I Am a Polar Bear

So, you’ve just got a GoPro and you plan to make some amazing videos of your travels, or take inspirational photos of your adventures. But what mount should you get? There’s a dazzling choice of mounts and that’s just among the official GoPro products. Dive into the world of the unofficial and there’s a whole galaxy of choice. Where do you start with picking the right one for you?

The first thing, I think, is to ask whether you’re taking photos or videos. For example, the bite mount that lets you hold the GoPro in your mouth is probably no good for taking photos – if you need to hold your camera in your mouth, you probably don’t have the free hands to press the button and you can’t use the voice commands with something in your mouth.

On the other hand, to be honest, I’m struggling to think of a mount that would work badly with video. It depends what you want, of course. A tripod isn’t going to take great film of your snowboarding adventure and the dog harness isn’t going to get a good hyperlapse of the sunset. But put them to the right use, and I think all mounts can potentially make good video. It just depends what you want. There’s also the question of whether you’re making a high-quality (semi-)professional video or if you just want clips for yourself/Instagram – if you’ve got the budget for it and it’s going to be financially worth it, then invest in as many mounts as you can. If you’re like me, probably best just to pick one or two all-rounders.

So, what do you want to see in the video? Yourself or the world around you? Head, mouth, shoulder and chest mounts are all great for filming your point of view but you’re not going to see yourself. Most things that let you hold the GoPro at arm’s length can be spun around to show all views. I’ve fallen hard for the back-of-hand mount but I can’t think of anything I can personally do with it that I can’t do with a hand-held mount. I guess it’s for times when you 100% don’t want to drop it, like when you’re bungee jumping or for when you’re going to have your hand held out in front, like when you want to film your role in the zombie apocalypse.

My initial plan for my GoPro was to film my horseriding trip in Iceland in 2020 – which didn’t happen – and to take it on the water when I was kayaking or canoeing. Given that the trip to Iceland didn’t happen, I opted for the Handler for my first mount, which is the short floating handle for water adventures. Because the GoPro is so small, it gives me something to hold onto, it means I can hold the camera and point it at myself without an extreme close-up of my hand dominating the shot and if I drop it, it’s not going to sink to the bottom of the river. You can also stick it in things – eg, fold the camera up at right angles and push the handle under the webbing of your paddleboard or through the woven seats of your canoe to make an improved monopod or down the straps of your buoyancy aid to make an improvised chest harness. If you’re only going to buy one mount and you want to use the GoPro on the water, I’d highly recommend the Handler. It’s not a bad choice even if you’re not going to take it out on the water. On dry land, it’s a short selfie stick or easy way to hold the camera. Just about the only time mine is off the Handler is when it’s charging and even then that’s only because the bolt blocks the battery door from opening properly. I’m a big fan of the Handler.

I did later add the chest mount and head strap. I don’t use them much. I wore the head strap once for kayaking – in hindsight, not the best move. It would be quite easy for the elastic straps to creep up my head and pop off and then it would have sunk. Same if I’d capsized – it wouldn’t have stayed put. Also, if you take it off and hold it at arm’s length for a selfie, you have a pattern on your forehead where the rubber grip has temporarily dented you.

I did wear the chest harness for a horseriding trip in Iceland two years late. It works well. I can take a hand off the reins long enough to press the shutter button and then cling onto the horse while it films me tölting along and shrieking in terror. I can see it being useful for hiking or caving or anything like that where you want to film what’s going on but without the effort of actually filming, you know? Instead of “where shall I point the camera, what do I want to capture, what’s the best angle?” it just sits there quietly filming your POV. Good for adventurous activities too, where you don’t have enough free hands to hold a camera. But honestly, I don’t get a lot of use out of the chest harness. If I want to film POV while kayaking, I just stick the Handler down the front of my buoyancy aid.

I’m liking the look of the new Gumby flexible mount – it’s two sturdy rubber “strings” that you can wrap around just about anything. I think that could be very useful for attaching to fences or trees. Immediate thoughts: I could film the Northern Lights on that or do a timelapse of me pitching my tent from a height I couldn’t previously reach with a mini tripod. I wonder if I could get one of those before I head off to Iceland next week?

The one I’ve seen a lot of people using lately is the Volta, which is a mini tripod/short handle with a built-in battery so you can use the GoPro and charge it at the same time. I see that it would increase the time you can keep using the camera but I’m also wary of using and charging simultaneously – I believe it’s not very good for the battery. My dad has an action camera – not a GoPro – which he uses to film long bus journeys. He runs it off a chunky portable charger literally all day long and his first camera only lasted about eighteen months. I’d expect more from a camera but I also accept that this is 2023 and electronics are made to be replaced rapidly these days. I firmly believe that camera would have lasted longer if it hadn’t been constantly filming while plugged in. Anyway, the Volta seems to be quite popular. Not waterproof, though, not enough to take it surfing.

A lot of GoPro mounts are quite specialist so if there’s a particular way you need to mount your camera, then obviously go for that one. If you want to film your bike adventures, get a helmet mount or a handlebar mount. If you want to film from the front of your bus, get the suction cup mount. If you want to film your scuba adventures, get the dive housing and the floating handle. If you want to film what your dog gets up to while you’re out, get the dog harness. If you just want to film your travel and adventure in general, get a small handle/tripod of some kind and maybe something that will let you wear it on your head, be that the head strap, the clip that will let you pop it on the peak of your cap or a handful of adhesive mounts to stick it to your helmet. That’s your helmet, don’t stick those things on helmets you’ve borrowed or hired and definitely don’t try to tear them off.

And don’t forget to have a look at the unofficial mounts. I love the hand and wrist mount which looks much more secure than the official one, which is just a simple band. I don’t have anything that I can conceivably film with it but I like it. There’s a dome for taking split above/below water photos. There’s a special mount for attaching your camera to your backpack straps. The official clip mount and Gumby will both do that but I think the backpack mount will be more secure than the clip and less bulky than the Gumby.

And finally, don’t forget the really simple GoPro to tripod converter for putting your tiny camera on all the same things that you put your full-sized camera on. I rarely take both big tripod and tiny GoPro anywhere together – they don’t make sense as a pairing to my personally. But I have been known to pop it on my Gorillapod – that’s what it’s on for the tent timelapse above. Gorillapods are great. If you haven’t come across them, they’re flexible tripods made out of a string of ball joints. I have the tiny one but they go right up to what I’d describe as “pretty big”. You can use them as tripods or you can wrap the legs around things. Given their proportions, and the size of mine, I think the Gumby would do a better job on lots of things – for instance, my legs are too small to wrap around the ladder properly – but by and large, the Gorillapod is the daddy of flexible mounts.

So, to sum up: get a specialist mount if that’s what you need. Get a Handler if you’re going in the water. Get a short handle/tripod for general use. And if you’re only going to get one mount and you have no particular idea what you want, I don’t think you can go wrong with the Handler.