My Summer with GoPro: Great Accessory Mount Tests

My Summer with GoPro!

Our go to multi-sport GoPro tester Steve Leeder put a whole bunch of the best accessory mounts to the test..

Summer for me is a time where I get to do a million different things from riding bikes, surfing, jumping off water falls to camping and just playing at the beach with my kids.

This summer I was sent a new GoPro MAX to capture it all and it has definitely made the memories so much better to remember. Check the full camera review here.

I also got a bunch of new mounts to try out, and I even made a couple more of my own which were kind of fun to create and capture with. 

My favourite mount for sure was the long stick mount that I made. It was actually just an extendable metal broom stick with a tripod screw mounted in the end. I know there are a bunch of different telescopic poles out there that work awesome, and some that really don’t, but this was made from a couple of things I had around the shed. Plus the really good one I did want to buy from #270 was sold out across the country all summer.

GoPro El Grande / long pole mounts

These long poles make the GoPro MAX act like your own personal drone.

The things I found key when using some of the different versions of poles from GoPro and a couple other people was that for the MAX it is key to find one that is as thin as the body of the MAX. If it’s wider than the camera you will see it in your 360 shots.

The El Grande was such a great extension pole but only really works with the hero mode on the MAX or HERO cameras. I think it would be pretty awesome if there was an adapter swivel that you could swap in and out to make it work for the MAX as well as the HERO cameras. 

The other real key thing about shooting with the long poles is to really think about the angles that you want the shot from.

Yep, its shooting 360° of footage, but only from the angle that you hold it at. This definitely took a little experimenting with. The thing I wasn’t ready for was how heavy the MAX feels when its at the end of a long pole. I mean on a short pole you don’t really feel it at all, but the further out it gets the arm pumps gets real. 

The first clip I posted on my Instagram Stories using my new pole was walking out on a wharf and flipping off it. Heaps of people asked if I had got a new drone to play with. I was pretty stoked to be able to say nope, just my new GoPro camera on a selfie stick.

It’s also pretty cool to be able get a group shot when you are sitting on the edge of a cliff.

GoPro El Grande $AUD 89.95

GoPro Surfboard Camera Mount

When out in the surf I’ve only ever had the camera mounted on the nose and pointing back up at me. Sure, this angle is cool, but with the 360° capability it took that style of shot or video to the next level. 

Editing with the EPIC app made for some pretty fun clips.  Party waves or being able to show what I was looking at all in the same clip was so rad. 

Only $AUD 34.95 check them here

GoPro Bite Mouth Mount

I tried the mouth mount as well in the surf for some fun shots and angles. Now if I was surfing like Kelly Slater the mouth mount would be epic to see, hand out front and me in the barrel. Deep barrel shots for sure, but summer on the Central Coast wasn’t filled with those kind of waves. Oh yeah, and shaving my head totally didn’t turn me into Kelly, so I can’t actually do that..

The mouth mount was actually pretty sweet on my bike as well. It’s small enough to pop the camera into my pocket when I didn’t want to film and I liked the angle better than the chesty sometimes.

The Bite Mount is available with Floaty cases too, great for water shots.

Voice Command

One feature that I was real stoked with this summer was the voice command.

Everywhere I went you could hear me yelling “GoPro Capture”

I remember standing in some random spot yelling at my GoPro when this group of hikers came past and they trying to reply to me, but I wasn’t paying any attention to them so they came right up to me wondering why I wasn’t talking more to them. 

We all had a bit of a laugh when I told them about the voice command of my GoPro and they were so stoked.

For me it worked awesome, but a bunch of people couldn’t make GoPro understand them at all, weird accents I guess. 

I set up a lot of my own shots as I am usually on my own, and would have to hit record then walk away, pick up my bike, ride away, and then do the line.  With the voice command I saved so much space on my SD cards and a bunch of battery life.

Speaking of batteries, most definitely it was awesome having a second battery, but I wish I had the dual charger to charge both batteries at the same time. 

GoPro 3-Way 2.0

For ages I have used the 3 way stick as a selfie stick and a tripod mount but I didn’t love it. The tripod was real flimsy and the camera fell down heaps. Well until I started to lay a rock on it. 

There is a new version out called the 3-Way 2.0, and its heaps better for the most part but not if you have the MAX. 

I love how the grip now turns into the tripod. It is so much more sturdy and makes it way quicker to set up shots. It has the same standard base clip that the El Grande has, so it shows up in 360° footage, which is not awesome if you have the MAX.

$AUD 99.95 Check more/buy on the link

GoPro Quik App

I thought I spent a lot of time editing pics and clips when I was just shooting with my iPhone, but now I think I spend twice as much time. Editing the 360° footage was tricky at first, but it barely took any time to start getting things to look pretty alright.

I loved the new GoPro Quik phone app heaps more for putting full clips together.

Being able to add pics from my phone to a clip is pretty awesome. Now you can shoot an angle with the GoPro and your phone and use them in the same clip, all edited on your phone.

The new feature of changing the speed of the clips is a pretty cool addition too. Check more features here.