GoPro Session

by: Nick Gambino

GoPro is basically synonymous with high-octane, extreme sports videography. Whether it’s capturing a surfer’s sick stunt or capturing me crying like a 4 year old girl after jumping out of a plane for my first skydiving experience (true story).  Now with the announcement of their newest camera in the Hero series, the Hero4 Session, GoPro is attempting to reinvent the game yet again.

This next generation camera is the first GoPro that doesn’t require a case to protect it against harsh impact, waters and other elements you may encounter along your insane journey. The Hero4 Session is itself waterproof surviving up to 10 meters in the water.

GoPro Hero4 Session
GoPro Hero4 Session

Not only is it protected without needing a case but they’ve significantly reduced the size allowing it to seem even more “not there.” In fact, it’s 50% smaller than the earlier Hero4 model and is 40% lighter. It literally looks more like an accessory than ever before.

While the size and need for accessories have been slimmed down it still captures 1080p video for a truly HD experience. For the photographer in you it captures 8MP photos and sports a Time Lapse and Burst Photos feature.

A complaint with earlier GoPro models were their button complexity. In order to keep the cameras minimal, buttons were never labeled and could easily be mixed up. But the new Hero4 Session model has only 2 buttons. There’s a single button centered on top encircled in red. This is your power on and record button.

A small button on the back of the camera will light up the display to allow you to change camera modes and check your battery life. That’s it. No more messing around with the buttons for an hour until you wind up chewing on the camera out of pure frustration.

The microphone is sweetly designed and meant to mimic the human ears. With one mic on the front and one on the back, if you’re filming in the wind it will intuitively switch to the mic that has the least wind pickup.

Now some negatives associated with this guy:

  • Lack of a replaceable battery. The battery is built right into the camera and will last up to 2 hours on a full charge. You can charge it back up with the provided USB cable. This definitely sticks with the whole “less accessories” model but this isn’t always feasible when you’re outdoors and don’t have a remote charging pack. A replaceable battery would allow you to bring a few extra batteries along to continue recording all day unabated.
  • Video recording resolution isn’t as high as the higher end GoPro models. Honestly, this isn’t a huge deal but if you were looking for true 4K imaging you won’t get it here. If you’re satisfied with just 1080p resolution (which most are) then you’re in luck with this one.
  • It’s a bit pricey at $400. That’s not too much cheaper than the Hero4 Black at $500 or Hero4 Silver at the same price of $400. Both of these offer more features and 4K recording ability. I guess the price is meant to reflect the convenience, which I can see but dropping it a bit more than the other cameras would make it more accessible which I think is the whole point.

So there you have it, the new GoPro Hero4 Session. Despite a couple of negative points (nothing’s perfect) this camera is a huge step forward for GoPro and is sure to be a hit. After three years of development I believe GoPro struck gold with this one.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nick Gambino is a regular script writer and tech beat reporter for NewsWatch.  He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and daughter.

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37 COMMENTS

  1. Those GoPro Cameras are expensive, GoPro has to think of the way to make cheaper action camera. There alot of GoPro alternatives for price much cheaper than a gopro and quality not worse. I seen here top 5 Gopro alternatives and it really helped me with choice of my first action camera. ( most of the cameras competitor’s action cameras below $100 )

    • Mari – Christian, your pictures look great! I hope to get one in a graouatidn card. Your photographer did a great job. How did you jump so high?

  2. I read your article with considerable interest given I just purchased a Hero4 Silver at the same price as the Session.

    For me, the non-replaceable battery was a killer for the Session as it meant I had serious downtime when a recording session drained the battery to a point I couldn’t start another session.

    I couldn’t figure out why I would suffer that problem and give up features for a smaller package. The Hero 4 is small enough, I couldn’t see the benefit of smaller.

    I don’t plan on using my camera under water, but if I did, I’d buy the Hero 4 water proof case and really go deep.

    Size matters to a point, but giving up features and not saving money didn’t make sense to me. For either camera, size of mounting options will dominate the size of the overall recording system, so unless you predominately do hand-held recording — no selfie stick, no suction cup mount, etc — what’s the big deal about the camera size reduction.

    Maybe this product is best suited for the drone market where size and weight matter and where your camera can crash into a pond.

  3. each time i used to read smaller content that as well clear their motive, and that is also happening with this article which I am
    reading here.

  4. But GoPro has improved the ease of its on-camera menu system over the years, so if you’ve gotten used to changing your settings on the fly, it could take some time to acclimate to the Session.

  6. In its included frame mount, the Session is 50 percent smaller than a Hero4 Silver or Black is inside its waterproof shell, and it s 35 percent lighter, too.

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