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I should make this clear from the offset. This is not a concept camera from GoPro themselves. It’s a concept design for a GoPro action camera from UK-based Liam de la Bedoyere at Bored Eye Design. But if you ask me, it looks a lot more like an Insta360 GO 3S ($429.99).
What makes this particularly interesting, however, is that it offers an interchangeable lens mount. This would be difficult to implement on such a small scale, but it does seem like the next logical evolution of small cameras.
Looks a lot like an Insta360 GO 3S
The similarities to Insta360’s GO line of cameras cannot really be ignored. It’s certainly not a bad idea, though. Small modular cameras are extremely good and I regularly use the insta360 GO 3S and Insta360 GO 3 ($407.99) side-by-side with the Insta360 Ace Pro ($399).
It’s a great design and it makes sense to base something around a similar small form factor. The addition of an interchangeable lens system is something that I think many would enjoy in a future GO series camera. It’s perhaps why Insta360 should potentially be worried.
Neither GoPro nor DJI has yet produced interchangeable-lens action cameras. But they’ve also never produced a competitor to the Insta360 GO series. If either company wanted to challenge Insta360 in that tiny camera space, this is likely a feature they’d explore.
The “Pod” is an interesting design
I’m calling it the pod because it’s a tiny camera that docks into a thing. And the only company that makes a camera that docks into a think like this is the aforementioned Insta360 GO series. The thing that the GO 3 and GO 3S dock into is an “Action Pod”. So, I’m calling this a pod.
It’s an interesting design. By “interesting”, I mean “huh?”. It looks similar to half the DJI Action 2 – the half with the screen filling its back. And the view from the rear with the camera sticking out up top, it does feel a bit weird from an ergonomic standpoint.
Interchangeable Lenses – Coming to action cameras?
While companies such as Back-Bone will happily modify your action cameras, none of the three main action camera manufacturers – GoPro, Insta360 and DJI – offer an interchangeable lens action camera from the factory.
The Insta360 GO 3S and GO 3 has a screw-on swappable filter that goes over the lens, but that doesn’t swap the lens. That doesn’t change the field of view. There aren’t even any lenses to provide close focus (even if it’s fixed). You get some NDs, but that’s it, really.
It would be nice to see something akin to the Micro Four Thirds System or the L Mount Alliance happen in the world of action cameras. If GoPro, Insta360 and DJI could sit down in a room and figure out a cross-compatible mount system, I think we’d all be happy.
It’s never going to happen, though.
For now, we just have to look at concept designs like this one from Liam. I’m still going to hold out for some interchangeable lens action cameras from somebody, eventually, though.
[via Yanko Design]
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