Love how you go through all the settings and have clearly tested it all yourself.

GoPro needs to rein in their fancy marketing terms for their features a little bit. They have gone so overboard with Hypersmooth 3.0 Boost, Hypersmooth Plus, Max Hypersmooth 3.0, not to be confused with Max Hypersmooth 2.0 or Hypersmooth 2.0 base. Plus there is Max Superview which requires the Max Lens Mod, unless you have a GoPro Max. And if you have the Max Lens Mod then you can do Horizon Lock, which is different than Horizon Leveling, but actually it is virtually the exact same unless you are physically upside down when filming. Of course don't forget that you need to be in Max SuperView in order to do Horizon Lock, but normal SuperView allows Horizon Leveling. Then there is Timewarp 3.0 which is better than Timewarp 2.0 and can be combined with Horizon Leveling, but not Horizon Lock and there is no reason for Hypersmooth if you have Timewarp. Oh did I mention that the camera also has HindSight and LiveBurst and SuperPhoto? But my fingers are getting tired and my brain is getting confused with all of these GoPro Marketing Terms, so I am going to wrap it up. And by the time you are reading this comment GoPro will probably have released Max Timewarp 4.0 and SuperHyperSmooth with HorizonVault which are coming to the GoPro X in summer 2021 (you heard it here first). It is honestly too confusing for anyone that doesn't spend hours of their lives watching tech review channels explaining it. Even I forget sometimes when I am out on the trail what all this stuff means and I'm breathing heavy from just pedaling up 1,000 feet and I don't have enough oxygen in my brain at the time to recall the matrix of GoPro features that work with other features, so I end up just pressing the red button on the top of the GoPro, doing my thing down the mountain, and hoping for the best. At this point, I bought the GoPro 9, not because I want a certain feature, but because I hope its better than the previous one (ok actually I bought it because it has removable/replacable lenses that they took away from me and then sold back to me this year as a feature).

More importantly... I learned that you use a teleprompter. Excellent video as usual Ray! Gonna need that max lens mod for when my arms turn into wet noodles 50 miles into an ultra.

This guy is the best ! Very clear explaining products and unbiased !

Ray, leave the front cap on when installing the Max Lens Mod. It protects it from palm prints. Once you have rotated the mod in to place, slide off the cap.

Cheers for the review.. your reviews are my Go to reviews.. Easy to watch, lots of info, and not just the normal "influencer" positive reviews, but real life reviews, good or bad..

I whack the like button before I even hit PLAY. Your videos are ALWAYS top notch. Thanks buddy.

Ray, this is I think one of your best videos - very to the point, and very clear. Many thanks!

I’m so excited. Got the email yesterday that was in stock. Ordered it right away - and noticed it was sold out about 30 minutes later. Can’t wait to get it. Funny you mentioned Instagram stories. That’s actually one of the reasons I’m getting this for IG stories and IG Reels which I have to shoot in vertical and this will help out big time with that.

Thank you for actually explaining for people who may not be techy! I've been looking at SO many different reviews and this is the first one I've been able to understand!!!

I believe that you can lock the orientation at portrait mode first before you start recording the video. It will stays in portrait mode even when you stopped recording. Use orientation LOCK swipe down menu.

I'm glad to see the Max Lens mod works with Superview, from the testing I've done, I tough I would have to use linear mode with the Max Lens mod. It's gonna work great for chin mount. Thanks to my #1 source of information when it comes to detailed specs of the Gopro stuff mate!

Glad you liked it from a hardware point of view. Keep it in the Top Cap when installing to keep fingerprints off the lens and put the camera's cover glass in the Rear Cap to keep dust off the inside. When doing the side-side comparison, try hard mounting to the handlebars. Wearing on the chest takes out many of the bumps and vibrations. Mounting direct to the bike is where the stabilization really shines.

"My ass should not be above my head" love it!

Nice review. You can lock the display in portrait orientation from the dashboard as an alternative to pressing record in portrait orientation.

This mod will be great for motorcycle videos. I found the Gopro Hero 9 horizon leveling worked most of the time but turns can go beyond the 45 degree limit causing the video to suddenly tilt significantly.

Awesome video. I was waiting for GoPro Lens Mod Review!

You go deep in your (honest) comparison, with pros and cons, congratulations and thanks 👍🏻

Thanks Ray. As usual, in depth insight. Thanks for your hard work.

GoPro hero 9 Black reviewed and Explained in one video, thanks mate! I’ll look forward into buying this!

I ordered it today - planing to use it at snowboard, where I am messing with some stick around me so it should be wider angle + better stabilization/horizon lock

Very well done demo and explanations.

thanks for all the information my friend. i just bought the GoPro Lens Mod today... cant wait to test it tommorrow. keep safe everyone :)

Great review as always. Minor correction/tip is that if you rotate to vertical, you can swipe down from the top and click on orientation lock, that then tells the camera to always start in vertical mode regardless of orientation. So you don’t have to rotate the camera before you hit record every time. It even stays if you power off the camera. To disable just swipe down and tap that orientation button again! Give it a try, I use it for surfing bite mount shooting portrait.

Been holding off to see if this would be good for MTB POV. Don't feel it's worth it as that extra FOV isn't massive. I'd need to give up 4k and have an ultra fragile lens that have need to worry about. Really neat mod, but I'll leave it out of my workflow. Great overview!

Vertical capture with max mod can be fixed with firmware update to avoid having to record first and then rotate.

Is there protective housing for the max lens? I also love your background.

If one is into sky sports..the max lens mod is a good addition.

Great videos as usual, Ray. 👌🏻

🤣 my mantra "my ass shouldn't be above my head". You killed me on this one.

I think I will have to wait a little more to understand it before I buy it, really good review!

Thanks again! I know how much work it is and it helps me again a lot :)

i'd love to see a 2x lens mod

Thanks sooo much! I was so lost and your video really just lied things out and explained it well!

I finally got one ordered yesterday!

That outro got me think about DDE! Any other DDE fans here?

Thank you for the review and making us aware of the resolution limitations. So for me and my applications...shooting at the highest resolution (5k) is most important so I can crop in post. No Max Lens Mod for me.

GoPro needs to step up their game, I purchased this camera because of the MLM and it’s sold out so quick, I didn’t even get an email, so frustrating.

I am so on the fence on which camera to buy! I use a ION pro 3 and have for years for simple motorcycle helmet videos on my riding vacations. Time to upgrade and your videos are helping immensely!

I'm pretty sure you can enable orientation lock before recording and then mount it and just press record to always be in portrait mode.

Hugely helpful thanks, i'm on the cusp of ordering one for my new 9 black but you've convinced me otherwise!

Thank you, very well explained…

...shucks, it sold out super quick...guess it's another 6 months wait 😭 super cool review btw 🤜

the portrait mode is the best advantage

I have the hero 9 & max lens mod. I haven’t per say used it in anger yet. My thinking was using the lens mod when mounting the camera to my helmet or backpack when snowboarding.

Thank you for talking about photo as well. Kept on looking around to see if it’s worth it for photos as well. Unfortunately, it’s not

I'm going to purchase this for my son's. I gave the video a well deserved 👍🏾

I would think it would be very useful snorkeling and diving, especially if GoPro every comes out with a domed housing of some sort to keep things sharp below 30 feet.

Hey Ray, I have the GoPro 9 and was keen to get the Max Lens Mod until I discovered that you can still do a full 360° horizon lock with the standard lens. The only difference I can tell is that your field of view isn't as wide and you get a little warping on the edges when you turn the GoPro through a 180 degree arc. Still its pretty dope that you can do this with the standard lens. Just turn on lens mod on the settings screen, then it shows Max Lens Mod is activated. Make sure you turn on Horizon lock and that your lens is set to Max Super View. I'm keen to see if anyone can show if there is a major difference between the Max Lens Mod and the standard lens. From what I have read I don't think it will be a huge difference - Max Lens Mod 180 degree compared to Standard Lens 155 degree angle of view. Can anyone else confirm? Here is a video I took using the standard lens activated with Lens Mod kzfaq.info/get/bejne/or6qh6ir3N7Fqnk.html

Great review as usual. I am very new to GoPro (10) and am trying to get my head around it. So it is very possible I have this wrong however my understanding is horizon leveling is only available with Linear which has a FOV which is significantly narrower then the Lens Mod to the extent that there are many situations where it is sub-optimal. So at my very early stage of experimentation it seems to me the combination of a very significantly wider FOV with holding the horizon level is the big point of differentiation and more significant than the rare use of holding level upside down. Please do correct me if I have this wrong, I am here to learn.

Another point here is that you might be better off with a standalone Max if you really want this stuff - then you also get over capture. Resolution differences will be gone when they release a Max2 with updated sensor spec. ;-)

Thx. Very clear explanation.

Merry Christmas, wonder if GoPro 9 mod will have a Black Friday sale, will be watching.. great videos.👍

Wonderful work friend

Great review! I think I might pull the trigger on this GoPro.. wish I could find a mount for my bike stem to shoot forward. Every thing is stem extenders or stem caps but I have bike computer and a light and I want the camera central to. Think the lens max mod would be cool to use smaller mounts on car footage

great review. Thank you !!

Gonna grab the Max Lens Mod. 2.7K is okay but I shoot 1080 60 anyways.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks for the top tip again

Max lens mod looks pretty cool. I think I'd buy it if it cost a little less. Also, are you turning into a mountain biker? Do you want me to send you some aero bars that you can add to your mountain bike so that you can tri-dork that bike up a little bit? ;)

I need with editing the video. Your easy on the eye.

Mine has 4 hypersmooth options - off, on, high, boost

Honestly I’ll buy it just for horizon lock

Biggest CON:Domed Max lense is easy to scratch. I just saw it when you rotated it in your shop. You can't just throw it into your bag like the Gopro 9 stock. The Gopro Max is way too easy to damage, so you need the case, which GoPro had for the Gopro Fusion, but not for the Max. So I bought a Ulanzi Fusion case for it.

As I skydiver I must say this shit is genius.

You can lock horizon with out lens. I did it. I just put in a had lens in setting. And locked horizon

I will buy it

Out of stock still everywhere... Any tips for eshop where it's available? Preferably EU, preferably CZE.

Thanks a lot for the very good review (as always). I received the email about the availability today, "12 seconds later" I was on GoPro website to finally buy the GoPro and the mod plus accessories... Not in stock anymore (France). So my GoPro 9 purchase is delayed again cause I do not want to buy the camera and wait months hoping the lens to be in stock again.

Thank you

ray is that a extra seat on you bike in a few shots looks like there is a seat between you knees. Love your videos so much good and useful information.

6:32 'you can see me mountainbiking'... near Amsterdam, in a country famous for being super flat :-D j/k great video again man, thanks!

Thanks for the review if I may suggest one extra conclusion: the Hero 9 with the Max lens mod is really the end of the gimbal. I have the Max and the hero 9 (but not yet the Max lens mod = out of stock) but would use the Hero 9 with Max lens mod for my cinematic MTB videos (enjoying the landscape while I Mountainbike).

Can it do 4K 30fps camera set to superwide? I need wider than the normal superview.

Quality info!

Thanks man! Question, do you film your videos with GoPros? and what's the mic you use? Thanks again your videos are really helpful !

Thank you for good video.

I would like at also 2k linear mode with max lens...

Another brilliant video - without the Mod, what are your recommended settings for MTB with a chesty - I would want as wide and as stable as possible.

the lens flare are different with max lens at 6min30. Less distracting with the lens. But when you compare lens flare with the gopro max, well the max looks better. Your teleprompter computer monitor looks far. How are the bugs and touch screen response going on?

I just ordered a gopro 9, do you think it is work buying the max lens mod? I will be using my gopro for fishing and mountain biking.

Very interesting 👍🏽

What did GoPro do to make this so hard to get on. You would think it was straight forward. Line up the lens to the lens mount and turn 90 degrees. I could only get mine to twist about 98% and had to use locking pliers and a rag to lock it in. Seems a bunch of folks on /r/GoPro had problems also.

you can disable max mode with the lens on... you would have a wider fov than normal. i dont think it's that bad. I dont have the max mode yet, to test this. Oh lool you did try it, talked to early.. xD.

Looks like there is less fisheye warping on the edges with the Max mod lens.

Love the 5 k and image view forward. Will there be more lenses to pick from?

What’s the difference between horizon lock and horizon leveling ? Horizon lock works 360 degrees ? Whereas horizon leveling works until what degrees?

Why no mention of and video from enabling the Max Lens Mod mode with the regular lens on the camera? It would enable the horizon lock and the portrait video with the camera in landscape mode, just with less FOV, right?

Nice review! Where did you buy the Side by Side GoPro Mount you are using? Thank you!

How is the distortion going from Linear + Horizon Leveling to Max Wide + Horizon Leveling?

Isnt the hero 9 rated for up to 10m underwater and the max lens only for 5m. Because in the beginning you said it has the same waterproof specs..

Super bro

Excellent explanation! I see that the lens mod will widen the field of view, but does it also increase the height of the FOV?

Does the portrait mode lock (turning the camera sideways) need to be re-done with every stop/record?.. I am a skier, and turn the camera off/stop it, at the end of every run. I'd hate to do the 90 degree tilt everytime when it's attached to the helmet.. Granted I can tilt my head, but no way of knowing if I did that correctly without unscrewing the gopro.

Be great if they had them in stock longer than 2 minutes and not receiving an email

Super Mate

"Stays level"? I don't think so, instead it Locks the initial/level view?

very good video!

i can use a horizon lock without the mod lens. did it yesterday too.

Gopro 9, zoom function. I have zoom displayed in lower right corner of my cam, set up in preferences. Regardless of the setting, standard, activity, etc, the zoom function is greyed out/ turned off. How do I use, the zoom function for video? Does it only work is some video settings, not all, which video settings allow me to zoom in and out? Very frustrating