GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: The best action camera you can buy

Another big reason to buy a Mission 1 Pro, in my experience, is that when color grading is done right, Mission 1 Pro shots pair seamlessly with shots from any other camera. This is especially true in good light, but overall the look of shots is superior to the Hero 13. The combination of the larger sensor, better lens, 10-bit GP-Log2, and higher bitrate results in more cinematic-looking shots than I’ve seen come out of an action camera.

Other nice improvements include fast charging support. You can get to 80 percent in about 20 minutes, and it fully charges in just over 30 minutes. Battery life is also great, as I was able to shoot at 4K at 24fps for about 3 hours. I was also impressed to see that the battery itself, despite being larger, is backwards compatible with the Hero 13 and vice versa, which is a nice touch if you have a fair number of extra batteries lying around (and let’s be honest, which a 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 in twilight and get usable results. Despite all the hype about how bad low-light performance was on the old GoPros, I didn’t find it all that limiting, but if you do, the Mission 1 Pro is your camera. I’m happy to report that GoPro has exercised a great deal of restraint with the new low-light mode, and there’s none of the clunky handling and weird artifacts that often plague low-light modes.

Out of the box with its default color profile, the Mission 1 Pro’s Low Light mode closely matches what you get from the Insta360 Ace Pro 2, and it’s really solid. But don’t forget that the Mission 1 Pro’s real power comes from its GP-Log imaging. When you do it in low light, and then do the color grading yourself, the results are better than any other action camera I’ve tried. My only issue 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 noting that the sound has been improved, with more microphones, the rear screen is a bit larger, and the settings menus are more comprehensive 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 interesting features, including up to 300Mbps video.

What’s not cool

Photo: Scott Gilbertson

To get the most out of Mission 1 Pro, you’ll need to spread out your video processing. It needs to be adjusted and color graded to get the most value from what you can shoot with the Mission 1 Pro. This makes perfect sense since it’s partly aimed at professional filmmakers who will naturally be editing and colorizing their footage. If you go this route, you’ll end up with better-looking movies than you would from any other action camera. The downside is that this requires a lot of work. I’ve joked in quite a few WIRED guides that I have a huge amount of video footage sitting on my hard drives waiting to be edited. I really do, and I still haven’t been able to edit it.