The GoPro is, on paper at least, an incredibly high-resolution camera capable of recording 4K at high speeds of up to 120fps – that’s pretty remarkable for a camera… but no photographer or videographer will ever take a GoPro seriously, because it lacks the one feature that most professionals look for – the ability to change lenses. The GoPro is perpetually stuck with its ultrawide lens, and that doesn’t appeal to most photographers. Designed to bridge this gap, Liam de la Bedoyere designed a GoPro that actually lets you remove and replace lenses, giving you the ability to choose between macro, telephoto, wide-angle, and fisheye shots… all while still retaining the GoPro’s gorgeously compact aesthetic.
Designer: Bored Eye Design
Bedoyere’s (better known by his online moniker Bored Eye Designs) concept isn’t what you’d call a traditional GoPro – its design is quite the overhaul, with a funky orange-meets-black aesthetic that sort of feels reminiscent of Rabbit, but with a more balanced color palette. The design features the GoPro’s main body, with the screen at the back, but also comes with a removable camera module, reminiscent of the recently launched Insta360 Go 3S. This removable module snaps onto the main body when it needs a battery boost, but can be removed and carried separately as a body-worn or handheld tiny cam. It also features those aforementioned removable lenses, allowing you to change your PoV on the fly.
Designed as a part of a Productober sprint (with daily prompts through the month of October), Liam de la Bedoyere created a rough draft of an action camera with the ability to remove and mount different lenses. Although Bedoyere barely made the deadline for the prompt, his concept existed just as a mere sketch. Taking some more time after Productober officially ended, he decided to flesh out the design by making a proper 3D CAD model of what this shapeshifting action cam could look like.
Bedoyere’s vision of a GoPro with interchangeable lenses is something that quite a few videographers have thought of. In fact, Canada-based hardware company Back-Bone also makes a modified version of the GoPro HERO12 with an armature on the front that lets you attach literal DSLR-style lenses on your action camera, with a choice between M12, CS, and C-mount styles!
