GoPro Hero 12 pitched to blow DJI Osmo Action 4 away with 1-inch sensor and 4K 240 fps video ^↺

As far as action cameras go, GoPro's Hero Black series is basically the cream of the crop, and if recent leaks are to be believed, the GoPro Hero 12 Black is going to be a fairly substantial upgrade over last year's Hero 11. The recent leaks, shared by The New Camera, reveal upgrades to both the camera's hardware and software departments.

The GoPro Hero 12 Black is pitched to arrive with a 1-inch sensor — as opposed to last year's 1/1.9-inch unit found in the Hero 11 Black — 8K video at 60 fps, and 4K video at a whopping 240 fps. Just the upgraded sensor would mean a ~230% increase in sensor surface area, which is massive for low-light capabilities.

The leaks suggest that the Hero 12 Black's sensor will have a resolution of 30 MP, but to manage 8K native, it would need at least 33.2 MP.

The GoPro Hero 11 Black topped out at 5.3K at 60 fps, making the idea of an 8K video rather tantalising, especially for those who want to be able to digitally punch in after recording without losing too much quality. A bigger sensor might also give GoPro more room to improve its image stabilisation.

The new video capabilities mean we may also see an upgrade to the SoC powering the Hero 12 Black, which will have all sorts of implications for performance, recording limits, and overheating. It remains to be seen how well the Hero 12 Black handles all of its new capabilities, since it's already been rumoured to arrive with a substantially larger screen, and there are plenty of reports of the Hero 11 Black overheating at high resolutions.

GoPro launched the Hero 11 on September 14, 2022, lending credence to the rumoured release date. What little we know about the Hero 12 indicates that it'll have quite a leg-up over the DJI Osmo Action 4 that was just announced.

The GoPro Hero 11 Black launched last year with a starting price of US$399.98, so we can expect the Hero 12 Black to launch at a similar price, perhaps slightly more, if recent trends are any indication.

It wouldn't be surprising to see the Hero 12 Black launch at a higher price due to the sweeping changes that would need to be made to the processing algorithms and lens to accommodate the sensor size jump.

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