My First Impressions Of The GoPro HERO 4 Session

I officially jumped on the GoPro bandwagon this month. Mainly because at Traverse, a travel blogging event I attended in April, there was a talk by Greg Brand from Travizeo on making travel videos. And I was totally inspired (cheers Greg!). So I figured GoPro may be a good place to start.

Choosing which GoPro to go for was the hardest part. They range is price so drastically and if you’re new to videoland then how’s a girl to know? I basically read all of the reviews ever and decided to go for the GoPro HERO 4 Session. This was because of three reasons:

It was one of the cheapest options but still had good reviews
It had WiFi capability so I would be able to access footage on my phone without the need for my laptop
It was small and cute

Technical as ever.

So I took this little gem with me to Iceland for my first travel video adventure. And how was it?Well here’s the things I really liked about the GoPro HERO 4 Session:

What I liked about my GoPro.

The wide angle lens.

I was pretty impressed with how wide the lens actually was on the GoPro. You can have it right at your face and still see everything around you, so you get some really awesome shots of things like landscapes.

It’s so small and so light that it fits in my pocket.

As you can probably tell from my tech kit list post the other day, I carry around a lot of stuff. Stuff that’s heavy and annoying sometimes. But the HERO 4 Session is bloody tiny and I could fit it in my pocket! Perfect.

It’s easier to use than I thought.

With just two buttons controlling it, it’s really easy to use. One button turns the camera on and starts recording and then turns it off and stops recording. The other controls settings and syncing it up with your phone. Easy peezy.

I’m not the only one using them on tours.

I didn’t feel like a total knob with this camera on a stick because I saw so many people with GoPros. On their heads, on sticks, it felt totally socially acceptable to be using one.

Good quality footage.

The quality of the film I took was really great considering how small that little cube is! I saw that the HERO 4 Session didn’t produce 4K video, but as I didn’t really know what that was, I thought maybe my video footage wouldn’t be as high quality. But it was still really impressive.

The GoPro app is cool.

I liked the GoPro app a lot. I can quite easily sync up with my GoPro to preview videos and even take little snippets to use on Instagram or other social platforms. Blogger-friendly.

What I didn’t like about my GoPro.

Beeps too loud for my liking.

When you turn it on and off, it beeps. Now, I don’t know if I’m just not aware of a setting to turn this off but I found it to be quite loud and annoying. And I got a few weird looks from onlookers.

Hard to upload to my Mac.

This may just be me being a total newb, but it wasn’t a case of just plugging in my GoPro and uploading to iMovie. I had to download the GoPro Studio programme, upload everything then convert it to MP4 and save in My Movies, before then uploading to iMovie. Felt a bit too clunky to me and took more time than necessary. If I’m talking shit though please let me know!

Overall there were a lot more things I liked than disliked about my new GoPro HERO 4 Session and I very much enjoyed venturing into the world of travel videos!

I got my GoPro HERO 4 Session off of Amazon, as well as a Zookki Accessory Kit (because who can afford all the GoPro accessories amiright?)

So am I a Travel Videographer now?

Er, not quite! My footage is shaky AF and I still have a lot to learn! But I really liked it and definitely want to make more videos in the future! Check out the below for my first ever travel video on my GoPro HERO 4 Session! Hope you like it.