If you are going to buy GoPro, seriously consider buying GoPro Hero Max - 360 camera review

GoPro Hero Max is probably the most versatile sports camera in the world at the moment. I recommend buying it to all sport fans, as long as they are able to turn a blind eye to the lack of 4K.

GoPro Hero Max is a new camera that is an extension of the idea initiated by GoPro Fusion. The device is larger than a typical GoPro Hero camera, but at the same time it offers much more possibilities.

GoPro Hero Max is not a typical spherical camera

A few years ago, producers began to develop the segment of cameras recording in 360 degrees. Samsung, LG, Ricoh and many other producers have tried their hand, but the recordings in 360 degrees have never accepted.

So why the widespread admiration of the Go Pro Hero Max camera? The reason is very simple: this is not a typical 360 camera. Yes, it records spherical films, but the whole snag is to convert them into standard, flat recordings.

The camera comes with a great editing application, in which we will quickly turn the spherical recording into a standard material. The film recorded in 360 degrees is only source material here. Having recorded everything around, we actually frame at the stage of material processing. It gives a lot of new possibilities. Are you skiing and a friend next door performs a spectacular trick? It's nothing that you were looking straight ahead. The feat of a friend recorded himself anyway, so you will show him in your film.

The assumption is great, but let's see how it is implemented.

GoPro Hero Max is built like a top sports camera

The camera housing is made of the same materials as GoPro Hero 8. The spherical Hero Max is resistant to immersion under water up to 5 m, without any additional housing. It also has a new system of built-in blades for mounting on accessories.

It is difficult to determine where the front and where the rear of the device is, because there are lenses on both sides. The kit comes with special caps that will help protect the lens. Each lens captures a field of 180 degrees, and together they cover a full 360 degrees in each direction. On both sides there are also microphones, which we will tell you more in a moment.

On one wall there is also a large touch screen with a very intuitive interface. We can crop it and preview the recordings.

On the side wall a battery cover, a USB-C charging port and a microSD card slot are sealed. The camera body measures 6.4 x 6.9 x 2.5 cm. The camera is compatible with the GoPro mounting system, thanks to which a lot of accessories are available.

GoPro Hero Max can record in 6K resolution, but don't pay attention to it.

The 6K resolution would sound impressive were it not for the fact that we count the resolution a bit differently in the spherical camera. Of course, both matrices hidden behind the lenses are able to record together a 6K image, which when combined into a spherical form has a final resolution of 5.6K (to choose from 30 or 24 fps). However, you have to remember that it spreads out over the entire sphere, i.e. full 360 degrees.

A more reliable indicator is the resolution when recording with a single lens, because such a function is also found in the camera. Here we only have 1440p mode (in 4: 3 aspect ratio) or 1080p (in 16: 9) mode, so we can forget about 4K. This is big, but one of the few disadvantages of the GoPro Hero Max camera. In flat recordings from one lens we have a choice of 24, 30 or 60 fps.

Pictures taken in 360 degrees have a resolution of 16.6 megapixels. Photographs from a single lens have 5.5 megapixels, while panoramas with a 270-degree angle of view have 6.2 megapixels.

How does GoPro Hero Max record?

If you decide to share the original file from the GoPro Hero Max camera on YouTube, the effect will be as below.

We are dealing here with a film recorded in 360 degrees, inside which you can rotate freely. For proper playback you need a proper browser (such videos do not work on Safari), or simply a smartphone with the YouTube application. In the latter case, we change the frame by turning the phone in the air.

Important: GoPro Hero Max stitches (staples) movies from both matrices to one recording. You do not have to do this step manually or pass the files through the appropriate application. Everything happens in the camera, which is a great time saver.

Below is an example of what you can do with the original movie after literally a minute of fun in the mobile application.

Here we can see a flat recording in which I myself decided what fragment to see at a given moment. You can decide not only about the direction in which the camera is to look, but also about the angle of view. The range of changes is huge, from close-up on the face, through the extremely wide angle, which creates the so-called the effect of a small planet.

In the video above, I purposely used very exaggerated cropping to show the application possibilities. However, you do not have to resort to such extremes. The 360-degree recording can be used not only for claptrap, but also for practical applications, e.g. to widen the angle of view of the lens.

We edit everything on the basis of keyframes , i.e. points on the timeline. We define the appearance of points A, B and each subsequent one, and the application itself creates smooth transitions between them.

And this is how the recording looks made with the help of one lens using the widest possible angle of view.

In this mode, the GoPro Hero Max camera has a huge advantage over the standard GoPro Hero 8. I mean the preview screen, thanks to which such vlogging is much simpler. We can choose whether we want to record with the front or rear lens.

As you can hear, the quality of the microphones is surprisingly good. They can't cope when the wind is really big.

We also have Timelapse and Timewarp recordings. For unknown reasons, YouTube compresses them terribly, which is why they have much lower quality on this site.

The battery is larger than in GoPro Hero 8, but GoPro Hero Max must power two matrices at once. Working time on one charge is with a bit of luck a maximum of one hour in 360 recording mode. Usually it will be about 50 minutes.

And the pictures?

Photos are worse than in standard GoPro cameras, there is no doubt about that. Lower resolution matrices give a worse picture here, but this is not a bad picture. Photographs taken during the day are completely usable.

There is also a panorama mode, in which we get a photo with a viewing angle of up to 270 degrees. It is made using both lenses at the same time, so it is created immediately, without the need to rotate or move the camera. Unfortunately, in most cases hand-made frames look as below. We don't see the full frame preview on the screen.

The biggest advantages of GoPro Hero Max

If I had to mention the biggest advantage, it would be stability. GoPro Hero 7 and 8 already have great stabilization modes, but the Hero Max camera is a completely different level. As the equipment records everything around, the software can perfectly level the horizon without any loss of quality or cropping.

In practice, it works incredibly well. If you set the camera stabilization relative to the horizon, you can even toss the equipment up or roll it around, and the recording will be stabilized anyway.

The second biggest advantage is universality. We buy one equipment and we get a spherical camera and a sports camera in one. One webcam will be used for vlog recording, holiday film and extreme sport recording. You can edit one movie in many ways.

The third advantage is simple operation. You can see here the great GoPro experience in the field of sports cameras. Both the interface and the application are refined in the way I like best. There are plenty of functions, but they are not overwhelming at all. Everything is well explained and described not only in text, but also with an appropriate icon.

The number four advantage is the audio quality of the camera.

The biggest disadvantages of GoPro Hero Max

The main and biggest disadvantage is the visible combination between the image from both lenses. Under optimal conditions, you can hardly see it together, but such conditions are rare. In general, the joining site is noticeable. In the unfortunate positioning of the camera, the connection may overlap an important element, e.g. the face of the speaking person. There is a lot to improve in this field.

The disadvantage number two is the lack of recordings in 4K. In 2020, such resolution is standard, so it is a pity that GoPro did not decide to make 4K recordings available to users.

And the competition is not sleeping. Very interesting designs from other companies appeared, with the modular Insta360 ONE R at the forefront. The advantage of the latter is obvious: modules, price PLN 200-300 lower and - above all - 4K recordings from a single lens. However, there are also disadvantages: lower quality of recordings, not so simple operation and lack of a characteristic look of recordings known from GoPro cameras.

Personally, I would choose GoPro Hero Max from these two because I have more confidence in her. In every inch you can see the many years of GoPro experience. Hero Max is definitely my favorite GoPro camera, although it's still a bit lacking in perfection. Still, it's worth considering buying it. It's so good that I would choose it instead of Hero 8.

If you are going to buy GoPro, seriously consider buying GoPro Hero Max - 360 camera review