off, there will be a preview during recording as well as during standby.

My apologies for any possible confusion.

[Shaun Roemich]

Hey Dean, are you able to confirm HDMI output is live out of the box with the Hero3+?

Had to update a buddy's firmware on his Hero3's to get live HDMI out.