Also high on list of reasons to buy the Mission 1 Pro is that, in my experience, when properly color graded, footage from the Mission 1 Pro pairs seamlessly with footage from any other camera. This is especially true in good light, but overall the look of footage is leaps and bounds beyond the Hero 13. Some combination of the bigger sensor, better lens, 10-bit GP-Log2, and higher bit rate leads to more cinematic looking footage than I’ve seen coming out of an action camera.
Other great improvements include support for fast charging. You can get to 80 percent in about 20 minutes, fully charged in just over 30 minutes. Battery life is great too, I managed about 3 hours shooting 4K 24fps. I was also impressed to see that the battery itself, while bigger, is backwards compatible with the Hero 13 and vice versa, which is a nice touch if you happen to have quite a few extra batteries lying around (and let’s be honest, what GoPro user doesn’t).
The low light performance is also a highlight. I don’t need a camera that sees in the dark, but it’s nice to be able to shoot in twilight and get usable results. For all the ballyhoo about how bad low light performance is in older GoPros, I never found it all that limiting, but if you did, the Mission 1 Pro is your camera. I’m happy to report that GoPro has exercised considerable restraint with the new Low Light mode, there is none of the heavy processing and weird artifacts that often plague low-light modes.
Out of the box with the default color profile the Low Light mode in the Mission 1 Pro most closely matches with you get from the Insta360 Ace Pro 2, which is really solid. But don’t forget that the real power of the Mission 1 Pro comes from shooting GP-Log. When you do that in low light, and then color grade yourself, the results are better than any other action camera I’ve tried. My one gripe is that you can’t control noise reduction in Low Light mode.
There’s way too much to cover in a short review like this, but it’s worth saying that audio is improved, with more mics, the rear screen is slightly bigger, and the settings menus are more extensive and easier to customize. It’s also worth calling out that GoPro Lab has alternative firmware for the Mission 1 Pro, which enables quite a few interesting features, including up to 300 Mbps video.
What’s Not So Great
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
To get the most out of the Mission 1 Pro you’re going to want to post process your video. It needs to be edited and color graded to pull the most value out of what you can shoot with the Mission 1 Pro. This makes perfect sense given that it’s partly aimed at pro filmmakers who are naturally going to edit and color grade their footage. If you go this route, you will end up with better looking movies than what you’ll get from any other action camera. The downside is that this is a lot of work. I’ve joked in quite a few WIRED guides that I have a massive amount of video footage sitting on hard drives waiting for me to edit it. I really do, and I still haven’t got around to editing it.