Review: Hero10 Black Bones – The Naked GoPro 10 for FPV Drones

GoPro just released their first-ever FPV camera – the “Naked” GoPro 10. It is essentially the beloved HERO10 Black, but stripped down to just the bare Bones (hence the name). The Hero10 Black Bones is purpose-built for FPV, keeping only the essential features for FPV pilots to make it as light weight as possible, allowing them to be used on smaller drones.

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What’s a Naked GoPro?

The term “naked GoPro” was invented when the FPV community started stripping down GoPro’s to keep the weight to a minimum. It’s a fairly risky and tedious DIY task to do, and 3rd party power boards aren’t always reliable. It’s great that GoPro finally stepped in and offer Naked GoPro as an official product!

Here are the articles I have written on the different naked GoPro cameras if you want to learn more:

• Naked GoPro 6
• Naked GoPro 8
• Naked GoPro 9

Where to Buy?

Product Page (not affiliate link): https://gopro.com/en/us/shop/cameras/hero10-black-bones/CHDBO-101-master.html

All HERO10 Black Bones cameras come bundled with the new GoPro Player + ReelSteady V2.0 software.

In the box, you get a manual, mounting fingers, and a power cable as accessories.

Specs and Features

The image quality and stabilization of the Naked GoPro 10 are basically identical to the original Hero10 Black, as they both use the same image sensor and processor:

• 1/2.3” image sensor
• GP2 system processor
• 5.3K60 + 4K120 Video
• HyperSmooth 4.0 Stabilization

Left: full size Hero 10 Black; Right: Hero 10 Black Bones

Flight on my 5″ FPV drone:

Here’s another flight on a smaller 3.5″ drone:

However the Hero10 Black Bones is made much slimmer and lighter by removing everything but the essential. This reduces the weight from 158g to merely 59.9g (my measurement is slightly heavier than GoPro’s claimed 54g, maybe they didn’t include the lens protector).

Despite the huge reduction in weight, it’s still considerably heavier than the older Naked GoPro’s (double the weight).

• Naked GoPro 6 with BetaFPV V2 case: 25.7g
• Naked GoPro 8 with GEPRC case: 27g
• Naked GoPro 9 with NamelessRC case: 30.5g

From left to right: Hero10, 9, 8, 6

But a 60g camera is still manageable for most 3″ and even some powerful 2″ FPV drones and Cinewhoops.

The Naked GoPro 10 is also noticeably larger in dimensions than the older naked GoPro’s.

The input voltage is 5V to 27V (as stated in the manual), meaning it can be powered directly from pretty much all the common LiPo batteries we use on FPV drones (2S – 6S). However some users have reported issue with the camera stop recording randomly when powered by 5V, so perhaps it’s best to power it from a higher voltage power source.

It has an onboard microphone for recording audio.

Unlike previous Naked GoPro’s you have to tear it down and assemble it in an aftermarket case all by yourself, the Bones comes fully assembled, ready to use out of the box.

When you buy the Hero10 Bones, you get a free copy of Reelsteady V2.0 ($99 value).

The best part? GoPro offers damage protection and replacement for GoPro subscribers!

Closer Look at the GoPro 10 Black Bones

At only 60g, the Hero10 Black Bones is the lightest camera GoPro has ever launched (even the next lightest, the Hero5 Session weighs 74g).

The minimal weight is achieved by removing the displays, battery, speaker and GPS module in the Hero10 Black. They also replaced the metal enclosure with a lightweight plastic enclosure still offers some degree of protection.

Inside the well-vented protective housing, there’s a heatsink for cooling.

I wanted to take a look inside the camera, at the PCB and what they are using to power the GoPro main board. However the plastic case seems to be glued together, there’s no screws on the outside so it can’t be open easily. I don’t want to risk breaking the camera enclosure before testing it, so I will leave it for now :)

But I took a screenshot from GoPro’s promotion video showing the BEC that powers the main board, and the heatsink. The heatsink appears to be similar to the original heatsink, which is pretty heavy. Probably explains why the Bones is so heavy.

The Bones has the exact same removable/replaceable cover glass as the original Hero10, it offers protection to the lens and it can be swapped on your favourite 3rd party ND filter.

The SD card slot is located on the right side. I wish they had some sort cover to prevent the micro SD card from accidental ejection in a crash, but I’ve tested this camera for a few days now with numerous crashes, it has not caused any issue so far.

There are two buttons on this camera just like the original Hero10 Black – Shutter and Mode/Power. They are located on the back.

The power input is also located on the back, it’s a Molex PicoSPOX (1.5mm pitch) 3-pin connector, which is an unusual connector and is hard to find. They were initially going to use GH 1.25 3-pin connector same as the one on the GEPRC BEC, but in the end they changed it hence it still says that on the manual but different on the final product. That doesn’t fit at all as the shape is different. Some say Molex PicoBlade (clones are sold as Micro JST1.25) sort of works but not recommended, because it’s slightly bending the pins due to the different pitch and the connection is not secure. Another option is JST ZH, pitch is the same so might be a better fit but yet to be confirmed.

There’s a mounting hole right behind the lens, when mounted on a drone, it keeps the lens right in the center.

With the mounting fingers provided, you can mount the camera on a standard GoPro mount adapter or 3D printed mount for a drone.

This is on my 5″.

On my GEPRC Smart (3.5″ FPV drone).

Input Power

The Naked GoPro 10 takes 5V to 27V input power, so it’s possible to power the camera directly from a 2S, 3S, 4S, 5S or even 6S LiPo battery. Since I will be using this camera on my 4S FPV drones, I soldered a 4S balance connector to the power cable.

So I can just plug the camera directly to the battery’s balance port.

Notice there are 3 wires in the provided power cable – red, black and yellow. The yellow cable is for connecting to your flight controller’s TX pin of a spare UART. This allows you to start and stop recording using a switch on your radio when you set it up in Betaflight. I don’t see myself using this feature very much, since I will be mostly using the physical button on the camera for that, so I just left the yellow cable unconnected.

Here’s the power consumption under different modes:

• Idle – 0.15A @ 16.4V (2.46W)
• 1080p 60fps (highest bitrate) – 0.29A @ 16.4V (4.76W)
• 4K 60fps (highest bitrate) – 0.34A @ 16.4V (5.58W)

If you are powering the camera at a different voltage, just divide the wattage by the voltage and you will get a rough estimation of what the amp draw would be. Take amp draw into consideration if you are using a voltage regulator between the power source and camera, I think this would be a popular approach as it adds an extra buffer/protection against voltage spikes.

Changing Settings

To change camera settings, there are many ways:

• Using the Quik app (Android/iOS) over Bluetooth/WiFi
• Scanning QR codes
• Theoretically you can also use the physical buttons – but there’s no display so you wouldn’t know what you are pressing

I’ve found using the Quik app the easiest, it was easy to pair and change settings. The preview is really useful to check your exposure level since there’s no screen on the camera..

Also it’s good to learn that you have full control of Protune settings in the app, including bitrate, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, sharpness, etc.

Here’s the manual that comes with the camera explaining the basics.

How I Use It?

Set the settings listed here using the Phone app via WiFi: https://oscarliang.com/gopro-settings-fpv/

Plug in the battery, hold down the power button to turn it on, then press the shutter button once to start recording, that’s it.

Should You Get The Bones?

The Hero 10 Black Bones is surprisingly tough. I had a crash (lost video, the drone free fell from about 50 meters), it broke the arm of the drone but the camera was completely fine!

With that said, the Hero10 Black Bones is not really made for crashing, and it’s a lot easier to break than the full size Hero10.

But it’s definitely the best you can get right now as a 60g camera in terms of image quality, and I think it’s a fantastic tool for the professional cinematographers and skilled pilots. However it’s not for everyone, not only because it’s less crash resistant but also it’s limited to FPV use only due to the lack of internal battery and displays, you can’t really use it for everyday recording like the original Hero10.