GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: The best action cam video quality comes at a high price

Steve Dent for Engadget

RATING : 8.7 / 10

With nan biggest action camera sensor yet and unfastened gross 8K video, nan Mission 1 is GoPro's astir important caller merchandise successful years. The 2 fixed-lens models — Mission 1 and Mission 1 Pro — committedness sharp, colour meticulous video pinch fantabulous move range, on pinch amended low-light capacity than different action cams. They're besides waterproof, durable and present soft video of utmost action, arsenic you'd expect from a GoPro.

However, location are immoderate tradeoffs pinch a ample sensor. The biggest is size and weight arsenic nan Mission 1 Pro is thicker and heavier than nan GoPro Hero 13. It's besides $270 much than that exemplary and its competition. After testing nan Mission 1 Pro, though, I judge that nan higher value will easy beryllium worthy nan other rate for definite action shooters.

The biggest upgrade pinch nan Mission 1 bid is nan caller 1-inch 50-megapixel sensor that's 13.2 x 8.8mm successful size. It's rather a spot wider than nan quadrate 1/1.15-inch sensor connected DJI's 38MP Osmo Action 6 (though a touch shorter), which intends much sensor area for gathering light.

The precocious 50MP solution allows nan Mission 1 Pro to seizure 8K video astatine 60 fps alternatively than conscionable 4K astatine 120 fps for illustration nan Action 6. Even if you're only releasing footage successful 4K, nan other solution lets you reframe shots aliases export them astatine a afloat solution for vertical platforms for illustration TikTok. The caller sensor besides supports 4:3 unfastened gross seizure astatine up to 8K 30 fps (7,680 x 5,760 pixels), again beating each different action cams and galore mirrorless ones arsenic well.

The Mission 1 Pro's lens is crisp and has a 156 grade section of position that's wider than astir action cams. When filming you tin take a 16mm "Superview" that's ultra wide but rather distorted, 16-24mm Wide position that reduces distortion and a 22-27mm Linear mode that eliminates immoderate warping.

There are besides 3 models. The Mission 1 Pro exemplary tin sprout 8K astatine up to 60 fps and 4K astatine 240 fps, while nan Mission 1 is constricted to 8K 30 fps and 4K astatine 120 fps — still higher than astir rival cams. The Mission 1 Pro ILS model, meanwhile, has a Micro Four Thirds equine for outer lenses but nary built-in lens. It's designed for master usage wherever a mini camera and precocious video value is required, and is arriving later this year.

Steve Dent for Engadget

With its larger sensor and lens, nan GoPro Mission 1 Pro weighs 0.46 pounds compared to 0.35 pounds for nan GoPro Hero 13. It's besides astir 3 quarters of an inch thicker. That whitethorn not sound for illustration a batch until you equine it connected a helmet aliases a headdress and consciousness nan other front-loaded weight. I hardly noticed it connected my thorax aliases astir my neck, though, and nan other size won't matter erstwhile attaching it to a bicycle aliases different vehicle.

The grounds and powerfulness buttons are now easier to find erstwhile you're bombing down a mountain, and consciousness amended than nan DJI Action 6's somewhat stiff controls. The menus will beryllium acquainted to GoPro Hero 13 users, but GoPro moved each nan main camera functions — for illustration spot depth, shutter and Hypersmooth — to 1 spot nether nan "Image" menu. This allows faster entree to frequently-used settings.

The Mission 1 has larger displays than immoderate erstwhile GoPro, pinch a 1.4-inch beforehand LCD and 2.59-inch OLED rear show that's 0.3 inches larger than nan Hero 13's surface and almost arsenic large arsenic galore compact camera displays. Both are agleam and crisp capable for sunny days.

The Mission 1 uses nan aforesaid clever equine arsenic GoPro's Hero 13. You tin either connect nan camera to accessories utilizing GoPro's magnetic latch for speedy changes, aliases conscionable propulsion down nan 2 GoPro "fingers." I for illustration this strategy amended than DJI's because it intends you tin still equine it to a selfie pole, helmet aliases different peripheral without nan magnetic latch.

Battery life and thermal limitations are nan champion connected immoderate GoPro camera to day acknowledgment to nan caller processor and Enduro 2 battery. At 4K 30 fps, I sewage complete 3 hours of artillery life, astir double nan GoPro 13's 102 minutes. Even astatine a demanding 8K 60 fps, I could sprout for good complete an hr earlier nan artillery expired. The Enduro 2 compartment besides charges faster acknowledgment to PD2.0 tech, going from 0 to afloat successful an hour, compared to 100 minutes for nan Hero 13. The caller cells are compatible pinch nan Hero 13's Enduro batteries and vice-versa.

The only thermal limitations are astatine 8K 60 fps and 4K 240 fps. At those settings GoPro says nan camera will tally astir 35 minutes erstwhile stationary without airflow, but I was capable to sprout for 46 minutes. I besides completed a 70 infinitesimal motorcycle thrust astatine 8K 60 fps pinch nary shutdown acknowledgment to nan aerial flow.

As for ruggedness, nan GoPro Mission 1 Pro is waterproof to 66 feet without a lodging and nan hydrophobic lens screen does a awesome occupation shedding water. It's besides highly daze resistant; thing I confirmed by dropping it and crashing connected a motorcycle without incident.

One limitation of nan Mission 1 Pro compared to its main rival is nan deficiency of soul storage. Where DJI's Osmo Action 6 has 50GB of high-speed memory, nan GoPro only offers microSD storage. That's a large drawback, I think, considering nan higher price.

Steve Dent for Engadget

Though you whitethorn ne'er merchandise footage successful 8K, that solution allows you to reframe shots for 4K output aliases vertical video platforms. For example, you tin punch successful connected a subject's look to adhd emotion to a shot, aliases people connected some YouTube and TikTok successful 4K without compromising quality. It besides offers 4K 240 fps and 1080p astatine 960 fps, unthinkable ace slow-mo that's perfect for action content.

In daylight, it delivers much cinematic footage than immoderate action cam I've tested, aided by nan larger sensor, crisp lens, caller (GP-Log2) 10-bit mounting and a precocious 240Mbps information rate. With each that, I was capable to seizure footage pinch accurate, earthy colors and soft, filmic grain. The video was easy to set successful post, letting maine trim highlights and uncover cleanable protector detail.

The Mission 1 Pro is simply a spot amended successful debased ray than DJI's Action 6 acknowledgment to nan larger sensor. Though not awesome successful nan acheronian of night, it shines successful dim-light scenarios for illustration a wood astatine dusk, since you tin sprout astatine higher ISOs and shutter speeds than different action cams. The consequence is crisp footage pinch minimal stabilization artifacts.

The 8K besides helps GoPro's taxable tracking, arsenic it keeps subjects crisp erstwhile cropping in. However, it occasionally fails to fastener onto subjects successful debased light. Another intelligent seizure mode is Dive, which tunes video stabilization and colour correction underwater. I tested nan Low Light mode that promises high-quality footage successful challenging lighting conditions. It did thief a small astatine night, but footage successful protector areas was rather grainy.

DJI's HyperSmooth physics stabilization is still nan best of immoderate action cam. In bully light, it provides gimbal-like smoothness moreover pinch jolting action for illustration upland biking, skiing, windsurfing, drones aliases motocross. In dim light, I only saw nan occasional mobility blur artifact.

GoPro besides developed nan Mission 1 pinch photography successful mind. You tin sprout RAW aliases JPEG astatine nan afloat 50MP solution if ray is capable aliases dial down to 12MP for other sensitivity successful debased light. I captured a number of photos successful tricky sunny and nighttime conditions and recovered it delivered crisp and colour meticulous results. However, nan lens is astatine slightest doubly arsenic wide arsenic astir compact cameras, truthful you'll request to get adjacent to your subjects.

For audio, nan GoPro Mission 1 bid now has 4 microphones, including 2 front-facing stereo mics, a caller rear-facing mic to seizure vlogging audio and different bottommost mic for other upwind sound reduction. It tin seizure sound internally utilizing 32-bit float, truthful you won't clip sound moreover successful howling winds amid tumultuous action. Bluetooth 5.3 allows wireless mics from nan likes of GoPro (with its caller mic) and DJI to beryllium connected, while besides supporting wired mics via nan USB-C connector.

The built-in mics are important connected a GoPro, since signaling earthy sound immoderate different measurement for action and utmost sports is complicated. The Mission 1 did that occupation well, capturing my sound and biology sounds pinch precocious fidelity.

Steve Dent for Engadget

GoPro introduced a number of caller accessories focused connected accumulation quality. Those see nan caller $149 Media Mod that comes pinch a micro HDMI port, built-in cold-shoe for accessories, multi-pattern three-mic array pinch beamforming tech, 3 3.5mm audio ports, timecode input and low-latency headphone monitoring. It supports 32-bit float audio encoding for some nan built-in and outer microphones.

Another peripheral arriving later this twelvemonth is nan $159 Wireless Mic complete Kit. It includes 2 transmitters (mics), a TRS receiver for cameras, a USB receiver for smartphones, a charging lawsuit and 2 upwind muffs.

GoPro is besides offering an ND select 4-pack, $59 protective lodging that increases nan waterproof standing to 196 feet and a photograph grip pinch a shutter fastener and cold-shoe. The Mission 1 will beryllium sold successful respective kits, including nan Grip Edition pinch nan photograph grip ($779), and nan Creator Edition pinch nan caller Volta 2 Battery Grip, Media Mod, Wireless Mic Complete Kit, Magnetic Latch Mount and Carrying Case ($1,099). Finally, there's nan Ultimate Creator Edition pinch everything successful nan Creator Edition, but GoPro's caller Fluid Pro stabilizer successful spot of nan Volta 2 artillery grip ($1,199).

Steve Dent for Engadget

As personification who loves immersive action video (especially upland biking), I'm a large instrumentality of high-quality action cams. Thanks to its larger sensor, higher solution and unthinkable framework rates, nan Mission 1 is now nan champion you tin get successful this regard, handily outperforming nan rival DJI Osmo Action 6.

However, nan GoPro Mission 1 lineup is expensive, starting astatine $599 for nan Mission 1 and $699 for nan Mission 1 Pro (GoPro gives you $100 disconnected each nan caller cameras if you person a $60 per twelvemonth GoPro subscription). Considering that it doesn't person soul memory, that value is simply a spot precocious compared to nan $426 Osmo Action 6, which has a smaller sensor but 50GB of storage. For immoderate creators, nan other value will beryllium worthy it to thief make their videos guidelines out. If fund is simply a factor, though, it's a overmuch tougher sell.