GoPro’s Anamorphic lens makes it straightforward to get fashionable cinematic motion photographs
GoPro’s Anamorphic lens mod is lastly available for purchase, finishing the set of lenses the corporate teased when it introduced its Hero 13 motion cam. On the time, probably the most important change to the most recent version of its best-selling digicam was the power to connect a collection of lenses and ND filters. Of all of them, I used to be most intrigued by the Anamorphic Lens Mod ($130), pitched as a lens for “professional-level creative filmmaking.”
Similar to the remainder of GoPro’s HB-Sequence lenses, it’s straightforward to take away the Hero 13’s base lens and exchange it with the a lot thicker Anamorphic lens. (It additionally comes with entrance and rear caps to retailer it safely when not hooked up to the digicam.)
Given its measurement, it’s price noting that this might imply a few of your third-party instances and equipment won’t fairly wrap across the physique of the Hero 13 as soon as the lens is hooked up. Nevertheless, it didn’t significantly have an effect on the load distribution once I mounted it on my tripod, however I used to be nonetheless cautious about how uncovered the entrance glass component is.
As soon as locked in, the Hero 13 switches to the suitable digicam mode, maximizing settings and calibrating exactly to the lens. You continue to have latitude in video settings, although: You possibly can seize video in 5.3K as much as 60fps and 4K as much as 120fps for slow-motion cinematic scenes. If you wish to go to city, you may as well report GP-Log in 10-bit and when you’re shopping for a $130 accent, you are most likely eager to eke out all the pieces the Hero 13 is able to.
Happily, that is GoPro, and the corporate made it quite simple for even newbies to seize and share usable footage with its most uncommon lens. The Hero 13 Black de-squeezes the footage whereas being captured, making for simpler enhancing. (De-squeezing is correcting the oval-shaped distortion of your video footage brought on by anamorphic lenses.)
Not solely does this streamline enhancing post-production — it’s able to share after you’ve completed recording — it additionally means the video preview on the Hero 13 reveals it unfurled, making framing simpler, too. The lens can also be suitable with GoPro’s digital picture stabilizing tech, HyperSmooth, though the corporate recommends combining it with a gimbal for even smoother footage. In order for you full management, you may as well shoot in normal lens mode and manually de-squeeze footage in post-production.
And because it’s a real anamorphic lens (and never only a very, very extensive lens), it may well seize lens flares, too, with that anamorphic streak that’s turn into JJ Abrams’ trademark. It helps make my footage appear to be it got here from a cinematic video digicam, not an motion cam.
The drawbacks are minor. As I discussed earlier, I fear about damaging the lens, though it does have a hydrophobic, anti-reflective coating. Additionally, I discovered probably the most engaging alternatives for displaying off these horizontal lens flares are often capturing footage at night time, or sundown. Sadly, the Hero 13 isn’t probably the most succesful low-light digicam, which means my efforts to seize cool cityscape site visitors produced outcomes that had been somewhat too shadowy. For the most effective footage, broadly, I’d max out ISO at 800 and shoot in 10-bit mode to try to salvage as a lot element as potential.
The HB-series Anamorphic lens mod is obtainable now for $130, whereas a $350 HB-Sequence Lens Assortment bundle comprises all three lenses and an ND Filter 4-Pack.