Which GoPro should I buy?

The lineup, in one table

Start with two questions, not ten

GoPro's own marketing compares eight specifications at once. For the way this site's readers actually use a camera — wet, cold, mounted to something that moves — two of them decide almost every purchase.

How deep does it need to go without a case? 16ft (5m) is a dock, a pool, a paddle and the shallow end of a snorkel. 33ft (10m) is every snorkeling situation and a swamped boat. If you need more than that you are buying the Protective Housing whichever body you choose, and how deep an action camera really goes has every published rating in one place.

Does the battery have to come out? This is the question that catches people, because it is not about capacity — it is about whether a flat camera at 2pm ends the day. The HERO (2024) has a built-in cell, so the answer there is a power bank and a cable rather than a thirty-second swap. On a kayak, in the cold, that difference is larger than any resolution figure.

Everything else — resolution above 4K, GPS, lens accessories, frame rates — is a refinement. Useful, occasionally decisive, never the first filter.

Who should buy the HERO13 Black

Anyone who wants one camera to handle everything, and in particular anyone whose camera will be mounted. The folding fingers and the 1/4-20 thread mean it fits the kayak boom, the helmet mount, the chest harness and the tripod with nothing bought in between, and the replaceable lens cover turns the most likely damage into a $20 part.

The HB-Series lens mount is the one genuinely new capability in the lineup: it is the only current GoPro that accepts swappable lenses. Whether that matters depends entirely on whether you intend to buy one — for most buyers it is a specification they will never use, and it should not be the reason the money is spent.

Who should buy the HERO (2024)

Three buyers, and they are all legitimate.

Somebody buying their first action camera who wants one shutter button and no menu archaeology. GoPro lists it as compatible with 35+ mounts, so it is not a dead end.

Somebody buying for a person rather than for themselves — a child, a parent, a grandparent. Small, light and simple beats capable here every time, which is the whole argument of the grandparents roundup and the kids one.

Somebody who wants a second angle. A cheap second camera that cuts against your main one is worth more than a marginal upgrade to the main one.

The two limits to take seriously: 16ft (5m) is a splash-and-shallows rating rather than a snorkeling one, and the built-in battery means a power bank is part of the kit, not an option.

Who should buy the HERO12 Black

Anyone who wants the flagship water story for less money, while it is still on shelves. The headline figures are the ones that matter here: 33ft (10m) bare — identical to the HERO13 Black — the same HyperSmooth 6.0, a removable 1720mAh Enduro cell and the same replaceable lens cover.

What you give up is the HB-Series lens mount, the slightly larger 1900mAh Enduro cell, and a published GPS figure, which GoPro does not list in the HERO12 Black specifications. If none of those three is a reason you can name out loud, the older body is the better buy — and the full head-to-head is in HERO13 Black vs HERO12 Black.

The one caveat is availability. It is a superseded model, so stock narrows as it sells through. Check the listing before you plan a trip around it.

When the answer is not a GoPro at all

Three cases, stated plainly, because a page called "which GoPro" should still tell you when the brand is wrong.

If you need the deepest bare rating: DJI publishes 20m for the Osmo Action 5 Pro against GoPro's 33ft (10m). GoPro vs Insta360 vs DJI has the three-way version.

If you film yourself alone: a 360 camera on a pole produces a third-person shot no flat GoPro can, and HERO13 Black vs X5 is the comparison to read.

If image quality in poor light is the priority: Insta360 publishes a 1/1.3-inch sensor for the Ace Pro 2, and GoPro publishes no sensor size at all — the low-light ranking explains what that means in practice.

And if the question underneath this one is really whether you need a GoPro in the first place, do you need a GoPro answers that directly, while how to choose an action camera works through the six specifications in order of how much they matter.