Do you want to know what is going to be the best action camera for you? In this ARTICLE, we’ll break down the top 5 action cameras on the market this year based on price versus performance and the situations they’ll be used in. We’ll take a look at products for each use case, so if you want an action camera for summer sports, winter sports, casual use, or anything in between, we’ll have the perfect option for you. So if you’re interested in finding out which action camera will be best for you, stay tuned.
First up is the GoPro Hero 8 Black, our pick for the best action camera for most people. The GoPro Hero 8 Black is a couple years old now, but it has all the features an average person could need in an action camera at a more affordable price tag than the latest releases from GoPro. This action camera is compact, has a foldable built-in mount, a wind-resistant mic, and uses a GP1 chip and a 12-megapixel sensor coupled with optimized software. This gives you better battery performance and frees up processing power for new stabilization capabilities that notably improve GoPro’s hyper-smooth and time-warp functionalities compared to the Hero7 Black. You’ll get smoother videos and time-lapse shots, which are available across all resolutions and frame rates. The Hero8 Black shoots up to 4K resolution at 60fps and can livestream or act as a webcam at 1080p. The Live Burst mode captures a series of images, giving you a burst of 90 frames to choose from, which is great for getting the most out of moving shots. The battery will give you up to 50 minutes of continuous shooting time in 2.7 or 4K at high frame rates, but you can stretch that out to 2 hours for lower-resolution footage or when using time-warp modes. Optional mod accessories include the Media Mod, which adds a built-in directional mic, a 3.5mm mic port, HDMI output, and two cold shoe mounts to attach your favorite lights, mics, or LCD screens. Also available are the light mod, which is a small, mountable LED light, and the display mod, which adds a front-facing monitor. If you’re looking for an action camera with an ideal balance between price and performance, the GoPro Hero 8 Black is a good choice. It has just about everything you could want in the latest GoPro at a more affordable price point than something like the Hero 10, which we’ll talk about later in the article.
Next up is the DJI Osmo Action. DJI’s first action camera, the DJI Osmo Action, shares a lot of similarities with the GoPro Hero lineup. It’s a great overall action camera and a solid all-around option. There are some definite differences, though. The Osmo Action has a wider 16×9 screen compared to the GoPro’s 4×3 display, but the Osmo screen is dimmer, which can be limited in sunlight. And while the Osmo has a built-in color front-facing screen, it doesn’t have GPS, so you won’t be able to add overlays that include your speed or location. The Osmo’s Rocksteady Electronic Image Stabilization does a good job and is comparable to the GoPro’s HyperSmooth Stabilization. But the overall effect lacks a bit because the Osmo crops the frame a lot more, to the point of being very noticeable. While this may not be a big deal in all situations, if you’re using a selfie stick to capture yourself snowboarding, for example, you may not be able to get your entire body in frame. You may want to consider the wider field of view of the GoPro Hero 8 Black or the GoPro Hero 10 Black coming up later in the video. This camera supports 4K or 2.7K capture at frame rates up to 60 FPS. Dropping to 1080p, you’ll get frame rates up to 240 FPS, which you can record as a standard file with embedded sound. Most video modes use the 16 by 9 aspect ratio, or 9 by 16 if you mount the camera in portrait orientation, but there are also 4 by 3 modes, which use the full height of the sensor at 4K or 2.7K quality. Electronic video stabilization is not available at this aspect ratio, and capture is limited to 30 FPS. If you’re looking for a compact, waterproof action camera with 4K video and a full-color front LCD, the DJI Osmo Action is a great choice. Next up is the GoPro Hero 10 Black, our pick for the best overall action camera. The GoPro Hero 10 Black is refined and versatile, with an improved interface and image quality that make it the ideal waterproof companion for all of your adventures. It’s the new and improved model of the Hero 8 we mentioned earlier and gives the best all-around action camera experience. This camera is built around a 23-megapixel, 1×2.3-inch sensor and is waterproof down to 10 meters, but the new GP2 processor unlocks most of its new abilities. These include 5K 60fps, 4K 120fps, and 2.7K 240fps shooting modes. Other improvements include a much more responsive touchscreen interface, a handy new wired data transfer mode for phones, and some internal image quality boosts, like local tone mapping and improved low-light noise reduction. From a physical standpoint, the Hero 10 Black is almost identical to its predecessor.
GoPro has made a couple of subtle tweaks, though, and the big one for water sports fans is the new lens cover. It now has a water-repellent hydrophobic coating that really works, leaving no water droplets to obscure the view of the lens. And like the Hero 9 Black, the lens cover is removable and replaceable if it does suffer any damage or if you want to add ND filters. There’s a 1.4-inch front LCD for vloggers, which has smoother motion thanks to higher frame rates enabled by the GP2 processor, and the 2.27-inch rear screen has improved touch sensitivity. Other GP2-related improvements include better in-camera horizon leveling, which keeps your footage level even if you’re rocking from side to side, and hyper-smooth 4.0 image stabilization, which remains the best form of stabilization on any action cam. And if you’ve been thinking of using a GoPro as your live-streaming camera, the Hero 10 Black brings its highly effective stabilization to your streams. If you’re looking for the most polished, versatile GoPro action camera on the market, the GoPro Hero 10 Black is an excellent choice. It’s tough and waterproof, and you can take it anywhere. If you want the best of the best, this is it. Next up is the DJI Pocket 2, our pick for the best action camera for content creators. The DJI Pocket 2 excels at compact vlogging and action cameras, and combined with its creator combo package, you’ll get some useful tools to make shooting easier and give you better overall results. It also doubles as a great handheld action camera, so you’ll get almost all the benefits of an action camera and a content creation tool in one compact package. The Pocket 2 shoots video at 4K, 2.7K, or 1080p at frame rates ranging from 24 to 60 fps. It features a 1×1.7-inch, 64-megapixel CMOS sensor and an f1.8 fixed-aperture lens. The built-in image stabilization delivers cinematic smoothness that your smartphone simply can’t deliver, and if your subject is in motion, you’ll easily keep them in frame using ActiveTrack 3.0. To capture audio, the Pocket 2 uses DJI Matrix stereo, a soundtrack, and an array of four built-in microphones that adjust the audio according to the direction and focus of the camera. With the camera alone, you’ll have access to useful features like time-lapse that will turn hours into seconds, motion-lapse that can add some camera motion, or hyperlapse to add full handheld motion. You can even hand the editing off to the AI editor, and it will combine your clips with transitions and music to create a great-looking finished product. The Creator Kit upgrades the Pocket 2 to a full mobile camera rig and includes the Do-It-All handle that adds a forward-facing speaker, a USB-C port for charging, audio, and a tripod mount. A wide-angle lens attaches magnetically and increases the field of view from 93 to 104 degrees, and a wireless clip-on mic and transmitter provide a simplified way to capture audio.
The DJI Pocket 2 is super portable, delivers great video quality with built-in stabilization that is perfect for capturing all kinds of outdoor action, and is a very good choice. It doesn’t give you the flexibility to clip onto your clothes or as many accessories as the other action cameras we mentioned, but if you intend on mostly using your action camera as a handheld one, this is the perfect camera for you. Last but not least, the GoPro MAX is our pick for the best 360-degree action camera. The GoPro MAX is a 360-degree action camera that eliminates the difficulty of 360-degree video production. It bumps up the spherical resolution to 5.6K and offers flat 16×9 digital shooting lenses. Like its predecessor, the GoPro Fusion, the MAX uses two 180-degree fisheye lenses to capture everything in its direct line of sight. It then stitches these two hemispherical video files together automatically, which is a huge time saver. The Max has a lot of the new features we saw at the beginning of the video with the Hero 8 Black, but the Max pushes these a little further with even greater hyper-smooth digital stabilization, bigger 360-degree time-warp time-lapse sequences, and wider super-view shooting formats. The Max also has water resistance up to 5 meters, retractable mounting fingers, and is compact enough to be compatible with GoPro’s entire range of mounting solutions. A 6-microphone array captures a truly 3-dimensional soundscape, and the additional microphones also work to cancel out background noise and focus on voices or other desirable sounds. In 360 mode, you can shoot at 60 fps in 3K, and time-lapse functionality is also available, allowing you to capture longer spherical photo sequences. It also includes a couple of new multi-photo shooting capabilities in case you want to take still images. And, like the Hero 8 Black, you have the option to live stream in 1080p, too. The battery will give you up to 50 minutes of shooting time with the dual lens array and additional on-camera processing software running, and it can be stretched out to a couple of hours with less demanding video resolution or time-lapse modes.
