| sent on March 10, 2024
Pros: Lots of features, incredible stabilization in video, extreme wealth of accessories
Cons: Battery, noise at low iso, lack of AI as competition in the app.
Opinion: Do action cameras take pictures? Sure, but they're not bought for that. The GoPro is on the video side left a bit behind the competition in this version. When it comes to photos, the 8/7 1/1.9 inch sensor isn't exactly the best in terms of quality. Customers were expecting a one-inch sensor (sony, I suppose): The Insta 360 Ace Pro has a 1/1.3-inch sensor. The old Sony RX0 II, born without conviction towards the world of action and sports, even has a one-inch sensor, and the dimensions are absolutely comparable. All of this means noise as early as ISO 100. The stabilization is electronic and therefore the shots are not optically or electronically stabilized; In addition, in video, the stabilization is lost when it gets dark. It must be said that the front protection can be replaced with a lens, for example the Max Lens that the 12 recognizes in both versions.* Or third-party products, such as an anamorphic lens, which can be useful for taking still photos. The camera easily mounts a 256 GB microSD card, and it would be right to buy it with the additional Volta, since it has practically no battery (it lasts, in video recording, around an hour). Also useful as a dashcam, the 12 has this 8/7 format - almost a square - which on the photographic side allows all crops, but with the limit of 27 native mega pixels. The crops if in camera correspond to digital lenses, 12-39mm equivalent. The file, in addition to having a certain grain, is not very recoverable. However, it helps to shoot in raw, and the settings. It is resistant to diving up to 10 meters but given the characteristics of the sensor I would not expect quality from underwater shots. The timelapse mode is useful for making time-lapse videos from which to extract frames. Needless to say, at night it's a bit of a disaster, especially on the video side. The extreme care of the management software is surprising, full of many possibilities, in the face of the obvious hardware limitations due to the portability and resistance quite unusual, very pushed. There are many photo/video shooting options, all of which can be managed from the Lilliputian rear touch screen. The front screen, like the two shooting LEDs, I keep them off, in the illusory hope of saving energy. The machine has a very good grip, it is consistent in weight, but it is microscopic for those who can hold on a basketball with a hand big enough. All this leads to the consequence that if the machine resumes for a long time, it heats up a lot. The dissipation is essentially entrusted to the medium crossed, and to time. In the water, it is difficult to think of overheating before the internal battery is depleted. On winter bikes it doesn't heat up much. In the car as a timelapse dashcam it heats up enough. The mount, as is well known, has also introduced a 1/4 inch hole, in addition to the one typical of action cameras, which turns out to be better in several situations. The 12 can also be used for vlogs: the Quik app allows you to directly stream the footage on social media, in full HD. I haven't tried yet if 4k streaming is possible. But this, which turns it into a webcam, as well as the possibility of using more than 12 per broadcast, is beyond the scope of this review. * The Max Lens 2, exclusive to this model (and to future ones, perhaps) reaches an even higher aperture, 177°, of the default camera (156°). |