- Thom Baker
Why you should have a GoPro
My first GoPro was the GOPro 1. Pretty amazing little camera for the time. I hated the fish eye look but for the cost it shot some clean footage. Now I have a GoPro 10 and I always take it with me with my production gear. There have been a lot of changes since the GoPro 1. They have gotten rid of the fisheye look using the linear setting. The 10 shoots in 5.3 K and has a very effective image stabilizer. You can tilt the camera and the footage stays level. There is even an optional lens that let you turn the camera 360 degrees and the image stays level! The footage on the camera is amazing. No, you can't zoom in and out while recording and it's not good for capturing images that are far away but for close up shooting, on the fly, when you don't have time to setup lighting, this camera fits the bill. I shoot a lot of corporate and non-profit videos and I always shoot something with the camera. It is a great camera to run and gun and taking the footage into your editing software allows for color and lighting correction. Add a cheap handle to the camera and you'll find a comfortable way to move all around your location to shoot people at work, machinery and all sorts of unusual shots with different frame rates. Because of the stabilization, you can make walking shots without the bounce. I love the Weebill 2 with my Black Magic cameras but when time is of the essence, the GoPro 10 is a handy and useful tool.
Bottom line is that the Go Pro 10 is a no brainer for social media video producers for a price tag under $500.