In terms of design and physical dimensions, the new Gopro Hero 11 Black is almost identical to its previous model. If 11 Black isn’t visible on the camera side, then it’s hard to tell between the two. This new camera from the company comes with a rugged design and is waterproof to submerge up to 10 meters. It has a 2.27-inch rear touch screen and a smaller screen on the front, which is a color screen but not a touch screen. The lens cap is removable and the camera is compatible with the Max Lens Mod. Mounting fingers are provided on the bottom and a flap is provided on the side to protect the battery and USB Type-C.
The Hero 11 Black comes with the GoPro Camera Enduro Battery, which was available to purchase separately on the previous model. This time, the company promised 38 percent longer recording time. Hero 10 Black brought the GP2 processor and Hero 11 has a new sensor. It is 1/1.9 inches larger, while having the same horizontal resolution. Being tall, it gets more vertical resolution and comes with the new 8:7 aspect ratio.
Thanks to the large sensor, 27-megapixel photos can be taken with the GoPro Hero 11 Black. Apart from this, a new HyperView lens has been provided for video recording, giving a wider field of view than the SuperView lens. The Hero 11 Black supports 10-bit color and 120 Mbps video bitrate, which can be enabled from the ProTune settings. The latest version of HyperSmooth 5.0 has been included in the new model, which supports 5.3K resolution while shooting Timewarp video. Apart from this, new presets for vehicle lights and star trails have also been provided in the time-lapse menu.
Similar to the Hero 10 Black, the new model has a maximum video recording resolution of up to 5.3K at 60fps and 4K at 120fps. There are many variations available for frame rate and resolution that you can play around with. With the 8:7 aspect ratio, the company says it can be used to export videos later in 4:3 and even 9:16 via the Quik app. In this process, the quality of the video also remains the same.
If you’ve used a GoPro device recently, the GoPro Hero 11 Black’s user interface will look familiar, but now the settings menu is more organized. You can also now switch to extended battery mode in the new video mode settings, after which it switches video recording to a lower resolution and disables the 8:7 aspect option. You can also customize video presets, but switching to extended battery mode gives you quick access to video presets that help prevent your battery from draining too quickly. Using the Controls toggle button, you can switch to Easy mode, which gives you a single, non-editable preset for video, photo, and time-lapse. This is useful for those who just want to quickly point the camera at their subject and just shoot.
I haven’t spent much time with the GoPro Hero 11 yet, but so far I like its image and video quality. GoPro has always provided excellent stabilization and the Hero 11 Black once again comes with Auto Boost, which only engages stabilization when needed, so the frame isn’t permanently cropped during that clip. I found a cool feature called Horizon Lock which is used for 360 degree rotation, it means the horizon stays fixed and the camera rotates 360 degrees. This was one of the main features of the Max Lens Mod and the GoPro Max 360-degree camera, but the Hero 11 Black now supports it natively.
If you missed out on the GoPro Hero 10 Black, then the Hero 11 Black might be interesting for you, and at Rs 51,500, it’s also slightly cheaper than the previous model. Apart from the new larger aspect ratio, does this new sensor prove to be better than the previous model in image quality? We’ll be testing the GoPro Hero 11 Black in the next few days, so be sure to check back here for our full review.
