If you’re tired of juggling an action camera plus a flashlight, torch, flare, or lantern anytime your adventures extend past sunset, GoPro has announced an updated version of its Hero action camera with illumination built right in. The Lit Hero has a cluster of four bright LEDs positioned right next to its lens, and while GoPro hasn’t revealed exactly how much light they put out, they’re definitely brighter than the LED on the back of your smartphone.
The Lit Hero is available for preorder starting today for $269.99 and is expected to ship starting on October 21st. GoPro’s standard Hero model, announced over a year ago, is still $199.99. At 93 grams the Lit Hero is 7 grams heavier than the basic Hero, but in addition to the added lights, it comes with a performance bump from 4K/30fps to 4K/60fps and a battery that can record for up to 100 minutes at full quality with the LEDs turned off.
The new action camera is still waterproof to a depth of 16 feet, and while underwater photography is potentially where the built-in light will be most useful, based on sample photos captured with the Lit Hero, the light doesn’t have an especially long range. It may be best suited as a way to illuminate nearby faces using an included diffuser to soften the intensity, or left off to make videos and images look like they were captured by an instant camera with an overzealous flash.
