GoPro has a huge lead over its competition these days — we found out just how big when we pitted the best action cameras against each other last fall. Now, a new firmware update is about to widen the gap even further. Set to release in February, the update will add the ability to record 720p footage at 240 frames per second — 10 times slower than the standard framerate — to the Hero 4 Black, GoPro's 4K action camera. Gizmodo got an early version of the update and shot some footage with it at and around the X-Games last weekend. The results are a mixed bag. Basically any action looks awesome slowed down this much, but the wide field of view that GoPros are known for gets narrowed to just 65 degrees and the quality isn't as clear at the maximum 720p resolution. It's better than it was before when the maximum resolution was 480p, but it's still not great — even iPhones can shoot 720p video at this framerate.
The new firmware update will add other features, too. On both the Hero 4 Black and Silver editions, users will now have the option to convert time-lapse stills into a video right in the camera (instead of needing to do that on their computers afterward). The cameras will also now use the internal accelerometers to auto-rotate videos, which saves another post-processing step for users who have to mount the cameras upside down. These are nice changes, but they're not where the action camera war will be won. Those battles are being fought with features like battery life and framerates — both things that Sony promises to match (or beat) GoPro on when it releases its new 4K action camera later this year.
