9 Best Action Cameras (2024): Underwater, 360, Compact, and More

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Choosing the right enactment camera utilized to beryllium simple: Go with GoPro. That's inactive bully advice, successful that the GoPro ranks precocious connected our database and is our apical prime for astir adventure-seeking photographers, but we've yet recovered a fewer worthy competitors.

To fig retired which cameras are the best, we dove with them, climbed with them, surfed with them, and handed them to reckless 11-year-olds connected bikes. We recovered a fig of large options that volition record, and survive, your adventures connected the skis slope, beach, oregon skate park.

If an enactment cam isn't your speed, beryllium definite to cheque retired our different guides, including the Best Compact Cameras, Best Mirrorless Cameras, and Best Instant Cameras.

Updated February 2024: We've added the Insta360 Ace and Ace Pro, on with a fewer caller accessories to assistance you bash much with your enactment cam.

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Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
Best Overall
GoPro Hero 12
The Hero 12 Black (8/10, WIRED Recommends) picks up wherever the Hero 11 near disconnected and adds amended artillery life, smarter stabilization, enactment for Log video, wireless mic support, and a tripod mount. It's everything we emotion astir the Hero 11, with immoderate added bonuses. There is 1 downside though: GoPro dropped GPS enactment from the Hero 12.
The Hero bid has ever stood supra its competitors erstwhile it comes to representation stabilization, arguably the astir important diagnostic successful an enactment camera. The Hero 12 Black brings HyperSmooth 6 (GoPro's sanction for its representation stabilization software), which offers amended stabilization with adjacent little cropping. Couple this with the much-improved artillery beingness (and little overheating) and the GoPro Hero 12 is our apical prime for astir people.
Photograph: DJI
The Best Not-a-GoPro
DJI Action 4
DJI's Action 4 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is simply a fantastic enactment camera. The magnetic mounting strategy is the champion we've tried, the paper strategy makes switching betwixt modes a snap, and the resulting photos and video are great. There are 2 places I deliberation the GoPro Hero 12 edges ahead. The large 1 is 5.3K video. The different is stabilization, peculiarly skyline lock, which I've recovered little reliable connected the Action 4. That said, this is an awesome camera and it integrates good into the DJI ecosystem. If you person a DJI drone, oregon DJI mics (8/10, WIRED Recommends), and program to premix unneurotic footage, I would prime this implicit the Hero 12 due to the fact that of however seemlessly DJI's assorted tools works together.