GoPro Hero 12 Black: Wider Max Lens Mod, longer battery life and AirPods support

GoPro just dropped their latest entry to the Hero line, the GoPro Hero12 Black. The company is claiming twice the battery runtime, new accessories and even support for Bluetooth Audio devices. It also captures multiple video formats.

The new camera is basically an enhancement of the Hero11 Black – so it features the same Type 1/1.9 inch sensor, which enables the 8:7 ratio video. This gives flexibility to consumers as the video can be cropped into vertical 9:16, widescreen 16:9, traditional 4:3, or full-frame 8:7 aspect ratios. The New Hypersmooth 6.0 in-camera and software stabilization sees some updates from version 5.0, with better Horizon Lock functionality and Autoboost for smoother videos.

It also inherited the 2.27-inch touchscreen on the back and the 1.4-inch screen on the front for shot compositions.

For professionals, the new action camera comes with GP-LOG capture feature and available LUTs for easy editing by professionals in post-production, especially in colour grading.

A new feature of the camera is the support for wireless audio via Bluetooth – so it can pair with AirPods or other Bluetooth earbuds, headphones and microphones for external audio sources.

An update to the original accessory, the Max Lens Mod 2.0 now features a wider 177-degree lens for a wider view. The three field-of-view settings are Max Wide, Max SuperView, and Max HyperView, and the camera gains 36% wider and 48% taller views with the mod. Unfortunately, this is an optional accessory.

More importantly, GoPro claims a dramatically improved power management system with the new Hero12 Black. On paper, it can deliver up to 70 continuous minutes of 5.3K 60p video, 95 minutes of 5.3K 30p video and over 155 minutes of 1080 30p video. The battery is now removable, and can be charged via USB-C.

The rugged bits of the camera are a carry-over from the Hero11 Black. It can go underwater up to 10 meters; it is shock resistant and it comes with a built-in foldable GoPro mount for extension poles and selfie sticks. What is new is the standard tripod mount thread, so you can use general camera mounts and accessories. That is pretty convenient.

The GoPro Hero12 Black is priced at RM 1,999 locally. The Max Lens Mod 2.0 meanwhile is priced at USD99.99. You can check out the official website here for more info.