GoPro Awards celebrates 1-year anniversary, and a cool $1 million in payments

By Daven Mathies Published October 25, 2016

GoPro Awards: One Year Anniversary

This month marked the first anniversary of the GoPro Awards, the program started by the action camera company to support and highlight the best content being created with its cameras. GoPro said it has handed out more than $1 million in reward money to creators around the world. Recipients also benefited from being featured on GoPro’s YouTube channel, where the top videos received millions of views.

GoPro started the program as a way to inspire its customers to share their best GoPro moments. It offers up to $500 for photos, $1,000 for raw video clips, and a sizable $5,000 for full video edits. Over 226,000 submissions were received from all 196 countries where GoPro offers the program. In total, all GoPro Awards content generated over 23 million views.

The program also draws attention to the diversity of content being created with GoPro cameras, which goes far beyond the typical action sports genre. The number one video is a heart-warming, and cat-warming, story of a family who found a frozen kitten in the snow, believed it to be dead, but miraculously brought it back to life. The video has been viewed nearly six million times.

The remainder of the top five videos includes a rocket launch to space, a horse rescued from a maintenance pit in a Polish barn, the sinking of a Mexican warship to create an artificial reef, and an ocean paddle boarder’s close encounter with an orca.

You can see all of the GoPro Awards official selections the company’s YouTube channel.

GoPro recently introduced the long-awaited Hero5 camera and Karma drone. The Hero5 features an integrated touchscreen and is waterproof without a case, while the Karma includes a removable gimbal that can be used to stabilize handheld shots. This should make for an exciting second year of GoPro Awards.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Daven is a contributing writer to the photography section. He has been with Digital Trends since 2016 and has been writing…

Mobile

GoPro Hero 10 Black: 7 things I love and 2 that I don’t

The GoPro Hero 10 placed in an outdoor environment.

The GoPro Hero 10 Black is the company's most recent addition to its action camera lineup. I've had a chance to spend almost eight weeks with the camera to find out if the on-page specs translate to real-world usage? Here's what I loved about the Hero 10 while using it in my day-to-day life and short travels.
Seven things I loved
More responsive
The GoPro Hero 10 is much more responsive than the previous iterations of the camera. When I reviewed the Hero 8 and Hero 9, one of my biggest concerns was usability. While the functionality was amazing, the usability was not. Well, no more.

Thanks to the new processor, the GoPro Hero 10's usability is as good as its functionality. GoPro has finally done justice to its camera. Navigating through the interface feels on par with my iPhone's camera app. The new camera was a joy to use, thanks to a more responsive interface.
Amazing photos and slow-mo

Photography

The 5 best new GoPro Hero 10 Black features I love to use

GoPro Hero 10 Firmware V1.2.

When I reviewed the GoPro Hero 10 Black in September, I couldn’t help but heap praise on it. Though it’s clearly an evolutionary update to the Hero 9, the Hero 10 goes far enough to offer very real advantages over its predecessor. Between its 5.3K 60 frames per second, upgraded image stabilization, and impressive cloud storage integration, it’s certainly the most powerful action camera available right now.

However, GoPro hasn’t rested on its laurels over the past several months. Over that time, they’ve offered major firmware upgrades and even a post-launch hardware upgrade. With the Hero 10 so dramatically changed since its original launch, it’s worth taking a look at to see what else you can expect from the camera here at the tail end of 2021.
Max Superview
The GoPro Hero 10 features a 4:3 format sensor, but most video these days is displayed in a 16:9 aspect ratio. That typically means either cropping the image or putting up with black bars on the side of the display. GoPro’s Superview mode stretches the edges of the image so that you can take advantage of the entire 4:3 sensor area, but display it on a 16:9 screen at the cost of a fisheye effect.

Photography

GoPro boosts Hero 10 performance with new firmware and Enduro battery

GoPro Hero 10 Front Screen.

One of my few complaints when reviewing the GoPro Hero 10 Black was its somewhat fleeting battery life, and though I haven’t personally encountered the issue, many users have reported problems limiting recording times due to overheating. GoPro seems to have heard that message loud and clear, as they have announced a major firmware update for the camera that aims to solve the problems as well as a brand new Enduro battery.

The firmware (which will be available by the end of October) introduces three new video performance modes designed to maximize the Hero 10’s performance in different scenarios. Maximum video performance mode prioritizes high resolution, frame rate, and image quality. Extended battery mode limits resolution and frame rate to maximize recording times and battery life, while tripod/stationary video mode provides high performance when the camera is stationary, and there isn’t any airflow to cool the camera.