Photography Speak up, you're on camera

Get used to hearing the phrases “GoPro start recording” and “GoPro take photo”.

GoPro has added two new models to its action camera range and they can be controlled by your voice.

The new range consists of the Hero5 Black and a smaller, cube-size version called Hero5 Session.The new Hero5 Black is a good-looking camera, very similar to previous Hero models but in an appealing new charcoal colour.

It has a new built-in two-inch touch screen and is waterproof to 10m without the additional housing needed by previous models. It still uses the familiar GoPro mounts so there are plenty of options for mounting it on just about anything. 

The Hero5 Black edition has been boosted to include 4K video recording, RAW and HDR photos at 12 megapixels as well as GPS and wi-fi.

The field-of-view options have also been improved with new SuperView, Linear and Narrow selections. I particularly like the Linear option which is a wide- angle view without the fish-eye effect you usually get with action cameras and the new Narrow option makes the camera more useful for general use.

I have always found the GoPro menus to be a bit fiddly to use but the new voice control feature and the new built-in touch screen on the Hero5 make this camera a lot more user friendly. I found the voice command worked well when the camera is close to or on your person but when I mounted it on the front of my surf-ski, the microphone struggled to pick up my commands.

I had to stop paddling and raise my voice considerably to start and stop recording which made me feel rather silly (Sitting in the middle of the river yelling at a the small electronic device will do that — luckily there was no one else around). 

The touch screen works well but with such a small camera it does require a certain amount of dexterity. The GoPro Hero5 Black sells for about $550 and the Hero5 Session about $460. For a full list of specifications visit www.gopro.com.

Top image: Mogens Johansen on the Canning River. Picture: Mogens Johansen