I suppose this had to happen eventually. They’re probably sick of seeing people strip down their beloved flagships to get them as small and as light as possible but GoPro has now officially announced the new GoPro Hero 10 Black Bones. It’s a stripped-down version of the Hero 10 Black, featuring the same sensor and processor and is capable of capturing up to 5K 30fps or 4K 60fps stabilised video footage. And by “stripped-down”, it means it has no screen, no speakers, no water and dust resistance, doors or even a slot for a battery. They’ve done everything they can to strip out anything unnecessary to make it as compact and lightweight as possible for use on DIY FPV drones. Honestly, I’m amazed it took them this long!
It really is surprising that it’s taken GoPro this long to really jump on the whole FPV drone thing. Sure, they kind of had a go with the Session, but that was never really billed specifically towards drones and FPV. And while the Hero Session 5 wasn’t exactly super heavy, the new Hero 10 Black Bones is 20g lighter, weighing in at only 54 grams – the lightest GoPro ever. Despite the low weight, though, it promises all the quality of the Hero 10 Black that we’ve gotten used to. Back in February, GoPro announced that they had identified “two product types” that they felt they were uniquely qualified for as a company, with the products and tech that they own. They also indicated that the new products would be based on that existing tech. So, it’s likely that FPV cameras was probably one of those two product types they were talking about. A patent has suggested that the other might be a DJI Pocket-like gimbal camera. Bones delivers HERO10 Black image quality and performance in a lightweight body that is ideal for aerial cinematography. – Nicholas Woodman, GoPro Founder and CEO
Of particular note is that it appears to be compatible with 2s all the way up to 6s lipo batteries – seemingly without any kind of custom step-down buck converter to bring it down to the typical 7.4v of batteries found in the Hero 10. So, it must have some kind of built-in power regulation to handle that. There are two physical buttons to control the camera, or you can use one of a number of GoPro apps or apparently even your drone’s transmitter. GoPro doesn’t appear to spell out exactly how that connection to your transmitter works, but there’s a three-pin connector on the back of the “Bones” that’s simply labelled “power connector” on the product page on the GoPro website, but you only need two pins for power. It looks like that third pin is a trigger pin, as I don’t see any more on the unit anywhere else and GoPro specifically says that the voltage of this pin should not exceed 5v. The GoPro Hero 10 Black Bones is available through the GoPro website where it’s listed for $399.98 with a GoPro 1-year subscription ($499.99 without) and includes Player + ReelSteady desktop software. [via SUAS News]
