GoPro’s Anamorphic lens makes it easy to get stylish cinematic action shots

GoPro’s Anamorphic lens mod is finally available to buy, completing the set of lenses the company teased when it announced its Hero 13 action cam. At the time, the most significant change to the latest edition of its best-selling camera was the ability to attach a selection of lenses and ND filters. Of all of them, I was most intrigued by the Anamorphic Lens Mod ($130), pitched as a lens for “professional-level artistic filmmaking.”

Just like the rest of GoPro’s HB-Series lenses, it’s easy to remove the Hero 13’s base lens and replace it with the much thicker Anamorphic lens. (It also comes with front and rear caps to store it safely when not attached to the camera.)

Given its size, it’s worth noting that this could mean some of your third-party cases and accessories might not quite wrap around the body of the Hero 13 once the lens is attached. However, it didn’t particularly affect the weight distribution when I mounted it on my tripod, but I was still wary about how exposed the front glass element is.

Once locked in, the Hero 13 switches to the appropriate camera mode, maximizing settings and calibrating precisely to the lens. You still have latitude in video settings, though: You can capture video in 5.3K up to 60fps and 4K up to 120fps for slow-motion cinematic scenes. If you want to go to town, you can also record GP-Log in 10-bit and if you’re buying a $130 accessory, you're probably wanting to eke out everything the Hero 13 is capable of.

Image by Mat Smith for Engadget

Fortunately, this is GoPro, and the company made it very simple for even newbies to capture and share usable footage with its most unusual lens. The Hero 13 Black de-squeezes the footage while being captured, making for easier editing. (De-squeezing is correcting the oval-shaped distortion of your video footage caused by anamorphic lenses.)

Not only does this streamline editing post-production — it’s ready to share after you’ve finished recording — it also means the video preview on the Hero 13 shows it unfurled, making framing easier, too. The lens is also compatible with GoPro’s electronic image stabilizing tech, HyperSmooth, although the company recommends combining it with a gimbal for even smoother footage. If you want full control, you can also shoot in standard lens mode and manually de-squeeze footage in post-production.

And as it’s a true anamorphic lens (and not just a very, very wide lens), it can capture lens flares, too, with that anamorphic streak that’s become JJ Abrams’ trademark. It helps make my footage look like it came from a cinematic video camera, not an action cam.

Image by Mat Smith for Engadget

The drawbacks are minor. As I mentioned earlier, I worry about damaging the lens, although it does have a hydrophobic, anti-reflective coating. Also, I found the most attractive opportunities for showing off those horizontal lens flares are usually shooting footage at night, or sunset. Unfortunately, the Hero 13 isn’t the most capable low-light camera, meaning my efforts to capture cool cityscape traffic produced results that were a little too shadowy. For the best footage, broadly, I’d max out ISO at 800 and shoot in 10-bit mode to try and salvage as much detail as possible.

The HB-series Anamorphic lens mod is available now for $130, while a $350 HB-Series Lens Collection bundle contains all three lenses and an ND Filter 4-Pack.

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