GoPro - HERO11 Black Mini - Black

Compact, easy to carry, and the image quality and stability are the best!

Works great for what I am doing with it but has drawbacks. Bluetooth is glitchy. I take 15 minutes trying to connect this camera to the app. Once that is done it works great. Rugged and can take a beating. Be aware this camera overheats pretty fast in 4K.

MY USE CASE: Personally, I got this for recording FOV shots for my YouTube tech videos (what a product looks like in hand, unboxing videos, setup videos, etc) and it works BRILLIANTLY for that. As it is small, compact, and the video quality is great and gives you that immersion like you’re there. Much better than my traditional camera (in sense of immersion. Quality of shot still goes to my dedicated camera) and is much easier to setup. I also think it is great for easy B-Roll shots as the image stabilization is phenomenal. Which means using this as a Vlog type camera would also be really good (except for the overheating issues). As that is the biggest downfall of this device is that it just simply doesn’t have a good enough cooling system for my use case. As there is no active cooling from wind/water. CONTROLS: You have two options for controls. Either the “GoPro Quik” App or OnBoard Controls. I recommend the App. Though I did have some issues connecting semi-regularly where I had to cycle through settings on the device to wake it up and wait for it to connect to my iPhone 14 Pro Max. Inside the app you can update the firmware, have a preview of the camera, watch recorded content (via connecting to it’s onboard wifi and streaming that way), live stream, upload recorded content, and change all the camera settings. Layout is modern, is relatively well laid out (but could be improved), and overall I really enjoyed it and is one of the better apps I’ve tried. Onboard controls. There are two buttons, one on the front of the device, another on the top of the device. To turn on you press the front button. Hold it to turn it off. To cycle through the options you press the front button again, then click the top button to confirm. Overall, very easy to navigate. But cumbersome seeing as you have to go through all the options each time. The built in mini OLED display is very high quality and is on the top of the device. Extremely sharp vibrant white text on black background. Probably one of the best tiny OLED displays I’ve seen. But only provides the bare minimum of information. BUILD QUALITY/DESIGN: The entire thing is quite small, it gets hot quickly, and is covered in a mix of plastic/rubber/metal. It has a good weight to it and feels well put together. I have no complaints. Other than the side door feeling cheap. Right in front of the mini OLED display is a red LED light that will notify you of several things. Such as when it is charging (solid red) which will turn off when it is done charging. This LED also blinks when you are recording, remove/place the memory card, and turn on/off the device. Next to it on the right you have your shutter button to start/end recordings. Along with confirm settings. It is covered in rubber and has a membrane type feel to it with a nice crisp click. Which does require moderate/severe force to actuate. There is a door on the right side which is how you access the USB-C charging port and memory card port. There is a button you slide down which unlocks the door (which can be removed) as it is water resistant. I found plugging in my USB-Cord to be tighter and more secure than others. The memory card port is recessed and difficult to place/remove the SD card (which is not included, and you need to buy separately). Or at least that was the case for my male thumbs with no nails. On the left side you have nothing. On the back you have a mount along with a mini heatsink. On the bottom you have another mount. Both of these mounts can technically be removed. The mounts feel high quality and I am unsure if they are plastic or not. On the front you have your lens, which can be removed/replaced. You can also buy a different lens from them for different views. I didn’t do this but it is possible. There is no cover for the lens. There isn’t even really a bump to help protect the lens either. Which is worrisome. Not only from damage from extreme sports/drops. But moreso smudges from my hands and micro-scratches from being in a bag or when traveling. I didn’t test this long enough to see if that is an actual issue (as I don’t know what kind of glass they use). But figured I’d mention it as it was a concern I have. To the right of that you have the power on/off button, which feels nearly the same as the top shutter button but smaller. I saw a microphone hole on the top and on the front. This microphone is surprisingly good. To the point that I’d actually use it. That’s not to say it is better than a dedicated microphone. But for a small compact device very good. TESTING: All my testing was done in a 70F room without movement. It does have a mini heatsink on the back of the device (where it is engineered to put most of the heat, even though I can feel heat around then entire device). You will see improved duration time if the camera is used as intended. Such as on a car, motorcycle, bike, water, etc. as it will provide improved cooling due to A. Wind and B. Water (if applicable). What I used to extend recording times, since this is water-resistant, is when it got hot I would just put it under some cold water for 30ish seconds and it would cool back down enough that I could continue recording for a bit longer. File size is small on the Bit-Rate: Medium setting. Picture quality for it is adequate, but I wouldn’t personally use it (think bad cell phone camera). Whereas Bit-Rate: High is higher file sizes (went from 10 GB for 25 minutes to 10 GB for 10 minutes). While going from solid video quality great (better than most high end phone cameras) that I’ll happily use. As I was surprised at the quality even in low light. Image stabilization is extremely good. About an hour to charge (15 minutes netted about 25% battery life). I was never able to kill the battery from recording as it always overheated beforehand. Cloud storage is not included. It is a separate paid thing. $50 a year with other perks. It did offer me a special deal to get it for $25. I declined as for my specific use case it isn’t needed. But if I were doing it for extreme things (cars, motorcycles, sports) I’d probably pick it up simply for the no-questions ask replacement if it breaks. On average I got about 15 minutes of recording with around 40 - 50% of battery used. The best I got was 1080P at 60 FPS, Bitrate High got 28 minutes. I find this to be the biggest negative of this device. As the average recording time is very short and with it overheating so often I worry about the longevity of not only the battery (which can't be replaced) but also the rest of the internals. Seeing as the biggest enemy to electronics is heat. With how big of a brand GoPro is and also the cost of this device I expected a lot better. 5K, 60 FPS, Lens: Wide, HyperSmooth: On, 10-Bit: On, Bit Rate: High, Otherwise Default/Auto: - 10 minutes. 5K, 8:7 Ratio, 24 FPS, Wide Camera Angle, Bit Rate: Medium, 10-Bit color: Off, HyperSmooth: 0n. Rest of settings: Default/Auto. (Note: limited to 5.3K at 24 or 30 FPS. First mode I tried before looking more at the settings): - 32 minutes before it overheated. Another 30ish minutes to cool back down. I could use it around the 15-minute mark but only for a short period before it overheated again. - Went through about 50% of the battery. 4K, 16:9, 120 FPS, Wide Camera, Bit Rate: High, HyperSmooth: On, No option for 10-Bit Color, Otherwise default/auto. (Note: Max settings is what I have applied for this mode). - 10 minutes 4K, 16:9, 60 FPS, Wide Camera, Bit Rate: High, HyperSmooth: On, 10-Bit Color: On, Otherwise default/auto. (Note: 10-Bit color is not available at 120 FPS but is at 60 fps). - 20 min - Battery 100 to 63% 4K, 8:7, 60 FPS, Lens Wide, Hypersmooth: On, 10-Bit: On, Bit-Rate: High, Otherwise Default/Auto: (Note: 4K 8:7 is only available at 60 fps). - 14 percent from 63? - 15 min 2.7K, 240 FPS, Lens: Wide, HyperSmooth: On, 10-Bit: N/A, Bit-Rate: High, Otherwise Default/Auto: (Note: 240, 120, 60 FPS options. Can do 2.7K at 4:3 but not 8:7 at 120 or 60 FPS. I did not test). - 100 to 65% -17 min 1080P, 240 FPS, Lens: Wide, Hypersmooth: On, 10-Bit: N/A, Bit-Rate: High, Otherwise Default/Auto: (Note: 240, 120, 60, 30, 24 FPS options). - 16 min - 63 – 30%. 1080P, 60 FPS, Lens: Wide, Hypersmooth: On, 10-Bit: N/A, Bit-Rate: High, Otherwise Default/Auto: (Note: 240, 120, 60, 30, 24 FPS options). - 75 to 34% - 28 min.