Several years ago I had the opportunity to use a GoPro on a video shoot for a mission trip to Haiti. It was a great tool and we managed to get some incredible footage of the trip out to the remote village where we were working. The trip from the airport took eight hours in a Jeep --- much of it off road, including crossing several rivers. The footage helped tell an important part of the story.
Once we arrived, an engineer on our trip used some of the GoPro footage to determine whether a nearby spring produced sufficient water volume to support the village.
I'm often asked, “What would a church do with a GoPro? As you can see, it doesn't take much imagination to see the value in having a tiny, indestructible, waterproof camera. Lets face it: it's the perfect camera for your youth ministry. The tiny form factor also makes the GoPro perfect for mission trips overseas where weight can be an issue. Not to mention they are a great to have in a pinch for everyday issues including primary, B-roll and POV shots. Considering the success we've had with older GoPro cameras, we were very interested when the company announced it was introducing a new model.
While we hope to get our hands on review unit soon, here's what we can tell you about the new model. The new GoPro Hero 4 Session is the smallest in the GoPro family, coming it at 1.4 inches cubed and a whopping 2.6 ounces. This makes it 50% smaller and 40% lighter then the current Hero 4. To get down to this small size a lot of the onboard functionality has to come out. As a result, Session users will have to rely more heavily on the GoPro mobile app or the Wi-fi smart remote. The App lets you access all modes and settings, view photos and playback video. The Session is compatible with all other GoPro mounts and has an additional ball joint buckle with will let you position the camera at any angle. It has only one button and one port on the camera, which records to a micro SD card.
Capture
One of the great things about the GoPro family, as we have grown to know and love, is that the cameras are what cinematographer-turned-foodie Alton Brown would refer to as “multi-taskers.” They function as video cameras or as standard photo cameras, and in some models both at the same time, Not so with the new Session, unfortunately. We're told it's video or photos on the Hero Session, not both. On the video side the Session will capture at a variety of resolutions ranging from WVGA 848x480 to 1440p 1920x1440. However, it also offers a variety of frame rates including over-clocked rates as high as 120 fps (WVGA only) including 100 fps at 720p. These over-clocked rates are perfect for ultra slow-motion effects. The video format for capture I H.264 codec, .mp4 file format at bit rates of up to 25Mb/s. On the photo side, the Session can capture 8MP at a screen resolution of 3264x2448, which is great for multiscreen content. The Session also offers many options for how you can take your photos at a burst of up to 10 photos a second. It will also do time lapse at intervals of .5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, and 60 seconds
Features
One of the first features I find really interesting features on the Session is the dual mic feature. The Session has one microphone on front and one on the on back of the camera. The camera will activate and use the one with less wind noise. The Session also features ProTune, which records minimally compressed cinema-caliber video. The Session also feature Looping, where the camera records a continuous video loop that overwrites itself until the shutter button is pressed, stopping and saving it. This is a great way to reduce the amount of wasted footage from capturing repetitive events over time. Lightning strikes are a good example. Simply compose the shot set to loop and wait. No lighting? No problem. Wait till it happens, then hit record. Also, unlike previous generation cameras, the Session is waterproof up to 33 feet without an additional housing.
While they aren't free, all the GoPro cameras are inexpensive enough that you shouldn't feel too nervous about taking a little risk with them. Unlike my larger professional cameras, which I tend to baby like a first-time parent, I'm rough with the GoPros. In my experience they are rugged enough to survive most strenuous activity. However, they are also cheap enough that if something did happen to it, it wouldn't be worth filing with insurance. This makes them a great tool for mission trips, and youth ministries. With a feature set similar to the Hero 4 Silver, and a smaller form factor, I think the Session is a great addition to the GoPro family and I can't wait to use one.
