Must have mounts and accessories to improve your footage
From dog mounts to head mounts, we list some of the best accesories you can buy for your GoPro to make sure you’re capturing life’s most exciting moments.
The wonderful thing about GoPros is that you’re able to mount them in all manner of ways. Their small size and waterproofing take them places no regular camera would ever dare go, meaning you can get innovative, exciting angles that make even the most mundane footage more captivating. The only problem is knowing what mounts and accesories you need.
Out of the box, GoPros only come with basic adhesive mounts for flat or curved surfaces. This means you’re able to attach the GoPro to something like your helmet or the hood of your car, but anything else will probably require some additional accesories to hold your new camera securely.
GoPro sells a whole raft of official accesories but there are also plenty of options available from third-party accessory manufacturers as well, often at a much lower price than the official offerings. Still, official GoPro accesories, you can rest assured they’ve been tested thoroughly and come with guaranteed compatibility.
It’s all a bit confusing really, so we thought we’d run you through some of the best accesories you can buy for your GoPro camera, and how you can use them – whether it’s the new and shiny GoPro Hero5 Black and Hero5 Sesssion, or older cameras like the Hero4 and Hero3. Most of these accesories will work across different cameras unless we say otherwise.
We’ll be updating this list over time so keep checking back.
GOPRO KARMA GRIP
Shaky footage can be a problem, even with the additional electronic image stabilisation (EIS) in the Hero5 range. To comabt this, GoPro has introduced the GoPro Karma Grip, a handheld gimbal that can also be mounted to other GoPro accesories using an included Karma mounting ring.
The Karma grip can help deliver rock-steadyfootage using 3-axis stabilisation and is a better alternative to EIS as the latter uses software to stabilise the image and costs you about 10% of the frame. EIS also doesn’t work when shooting 4K, which isn’t a problem with the Karma Grip.
At £290 the Karma Grip is a hefty investment, costing more than a Hero5 Session camera, but it’s worth it if you want professional-looking results. The Karma Grip only works with the GoPro Hero5 Black, Hero5 Session and Hero4 Black. You’ll need to buy a separate harness to use with the latter two cameras, however.
One of the headline features of the new Hero5 range of cameras is the voice activated controls. These let you give commands such as ‘GoPro start recording’. The only problem is the camera hearing your voice in noisier environments. For this reason, GoPro has released the Remo, a waterproof voice-activated remote. It clips to your clothes or can be worn on your wrist. A built-in microphone will pick up your voice if the camera is mounted out of sight, such as on your head, and there’s also a one-button recording option.
The GoPro Remo costs £73 and only works with the newer GoPro Hero5 Black and Hero5 Session cameras.
GOPRO QUIK KEY
If you want a quick (geddit) way to transfer footage from your GoPro to your smartphone or tablet, one of GoPro’s Quik Keys will do the job. These come in either Micro USB, USB-C or Lightning variants, so be sure to pick up whichever your device uses. Then, plug one in and insert the microSD card from your GoPro and you can transfer your media through GoPro’s Capture app. A carabiner clip is included, so you can attach it to your keychain for easy access.
At £20 (or £30 if you need the Lightning model) the Quik Key is a little expensive, but if you’re constantly editing on the move it’s far quicker than having to transfer footage over a Wi-Fi direct connection. This is especially the case if you’re shooting 4K footage that’s resulted in large file sizes.
GOPRO JAWS: FLEX CLAMP
This particular GoPro accessory has gotten me out of a pickle on more than one occasion. Put simply, it’s a really strong clamp that can clamp onto a number of surfaces. Be that fences, poles or the edge of a desk. It’s great if you need to take timelapses, too.
The Jaws: Flex Clamp technically comes as two distinct pieces, the clamp and the goose neck. The gooseneck bends and flexes, letting you adjust the angle. You can also combine the gooseneck with other accesories as it’ll mount happily with GoPro chest or head mounts, letting you get even more clever with camera placement. You can also mount your GoPro directly to the clamp if you don’t need the extra reach of the gooseneck.
The Jaws: Flex Clamp costs £29 and is compatible with all GoPro models.
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