Action video camera manufacturer GoPro aims to broaden the appeal of its range of cameras to include capturing lifestyle and family moments, with its extreme-sports users benefiting from new accessories and broader camera functionalities, says GoPro South Africa distributor Omnico brand manager Dewald de Jager.

GoPro is generally used to capture sports such as rock climbing, mountain biking, surfing, racing, diving, snowboarding, skating, base-jumping, fishing, snorkelling, windsurfing, kayaking, skiing, motocross and sailing, and more people are using it to capture other moments as well.

The company has released its smallest camera yet, the GoPro Hero4 Session, which weighs 74 g and can film quality footage in high-definition of up to 1 080 p resolution at 60 frames a second. The camera can also record 100 frames a second of video at 720 p resolution, and this mode provides good-quality slow-motion capabilities.

The camera has an auto-rotate function, which ensures that videos and photos are captured the right way up and can record more than two hours of video on a single charge, says De Jager.

The cameras can be strapped to a user’s hand, leg or arm without impeding the user when using the new strap accessory This is valuable for sports and lifestyle footage such as surfing and dancing. The newly released straps are versatile and De Jager expects them to be used by old and new GoPro users.

“The new Session camera is so small that we have not anticipated all the uses yet. The camera can even be strapped to pets to give owners a chance to film their pets doing all sorts of activities. The rotation disc on the strap, to which the camera connects, can swivel 360º. The new camera can be mounted on its sides or at the back with the included Frame mounts, making effective mounting and filming easier.”

Further, it is easy to use and users change settings on their cameras through a smartphone application (app). The cameras have built-in WiFi for connectivity to smartphones, adds De Jager.

GoPro has also added highlight-tagging and clip-trimming functions to its cameras to enable users to quickly edit portions of video that they can then share immediately from their smartphones.

“With highlight tagging, users can make a digital mark in the video that they can promptly go to on the computer-based GoPro Studio program; this will enable them to isolate, edit and share the most exciting parts of their videos quickly and easily. [The company has] also improved the editing that can be done on the cameras themselves with the clip-trimming function, which is available on the Hero+LCD and Hero4 Silver and Black models with the latest firmware update.

The GoPro Hero4 can film in high-definition 1440 resolution at 30 frames a second, in a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is great for closer point-of-view shots.

Each side of the cube-shaped Session cameras is about two-thirds the length of a matchbox. The cameras are equipped with two microphones, with automatic switching between them to eliminate noise from one microphone – for example, if one microphone registers wind noise.

The Session cameras are waterproof and durable, and do not require special housing for most applications.

The lens of the Hero4 Session can be replaced although the battery cannot. The battery has a high duty cycle of 900 charges, providing an estimated daily-use life span of three years.