The GoPro Hero 5 session includes: Hero5 session camera, standard frame, curved adhesive mount, flat adhesive mount, mounting buckle, and an USB c cable; Waterproof to 33 feet (10meter) without a housing; does not include sd card
Make sure your GoPro is charged; To charge your camera, use USB cable and a computer or charge device manufactured by GoPro; If your camera freezes, press and hold the menu button for about eight seconds until your camera powers off; This reset saves all of your content and settings
Additional GoPro Hero5 session features + benefits below on item page; Photos are captured at 10 mp with a 4:3 aspect ratio
A single press of the shutter button powers the camera on and starts recording automatically
Refer user manual and installation manual below for software update instructions; Operating system compatibility: MAC, PC
Product Dimensions
1.43 x 1.5 x 1.5 inches
Item Weight
4.5 ounces
Item model number
CHDHS-502
Batteries
1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included)
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer
No
Date First Available
September 19, 2016
Department
Mens
Manufacturer
GoPro Camera
7 reviews for GoPro Hero5 Session
Rated 1 out of 5
Melly –
Firstly: You cannot plug this in to your Mac – GoPro have deliberately removed that feature so that the camera will not appear as a USB device. On windows, you can SOMETIMES access the camera, but it’s random, and often doesn’t work. This is “normal” according to their support.
Secondly: there is an app, but it requires access to your facebook account (!) and they WILL NOT LET YOU connect to your camera until you give GoPro access to your Facebook. There’s no excuse for this.
Thirdly: even if you give them your details, GoPro will not allow you to connect to your camera from your phone unless you have a strong GPS signal, strong cellphone/mobile network signal, and bluetooth enabled. Instead of implementing a secure login/password/etc, they make it so the camera simply cannot be used without GPS access.
Live in a city center with poor GPS / mobile coverage? Work in an office with no GPS? Forget it – GoPro doesn’t want you to use your camera.
…all of this has been written on the app reviews, on their website, many many times. You can see the complaints going back years. But GoPro chooses not to fix any of this. So … don’t buy!
Rated 4 out of 5
F. Bradley –
We’ve had this for 8 months now and whilst it’s easy to use and super robust there are a few issues which really let it down. On the plus, it’s really intuitive and the video quality is brilliant, and it fits almost anywhere. There’s loads of different clips and cases available cheaply so you can use it in almost any situation without spending a massive amount extra. Cons: Battery life is really low- It’s measured in minutes not hours, I can usually get about 40mins or so if it’s not taken directly from the outlet which isn’t quite enough for an event away from home. I realise that it’s a payoff for the size but I’d rather less video quality and a bit more usability in this area.
The audio quality is poor, really poor so if you want to record voices you really need an additional mic. There’s a Rode one which a lot of people recommend and works well with the go pro 5/6s and would be fine to be an extra because not everyone needs good sound quality BUT…in order to fit any external mic you have to buy the specific go pro mic adapter which is as big as the device, just flaps about on the outside of the device and is an extra £50 on top of the device itself. Its terribly designed, overpriced (more expensive than the mic itself) and seriously damages the usability of the device but is the only one that works. It’s really unforgivable and is possibly even worth a two star reduction.
Rated 5 out of 5
Sean –
UPDATE May 28th 2021: $729? … 😳 That’s nearly double what it cost when it came out. 🤣 This is a GREAT camera. I purchased one back in Aug 2018. GoPro made a huge mistake not making the Session camera anymore. 🙁 I would have loved to see a new version with a small screen. This camera has everything. Good picture image stabilization good audio external mic input and its waterproof. Can’t imagine how much better it would be now had they not dropped it. Yes they can put a tiny screen just like what’s on the Pocket. Love the size. They could have improved everything added motion detection night vision and it would be a formidable spy cam. 😉 Bring it back … but at less than $400. Like half that price. That’s when these moved off the shelf.
This one is so much better than the Hero4 Session. The audio actually works. You can hear good audio and it has an external mic input via the overpriced obtrusive GoPro dongle. It has image stabilization that was missing on the Hero4 Session. It works better than the Hero 5 but not as good as the Hero 6. You can delete files from the cam without having to use their invasive app. But if you want to shut off the LEDs you have to use the app and let GoPro know what you are doing and where you are doing it. If you don’t give the permissions it’s no go for you. The battery lasts longer but also takes longer to charge. This one only comes with 1 mount as the Session 4 came with 2. One of them being low profile which I use the most. I hope I don’t lose it or break it bc I can’t find another one anywhere.
I bought this bc GoPro in their infinite wisdom decided to drop this from their lineup. I was just going to wait for the Hero6 Session but that won’t happen now. This camera has huge potential but GoPro priced it too high at launch. Hope they rethink their decision to can this and bring it back with even more improvements and at a good pricepoint of $150 or less. It’s a great camera now with 4k and all the improvements.
Rated 3 out of 5
Paul A. Wills –
This camera has been a complete pain in the neck however its not the fault of the seller. The first camera failed after a total of 43 minutes use on the 11th month of Ownership. Guess what it failed on day 2 of a holiday in Thailand. Go pro support was quite good and I sent the camera to them and received a replacement within 3 weeks. Bit late for the holiday though. Within 2 weeks of the replacement being received this camera failed on its second use. It had literally been used for 6minutes footage at the failure point.
Once again I sent the item back to GoPro and 6 weeks later received another replacement. The Customer service has been quite good but these sort of issues are not to be expected from a trusted brand that isn’t exactly cheap. As an early adopter of GoPro products overall I have been happy however and unfortunately I have lost a great deal of confidence and now have changed brands. I find it frustrating that when you contact a company with a complaint or a problem it can be very frustrating and extremely long winded. Its a different story almost every time though if you are looking to make a sale. The response is almost immediate
Rated 4 out of 5
Laura –
Works well in my intended application of a quadcopter action camera. 4k quality looks nice and works well with frame interpolation software should you want more than the hardware recorded 30 frames per second. Bitrate could be higher but is overall good. The bitrate is most noticeable when running at 60 frames per second or higher. Battery life is not 2 hours as stated. I found the battery to be closer to 50 minutes which for my current application is more than enough. Stabilisation works well but only works at 1080p or less. Comes with a USB C port for charging and file transfers. Files copied off the device fairly quick. One thing that annoys me is to use some of the features you must use the phone app and the app requires constant internet access while using it which is silly you should just be able to install the app and use it offline. If the app worked offline id of given 5 stars.
Rated 4 out of 5
Kay –
I was all excited to purchase my first GoPro. That quickly evaporated once I realized how poorly the initial setup was documented by GoPro.
Besides the camera, the box also contained the following (as diagramed on the side of the box): • frame, thumbscrew, and mounting buckle • 2 sticker mounts (flat and curved) • 1 short USB-c charger • an Important Product + Safety Instructions booklet • a ‘You Break it, We Replace It’ GoPro Care advertisement • 2 GoPro stickers
I also purchased a generic connection/mount kit and dog harness along with a 64GB SanDisk microSD card (listed as compatible on the GoPro website). Added about $60 to the cost of the camera.
The “You Break It, We Replace It” card opens up to a Quick Start guide that outlines the following: 1) download the GoPro app to your cellphone 2) remove the camera from the case 3) insert the SD card 4) charge the battery 5) press the button on the top of the camera to take a video.
Started to charge the battery using in the USB cable to my computer. It would be nice to include on the Quick Start Guide approx. how long it takes to fully change the battery * , along with what type of wall charger GoPro recommends ** . Adding instructions for getting the User’s Guide should also be included on the Quick Start Guide.
The “Important Product + Safety Instruction” booklet consists of 42 pages of the smallest, ink saving font available so that the text is hard to read. There are 5 pages of warnings in English. The first warning outlines where to download the User’s Guide. Things got so much easier once I downloaded the User’s Guide. Read the ‘Getting Started’ section and it outlined everything I needed to know for base functionality (outlining parts of the camera, what the screen information means, etc).
Using the camera, I’m averaging about 1 1/2 hours of battery life when taking short videos (under 5 minutes at 1080) and photos (at about 7 MB/picture). Could have purchased a 32GB card, since the battery doesn’t last long enough to store that much media. Great looking photos and videos. I’ve been using the cellphone app as a viewfinder when setting up the camera for fixed position videos and photos. Used the camera to document my beehive inspection and the voice commands worked great (cropped out some of the attached photo, should have positioned the camera closer).
GoPro Quik software on the computer makes it easy to transfer files to your computer but the video editing is very limited and I will probably use different software.
GoPro really should include pages 6-10 of the User’s Guide in the box, since it is basic functionality needed to use the camera. A laminated card for voice commands would be helpful as well. Because of the way GoPro formatted the User’s Guide, it’s hard to print a double-sided booklet to take along with the camera.
Also, it’s much easier to set up your account and device on a computer through GoPro’s website than using the app. You must have an account and link your camera to your account to use the cellphone app. When setting up your account, remember GoPro only allows you to change your username once.
*: From the User’s Guide, the battery should be fully charged in about 2 hours (wall charger) up to 4 hours (computer USB port). **: From GoPro help articles, for charging the battery using a wall charger they recommend outputs of 5V 2A (ideal), or 5V 1A (minimum).
Rated 3 out of 5
Kukus –
This is a very good quality image camera that can be used in the water. Unfortunately the battery does not last for too long. This product is made of high quality materials, it is waterproof, very compact. Camera can be mounter virtually everywhere (mounting attachments required – and the Chinese cheaper version are fully compatible). Again the battery is its weak point, and it is often overheating (sometimes I can’t touch it after using for 20-30 minutes). It does not come with any screen but connection over wifi to your phone allows the live view option. It seems to be useless as a dashcam (mounting kit is available but recording time is limited… battery won’t charge properly while in use, and it seems that it cannot be powered by the usb cable). 3 strong stars for image quality. Could be 5 but the overheating, battery limitation, not very intuitive app, and lack of the dashcam mode have reduced the final mark. For this price top quality is expected.
Melly –
Firstly: You cannot plug this in to your Mac – GoPro have deliberately removed that feature so that the camera will not appear as a USB device. On windows, you can SOMETIMES access the camera, but it’s random, and often doesn’t work. This is “normal” according to their support.
Secondly: there is an app, but it requires access to your facebook account (!) and they WILL NOT LET YOU connect to your camera until you give GoPro access to your Facebook. There’s no excuse for this.
Thirdly: even if you give them your details, GoPro will not allow you to connect to your camera from your phone unless you have a strong GPS signal, strong cellphone/mobile network signal, and bluetooth enabled. Instead of implementing a secure login/password/etc, they make it so the camera simply cannot be used without GPS access.
Live in a city center with poor GPS / mobile coverage? Work in an office with no GPS? Forget it – GoPro doesn’t want you to use your camera.
…all of this has been written on the app reviews, on their website, many many times. You can see the complaints going back years. But GoPro chooses not to fix any of this. So … don’t buy!
F. Bradley –
We’ve had this for 8 months now and whilst it’s easy to use and super robust there are a few issues which really let it down. On the plus, it’s really intuitive and the video quality is brilliant, and it fits almost anywhere. There’s loads of different clips and cases available cheaply so you can use it in almost any situation without spending a massive amount extra.
Cons:
Battery life is really low- It’s measured in minutes not hours, I can usually get about 40mins or so if it’s not taken directly from the outlet which isn’t quite enough for an event away from home. I realise that it’s a payoff for the size but I’d rather less video quality and a bit more usability in this area.
The audio quality is poor, really poor so if you want to record voices you really need an additional mic. There’s a Rode one which a lot of people recommend and works well with the go pro 5/6s and would be fine to be an extra because not everyone needs good sound quality BUT…in order to fit any external mic you have to buy the specific go pro mic adapter which is as big as the device, just flaps about on the outside of the device and is an extra £50 on top of the device itself. Its terribly designed, overpriced (more expensive than the mic itself) and seriously damages the usability of the device but is the only one that works. It’s really unforgivable and is possibly even worth a two star reduction.
Sean –
UPDATE May 28th 2021: $729? … 😳 That’s nearly double what it cost when it came out. 🤣 This is a GREAT camera. I purchased one back in Aug 2018. GoPro made a huge mistake not making the Session camera anymore. 🙁 I would have loved to see a new version with a small screen. This camera has everything. Good picture image stabilization good audio external mic input and its waterproof. Can’t imagine how much better it would be now had they not dropped it. Yes they can put a tiny screen just like what’s on the Pocket. Love the size. They could have improved everything added motion detection night vision and it would be a formidable spy cam. 😉 Bring it back … but at less than $400. Like half that price. That’s when these moved off the shelf.
This one is so much better than the Hero4 Session. The audio actually works. You can hear good audio and it has an external mic input via the overpriced obtrusive GoPro dongle. It has image stabilization that was missing on the Hero4 Session. It works better than the Hero 5 but not as good as the Hero 6. You can delete files from the cam without having to use their invasive app. But if you want to shut off the LEDs you have to use the app and let GoPro know what you are doing and where you are doing it. If you don’t give the permissions it’s no go for you. The battery lasts longer but also takes longer to charge. This one only comes with 1 mount as the Session 4 came with 2. One of them being low profile which I use the most. I hope I don’t lose it or break it bc I can’t find another one anywhere.
I bought this bc GoPro in their infinite wisdom decided to drop this from their lineup. I was just going to wait for the Hero6 Session but that won’t happen now. This camera has huge potential but GoPro priced it too high at launch. Hope they rethink their decision to can this and bring it back with even more improvements and at a good pricepoint of $150 or less. It’s a great camera now with 4k and all the improvements.
Paul A. Wills –
This camera has been a complete pain in the neck however its not the fault of the seller. The first camera failed after a total of 43 minutes use on the 11th month of Ownership. Guess what it failed on day 2 of a holiday in Thailand. Go pro support was quite good and I sent the camera to them and received a replacement within 3 weeks. Bit late for the holiday though. Within 2 weeks of the replacement being received this camera failed on its second use. It had literally been used for 6minutes footage at the failure point.
Once again I sent the item back to GoPro and 6 weeks later received another replacement. The Customer service has been quite good but these sort of issues are not to be expected from a trusted brand that isn’t exactly cheap. As an early adopter of GoPro products overall I have been happy however and unfortunately I have lost a great deal of confidence and now have changed brands. I find it frustrating that when you contact a company with a complaint or a problem it can be very frustrating and extremely long winded. Its a different story almost every time though if you are looking to make a sale. The response is almost immediate
Laura –
Works well in my intended application of a quadcopter action camera. 4k quality looks nice and works well with frame interpolation software should you want more than the hardware recorded 30 frames per second. Bitrate could be higher but is overall good. The bitrate is most noticeable when running at 60 frames per second or higher. Battery life is not 2 hours as stated. I found the battery to be closer to 50 minutes which for my current application is more than enough. Stabilisation works well but only works at 1080p or less. Comes with a USB C port for charging and file transfers. Files copied off the device fairly quick.
One thing that annoys me is to use some of the features you must use the phone app and the app requires constant internet access while using it which is silly you should just be able to install the app and use it offline. If the app worked offline id of given 5 stars.
Kay –
I was all excited to purchase my first GoPro. That quickly evaporated once I realized how poorly the initial setup was documented by GoPro.
Besides the camera, the box also contained the following (as diagramed on the side of the box):
• frame, thumbscrew, and mounting buckle
• 2 sticker mounts (flat and curved)
• 1 short USB-c charger
• an Important Product + Safety Instructions booklet
• a ‘You Break it, We Replace It’ GoPro Care advertisement
• 2 GoPro stickers
I also purchased a generic connection/mount kit and dog harness along with a 64GB SanDisk microSD card (listed as compatible on the GoPro website). Added about $60 to the cost of the camera.
The “You Break It, We Replace It” card opens up to a Quick Start guide that outlines the following:
1) download the GoPro app to your cellphone
2) remove the camera from the case
3) insert the SD card
4) charge the battery
5) press the button on the top of the camera to take a video.
Started to charge the battery using in the USB cable to my computer. It would be nice to include on the Quick Start Guide approx. how long it takes to fully change the battery * , along with what type of wall charger GoPro recommends ** . Adding instructions for getting the User’s Guide should also be included on the Quick Start Guide.
The “Important Product + Safety Instruction” booklet consists of 42 pages of the smallest, ink saving font available so that the text is hard to read. There are 5 pages of warnings in English. The first warning outlines where to download the User’s Guide. Things got so much easier once I downloaded the User’s Guide. Read the ‘Getting Started’ section and it outlined everything I needed to know for base functionality (outlining parts of the camera, what the screen information means, etc).
Using the camera, I’m averaging about 1 1/2 hours of battery life when taking short videos (under 5 minutes at 1080) and photos (at about 7 MB/picture). Could have purchased a 32GB card, since the battery doesn’t last long enough to store that much media. Great looking photos and videos. I’ve been using the cellphone app as a viewfinder when setting up the camera for fixed position videos and photos. Used the camera to document my beehive inspection and the voice commands worked great (cropped out some of the attached photo, should have positioned the camera closer).
GoPro Quik software on the computer makes it easy to transfer files to your computer but the video editing is very limited and I will probably use different software.
GoPro really should include pages 6-10 of the User’s Guide in the box, since it is basic functionality needed to use the camera. A laminated card for voice commands would be helpful as well. Because of the way GoPro formatted the User’s Guide, it’s hard to print a double-sided booklet to take along with the camera.
Also, it’s much easier to set up your account and device on a computer through GoPro’s website than using the app. You must have an account and link your camera to your account to use the cellphone app. When setting up your account, remember GoPro only allows you to change your username once.
*: From the User’s Guide, the battery should be fully charged in about 2 hours (wall charger) up to 4 hours (computer USB port).
**: From GoPro help articles, for charging the battery using a wall charger they recommend outputs of 5V 2A (ideal), or 5V 1A (minimum).
Kukus –
This is a very good quality image camera that can be used in the water. Unfortunately the battery does not last for too long. This product is made of high quality materials, it is waterproof, very compact. Camera can be mounter virtually everywhere (mounting attachments required – and the Chinese cheaper version are fully compatible). Again the battery is its weak point, and it is often overheating (sometimes I can’t touch it after using for 20-30 minutes). It does not come with any screen but connection over wifi to your phone allows the live view option. It seems to be useless as a dashcam (mounting kit is available but recording time is limited… battery won’t charge properly while in use, and it seems that it cannot be powered by the usb cable). 3 strong stars for image quality. Could be 5 but the overheating, battery limitation, not very intuitive app, and lack of the dashcam mode have reduced the final mark. For this price top quality is expected.