GoPro, designed, manufactured and marketed by San Mateo, California-based company Woodman Labs, is a brand of versatile camera. GoPro cameras are often used in extreme sports such as mountain biking, where they can be fixed to the rider’s helmet or chest, or the bike itself, using specially-designed mounts.
Company founder Nick Woodman aimed his first products at the surf scene, but they were soon proving popular with all kinds of action sports from downhill mountain biking to skiing and car racing. The first GoPro camera was a 35mm film model in 2005, but the company soon went digital, and all cameras in the current range are fixed-lens high definition models with an ultra-wide angle lens and waterproof to at least 131’/40m.
The cheapest model in the range is the HERO3 White Edition, with built-in WiFi and a 5 megapixel sensor. Moving up the line is the HERO3+ Silver Edition, with video modes of 1080p60 and 720p120, and the ability to shoot 10MP stills at up to 10 frames per second, and the top-of the-range 12 megapixel Hero3+ Black Edition, with WiFi remote and additional functions such as dynamic low light adjustment.
One of the most famous mountain bike clips captured using a GoPro camera was Kelly McGarry’s run at Red Bull Rampage 2013 in Utah, which was shot using a helmet-mounted Hero3+. During the run, which landed him second place at the event overall, he backflipped a 72-foot-long canyon gap.