GoPro Hero 10 Black Creator Edition Review – SI Showcase

GoPro is a company that’s synonymous with action cameras, and this may be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because there’s a definite need for tiny, ruggedized cameras perfect for filming movies, a day on the slopes or a morning of fishing on the lake.

But also a curse since it’s easy for consumers to view GoPro as a company that makes cameras that aren’t for everyday use. And as smartphone cameras continue to improve with each release, there’s a compelling argument for the age-old saying that the best camera is the one you have on you.

However, with the release of the Hero10 Black Creator Edition, it’s clear that GoPro is looking to change the narrative. This bundle starts at $531.95 — a steep discount from $834.94 — and includes all this:

The Creator Edition makes it clear that GoPro wants to be viewed as a company with a camera that can do it all. And to prove it, GoPro invited a number of influencers, creators and a couple members of the media, including yours truly, to Vail, Colorado for the GoPro Mountain Games in early June. As someone who lives in Colorado and absolutely loves Vail, I jumped at the opportunity to spend a few days in the mountains with likeminded people, capturing everything from axe throwing to whitewater rafting on a GoPro.

At the end of the long weekend, I came away with a newfound appreciation for what GoPro is in its current form, and what it’s clearly trying to become with products such as the Creator Edition and what’s been hinted at coming later this year.

Count the Ways You Can Use a GoPro

When you look at the complete Creator Edition setup, it looks somewhat intimidating. There’s a light that sits on top of the Media Mod which is essentially a case that has a built-in microphone, and adds a couple of extra ports — USB-C and a mini HDMI — for connecting your own external gadgets like a microphone to the GoPro.

Below the camera is the Volta Battery Grip that not only can provide enough power for an extra four hours of 4K recording to the Hero10 Black, but it also acts as a tripod with two legs that fold out of the handle. It has built-in Bluetooth that turn it into a completely wireless remote control.

A fellow attendee of the Mountain Games told me at one point during the weekend “It’s like holding the power of Hollywood in your hand.” And while there’s plenty of hubris in the statement that also happens to be on the Creator Edition’s webpage on GoPro’s site, there’s also some truth to it.

The weekend started off with a whitewater rafting excursion where we were encouraged to attach the Hero10 Black to our helmets, paddles, life jacket or hold it in our hand as we floated down the river. We had to remove the GoPro Hero10 Black from the Volta because it’s not waterproof enough to withstand dunking in 40-some-odd degree water. It can, however, survive sitting outside during a light rain storm.

I opted to attach the Hero10 Black to my paddle using one of the available pole mounts.

For the next 20 minutes, a guide, myself and three other rafters went down the river, chanting and cheering as we navigated the rapids. At one point, a member of the GoPro team fell out of the raft and into the river, but we were able to pull him back in within a few seconds, all of which was captured on video. 

While the video is exciting if not funny to watch, I opted to save a single frame as a still image. I thought it perfectly captured the moment, and I didn’t have to do anything other than have the GoPro on and recording at that exact moment. I wasn’t forced to decide when I should snap a photo or record a video.

Later that day, we got up close and personal with a dog jumping contest where over-excited pups would jump off a dock into a pool of water. There was a competition at some point, but if you ask me, everyone’s a winner when dogs are having fun.

I attempted to hold the Volta and capture the dogs jumping—or landing—in slow motion, but couldn’t get close enough to the action. So I attached the camera to an El Grande extension pole to hold it as far away from me as possible, while using the Volta as a wireless remote control to start and stop recording as the dog’s approached the end of the ramp.

After a short break, I used the Volta’s tripod to frame myself on the Hero10 Black’s screen and record a timelapse video of me attempting and failing a yoga class. At this point the battery on the Hero10 Black was running low, but the Volta was able to record the timelapse and top off the battery at the same time. The Volta has a 4,900 mAh battery built into it, which is good enough for about four hours of 5.3K video recording.

The next day, we went on a sunrise hot air balloon ride, which was a fascinating experience for someone who is deathly afraid of heights. Once we were up and off the ground, I felt at peace and totally comfortable floating wherever the wind took us. Our pilot even did a splash and go on a small lake before our landing. Someone else on the hot air balloon had one of GoPro’s 360-degree cameras on a long pole and they managed to capture this picture of the touch and go. Crazy, right?

The rest of the weekend included ax throwing with old and broken GoPro cameras as our targets along with fly fishing casting lessons, complete with cornhole boards as targets.

Even though most of my time using the GoPro Hero10 Black Creator Edition involved some sort of physical activity—some of which I was downright horrible at—as I drove home it dawned on me just how versatile GoPros, and by extension the Creator Edition, are.

I was able to use it as a stand alone camera to record videos and save single frames as full-resolution photos, attach it to a tripod to record a timelapse, and I put it on the end an extendable pole to use a wireless remote to capture dogs jumping into a pool of water.

Best of all? Not once during the weekend did I have to worry about my phone getting wet, damaged or getting distracted by messages whenever I reached for my phone to record another shot.

The Quik app and GoPro Subscription are the Secret Sauce

I think my biggest take away from my weekend with GoPro is that the Quik app, which is currently available on iPhone and Android with a desktop version planned for 2023, combined with the GoPro Subscription is the glue that brings the entire experience togethec vr.

The Quik app makes it easy to offload your photos and videos to your phone, either wirelessly or via a wired connection. When you’re done importing the days’ shots, you can then use the built-in editing tools to automatically put together a video montage without much effort on your part. I’m still learning the ins and outs of Quik, but I’ve been impressed with how it curates and creates a video on your behalf, even when the footage isn’t from a GoPro.

In fact, I made this TikTok video using the Quik app and a handful of videos I captured on my iPhone 13 Pro Max during Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. Other than adjusting a few easy settings, like picking the music, I didn’t have to do much to create that video other than feed it clips.

The GoPro subscription costs $49.99 a year, providing subscribers with unlimited backup of any and all GoPro captured photos and videos, plus any video you import to the Quik app.

This includes unlimited backup to GoPro’s cloud storage service for anything you record or shoot on the GoPro, plus whatever you import into the app. 

I uploaded all of the content I captured during my weekend in Vail to GoPro’s cloud storage, which was easily around 60GB. Since then, I’ve been able to access all of it from any device I sign into my GoPro account on. Even better, I can start editing a Mural on one device and finish editing it on another.

There is a caveat to the editing experience, though—the Quik app has to download all of the clips that are used in the Mural to the local device, so it can take some time to get an edit in progress synced to a new device. You can sync murals on Wi-Fi or over a cellular connection. But if you’re using your wireless carrier’s network, be aware of any data plan limits you might have; video files are typically large and can chew through your plan in no time.

The combination of the Quik app and the GoPro Subscription take away the questions of what to do with and where to store all of the video you capture. There’s a learning curve, no doubt, but once you see the value—which I think can only be done by using it—then the appeal of GoPros’ cameras starts to take hold.

So Where Does GoPro Go From Here?

GoPro is clearly attempting to persuade creatives and social media influencers to use its cameras instead of bulky and more expensive cameras. But right now, GoPro’s lineup is fairly limited in its appeal. The Creator Edition adds some key functionality to the Hero10 Black, but there’s a lot of room to grow for GoPro to become a well rounded camera company that’s attractive to all types of folks.

This isn’t news to GoPro. The company knows that it needs to broaden its appeal. As pointed out by TechRadar during the company’s February earnings call, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman said that “At the end of 2022, we plan to increase our hardware offering from the two product types we have today, Hero and Max, to four distinct camera products.” Woodman also stated the company plans to add more by the end of 2023.

Exactly what those cameras will offer is anyone’s guess, but I for one am excited that GoPro is ready to expand its product lineup.

Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.