GoPro have announced a new replacement upgrade to their HERO3 action camera, calling it the GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition.
It's claimed to be smaller, lighter, give sharper image quality and have better audio and longer battery life than the HERO3, but will retail for the same price: £359.99/US$399.99 and is available now. The GoPro HERO3 Silver camera will also benefit from an upgrade to its sensor, bringing it up to the level of the current HERO3 Black Edition.
On the smaller and lighter claim, it's not the camera itself that's lighter, as both the HERO3 and HERO3+ have a claimed weight of 74g (2.6oz). But the HERO3+ waterproof housing has a claimed weight of 62g (2.2oz) and is noticeably smaller than the HERO3 housing.
The HERO3+ housing (R) is smaller and lighter than the housing for the HERO3
GoPro have updated the lens, which they say will give sharper and wider images with less distortion compared to the HERO3. This complements the new SuperView shooting mode, which enables you to use the whole sensor to capture a bigger image area.
The claimed 30% improvement in battery life over the HERO3 comes courtesy of an 1180mAH lithium battery (the HERO3 has a 1050mAH battery). That means you should be able to get up to two hours of shooting time depending on what mode you're using. A better battery was one of the most asked for improvements to the HERO3, based on the comments on our GoPro HERO4/HERO3+ rumours video below.
GoPro on hero4/hero3+ rumours
Video: GoPro on HERO4/ HERO3+ rumours and Garmin VIRB
GoPro have also included auto adjustment for shooting in low light. This drops the frame rate to a minimum of 24 fps, which will improve image quality at the expense of video smoothness.
Finally, GoPro say they've updated their smartphone app to work "4x faster" with the camera's built in Wi-Fi to make previewing and sharing videos and photos faster than ever.
GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition looks to have addressed most of the issues people have found with the HERO3 without a wholesale redesign. We're guessing they're saving that for the HERO4.