There’s a new 360 camera contender in town

In a break from tradition, GoPro hasn’t announced a new Hero Black camera this fall. Instead, this year’s flagship is the much-rumored Max 2 360 camera ($500). The Max 2 lands at a time when spherical video is having a mini renaissance, taking on Insta360’s X5 ($550) and DJI’s Osmo 360 ($550). Perhaps surprisingly, GoPro’s Max 2 is the most affordable of the three, suggesting that the company might be looking to gain ground on its rivals and, hopefully, make the creatively warped world of 360-degree video more accessible.

With a mix of pro features like Timecode, GP-Log (with LUTs) alongside mobile-focused editing, GoPro clearly hopes the Max 2 will appeal to demanding and casual users alike. The company has also focused heavily on improving the user experience rather than going for pure technological advances and after a week or so of testing, that feels like a sensible move.

Design and features

The Max 2 brings a decent resolution bump from its 5.6K predecessor, offering full 8K with 10-bit color. This puts it on par with the DJI Osmo 360 and Insta360 X5, but GoPro claims that Max 2 is the only one of the three with “true” 8K. That’s to say it doesn’t count unusable pixels on the sensor or those that are used in overlapping for stitching the footage from the two lenses together. GoPro goes as far to say that this results in somewhere between 16- and 23-percent higher resolution than its rivals.

You can now shoot 360 video at 8K/30 fps, 5.6K/60 fps and good ol’ 4K at 90 fps in 360 mode. When you shoot in single-lens mode (aka, non-360 mode), the max resolution available is 4K60, up from 1.4K/30 on the original Max. But pure resolution isn’t the only quality gain this time around, the Max 2 now joins its Hero siblings with 10-bit color and a top bit rate of 120Mbps, which can be increased to 300Mbps via GoPro’s experimental Labs firmware.

Other hardware updates include a gentle redesign that matches the current Hero and Hero 13 cameras with heat-sink style grooves over the front face and centrally-placed lenses (rather than in a left-right configuration as before). The physical size and shape of the Max 2 otherwise matches the OG Max. There is one new, and much appreciated change, though. With the Max 2, the lenses twist off for easy replacement. As there’s a lens on both sides, it’s always going to land “butter-side down” when dropped. The probability of scuffing or breaking one is therefore much higher, but with Max 2, replacing them is a trivial matter and a solid quality of life improvement. The Insta360 X5 has replaceable lenses too, but DJI’s Osmo 360 requires sending the camera to the company for a refresh.

As for audio, the six-mic array is directional, with sound focusing on where the action is taking place. As with the Hero 12 and 13 Black, you can also connect AirPods or a Bluetooth microphone (such as DJI’s Mic 3) to the GoPro directly for narration or extra-clear shrieks of fear. There’s no doubt this makes the Max 2 more appealing to vloggers and social creators.

There’s no onboard storage here, which is true for all GoPro cameras, but worth mentioning now as DJI’s Osmo 360 ships with 105GB of storage. Given the amount of times I’ve headed out with my camera only to find I left the memory card in my PC, I’d really love to see GoPro make it a standard addition to its cameras too.

Video and photo

After years of testing action cameras, I’ve learned that while some models excel in one area or terrain, they can struggle in others. I live near a huge park with a variety of colors, trees and pockets of water, which makes it a perfect testing ground. The Max 2 fares well across the board, with vibrant, natural colors and generally balanced exposure. You’ll notice transitions in the exposure as you move from direct sunlight to shadow, but that’s fairly typical.

When you review and reframe your footage, you’ll instantly be reminded you’re working with a 360 camera. The minute you drag your finger over a video to rotate it or zoom out for that drone-like “floating” footage, you’ll also introduce some warping. Sometimes it’s a bit frustrating trying to find the right balance of warp and pleasant framing, other times it actually makes for a good effect. If you zoom out fully, for example, you’ll end up with one of those “tiny planet” videos.

It’s also worth talking about stitch lines. Where the two lenses overlap, you’ll sometimes notice where the video is being stitched together, often via some slight wobbling or a break in a street markings and so on. Again, it’s a fact of life with current 360 photography, and you will notice it with the Max 2 from time to time.

Conversely, 360 video allows for extremely good stabilization, especially in single lens mode. I tried recording myself with a long selfie stick, precariously perched on my bike’s handlebars (not locked in with a mount) and despite the camera moving like a fish on land as I rode over uneven ground and potholes, the footage still came out impressively smooth. In friendlier conditions — such as walking with the camera — footage is even smoother and immediately ready for sharing.

New additions this year include 8K timewarps and a new (for Max) “HyperView” which is a 180-degree ultrawide FOV that just uses everything the sensor captures for extra immersive footage. As with HyperView on the Hero cameras, it’s a little extreme with lots of warping but it feels like you’re being sucked into the image, perfect for point of view footage.

Which brings us to the aforementioned Selfie Mode and POV mode; both are more about removing friction than adding any new creative tools. As you don’t need to have a 360 camera facing you while shooting a selfie, the video isn’t always oriented with you in frame when you open it in Quik. With Selfie/POV mode, it will load up framed correctly, so you can go right into sharing your clip.

Think of it as a hybrid between 360 and single-lens mode. You will still capture everything in 360, and can move the shot around to show different things, but if your POV or your face talking to camera are the main focus, you don’t need to do any reframing to get there. The camera also applies the optimal stabilization, reducing the amount of editing needed to get from camera to export. The first Max would always open videos from the front camera point of view regardless, leaving you to dig around for what you actually wanted to focus on.

Photography with a 360 camera is both simple and complicated at the same time. On the one hand, you don’t need to worry whether you’re in shot, as you’re going to capture everything, but likewise you’re going to want to make sure you catch the right moment or the best angle. A new Burst mode alleviates some of that concern by taking a bunch of photos for a set period of time (one to six seconds). giving you the ability to strike a few poses or make sure you catch the best shot if the subject is moving. You can then edit and reframe in Quik as with any other media.

GoPro Quik editing

Unlike a regular camera, with 360 video you can’t avoid at least some editing. At minimum, you’ll need to confirm framing for exporting to a flat (dewarped) video. That said, editing is where all the fun is. Being able to shoot one video and make it dynamic with panning and zooming is one of the major benefits of this type of camera. Quik is where you’ll be doing most of this, and unlike DJI, which is a relative newcomer to the category, GoPro has a few years’ headstart on the app side of things.

The result is an editing experience that’s intuitive that strikes a good balance between creative possibility and ease of use. For a simple punch out video where you set the framing and zoom amount and then export, it’s just a few button clicks before you have a video you can share. You can of course go back and re-edit and export in another aspect ratio if, say, you want an Instagram Reel in portrait alongside a regular 16:9/widescreen version for YouTube.

Quik also includes some filters that may or may not be to your taste. Much more useful are the preset effects, including a variety of spins, rolls and pans that are clearly aimed at action footage, but can be used creatively for any type of video. You can also track an object automatically via AI. It’s perfect for keeping your kid or pet in the shot while they run around with one click and an easy way to make your video dynamic. Overall, editing in Quik feels like a solid pipeline for posting to social media, but it is still a bit cumbersome for anything longer. Desktop editing options are Adobe Premier and After Effects via the GoPro Reframe plugin. The company also recently announced a beta plugin for Davinci Resolve.

Battery life

The Max 2 ships with a 1,960mAh “Enduro” battery, which is designed to last longer even in extreme cold. GoPro claims that it should last “all day” but that of course depends what you’re doing with it. When I took the camera out for a day of filming, visiting different locations and pulling the camera out when I found something interesting, the battery lasted for the whole six-hour excursion. That’s not actual recording time, obviously, and I maybe grabbed about 30 minutes of actual footage. But that’s me walking around with the camera on, or in standby, and hitting record sporadically over that period. In fact, there was still about 15-percent battery left when I went to export my footage the next day.

That’s more of a real world test with me connecting the camera to the phone and transferring files, which will yield less recording time than if you just set the camera down and press record. This is about on par with what I’ve experienced with regular GoPros that can usually record for about an hour and a half in a “set and record” scenario.

Wrap-up

A reasonable amount of time has passed between the Max 1 and Max 2, so if you were hoping for a top-to-bottom spec overhaul, you might be a little disappointed. But with 360 video, source resolution is the main upgrade and Max 2 can output 4K/60 video, which is by far the most important thing. That improved resolution has filtered down into all the important timelapse and video modes, and that makes the camera feel current and mostly complete.

I do think it’s about time that GoPros have onboard storage, at least as an option, as that removes a really simple pain point. The fact that DJI is doing it might well give GoPro the nudge it needs.

A lot of what sets the Max 2 apart from DJI will be in the editing experience. It’s simple and well thought out, with some useful tools and effects that make getting footage into something you want to share pretty straightforward. Although DJI’s onboard storage and higher maximum frame rate will be tempting for many. Insta360’s app is generally considered easy to use, too, so with the X5, GoPro’s advantage is the price (at least for now). What really sets these cameras apart, are the videos you end up sharing, and in that regard GoPro’s bet on “true 8K” and the app experience might just be enough.