GoPro 11 Released

And purchased!

I have the GoPro 9 and the media mod for the 9 so I opted for the Hero 11 Black. Having a GoPro 9 as my best GoPro means I should be happy with the jump to 11 with Hypersmooth 5.0 and potentially some of the cool night shot features which on a clear night in the Andes in the Atacama desert I hope to capture a star trail night lapse.

Of course, there will be the chance for a quality and practicality shootout between the AUD $2419 dollar Apple iPhone 14 and the AUD $605 (delivered) GoPro 11. Action mode on the phone vs hypersmooth on the Gopro? General handling for that vlog walking piece to camera? I still get my finger in shots I take with the GoPro which really annoys me, like saying um.

Because I also wanted to streamline part of my laptop pack up, I bought a Microsoft Surface Arc Mouse because it flattens out to fit into any bag. And it is light at 82 grams. When you flatten the mouse, it turns it off.

Linking back to the finance article where I highlighted the value of using a credit card that refunds foreign transaction fees, here is a side note that validates getting an ING card for foreign currency purchases. To satisfy one of the requirements for my travel insurance which is bundled with my NAB rewards card (many others are the same in this requirement) you need to spend at least $500 on a purchase related to the trip you are going on using the card with the insurance attached to it.

I used the NAB card for both the purchase of the phone (which arrives this Friday) and the GoPro which was purchased from GoPro in the US. When I checked my statement, a whopping $20 had been added to the 605 dollars as a foreign transaction handling fee. Now that I have satisfied the spending requirements in relation to travel insurance eligibility (ie $500 or more on expenditure related to the trip you are undertaking before the trip is undertaken, I will be tucking that card away and not using it overseas).

So, despite the extra cost, I have already been practising with the camera in preparation for the South American trip. I have just returned from a week in Sydney attending a conference with Adobe where I treated the trip like a practise run for travelling light and filming small but big with the GoPro. More on that in an upcoming post.

Was the camera worth it? Actually you will be the judge. Here is a small night lapse video taken from Luna Park in Sydney.