Quick review of the Hero 11 as a sideline action camera
I record my kids both on the soccer field and on stage.. I like to record their performances to share with family as well as their social presence. I’ve tried several different types of digital cameras, point and shoot, 360°, and smartphone… My smartphone overheats, 360 overheats and the software is junk, point and shoot batteries do not last long enough… It was time to try GoPro again.
My original GoPro was a 1-in by 1-in cube which did the job for a while. It had very few features but was convenient to put in my pocket and take with me wherever I went. It did not have a removeable battery so recording time was limited when hiking. Now that I’m trying to capture the action I need more features. The Dero 11 is advertised as having a 2X digital zoom and a 2 hour battery.
I found out that the zoom depended on which activity mode you’re in and it was limited to 1.4x and the battery never did better than 45 minutes.
If I wasn’t paying attention when the camera was complaining it would turn itself off when the battery was low or if I use the shutter switch there was a limited record time. During my test session I lost a critical moment in the game and because I was interrupted I missed the moment on my backup too.
Even at 5.x k record rate post production digital zoom reduce the quality to something that I wouldn’t want to share.
Lastly every time I launched the smartphone app it complained about me not having a user account which was all part of their subscription model… Given the price of the camera I’m insulted.
If it’s not obvious by now I’ve returned the camera. Sure it might be good as a personal space camera but that’s it. As for the recording time that’s also a problem.