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GoPro HERO4 SILVER review

7.7/10 AVG.
RATING
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GoPro HERO4 SILVER
GoPro HERO4 SILVER
GoPro HERO4 SILVER
GoPro HERO4 SILVER
GoPro HERO4 SILVER
GoPro HERO4 SILVER
GoPro HERO4 SILVER
GoPro HERO4 SILVER
...

As simple or sophisticated as you want it to be, GoPro’s Hero4 Silver will impress pros and hobbyists alike with outstanding video and photo quality that far exceeds its humble “action cam” label.

- Les Shu, Digital Trends 


The GoPro Hero4 Silver takes everything we liked about the Hero3+ Black -- especially the solid video quality -- and adds in some handy new features including a touchscreen, making it one of the best little action cameras around.

- Joshua Goldman, Cnet 

Specs / Features


Built-In Touch Display: Frame your shots. Easily adjust settings. Play back videos and photos. Improved Camera Control: New dedicated button enables quick access to camera settings. Simplified menus make navigating settings easier than ever. | Fast, Powerful Photo Capture: Captures high-quality 12MP photos at speeds of up to 30 fps. | Built-In WiFi + Bluetooth: Delivers enhanced connectivity to the GoPro App, Smart Remote | Protune - Now for Video + Photos: Cinema-quality capture and manual control of color, ISO limit, exposure and more. Night Photo Lapse: Customizable exposure settings up... More

Built-In Touch Display: Frame your shots. Easily adjust settings. Play back videos and photos. Improved Camera Control: New dedicated button enables quick access to camera settings. Simplified menus make navigating settings easier than ever. | Fast, Powerful Photo Capture: Captures high-quality 12MP photos at speeds of up to 30 fps. | Built-In WiFi + Bluetooth: Delivers enhanced connectivity to the GoPro App, Smart Remote | Protune - Now for Video + Photos: Cinema-quality capture and manual control of color, ISO limit, exposure and more. Night Photo Lapse: Customizable exposure settings up to 30 seconds for single and Time Lapse Photos. Auto Low Light: Automatically adjusts frame rates for optimal low-light performance. High-Performance Audio: New Audio System captures clean, high fidelity sound and nearly 2x the dynamic range. Ultra Wide-Angle Glass Lens: Enables engaging, immersive footage of you and your world. Selecable FOV: Three FOV settings - Ultra-Wide, Medium and Narrow - allow for a broad range of perspectives. HiLight Tag: Mark key moments while recording for easy playback, editing, and sharing. QuikCapture: Power on and record automatically with the press of a single button. SuperView: Captures the world's most immersive wide-angle field of view. | Durable + Waterproof to 131' (40m): Designed to withstand extreme environments and conditions. Wearable + Mountable: Enables immersive self-capture during your favorite activities. Compatible with all GoPro Mounts: 60+ mounts and accessories - and counting - for capturing a wide variety of perspective and activities. GoPro App + Software: Control your camera remotely. View and share your content. Easily create gorgeous GoPro-style videos.

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Warranty (Months) -
Size 10 x 10 cm (3.9 x 3.9 in)
Weight N/A
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Reviews summary section

What's good

  • Video crisp and sharp with fine details on small screens
  • Touchscreen allows easy mode and setting changes
  • Compatible with Hero3/3+ accessories
  • Able to record 4K video

What's bad

  • Battery life abysmally short at 1.5 hours
  • Noticeable artifacts and loss of detail on larger screens
  • No digital image stabilization

While they have their competitors, the GoPro still remains the undisputed king of action cameras. The GoPro Hero4 Silver is a strong addition to the company's lineup with reviewers likening it to the Hero3+ Black, the company's previous top camera. It keeps the same black and metallic design and dimensions of 2.3 x 1.1 x 1.6 inches, the same dimensions as the previous generation though slightly heavier at 82 grams. Luckily, most of the old accessories from the Hero3/3+ models are compatible with the Hero4 Silver.

The biggest update is the 1.5-inch touchscreen display – a first for GoPro. Experts praised this addition as it made changing modes and settings a breeze while also providing a nice preview of the shot. It's not just for fiddling with modes though. Users can also playback the videos they recorded, a feature critics found very useful.

The biggest drawback of the screen is its effect on battery life. They found it only lasted around 1.5 hours when shooting 1080p video at 60 frames per second (FPS) with the Wi-Fi on. With just the screen on, the battery lasted less than hour even when not recording. They highly suggest carrying additional batteries for those who plan to record longer than an hour. Unfortunately, the batteries from the Hero 3/3+ cannot be interchanged with the Hero4 Silver.

Besides the touchscreen, GoPro has added a new 12MP sensor for different fields of view: ultra wide, medium, narrow and ultra wide fisheye. In terms of recording, it offers resolutions of 4K at 15 FPS; 2.7K at 30 and 24 FPS; 1440p t 48, 30 and 24 FPS; 1080p at 60, 48, 30 and 24FPS; 960p at 100 and 60 FPS; and 720p at 120, 60 and 30 FPS. At 1080p the Hero4 Silver offers other features like shooting video and time-lapse photos simultaneously though this reduced the frame rate to 30 FPS. It also opened up a new feature called SuperView. This feature essentially stretches the standard 4:3 aspect ratio shot to 16:9 by capturing more of the sky and ground.

Experts describe the video quality as crisp and sharp for the most part. It wasn't until they zoomed into objects further away that the image became blurry. They also noticed it had relatively conservative contrast and color saturation with the tradeoff being finer detail in colors and shading. Unfortunately, this also leads to a hazy quality to videos in bright sunlight. There's also no digital image stabilization so quick action shots will have what CNET describes as "Jell-O-ey moments." Problems cropped up once critics tried to view videos at larger sizes. They saw noticeable compression artifacts while finer details disappeared at higher speeds.

Reviewers have no problem recommending the GoPro Hero4 Silver to those looking for a good, small camera. Toms Guide states, "The Hero4 Silver is a very capable action camera well worth the price for the quality, usability and availability of great accessories." Digital Trends adds, "…it's fun and easy to use, yet it can be as sophisticated as you need it to be. Add great image and video quality to the mix, and it's easy to see why GoPros are so popular."


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