In September 2024, GoPro launched the Hero 13 black camera. 13 iterations of the “digital HD Hero” camera later and I still use them frequently on my jobs. GoPro is the go-to action camera.

GoPro has evolved from being a tiny-auto white balance 1920×1080 30 frames per second camera that you controlled via a front LCD screen novelty to a segment defining product – “GoPro” becoming an a verb. “Let’s GoPro this run”. “Can we GoPro their helmet on this take?” As with the best products their name brand becomes ubiquitous as the generic term for any Point Of View action camera setup – whether we are using a GoPro or another camera as that tool.

I was honored to be asked to use and speak about the Anamorphic lens mod of the HB Lens series for the Hero 13 Black – in the launch video for it. Having a new GoPro that de-squeezes the anamorphic image in camera – is awesome.

I have used third party Anamorphic adapters built for the GoPro 9 to 12 cameras. They didn’t work particularly well. Achieving infinity focus became an issue. I tested them in earnest and decided to not use them for projects.

What do I like about the GoPro Anamorphic lens? The lens is very solid and well constructed. It’s fun to use, if you have ever shot anamorphic lenses before – filming a natively wide image in scope is captivating. Especially with cars – everything looks better in a native wide aspect ratio because it matches the shape of the car – composition leaves less negative space and less distractions. Landscapes feel epic. The early version of the lens I used – didn’t flare wildly. If you are expecting the character of anamorphic cinema lenses with their unique oval bokeh and control of depth of field – this is a fixed infinite focus lens. If you want some focus control – the new Macro lens is really cool.

Cons – no Neutral Density filters to control exposure. The new “smart” GoPro ND filters look sweet – very cool to finally have a GoPro filter set to control exposure and lock in shutter speeds. Hopefully this is something the third party manufactures can address or in a future version of the GoPro Anamorphic lens. As well as some lens coating work to match the options of some anamorphic lens makers – who offer different formulas to produce neutral, blue, or gold horizontal flares. When you are integrating a different camera and lens into a project – cohesiveness is important and this would be a cool option.

In my own automotive work – I don’t use GoPro’s hypersmooth (with a few exceptions – for helmet mounts and then for personal use riding a mountain bike, a snowboard helmet cam or following someone handheld – YES, hypersmooth is amazing) so the combination of hypersmooth and anamorphic – if you are trying to achieve cinematic results in my opinion should be avoided. Since the anamorphic image is so wide, I find the human eye is really attuned to changes in the roll axis (ever notice a crooked picture hanging on a wall?) and this is exaggerated when the frame is wider horizontally than vertically tall. So if I was using the GoPro Anamorphic lens I would keep it as steady as possible on a mount (which is how I use a GoPro 99% of the time on a project) This is my technical setup recommendations and not a criticism of the product.