Simon Wyndham spent weeks shooting with manual glass on the $699 Mission 1 Pro ILS. His verdict? "It's one of the most genuinely fascinating cameras I've used in a great many years."
To say that the GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS has stirred up a lot of interest would be an understatement. Coming at a time when GoPro is going through a sale to Starman Optical, there has been debate over the longevity of its latest line of cameras. We know now that GoPro, at least publicly, intends to carry on as a camera manufacturer, but what this means medium to long term is up for debate.
But for now, we have one of the most interesting camera releases in a long time. The ILS version of the Mission 1 Pro swaps out the fixed, action-camera-style glass with a Micro Four Thirds interchangeable-lens mount. And it's here that the camera has caused further controversy due to the lack of electrical contact with lenses. In other words, if you're going to marry it to a lens, it needs to be fully manual.
The reasons for this are multifold. To begin with, GoPro wanted to keep the camera at the same price as the fixed-lens model. Adding iris and autofocus control would add a lot of R&D time in an area in which GoPro has limited experience. It would also add complexity and expense. Aside from the fact that we don't even know whether the sensor even has a phase detection layer, the feedback GoPro had from people in the camera's intended market was that they simply don't use autofocus.
So, with that in mind, what kind of user is the Mission 1 Pro ILS aimed at? Primarily it is focused on use cases where you simply can't fit or don't want to risk a large and expensive cinema camera, but you require minimal compromise on image quality. Think crash cam. Or it can be placed in really confined spaces. For example, you could set up many multiples of the camera for a reality show.
If you think back to how the Sony VENICE RIALTO was used in the last Top Gun movie, the ILS may find similar usage on lower-budget productions. After all, if you don't need the highest frame rates, it can output up to 4K60 via the Media Mod to an external recorder or transmitter, thus bypassing the internal HEVC recording.
It can be discreetly mounted to vehicles, car interiors, and more. But it will also find favor among those who need to travel light and move fast. Think adventure filmmakers. There's also the potential for scientific use with the high frame rates that the camera is capable of, with 240 fps possible in 4K, and up to 960 fps in 1080p.
Then there's educational use. Think of the numbers of these cameras that an educational establishment or school could afford, along with extremely inexpensive lenses. It would make a great way for students to learn about how cameras work without the cheat code of having everything on auto.
Okay, so while those are a few potential uses for the Mission 1 Pro ILS, what's it actually like to use?
I won't go into depth in terms of image quality and the different frame rate options in this review. Most of the core functionality of the ILS is also found in the fixed-lens Mission 1 Pro, for which you can read the review here. For this review, I'm going to look at what it's like to use a camera like a GoPro with manual lenses, as well as the unique features it offers to help support its use in the field.
One of the criticisms leveled at the Mission 1 Pro ILS is the choice of lenses available due to the manual control requirement. But it turns out there are a lot of options out there, from companies like Laowa and Meike to vintage lenses from Pentax, Nikon, and Canon, among others. It's also possible to adapt C-mount lenses such as those from Kowa, which have been designed specifically for 1-inch-type sensors.
When the digital HyperSmooth stabilization has been turned off, the Mission 1 Pro ILS has a magnification/crop factor of 2.7. With HyperSmooth on, it's around 3.3x. This has led some to think that wide-angle options are off the table.
However, this would be a false thought to have. Both Laowa and Kowa, for example, have zero-distortion 6mm options available, giving an equivalent 35mm FOV to an 18mm lens, which is pretty wide in anyone's book. With HyperSmooth on, this goes up to the equivalent of a 21mm lens on a full-frame camera, which is still usefully wide. If you want to go wider, there are also fisheye options out there. Further still, there are some focal reducers available that have now been proven to work with the ILS, opening up the choice of lens FOVs even further.
The great thing about the magnification factor is that you can achieve very good telephoto imagery with very lightweight glass. For example, a 50mm prime gives you the same reach as a 135mm lens on a full-frame device. A lightweight vintage 135mm lens gives you a similar reach to a 364mm lens on full-frame with HyperSmooth turned off.
It should also be mentioned that the digital 2x lossless zoom can also be used, which crops in pixel for pixel into the sensor. This works exceptionally well and doubles the usefulness of any chosen focal length of glass you have attached. It does come at the expense of a bit of dynamic range, since the camera cannot use the dual-gain output functionality, but it does effectively mean that any prime lens you are using now has two focal lengths.
Lenses up to 500mm have been tested with HyperSmooth, but for fisheye options the camera has only been set up for distortion profiles from the Laowa range.
When you attach any lens to the Mission 1 Pro ILS, you'll need to tell it what focal length you are using so that HyperSmooth can work correctly. Once you've set up a lens, its focal length appears in an ordered menu so that it's easy to select again the next time you use that glass.
Something to be mindful of when you're choosing lenses is the focus direction. A lot of vintage stills glass, particularly from Nikon and Pentax, are the mirror of the focus barrel direction found on cinema and ENG glass. So, if you're on a shoot and you need to swap between glass quickly, make sure they all have the same barrel rotation, otherwise things can get confusing! Lastly, GoPro recommends that lens assemblies of over 250 g (8.8 oz) have additional support.
By default, monitoring is performed using the camera's built-in LCD. This is a little bit on the tiny side for truly consistent, accurate focus, as I found out. But with practice it can be done, once you get used to the focus peaking. If you want to travel ultra-light, then this will be an option for you. However, make sure you do practice, since it's easy to miss focus, as you can see from my review video intro! And for reference, I'm a manual focus veteran! So, if I'm messing up occasionally, and you're used to autofocus doing the work, you'll need to put some time in to get used to things!
For portability, a simple top handle and your phone with the Mission Monitor app are the way to go. At the moment, Mission Monitor connects via a USB cable. I have an older 12 Pro Max iPhone, so I needed to purchase a separate Lightning to USB-A adapter, and then run the USB-A to USB-C cable to the camera. This is not an officially supported method, but it works. Alternatively, connecting wirelessly is coming, but there's no official ETA on that. However, I have been using a beta of the wireless connection, and it does work very well, although it can take an age to establish the connection.
Monitoring this way gives you a much better view of things, and it's possible to obtain very accurate focus using peaking. The Mission Monitor app also allows corrective and monitoring LUTs to be applied and uploaded, although I've noticed there can be quite a lot of posterization in the image, though this doesn't affect the actual recording. Other monitoring options include zebras and framing overlays, among other things.
Using the camera is a much more pleasurable experience than I remember when I first purchased the OG BMPCC all those years ago. For one thing, the ILS can be used straight out of the box, and the battery life is exceptional. Expect around 5 hrs in 1080p and 3 hrs in 4K30. I have seen others rig a battery to it, but quite frankly there is absolutely no need to do this. The camera's own batteries are tiny and you can carry a load of them and probably hardly need to change them!
The entire point of the ILS is to keep things compact, so rigging it up with power systems seems a bit silly to me and defies the point of an ultra-compact setup.
Generally, I've been using the camera without ND filters and instead adding motion blur in post using DaVinci Resolve's incredible "Metal" option for such a task. I absolutely hate messing around with filters when I'm trying to travel with the minimum of fuss. And Resolve, for the most part, when you use the Metal option, does as good a job as any ND filter/shutter setting, at the expense of some rendering time.
However, if you did want to use ND filters, you can set the shutter and ISO manually, or you can set the shutter and let the ISO take care of itself. There's also an option to tell the camera to prioritize motion blur.
But, and this is an important "but," if you want to get the benefits of HyperSmooth, you'll need a high shutter speed for it to work effectively. This is particularly important with handheld work at longer focal lengths. Because the camera is so small, it doesn't have the same weight and momentum as a full-size rig. So, even if you think you have a steady hand, the image can look jittery without HyperSmooth on.
If you have a decent tripod, then this won't be an issue, except that decent tripods are usually big and heavy. So, if you're traveling fast and light and using a light tripod or monopod, you may still want to use HyperSmooth. Just as an aside, unlike many stabilization systems, HyperSmooth plays exceptionally nicely with tripod panning and tilting without adding in any errant movements.
Of course, if you're using the ILS for serious production, HyperSmooth will be off and the grip department will rig you up a nice solid mount to wherever you want it!
When it comes to focus, if you've been brought up on a diet of cameras that do it all for you, it's going to take some practice. But the thing about manual focus is that once you're proficient at it, you won't want your camera to control it again! You are in full control of your composition. Smooth focus changes are now yours to use as a creative decision. This is true camera control. Just be aware of what I said about lens choice and focus barrel direction!
The existence of other small "cinema" cameras can't be ignored when thinking about the Mission 1 Pro ILS. After all, Blackmagic Design's offering gives you raw and ProRes recording without as much crop factor, as do many of the other mirrorless options out there.
However, what they can't give you is the same power/weight ratio. By that I mean that the battery life on the Mission 1 Pro is far better without the need for external power options. It's also genuinely "pocket" sized. Even with a small vintage 50mm lens on it, let alone a pancake lens, it can be fitted into a jacket pocket.
Then there's the slow-motion capability. There simply isn't another alternative out there that costs less than $7k that gives you the same slow-motion capabilities of the Mission 1 Pro ILS. While 960p cannot currently use the 10-bit GP-Log 2 option (all the other slow-motion modes can), there are some murmurings that this might be coming in a later firmware. If this is the case, then the Mission 1 Pro ILS's crown as the current king of slow motion will be even more firmly mounted onto its head!
Speaking of those ultra-high frame rates, both the 480 fps and 960 fps modes look much better on the ILS than the fixed-lens model. I think this is because focus and sharpness can be absolutely nailed, and there's also the depth-of-field effect that you just don't get with the fixed-lens version. The potential for creativity is endless.
Then there's the price. The Mission 1 Pro does all of this for $700. Even with the recent price drop from Blackmagic, it's over $1k less, and you get 8K open-gate capability along with dual-gain output in 4K modes, which gives you more claimed dynamic range than even the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro.
But I should inject a careful caveat into the conversation. The Pocket Cinema Camera series, due to their larger size, means that they are a bit more practical for everyday use. For example, if your bread-and-butter work is doing corporate videos and lower-budget commercial work, then one of the Pocket Cinema Cameras, mirrorless cameras, or Pyxis options, among many others, would be more sensible choices.
The fact is that the Mission 1 Pro ILS isn't designed to replace such devices or be used instead of them. It's designed to complement them, to be used in addition to them. So, the ILS isn't in direct competition with Blackmagic, Panasonic, or Sony. The ILS is a unique camera that can be used in unique circumstances. But that's not to say it couldn't be used as a daily driver if you really wanted to. It could absolutely be used to shoot a feature on. Whether you'd want to or not is an entirely different matter.
But for adventure sports production, such as the stuff you see from Red Bull, along with lots of potential use cases in live production, TV, and film, as well as education, the Mission 1 Pro ILS's scope goes a lot further than many people give it credit for.
From a personal standpoint, the ILS has reignited my interest in being creative again. I can take it out on walks with me and play around with composition. It's genuinely fun to use. Like having a tiny Super 8mm camera with me wherever I go.
Granted, it's not for everyone. It certainly has its quirks, and some people will genuinely be put off by the lack of electrical contact with lenses. There are also those who have expressed dislike for it "because." But for me, the GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS is one of the most genuinely fascinating cameras I've used in a great many years. It's got me experimenting again and it's got me excited for cinematography again. And if you can't see its benefits, just open your eyes. You'll be amazed at what you can see when you open your mind.