GoPro
GoPro LIT HERO
Four LEDs around the lens, and an entire product built to justify them. The LIT HERO is the 2024 HERO body with 4K60 instead of 4K30, a magnetic mount, and a ring light bright enough to be useful at arm's length in a dark bar, a tent, or a night ride. Whether that is worth ninety dollars over the plain HERO depends entirely on whether you shoot after sunset; the sensor is the same small 1/2.3-inch chip, so the light is compensating for a limitation rather than adding a capability. Reviewers have found it the most confusing camera in GoPro's line precisely because it sits above the HERO on price and below the Hero 12 on everything but the LEDs. The bright spot is the 109-minute rating at 4K60, which is better than any full-size Hero manages at that setting.
Sensor area against the rest of the catalogue
Derived from the standard optical-format table rather than copied off a spec sheet, because makers print a fraction that hides it. The table and the arithmetic.
Battery, with the small print
- Maker’s claim
- 1 h 49 min at 4K60 continuous, built-in battery
- Third-party test
- None collected. We publish a tested figure only where a named outlet has run one and stated its conditions.
Specifications
What the GoPro Premium plan gates
~$49.99 a year, which is why the year-one figure on this page is ~$319 rather than ~$269.
- •Unlimited cloud storage and automatic upload for GoPro footage
- •Guaranteed camera replacement, no questions asked
- •Up to 50% off GoPro accessories
Features
- ●Four built-in LEDs ringing the lens, with adjustable output
- ●4K60 with 2x slow motion
- ●Magnetic quick-release mount plus folding fingers
- ●109 minutes of 4K60 on the built-in battery
- ●Waterproof to 5 m bare
- ●1.76-inch rear touchscreen
Strengths
- +The LEDs are genuinely bright enough to light a face at arm's length
- +109 minutes at 4K60 beats every full-size Hero at the same setting
- +Magnetic mount is quicker than the folding fingers and still accepts them
- +93 g, so it goes where a flagship would be too heavy
Drawbacks
- −Costs more than the HERO and less capable than the Hero 12 — an awkward middle
- −Small 1/2.3-inch sensor, so the light is patching over weak low-light performance
- −No horizon lock and no log profile
- −Battery is sealed; the LEDs eat into the runtime when you use them
- −Sealed battery — a long shoot means carrying a cable and a power bank rather than a spare
What owners say
Summarised from owner discussions and published long-term reviews.
A camera with a genuinely useful feature and a genuinely awkward price. The four LEDs around the lens light a face at arm's length, which owners filming at night, in tents or under a car report as the thing that justified the purchase. The 4K60 ceiling and the 109-minute rating at that setting are both better than the plain HERO.
The problem is what sits either side of it. It costs ninety dollars more than the HERO and less than a discounted Hero 12, and the Hero 12 beats it on sensor, resolution, log profile and horizon lock. Owners who bought it are generally happy; owners deciding between the three find it the hardest camera in GoPro's line to place.
What owners like
- +The LEDs work as advertised — owners shooting in tents, garages and at night report them being genuinely useful rather than a gimmick
- +4K60 rather than the plain HERO's 4K30, which is the specification difference that matters most day to day
- +The magnetic mount is quicker than folding fingers and still accepts every GoPro accessory
- +Owners rate the 109-minute 4K60 figure as realistic, which is better than any full-size Hero manages at that setting
Common complaints
- −Owners and reviewers alike find its position in the line confusing: more expensive than the HERO, less capable than a discounted Hero 12
- −The LEDs eat into runtime, and the headline battery figure assumes they are off
- −Same small 1/2.3-inch sensor as the plain HERO, so the light is compensating for weak low-light performance rather than adding capability
- −No horizon lock and no log profile
Questions owners keep asking
Are the built-in LEDs actually bright enough to be useful?
Is the LIT HERO better than the regular HERO?
How much runtime do the lights cost?
GoPro LIT HERO, head to head
Cameras people look at alongside it
More from GoPro →
GoPro
GoPro HERO (2024)
Half the weight of a Hero 13 and about a third of the menu depth. This is GoPro's answer to the question of what an action camera looks like when you strip out everything a beginner never touches: 4K30, 12 MP stills, a touchscreen, HyperSmooth, and nothing else. There is no horizon lock, no log profile, no removable battery, no front screen, no GPS and no 60 fps at 4K. The sensor drops to 1/2.3-inch, which is the smallest in the modern GoPro line and about 40 per cent less area than the Hero 13's. In exchange it disappears on a helmet at 86 g and takes every GoPro mount ever made. As a first action camera or a fourth angle it is well judged; as a replacement for a flagship it is not close.
Take a Hero 11, delete the screens, the stereo mics, the GPS and the removable battery, and add a second set of mounting fingers on the back — that is the Mini, and it is a far more coherent product than the subtraction list suggests. One button starts and stops recording. There is no menu to fumble with cold hands, no screen to crack, and two mounting axes so it sits flat against a helmet or a chest harness in either orientation. The imaging is unchanged: the same 5.3K60, the same 8:7 sensor, the same horizon lock. What you lose is any ability to frame a shot or swap a dead battery, which rules it out as anyone's only camera and makes it a very good second one.
GoPro
GoPro HERO12 Black
Clearance pricing has turned last year's flagship into the value pick of the GoPro line, and the gap to the Hero 13 is narrower than the generation number suggests. Same 1/1.9-inch sensor, same 5.3K60 and 4K120, same 10-bit GP-Log, same HyperSmooth 6.0 with full horizon lock. What you give up is the magnetic latch, the HB lens-mod system, roughly 180 mAh of battery — and GPS, which GoPro dropped on this generation and restored on the next. That last one is the deciding spec for anyone who wants speed, altitude or route data burned into the footage; for everyone else the Hero 12 is a Hero 13 that costs eighty dollars less and takes the same mounts. It also carries a 1/4-20 thread in the base, which the Hero 11 did not.