GoPro Session / 4.5/5 / $579.95 / gopro.com
THE next big thing from GoPro is its smallest thing yet.
The Hero Session is a cube-shaped camera about the size of a Hero 4’s lens. It is 40 per cent lighter and 50 per cent smaller than the rest of the Hero 4 range.
With GoPro still leading the action camera market, the Session is a sign it is trying to appeal to all users.
At the high end, if you want to shoot 4K video for a professional production, the Hero 4 Black will suffice. The GoPro Session, by comparison, will stand in if you want something simple, small and without fuss.
On the waves … A photo taken white-water rafting in Vail, Colorado, with the GoPro Hero Session action camera. (Picture: Rod Chester.)Source:Supplied
Like the pipe-shaped HTC RE, the torch-shaped Panasonic HX-A1. and the Polaroid Cube, the Session is all about simplicity and doesn’t need a case to be waterproof.
Unlike the others, it also features the durability of other GoPro cameras, and it will withstand up to 10m of water, unlike 1m or 2m for the other units.
Press the button atop the Session once, and the camera turns on and records video. Hold the button for three seconds as you turn it on, and it shoots photos.
Unlike the top of the range Hero 4 Black, the Session does not shoot 4K video but does capture HD footage at 1440p and 1080p, as well as 720p in slow-mo action clips.
As a still camera, it shoots 8-megapixel images at 10 frames per second in burst mode, or in time-lapse mode of up to 0.5 frame per second.
To change its settings, you must link it to a GoPro Smart Remote or a device using the GoPro app over a wi-fi connection.
Top of the range … GoPro’s Hero 4 Black Edition sports camera sits at the other end of the action camera range.Source:Supplied
This small, cubed-shaped camera is clever enough to flip video if you mount it upside down, and the microphone has a quick drain feature so you don’t get minutes of muted audio after swimming back to the surface. One limitation is that it doesn’t have a removable battery.
For consumers put off by the awkwardness of action cameras, with complicated housings and mounts, the Session offers a quick and easy point-and-shoot experience.
For GoPro addicts looking for new angles, the size of the camera opens new ways to carry and mount cameras.
GoPro chief executive Nick Woodman, who famously kickstarted the action camera market after becoming frustrated filming waves while surfing in Australia, admits “we got away with murder in the early years”.
“We think of at GoPro as a movement,” Woodman says. “It’s a movement that’s enabling the highest quality user-generated content that the world has ever seen, blurring the lines with professionally produced content.
Action cameras … GoPro cameras are typically mounted and used to capture sports footage.Source:Supplied
“It’s a movement that is driving higher levels of social engagement and social activity than ever before.
“And it’s a movement so powerful that it’s also helping launch new platforms, platforms that could be how we all communicate in the future like virtual reality.
“It’s actually not that easy to make something that works as well and reliably as a GoPro. We have made a breakthrough and we have made something that is worth turning into reality.
“(The Session) is so small, so convenient, so versatile, and we’re so stoked to what it’s going to add to the whole GoPro movement.”
[Source:-news.com.au]