The standard for action cameras these days is the GoPro range, but since it’s our first time using something like this, we decided to start at the low end, with a GoPro Hero4 Session. It sells for about €220, I picked one up in Dublin Airport on the way over. It’s a small, dense cube that sits in the palm of your hand.
Waterproof to 10m, it records video at up to 1440p, (You’ll probably want 1080p,60fps) along with some options for time-lapse photography, still photos, and looping videos.
It comes with some mounting attachments, but we haven’t got anything to stick it onto yet, just holding it by hand. It also needs a specific Class 10 micro-SD memory card which has to be bought separately. I got a 64GB card in Germany for about €25. That’ll hold about 5 hours of 1080p video. Important: See below for details
Good
- It’s waterproof, so it’ll get used more outdoors than our phones will.
- It does 60fps video, so 0.5x slow-mo is possible
- It’s tiny, carrying it around is easy.
Ok
- The estimated battery life of about 2 hours is a bit on the low end, but most clips are likely to be a few seconds or minutes.
- It doesn’t have a built-in screen, so a mobile app is needed to browse clips and change most settings. However it’s all done over WiFi so no need to connect any cables.
Watch out for
- Not all Micro-SD cards are born equal! I made the mistake of purchasing a cheaper Class-10 micro-SD card whose write speed is not fast enough to record from the camera. I later had to get a more expensive card which was actually up to the task. GoPro provide a list of compatible cards on their site.
So far i’d have to say I recommend it, but lets see if it stands the test of time.
Louco Barato 🇧🇷 🇮🇪 