The Best Action Cameras 2025
Choosing the best action camera used to be simple: Go with GoPro. That’s still good advice, as the GoPro ranks high on our list, but there are also some worthy competitors, some of which can do more than the GoPro. To figure out what exactly makes the best action camera, we dove with them, climbed with them, surfed with them, and handed them to reckless 12-year-olds on bikes. We found several great options that will record, and survive, your adventures on the ski slope, beach, or skate park.
1. DJI – Osmo Action 5 Pro
you can buy it right now. It trumps our previous top pick, the GoPro Hero 13 Black in several ways, including battery life, which tops out at two solid hours of 4K video recording in my tests. The Action 5 Pro can now record a 4:3 ratio in 4K at 120 frames per second and features a new SuperNight mode, which shoots up to 4K/30-fps footage at 16:9 and uses noise reduction to get great footage, even in low light situations.
Want great audio? The Action 5 sounds decent out of the box, but it seamlessly integrates with the DJI Mic 2 or the new Mic Mini to offer much, much better audio better than what I’ve been able to get from GoPro (even with the GoPro Media Mod and an external mic). I also really love the Action 5’s size; it’s smaller than the GoPro and easier to mount on helmets or bike handlebars. The mounting system is unchanged, which is a good thing because this is the best magnetic system I’ve tried.
Sure, the GoPro Hero 13 offers 5.3K video resolution, higher than the Action 5, but in practice, I’ve encountered very few situations where this matters. Given the longer battery life, much better low-light capabilities, and smaller design, DJI is the better buy.
2. GoPro – Hero 13 Black
The Hero 13 Black (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is the first major update to GoPro’s flagship camera in many years. While the design remains roughly the same, a new interchangeable lens system makes the Hero 13 Black considerably more versatile than anything else in this guide. In addition to the standard lens, there is now an Ultra Wide Lens Mod ($96) with a 177-degree field of view, a new Macro Lens Mod ($130) for close-ups, and a new Anamorphic Lens Mod ($130) with a 21:9 aspect ratio and those sweet, sweet movie-style lens flares. We’re still waiting on the Anamorphic lens, which GoPro said will be out this spring, but others are available now. All those lenses make for a much more expensive system, but you can buy them as needed, there’s no need to invest in it all.
The Hero 13 Black also introduces a new magnetic mounting system, finally catching up to competitors, and it’s great. Unfortunately, the camera sticks with the same sensor, which shows its age when compared to the competition. If you don’t plan on shooting in low light though, the Hero 13 Black is still plenty capable, and the news lens mods open up some shoot possibilities unique to this camera.
3. Insta360 – Ace Pro 2
If you’re going to be filming yourself at all, the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the camera to get. It has a great lens and sensor co-engineered with Leica, capable of recording 8K video at up to 30 fps. The 8K is not great for action it has quite a bit of digital artifacts in fast-moving scenes but it’s nice for cropping in on slower shots while retaining 4K video quality. The must-have feature for vlogging is the flip-up rear screen. While other action cameras offer a small front screen to compose selfies, the entire back of the Ace Pro is a screen that flips up, and it’s easier to frame yourself. It also makes it easy to shoot from the hip and other unusual angles.
The video quality is impressive, especially the low-light performance, which is much better than the GoPro’s. Overall the image quality is similar to the DJI Osmo Action 5, which shares the same sensor (DJI caps the recording at 4K, though). Shooting side by side, it was interesting to see how the same sensor produced different results based on each company’s different image processing algorithms. Overall, this is very close to the DJI for video quality. The Ace Pro 2 has great battery life and a magnetic mounting system that’s different from DJI’s, but also excellent.
4. GoPro Hero 13
Alongside the Hero 13 Black, GoPro is back to making a plain Hero camera as well. It’s a tiny little thing (the picture really doesn’t capture how small this thing is), with no front screen, no 5.3K video (it tops out at 4K/60p), and stabilization must be done in the GoPro Quik app, but if you’re on a budget or just want the smallest form factor you can get, this is the way to go.
I reach for this camera a lot more than I thought I would, partly because I rarely shoot higher resolution than 4K 30p, and this thing is so small I forget I’m carrying it. It’s perfect for tossing in a bag just to have a camera with you, or for helmet mounts or other situations where the size matters. The two things I don’t like are that I have to send the footage through the Quik app to get stabilization, and it doesn’t have a built-in magnetic mount, which I think would open up a lot of shooting possibilities currently only possible with our next pick.
5. Insta360 Go 3S
Insta360’s Go 3S (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is a hybrid camera that transforms from a traditional action-camera design to a more portable go-anywhere wearable camera. In action camera mode, it’s much like everything else in this guide the flip-up rear screen is very similar to the company’s Ace Pro. The Go 3 isn’t fully waterproof in this mode, which is a significant downside, but when you remove the camera from the case, the camera itself is waterproof to 33 feet (10 meters). The case can continue as a remote monitor even when you pull the camera out. Couple that with the extremely strong magnetic mounting system on the camera pod, and the Go 3 becomes capable of shots and angles that no other camera in this guide can match.
Most importantly though, this camera is just plain fun. I keep mine in my camera bag all the time and find myself using it more and more. The Go 3S upgrades the video resolution to 4K, which makes it easy to combine with footage from other cameras. The simplicity and ease of shooting with the Go 3S are hard to match just stick it somewhere and do your thing. The only real downside is that there’s no SD card. For that reason, I suggest spending the extra money on the larger 128-GB model.