Review: GoPro 13 Macro Lens

One of the most common questions about the GoPro camera in the online forums revolves around “zoom”.

Up front, a GoPro cannot zoom, or to put it in photographic terminology, there is no telephoto functionality in these cameras. When you use the magnification factor, what you are doing is simply blowing the image up by making the pixels bigger – and therefore the photo is grainier.

There are various modifications and supposed hacks to make a GoPro act as if it did have a telephoto lens, but the simple fact is that with a camera that cannot focus, then there is no real practical way of doing this. The solution is to get a cheap bridge camera that has an optical zoom, or better, a proper mirrorless camera that allows interchangeable lenses.

However, with the new GoPro 13, what you can do is add both a super wide lens and a macro lens.

Of the two, I think the macro is the more important, so I’ll cover that in this story.

So what does a macro lens actually do? A macro lens lets you get all close up and personal with an object. Common uses in “standard” photography include taking close up shots of flowers or insects for example.

But they can also be used to get artistic shots with video.

The GoPro macro lens lets you get the camera 4x closer to a subject than the standard lens, and this allows you to show a completely different perspective of an object. One of my favourites, that, if you have seen you may not have realised was achieved by using a macro lens, was the extreme close up exterior shots of cars that the original Top Gear used to show. They’d get the camera very close to a feature such as the name badge or an interesting shape in the body work, and then with clever use of lighting, pan slowly over it.

Sample of the GoPro Macro Lens for Video

One major difference in the GoPro macro lens to any other of the “mod” lenses is the manual variable focus ring.  With the lens having an effective range of 11cm to 75cm you use the ring to get the image as sharp as possible, and to assist, focus peaking using different colours helps you see on the camera screen what’s in focus.

GoPro say you simply attach the lens, and your camera will adjust its settings.

In real life (and I know it wasn’t just me), initially getting the standard lens OFF the camera body nearly drove me to despair – it was almost if it had been super glued in place! In theory, you turn it 45° counterclockwise and it pops off, and you repeat the process for the macro lens, but in reverse.

The trick appears to be slightly pulling the original lens away from the body while twisting.

GoPro claim the macro lens is waterproof; I am not too sure I’d want to trust this at depth however (any more than I trust the camera and always keep a housing on it). Maybe like in proper underwater gear, a very thin smear of Vaseline around the mount might be a reasonable insurance when say snorkelling though.

The GoPro macro lens is available now (although stock may be hard to find) and sells for AUD$220 approx.

While some GoPro accessories are almost an essential must have, bear in mind the macro lens performs a specific duty, so if you cannot think of a need for it with the stuff you used your GoPro for, save your money.

The ultra-wide lens might be a better buy, or when they become available next year, the anamorphic one.