GoPro – Treating a Action cam Like a Point & Shoot

GoPros seem to be something that people buy then never use, in fact I’m guilty of this myself. There’s long been an association with GoPro and the intense and dramatic action sports world. I wouldn’t be surprised if many purchase one expecting to capture their own exciting footage before either the realization that they rarely have the time or energy to both do something crazy and strap on the action-cam, or that they seem unable to capture the excitement they personally felt while recording. This is not to say the GoPros are bad products, it’s just that many don’t realize how niche the intended market for them actually is. With all this in mind, I set out to use one like a point and shoot.

Going into the challenge, I already had a loose idea of some of the pitfalls of the GoPro as a stills camera. The camera is obviously not intended for this, there’s no manual controls, hotshoe, dials, etc. The camera doesn’t even have an option to let you start with it in photo-mode. One surprising thing to note however is the inclusion of RAW and a 24mp sensor… Lightroom even supports the .GPR files, although it does note that it does not have a profile for the camera.

There are some more major faults that obviously come down to the camera not being meant for stills, the camera lacking a standby mode is one of the biggest ones. This means the camera will get warm and run through its battery relatively quickly if you use it for photography and don’t want to fully power it off after every shot. I don’t blame the camera for this, but it is something you should be aware of if you want to use it as a fun point and shoot. The Go-Pro is also not very ergonomic as a stills tool, the big shutter button is nice, but its firmness and the lack of an easy way to hold the GoPro comfortably did make the overall experience a bit more of a struggle than I expected. I consistently found myself fumbling to hold the camera in a way where I would both be able to get a firm grip on the shutter and keep my fingers out of the shot.

While I’ve been negative about parts of the camera’s user-experience so far, I did absolutely enjoy using it for the short experiment and honestly may keep bringing it out for fun. For one, the camera is tiny, and while a bit thick is absolutely pocket sized, especially with some cargo pants. This leaves very little of an excuse to snag it here and there if its got some charge in it. The fisheye lens is also a fun switch-up compared to what many are used in a point and shoot, the lens is so far outside of what is traditionally available in the point and shoot world that the GoPro provides a really unique experience. The lens in question is a 150° FOV fisheye. I couldn’t find any listed 35mm equivalent focal length online, but the 1/2.3in sensor and 3mm focal length listed in the EXIF data would equate to roughly a 16mm lens, which adds up in my experience. The sensor is also small enough that while the aperture is fixed at f/2.5 you never have to worry about depth of field.

The one thing that honestly surprised me the most was the colors from the GoPro. They were very saturated, but in a surprisingly pleasing way which I was not expecting. Harshly lit mid-day photos were where the Go-Pro did best. Its surprising shadow retention and pastel highlights were actually very palatable. I do want to experiment more with the camera for indoor stuff as I felt that process shots for art could have a lot of fun potential. It gives a much more “in the moment” feel than you might get otherwise with a less wide-angle capable camera.

Overall, I’d recommend trying this out if you’re looking to have a bit of a fun creative challenge, or if you just want a different feel to your walk-around photography. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you have one laying around I’d definitely take it out and give it a shot.

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Here’s a few more photos from my time with the camera:

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