GoPro Hero5 Session is the latest ‘action’ camera launched by GoPro in the Indian market earlier this year. Session 5 is the mid-tier action camera with the premium GoPro Hero5 Black on the top as the premium offering by the company. The GoPro Hero5 Session is priced at Rs 29,500.
Action cameras are used to shoot sports, bike journeys, among other things that are dangerous for devices like DSLRs or smartphone cameras to shoot. The danger here refers to the equipment getting damaged while biking, swimming or engaging in other types of adventurous sports. This is the first time I have extensively used an action camera as my early encounters were limited to shooting with DSLRs and smartphone cameras.
GoPro Hero5 Session is supposed to be aimed at consumers who want the performance and feature set of GoPro action cameras, but at an affordable price point. So let’s jump in to see how Hero5 Session fares in the review.
Build and Design: 7.5/10
The build quality of Hero5 Session is sturdy and top notch for an action cam. The rubberised top along with solid plastic exterior on the sides works perfectly in securing the internals of the camera.
One thing to note is that you don’t get anything remarkable in terms of design except the form factor. Hero5 Session is shaped like a small cube along with a microSD card slot and USB Type-C slot to charge in through a push door on the left side from the back.
The GoPro Hero5 Session does not come with a microSD card out of the box and you need to use a high-speed card, Class 10 or more for smooth 4K recording.
The action camera is waterproof, up to 10 meters in water, without any need for a special case which is impressive in itself. However, it does not come with any accessories out of the box except for a case and two adhesive mounts. I was expecting more in terms of mounts out of the box.
Features: 7.5/10
The main highlight of the GoPro Hero5 Session is its 4K recording capabilities in such a compact form factor. The 4K recording is at a standard 30 frames per second. The camera comes with an extremely wide angle lens with 10 MP image resolution for photos with effective dimensions of 3648 x 2736 pixels. The shutter button is located on the top along with the menu switching mode at the back of the camera.
You need to use both the buttons to change the modes and cycle through the options given which becomes easier to operate after initial confusion. The camera gives you the option to shoot 4K at frame rates of 30 and 25 frames per second in Wide; 2.7K at frame rates 48, 30, 25, and 24 in SuperView, Wide, Medium and Linear along with the option to shoot 2.7K in 4:3 aspect ratio from the default 16:9.
Other modes include: 2K at 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, and 24 frames per second in Wide mode; 1080p in 90, 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, and 24 frames per second and 960p in 100, 60, 50, 30, and 25 frames per second in Wide mode.
The Camera gives up options to choose modes from Wide, Medium and SuperView while shooting 720p video at 100, 60, 50, 30, and 25 frames per second. You can not go below 720p while shooting with the camera which is weird at best because going down would have given us the option to shoot at higher frame rates for potential use in slow motion videos.
The camera comes with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for you to connect it to the GoPro ‘Capture’ app for Android as well as an iOS device. You can use the app to record, review or transfer the images and videos that you shot using the camera from the Wi-Fi connection. You can also control all the settings of the action cam and get a live video of what the GoPro can see at any given point.
The camera does support video stabilisation, but that is only limited if you shoot videos up to 2.7K and it is not available if you are shooting 4K. You can use the voice control to tell GoPro to shoot or start recording by saying “GoPro start recording”.
Publish date: April 12, 2017 10:05 am| Modified date: April 12, 2017 10:10 am
