Also one of the main reasons to buy the Mission 1 Pro is that, in my experience, when color graded correctly, the images from the Mission 1 Pro blend perfectly with images from any other camera. This is especially true in good light, but overall the look of the footage is leaps and bounds beyond the Hero 13. Some combination of a larger sensor, a better lens, 10-bit GP-Log2, and a higher bit rate produces more cinematic-looking footage than I’ve seen coming out of an action camera.

Other big improvements include support for fast charging. It can reach 80 percent in about 20 minutes and fully charge in just over 30 minutes. Battery life is also excellent, I managed about 3 hours recording 4K at 24fps. I was also impressed to see that the battery itself, although larger, is backward compatible with the Hero 13 and vice versa, which is a nice touch if you have quite a few extra batteries lying around (and let’s be honest, which the GoPro user doesn’t).

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 at twilight and get usable results. Despite all the fuss about how bad low-light performance is on older GoPros, I never found it that limiting, but if it 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’s none of the heavy processing or weird artifacts that often plague low-light modes.

Out of the box, with the default color profile, the low light mode on the Mission 1 Pro is closer to that of the Insta360 Ace Pro 2, which is really solid. But don’t forget that the true power of the Mission 1 Pro comes from shooting GP-Log. When you do it in low light and then adjust the color yourself, the results are better than any other action camera I’ve tried. My only complaint is that you can’t control the noise reduction in low light mode.

There’s a lot to cover in a short review like this, but it’s worth saying that the audio has improved, with more microphones, the rear screen is a little larger, and the settings menus are longer and easier to customize. It’s also worth noting that GoPro Lab has alternative firmware for the Mission 1 Pro, which enables quite a few cool features, including up to 300Mbps video.

What is not so good

Photography: Scott Gilbertson

To get the most out of Mission 1 Pro, you’ll want to post your video process. Editing and color correction is required to get the most out of what you can photograph with the Mission 1 Pro. This makes a lot of sense given that it is aimed in part at professional filmmakers who are naturally going to be editing and color correcting their images. If you go this route, you’ll get better looking movies than you’ll get with 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 lot of video footage on hard drives waiting for me to edit. I really believe it and I haven’t been able to edit it yet.