GoPro session

I like making films.

Making movies has always been one of my dreams, and something I still strive to do (if you couldn’t tell by looking at the site).

I got the bug when I bought a GoPro for one of my ex girlfriends. I was more interested in the camera than she was I think. We took it on a trip and I started using it more than she did. Ultimately though, I ended up losing access to it and the dream stalled for a while.

For my birthday last year, Nova got me a new GoPro Hero 3 White for our trip to the Dominican Republic and the fire to make more movies got stoked again.  While we didn’t have too much footage from that trip, I was able to use it down the road when I went on a body boarding trip to Cabo.

I really liked the little rugged camera, I took it on all the trips I went on.  I attached to #KuteKimber my step-dog when we went to the dog park.

 

But the craving didn’t stop.  I wanted more cameras.  I wanted higher resolution cameras, and I wanted a deal.

Then GoPro came out with the GoPro HERO Session.

 

This little camera was so cool and forward thinking it seemed like to me.  I really wanted to get it, but it cost waaaaaaaay too much.  Eventually, the camera dropped in price, I had some coupons from shopkick (get gift cards and free stuff for just going into stores and scanning bar codes), ibotta (easy online coupons), and Best Buy reward zone points and I got the price down to about $150 before tax.  With a trip coming up, I figured this would be as good a time as any to add to my camera collection.

I’m very glad I did.  This little camera is definitely the future of action cameras.  The little cube can attach to all the old GoPro mounts and harnesses that I had for the old camera, but is much smaller and lighter.  When ziplining and repelling, I would have forgotten that it was there if I hadn’t been so worried about trying to get some good shots.

The video quality is pretty great as well.  The camera has a feature called ProTune that I wasn’t really all that knowledgable about at the time.  ProTune actually kind of mutes the colors so that Pros can go in and apply filters better.  The idea here is that Pros can get the kind of shot they want and alter it without worrying too much about destroying the colors and other things.

For me, turning Pro Tune off for now made things much more vibrant.  The image looks really good, the Session can record up 1080p at 60 frames a second, which is what I default the camera on my iPhone too.  The video from my iPhone 6S plus is better and can even be bumped up to 4k video, but I don’t want to take my phone on a zip line.    It would be much easier to part with the $200 GoPro if I were to break it or lose it than my phone.

The Camera seems to be very rugged.  I know the front lens is replaceable if something were to scratch, but I haven’t had any issues to-date.  I have dropped it, taken it repelling, ziplining, cave diving, body surfing, and bike riding so far and no damage.

One of the things I really like about this camera over other GoPros is that it has sound!  Most of the other GoPros are confined to a hard plastic case which also covers the microphones.  This causes the audio in those recordings to be muffled and have to really crank the volume up in post production to understand anything.  The Session though, doesn’t need a case.  The entire thing is rugged and waterproof as is.  The microphones don’t get covered up and you can actually hear things.  Sometimes, that can cause itself, like the buzzing of the cable when ziplining, or the water flowing in and out of the speak when diving.  I’m not sure these are problems that can be solved, but the people at these companies are much smarter than me.

My only real complaint about the Session is another thing I’m not sure they can solve.  A few videos we took at the beach or in the pool were sometimes ruined by drops of water on the lens when transitioning from underwater to above water.  Again, this is not something I think can be really solved, but there definitely people smarter than me that probably know for sure.

As far as taking this little guy on vacation, I think it’s perfect.  It’s very small and rugged (as I’ve mentioned a lot) so it will travel well.  It has mounts so you can attach anywhere for any activity.  I attached mine to a floaty handle for most of its use.  It lets you hold it up and it will float if you lose it in water.

One drawback people might have with the GoPro cameras in general is that it doesn’t have a viewfinder.  I actually like that aspect somewhat.  While I have lost a cool shot or too, I’d rather have the compact size than the screen.  If you are not in a rush or in a situation where damage be a possibility, you can connect your smart phone to the camera through wifi and bluetooth to see what the camera is seeing, or even start the recording from a distance.

The iPhone app is pretty useful if not slow, because it allows you to see through the camera lens, watch recorded video, or even trim the videos up.  Trimming a video down can take a while though, so be prepared to wait.  The best way to edit the video you’ve taken would probably be to upload the footage to a computer through the SD card and edit it on there.

Overall

I think the GoPro Hero 4 session is a great travel camera.  Its small and can fit in some tighter spots.  The quality is pretty good for such a small camera.  For the price it is currently sitting at, I think it’s cheap enough where you wont have to worry about it breaking, even though it is rugged enough to take a beating.

If you already have a GoPro hero 4 silver or black, I think you are set unless you want something smaller that can record better sound.

I really enjoy mine, and I hope to keep using it to make more videos on our travels.

Here is a link to my latest video: Jarrva in the jungle