GoPro Outlines New GP3 and Upcoming Action Cameras: Hero 14, Max 3, Cinema Cam and More

(Above image released from GoPro, using the GP3 processor)

GoPro has just announced a staggering list of details around what’s to come this year, in terms of camera types, camera capabilities, and more. But first, a tiny bit of notable backstory.

Over the last 9 months, GoPro has slowly started to play offense in the action camera space, at least when it comes to communications. For the last number of years, as Insta360 and DJI have continued to eat up market share from the company, GoPro has largely taken a mostly passive defensive position. That strategy simply wasn’t working compared to the ways both DJI and Insta360 often played the ‘game’ of marketing and communications.

Last summer, we saw GoPro start to shift their thinking with the GoPro Max 2 camera launch, focused on passive-aggressively attacking portions of DJI’s OSMO 360 camera specs, by ‘leaking’ (or previewing) features GoPro did better in their own then still unannounced Max 2 camera (such as replaceable lenses). Of course, competing with Insta360’s much stronger Insta360 X5 camera was a different position altogether. Point being though, GoPro was finally acting like an aggressive competitor, instead of a passive bystander.

Today, they did it again, this time announcing their GP3 processor, and outlining some of the specs. At first glance, this might seem kinda trivial, but in reality, it’s likely to be the biggest shift GoPro has made in years. And I’m actually not entirely talking technically, but likely product announcement/scheduling too. Up until this past fall, the company has released a new action camera iteration every single September. The singular time they didn’t do so, back in the Hero Session days, it almost sunk the company.

Thus, when they announced this past September, they were skipping releasing a Hero 14 in September 2025, it signaled either the ship sinking, or a more substantial shift. Instead, they released the GoPro Hero 4K LIT, a camera that received largely lukewarm reviews (mainly because not even that LED flashlight could save GoPro’s poor low-light quality footage). However, the GoPro Max 2 hardware did receive generally quite good reviews (at least from impartial reviewers, which are tough to find in the action cam space). The software…less so.

When GoPro launched the Max 2 and the GoPro Hero 4K LIT, they noted they weren’t going to release a Hero 14, here’s what they said then:

“Not this year. MAX2 has had the full attention of GoPro this year. Many of us have been wondering what a non-yearly cadence for the HERO flagship camera might look like. This year, we’ll get to see. It is notable, however, that MAX2 represents a lot of the same or similar capabilities as the recent generation HERO Black models now, with greater flexibility and better stabilization. As a more durable and easier to use 360 camera, MAX2 represents a version of Hero “14” that is effectively a recent HERO Black edition camera with a second lens… and all the benefits that come with it. You concede a few edge modes, but gain some incredible 360 capabilities. If you were a HERO13 user waiting for HERO14 but don’t have a 360 camera, MAX2 might be a great addition.”

I’m still not entirely convinced that a non-yearly cycle will work when competing against DJI and Insta360. Though GoPro no longer has to compete with DJI in the US (due to DJI’s FCC ban, which covers all wireless-enabled products).

In any case, let’s talk about the just-announced GP3.

The GP3 Processor:

(Above image released from GoPro, using the GP3 processor)

GoPro issued a press release today to ‘debut’ the custom GP3 processor. GoPro has been using its existing GP2 processor since September 2021 with its Hero 10. At the time, it was a pretty substantial upgrade. But these days, the imaging pipeline struggles in certain areas, especially low light. Though equally, I’d argue that when it comes to typical daytime action cam scenarios, GoPro tends to beat both Insta360 and DJI. Whereas at night, GoPro is literally in the dark.

GoPro packed a lot into this press release, with quite a bit less filler than most companies stick in there. I’m going to include some quotes here:

“GoPro, Inc. today announced the upcoming launch of GP3, its most powerful custom imaging processor to date. Exclusive to GoPro, GP3 is a 5-nanometer System-on-a-Chip (SoC) that delivers more than 2X the pixel processing power and superior AI-driven image quality and low-light performance over its predecessor, GP2. GP3’s power efficiency and thermal performance are expected to significantly outperform the competition, resulting in industry-leading runtimes in the most demanding environmental conditions. These advancements position GP3 to usher in a new era of professional-level image quality, low-light performance, resolution and frame rates for small form-factor camera markets, including action cameras, 360 cameras, vlogging cameras, and ultra-premium, compact cinema-grade cameras.”

So the key things out of this first paragraph are as follows:

– The GP3 is running a 5NM SoC: That puts it in the same nanometer classification as Insta360 and DJI are using on their latest action cam chipsets. However, as always, that’s only one (kinda small) piece of the larger imaging pipeline puzzle.

– They say it’s 2X the pixel processing power: That likely ensures it can cover 8K capabilities, which Insta360 and DJI have added to their latest cameras. Though in the case of both, they will both admit it’s mostly on resolution spec, rather than something you can really use in any action scenarios (since it’s limited to 30FPS, and heavily limited in features). Whether or not GoPro would introduce a sports-usable 8K option remains to be seen.

– They mention low light performance: In fact, they do more than mention; they include a few shots on both Instagram and the press release. However, these shots all appear either heavily edited or at least somewhat out of context. So I wouldn’t put too much weight into these. But at least they’re acknowledging the elephant in the room. And to be fair, they do look pretty.

– They’re gonna make a lot of cameras: They talk about “small form-factor camera markets, including action cameras, 360 cameras, vlogging cameras, and ultra-premium, compact cinema-grade cameras.” – more on this in a second.

Ok, let’s move on to the paragraph where they dive into some more specifics:

“At the heart of GoPro’s innovative GP3 processor is a specialized AI Neural Processor Unit (NPU) that enables next-generation video pixel processing and market-leading low-light image performance. GP3 also features dedicated cores for scene recognition and subject detection, allowing GoPro cameras to understand their environment in real-time and adjust camera settings automatically. And with its 5-nanometer architecture and exceedingly efficient power-profile, GP3 is expected to enable market-leading resolutions and frame rates with runtimes and thermal performance that significantly outperform the competition.”

This time we’ve got a few more buzzwords, but also some real details in here. The challenge is separating fact from buzzwords, which will simply take time with cameras equipped with GP3.

However, if we look at both DJI and Insta360, they’ve started to leverage AI NPUs in their cameras for various scene detection and scene adjustment features. In some cases, that’s worked well, and in others, less so. There have been many videos on YouTube about how DJI (more so than Insta360) may be leaning a bit too heavily on the low-light AI processing, causing some scenes to just look wonky/artificial. Of course, inversely, both DJI and Insta360 at least have usable low-light, unlike GoPro.

However, this line is notable: “enable market-leading resolutions and frame rates with runtimes”. In order to be “market leading” in resolutions and frame rates, they’d have to go beyond the 8K/30 offered by DJI and Insta360, which means they’d be either doing 8K/60 or doing 8K/30 for longer. Further, the thermal bits is even more interesting, so both of their competitors (like GoPro too), struggle in their highest resolutions in static airflow conditions (e.g., in a still room).

Finally, we get to some more interesting tidbits on specs and timelines:

“We expect our new, exclusive GP3 processor to lead in every performance area—image quality, resolution, frame rates, low-light performance and power and thermal efficiency,” said Pablo Lema, GoPro’s Senior Vice President of Product Management.”

So, to begin, they’re saying they can beat DJI and Insta360 in every spec possible. Which again, this essentially means likely doing 8K/60, and then critically, not sucking at low-light. Also, not catching fire due to thermal limits.

The next piece, though, is timelines and products, so let’s dive into the next section.

Plans Going Forward:

(Above image released from GoPro, using the GP3 processor)

Here is where things start to become a bit clearer. As you’ll remember, back at the beginning, GoPro said this is for a whole host of product categories. Today, they’ve basically got three camera types: main action cam, mini action cam, and 360 cam. Sure, they’ve dabbled in some other stuff, but those are the current generation products.

Here’s what they said about what’s coming:

“Launching in our new products in Q2, GP3 provides a scalable, proprietary foundation we can leverage to power GoPro cameras across existing and future product categories. Our markets demand the very best performance, and we believe this sets the stage for GP3 to serve as a growth catalyst for GoPro.”

“GP3’s bleeding-edge, cinema-grade performance will enable GoPro to enter the ultra-premium end of the imaging market this year, serving the needs of a new, higher-end market segment that can grow GoPro’s business and brand,” said Nicholas Woodman, GoPro’s founder and CEO. “We’re excited for GP3 to empower GoPro as both an innovator and disrupter as we look to grow our business through market-leading technology and performance.”

So again, distilling that down:

– First products launch in Q2 2026: Assuming this means April to June 2026. This is a shift from the past September launch timeframe for their products. And I actually think it’s a wise shift. I’ve never understood why GoPro was trying to launch new action cameras to the Northern Hemisphere market in the fall, instead of trying to launch them ahead of the popular summer vacation time period, when people are largely using these things. We’ve seen both DJI and Insta360 start to shift their action camera launches to other timeframes as well.

– GoPro to enter the ultra-premium imaging market: If there’s anything that GoPro’s CEO (Nick Woodman) has talked about for longer than I can remember, it’s the idea of trying to target more the cinema realm/business. I’ve always enjoyed listening to the GoPro earnings calls over the years, because Nick tends to reveal a bit more than most CEOs do, at least if you listen. And this is one of the threads that he’s highlighted for many, many, many years – the idea of making a super premium camera that isn’t really heavily bound by price. We’ve seen some of their competitors toy around in this space, Sony a few years back, but none really had the sticking power of a GoPro. GoPros are indeed used across TV and movie production everywhere, often in small roles (no PUN intended), but they exist and are easily spotted. This would be leaning more into that.

– The product categories: Again, remember back at the beginning of the release, they talked a bunch of categories, saying “small form-factor camera markets, including action cameras, 360 cameras, vlogging cameras, and ultra-premium, compact cinema-grade cameras”. We know what small form factor cameras look like (e.g., a Hero 4K/LIT), we know what regular action cams look like (e.g., Hero 13/14), we know what 360 cameras look like (e.g., Max 2), but that still leaves a “vlogging camera” and an “ultra premium compact cinema-grade camera”. For vlogging, they’d seemingly be trying to compete with a DJI Pocket 3 (and upcoming Pocket 4), which is a very tall order. The Pocket 3 is a fantastic camera that I use as my main A-roll camera for YouTube. At the same time, Insta360 also tested their Pocket 3/4 competitor a few weeks back, too.

All of which means there’s a boatload to come. Hopefully, by GoPro shifting their camera release from last September to this spring, that means they’ve taken the time to deliver a solid set of products, rather than a rushed one. Only time will tell, but things definitely seem to be on the path towards interesting.

With Insta360 also holding back on releasing an Ace Pro 3 last year (seemingly saving it for the future), there could be a strong battle that benefits consumers this year. And as always, I’ll be there for it. Oh, and if I may make one itty-bitty-tiny request to GoPro (or Insta360)? Can you please implement DJI’s NAS sync feature, which they added a couple of months ago? If we’re talking professional workflow, it’s astoundingly useful. That is all. Give me that on every camera and drone I have, and I’ll be a happy camper.

With that – thanks for reading!

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