GoPro

GoPro HERO (2024)

GoPro's stripped-down budget action cam, half the price of the HERO13 but with a shallower 5m native waterproof rating and no established third-party dive housing ecosystem.

Dive-ready without housing

Rated waterproof to 5m on its own. No separate housing required for recreational depths within that rating.

GoPro HERO (2024)
2.6Comparison Score
$200
Buy on AmazonBuy on Scuba.com
Released2024
Typeaction cam
Resolution12 MP
Max video4K30
Sensor size—
Native waterproof5m
StabilizationNo
RAW supportNo
Housing depth rating—
Housing material—
Weight86g
Pros
  • Extremely small and light (86g), easy to mount in tight spots without adding bulk or drag
  • Simple, near-foolproof single-button interface is easier to operate with thick gloves than a menu-heavy flagship GoPro
  • Native waterproofing means no housing is strictly required for shallow reef snorkeling within its depth limit
Cons
  • 5m/16ft native depth rating is a hard limit well short of most recreational scuba dives, and there's no mainstream third-party housing built for its smaller HERO12/13-incompatible chassis
  • No RAW photo support and no ProTune/manual exposure control, so there's no way to correct for underwater color cast the way Black-series GoPros allow
  • HyperSmooth stabilization is applied only afterward in the GoPro Quik app, not live in-camera, so footage reviewed on the camera or boat looks unstabilized

The GoPro HERO (2024) is GoPro’s budget entry, roughly half the price of the HERO13 Black and deliberately stripped of features: no RAW, no ProTune, no in-camera stabilization (HyperSmooth is applied only afterward in the Quik app), and a shallower 5m native waterproof rating against the flagship line’s 10m. Its small, light 86g body and single-button control make it easy to mount and simple to operate, which suits snorkeling and shallow reef use, but its physically smaller chassis isn’t compatible with the mainstream GoPro dive-housing ecosystem built around the HERO12/13 form factor, so there’s no established, reliable way to take it past its native depth limit. As a newer, deliberately low-cost model, it hasn’t yet built up diving-specific track record the way GoPro’s Black-series cameras have.