New Media Object – GoPro Camera

GoPro cameras are becoming some of the most popular and versatile video cameras on the market. They are small, durable, water proof and can record amazing high definition videos and pictures. Another major benefit to these cameras is that they are very simple to use and the quality they produce is truly amazing. According to Manovich, “cinematography, which means writing movement, the essences of cinema is recording and storing data in a material form. The film camera records data on film; a projector reads is off” (pg. 26). The GoPro does just this, but stores the film digitally on a hard drive in the camera, so it can be retrieved later. The GoPro heavily relies on Manovics’s 4th characteristics of new media, Automation. The GoPro auto sets and adjusts white balancing and knows what to do for light levels so you get a very good picture quality with very little effort. The GoPro is basically a computer then a video camera. It does the same functions as any hand held camera, but it’s designed to be slim and easy to use, and that’s why they are so popular. Automation and software is what makes the GoPro such a popular camera for people looking for high quality video and user friendly usability. It automatically stores the data as a MP4 format which is very common for most video editing software so you can easily make videos on any computer. This is a digital media object because we no longer need to shoot video on film to make videos, and the quality has surpassed the possibilities of what film quality could produce.