GoPro HERO13 Black Ecommerce Packaging – Waterproof Action Camera with 5.3K60 Video, 27MP Photo + Compatability with HB-Series Lenses

Best GoPro I’ve owned yet
Picked this up mainly for fishing and outdoor stuff, and it’s been awesome so far. Video quality’s crazy sharp, the stabilization’s smooth, and it handles low light better than I expected. Battery life’s solid, and it doesn’t overheat like older models used to. Definitely worth the upgrade if you’re into filming trips or just want something tough you can take anywhere.

Best hands free camera I could find! Would benefit from a few design changes.
I tried two other cameras, a smaller and less expensive one with an unreplaceable battery that could only be worn on a plastic band around my head, and a Go Pro 11, before deciding to keep this one. I needed something small, which need not be continuously held, and waterproof because we were travelling to Iceland in the middle of winter. The smaller one seemed adequate, but gave me a headache after wearing it for an hour just testing it out, and I was concerned about how long it took to recharge since the battery couldn’t even be replaced. After reading about the additional features the Hero 13 offered, I decided to try it out, as well. It proved well worth the extra $100 or so!I haven’t taken advantage of most of its capabilities but want to mention those I found most useful:First and foremost, thanks to the backpack mount I also purchased, using it was a mostly hands-free experience. Once oriented properly (I advise purchasing a backpack strap clamp mount with a swivel joint, which Go Pro, curiously, doesn’t seem to sell, but Amazon does), it was simply a matter of starting it recording and then I largely forgot about it. My only issue with this was that the camera’s lack of a flashing recording light on top forced me to occasionally look at the front of the camera to ensure it was running even though the loud beeps it emits when the battery dies or the memory card fills up are nearly impossible to miss.While it was necessary to turn it on manually, not an easy task wearing thick winter gloves, it could then be commanded by voice to take pictures, shoot video and eventually turn the camera off. This worked well most of the time, failing only when surrounded by others who were also talking loudly. I was especially pleased that it could alternate between photos and videos regardless of which mode was currently active, making it unnecessary to change settings via the touch screen, which was often inaccessible due to the mount and didn’t respond easily to gloves, anyway. I only wished that, amongst the two dozen or so voice commands, most of which I didn’t need, was the ability to zoom in and out.Horizon Lock ensured both pictures and video were level, even when unintentionally mounting the camera slightly crooked, except when it was very dark. I even accidentally shot video after somehow mounting the camera upside down and it maintained orientation perfectly.The ability to save named settings was also most useful for me. Before travelling, I was able to create special photo and video settings to capture the northern lights (after finding recommendations online), making it a simple matter of selecting just one option from a list, rather than remembering to change a half dozen or more different settings necessary to take decent pictures in the dark, as well as later returning to normal modes.It also comes with a free smart phone app that can be used to operate the camera, change settings, download and edit pictures and video. I didn’t use it much except to try to upload to the Go Pro cloud, for which I bought a membership (concerned a sandisk card might be corrupted by airport x-ray machines) and was left disappointed. Although touted as an ‘automatic’ process (just ‘plug it in’ and it’s supposed to start uploading automatically while charging), numerous manual steps, including connecting it to a wi-fi network, are required for it to actually work. This failed miserably, but to my relief, my sandisk cards arrived back home unscathed.My real issues with Go Pro line of cameras concern the battery life and difficulty changing both the battery and SanDisk card:Although the additional batteries I bought lasted around an hour and a half under my testing, and were touted as lasting longer under colder conditions, their actual life span was closer to an hour outside, requiring more frequent changes than I’d have liked. I also couldn’t easily determine how much time was left when the mount made it impossible to see the rear screen indicator, so they sometimes died at inconvenient times, which leads me to my next point:The camera had to be completely removed from the mount to change either battery or memory card, a time consuming process requiring both hands and a degree of manual dexterity difficult to manage with half-frozen fingers. Juggling the mount, screw, camera and spare battery/sandisk card without dropping one or more pieces was challenging, and then all had to be properly reassembled and the mount reattached to both camera and backpack strap before recording could resume. I unfortunately missed some shots because this all took so long to accomplish, even under the best circumstances. The position of the camera’s mount, the size of the screw holding it in place, and the way the compartment door open make this unnecessarily cumbersome. Had I been able to find a mount that used the standard tripod screw in the bottom of the camera instead of the tongue and groove mechanism (which proved additionally difficult to line up), this whole process would’ve been so much simpler and faster! Additionally, while removing the battery itself wasn’t bad once the door could be opened, gripping the sandisk card after ejecting it from the recessed slot was! It would be helpful if the card was either pushed just a little farther out or the opening was not flush with the battery compartment. A few slight design changes would improve this process greatly!Aside from these issues, though, I was very satisfied with this camera’s operation and the video and pictures it recorded. If the opinion of a total stranger is of any value, I recommend it!

Great Purchase
Fast delivery. Item came as described.

Great Quality, GPS is Back
Very happy with this GoPro! The quality is great and I love that you get the GPS data along with the footage, which is a feature that the 12 didn’t have. My only wish is that the battery would last a little bit longer—but spare batteries aren’t too expensive and it’s quick and easy to swap them out. You could even attach an external battery to it to extend it, but that’s a bit impractical when attached to my helmet.