GoPro has just released the latest version of its iconic Hero, now in its 13th guise, and while the updates are not exactly ground-breaking, there are some cool new features that aim to keep it ahead of the pack when it comes to the best action cameras on the market. So let’s take a look at the differences from the perspective of a typical mountain bike user looking to produce great footage while out riding.

The new GoPro Hero 13 Black is very much evolution rather than revolution.

GoPro Hero 13 Black need to know

• New lens accessories including anamorphic, ultra-wide, and ND filters for slowing down shutter speed and creating motion blur
• Better slow-motion video
• Magnetic mounting and charging
• GPS data
• Bigger battery

Some decent upgrades then, all of which are worth exploring in greater detail.

New lens mods are now auto-detected by the Hero 13 Black body.

New lens attachments

Building on the Max Mod lens introduced on the Hero 12, GoPro has added several extra HB lens accessories of use to mountain bikers. The first is the Macro Lens Mod, which allows for 4x closer focussing. Might not sound that useful for riders at first, but this could prove really useful for adding on-bike footage of components in action, and capturing high-quality shots for bike checks and social cuts. To put a number on that, GoPro says it will now focus as close as 11cm.

ND Filter Lens Mod helps create blurry POV footage in bright light conditions.

Then there’s the ND filter lens that allows you to reduce light hitting the sensor. This is a great accessory for shooting POV footage on really bright days, as it reduces the shutter speed and creates motion blur at the edges of the frame, helping to give make those headcam clips look even faster. No matter what the lighting conditions.

Basically carried over from the Hero 12, there’s also a Max Mod lens that gives an ultra-wide field of view – perfect for MTB use as it means you can get more of the frame and bars into the shot, even helmet-mounted.

Probably of least use to mountain bikers is the new anamorphic lens. This gives a narrow, cinematic, letterbox view, with glorious lens flare that will definitely add a professional flourish to vlog footage. One neat new feature is that all of these lenses are automatically detected by the GoPro Hero 13 Black body, getting rid of the need to fiddle around in the settings menus.

Improved slow-motion capture

An improved range of slo-mo options can be found on the new Hero 13, which may not be a deal breaker for mountain biking, but it’s sure nice to have. These include up to 400fps in 720p, or 360fps at 900p, for 15 seconds. Great for shooting jumps, corners, or even suspension movement on your bike. There are several other options at higher resolutions, with reduced frame rates, and overall the slow motion capture is roughly twice as good as the Hero 12.

Better slow-motion capture and magnetic mounting come to the GoPro Hero 13 Black.

Magentic mounting

This has to be one of the key improvements on the Hero 13 for mountain bikers, even if it is hardly new and used by other action camera brands, such as Insta360. What it does is allow high-speed attachment and detachment of your GoPro without having to fiddle with thumbscrews and buckles. Just snap into place and go – ideal for checking footage between trails and removing for climbs and uplifts. There is still the option to use the traditional interlocking ‘clevis’ mount, as well as a standard tripod thread, giving maximum versatility. There’s also a magnetic attachment for the charging cable.

GPS data

While absent on the Hero 12 Black, GPS logging has been brought back, giving you the opportunity to add speed, g-force, altitude, and location data to your video files. The main drawback being that using GPS will put an extra drain on the battery.

The bigger battery is a nice upgrade.

More battery life

There’s nothing worse than finding you’ve missed that sick jump or sunset singletrack descent because the battery ran out, so a lot of riders will be happy to see the internal powerpack has been upgraded. OK, it’s only a 10% increase, from 1,720mAh to 1,900mAh, but anything is better than nothing. This is a completely new Enduro battery that’s not backwards-compatible, but GoPro says it should be enough to last for 1.5 hours shooting at 5.3k, or 2 hours at 1080p. This bigger battery has been achieved without increasing the physical size of the Hero 13 body, which is good news.

GoPro Hero 13 Black camera and accessories pricing

• The basic GoPro Hero 13 Black is priced at £399.99 / $399
• Ultra Wide Lens Mod is £99.99 / $99.99
• ND-Filter 4-pack £69.99 / $69.99
• Macro Lens Mod £129.99 / $129.99
• Anamorphic Lens Mod £129.99 / $129.99

Not cheap then, but GoPro has also launched a more wallet-friendly option for capturing your riding footage – the £199.99 GoPro Hero.

The basic GoPro Hero is going to be a popular camera for mountain bikers due to its lighter weight and more compact dimensions.

Go Pro Hero £199.99 / $199

More affordable, smaller, and lighter, this could actually be the camera most mountain bikers have been waiting for. GoPro claims is weighs just 86g and measures 56.6mm x 47mm x 27mm – around 40% smaller than the Hero 13 Black. At half the price of the latest flagship model, there are obviously compromises to be made. The first is sensor size, which means the Hero only records in 4k at 30fps for up to 100 mins.

The field of view is better suited to mountain biking at 165º compared to the Hero 13 Black’s 156º, so no need for any lens mods. As for the main chink in the armour, there’s no built-in Hypersmooth stabilisation, so you’ll have to add it afterwards.