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The best action camera you can buy

Capturing the crazy times

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Action cameras — those blocky little cameras you use when you want to record all kinds of intense moments, such as skydiving, white water rafting, high-speed go karting, and more — have been around for a while now. In the past few years, action cameras have developed from niche curiosities into really popular devices that can capture amazing footage. But every year it's still the same story: market-leader GoPro releases a new camera, and other companies desperately try to catch up. Some companies have come close to making one as good as its best, but as soon as they do, GoPro releases a new one.

This time around, however, GoPro’s releases were aimed at the low end. That means all of its competitors had a year to catch up to the company’s two standard bearers: the Hero 4 Black and the Hero 4 Silver.

The most important thing an action camera should do is shoot beautiful, high-quality footage, with different options for resolutions and framerates. It should also have a great system of accessories and mounts so you can put the camera anywhere and use it to record anything you're doing, which means it also has to be small and light enough that it’s not a burden to wear. Action cameras should also be easy to use, with good on-camera controls and a great companion app for your smartphone.

The race to make the best action camera is tighter than ever before, but only one of them does all of these things better than the others — and it shouldn’t come as a surprise.


The Winner

The best action camera you can buy is the GoPro Hero 4 Black. It shoots excellent footage in sunlight, cloudy weather, indoors, and even at night. It may be pricey, but it still gives you the best image quality you can get from any action camera, hands down.

The Hero 4 Black has a super wide field of view, shoots 4K footage, and offers a few different super slow motion modes as well. But the footage also looks great even if you’re shooting at 1080p, which is really the right resolution for most people. And while you probably wouldn’t want to use it as your only still camera, it takes gorgeous 12-megapixel photos.

It’s also tiny. Even with a waterproof housing on it, the Hero 4 Black is hard to notice, whether you have it strapped to your arm or stuck to your helmet. It’s solidly built and can take a few dings and drops if you don’t have a case on it. The battery is easy to swap, which is good, because short battery life is still one of the biggest problems you’ll face when using a GoPro.

GoPro menus used to be a chore to navigate, but the company has really streamlined them with the Hero 4 lineup. Each menu is easy to read on the tiny, front-facing LCD screen, and they’re much easier to understand. If you don’t want to use the on-camera buttons, or if you have to set your camera up at a distance, you can always use GoPro’s great mobile app. It offers a live view with very little lag so it’s easy to frame up your shot, you can start and stop recording from it and change settings on the fly, and it gives you the ability to trim, save, and share clips. And if you’re new to video editing, the GoPro desktop app has really come a long way as well. Proprietary desktop software is usually pretty awful, but GoPro has finally made something worth installing if you want to edit video without learning advanced editing software like Final Cut Pro.

But one of the best things about GoPro is the assortment of mounts and accessories that are available for it. The company makes one for just about any application you can imagine. They sell roll bar mounts, helmet mounts, chest straps, selfie sticks, dog mounts, underwater housings, and so much more. Even better, GoPro has been the industry standard for so long that third-party companies also make dozens of mounts for these cameras, as well as some really crazy accessories.

The Hero 4 Black is still the best you can get, but if you have a smaller budget or really specific needs, this is the best time ever to really weigh your options.


The Runner-Up

Right behind the Hero 4 Black is the Hero 4 Silver. The Hero 4 Silver is nearly the same camera as its more expensive counterpart, and it’s just as great. You still get really awesome image quality in almost any setting, even though you lose the ability to shoot 4K video and super slow motion. What you gain is a built-in LCD touchscreen, which makes it extremely easy to line up your shot or review your footage (at the expense of battery life, of course). The Silver is typically about $100 cheaper than the Hero 4 Black, too, but it works with all the same mounts and accessories, so you’re not really worse off for buying it. It may not be quite as capable as the Hero 4 Black, but if you’re new to action cameras, this is probably your best bet.

TIMN action camera gopro hero 4 silver

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