![]() ![]() I found battery life to be excellent, and this is because when the Session isn't recording it's powered off. This means you finally can attach a GoPro to the side of something without having to use an awkward and shaky triple-jointed hinge mount. Because the cam is a perfect cube, you can orient it inside the frame in whatever direction you please. One is your standard upright affair, and the other allows the camera to be mounted more or less flush against a surface. No problems with leakage, either, even when jumping off a 15 foot ledge or when I was being pounded by some surf. I could barely feel it, and the imagery turned out nice and smooth. Normally there's so much drag on your standard GoPro that it bounces around on you, slowing you down and ruining your shot, but not with the Session. I went swimming with it strapped on my back, and then on my chest. The good news is that the smaller design is a success. Maybe the company can fix this with a firmware update. It's weird because the Session has two buttons and a display, which was all GoPros had for years, and in other models, you were able to change setting directly on them. If you want to change any setting you need to pair the Session with the GoPro app on your phone or with a Wi-Fi remote control (sold separately for $80). You can start/stop video using whatever settings you last had it set for, and you can start/stop time-lapse mode by long-pressing, and that's it. More annoying is that you can't change modes on the camera itself. You have the option of enabling the Protune feature (which gives you a higher bitrate), but then you're limited to 1440p at 30fps, 1080p at 60 or 30fps, and 960p at 30fps, and you don't have all the tweakable options you do with your standard Hero4 cameras in Protune. ![]() Also, 720p at 100fps? 100? Are we suddenly on the PAL system here? Weird. Notice anything conspicuously absent? Where's my cinematic 24 fps? That's my go-to mode for shooting less actiony stuff. 1080p at 60 and 30fps (SuperView at 48 or 30fps).Speaking of resolution and such, here's what the Session's got: The Cube was just splash-proof, though, and had lousy resolution and frame rates, where as the Session is an honest-to-goodness action camera. We've seen this form-factor before, most notably from last fall's Polaroid Cube. 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. It's waterproof to 33 feet on its own, and doesn't require any additional housing. The Session is a 1.5-inch cube that weighs only 2.6 ounces. With all of these improvements, the Hero4 Session is a big step forward for GoPro in some ways, but it's a step backwards in others. It's waterproof without a case, and it's tiny enough that it almost disappears once you've mounted it. The new Hero4 Session, which goes on sale July 12 for $400, is a real-deal action camera from the leader in action cameras. GoPro hopes to fix the problem of awkward bulk by introducing an entirely new form-factor: a cube! While the little video cameras certainly do their jobs very well, a rectangular camera can be awkward to mount on your head or your board, and the shape certainly isn't very hydro-dynamic. For as long as GoPro cameras have existed, they've been rectangles. ![]()
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