So the Light Mod for the GoPro Hero 8 Black went on sale the other day, and I went ahead and ordered despite the Media Mod not being available for order yet because I knew this was something I was ultimately going to want. It showed up the other day and I decided to go ahead and try it out.

$79 and the Plus discount does not apply. Ships by January 27th currently. I naturally already ordered one. Pick one up on GoPro‘s website.  The media mod fits the Hero 8 black and includes a shotgun mic, a couple of cold shoe mounts and a mic jack. 

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I just got an email that said “Don’t forget about media mod!”, foolishly I assumed that meant that it was finally available for order, since it’s said “Preorder in December” since the launch of the Hero 8. Not only is it not available to preorder, it now says “Preorder in January”. I want to stab everything.

My Hero 8 Black (Affiliate link) has become one of my most used cameras. It's small, portable, charges over USB-C, and has pretty damn good video and audio quality. It's perfect for vlogging. I have a variety of mounts and grips for it, and this week I added a new one to my collection. 

The auction yard Hyundai had a pretty gross rear seat cushion. Best I can guess, someone let their kid live back there and never cleaned it. It looked and smelled pretty rough. I pulled it out after I put the door on and stuffed it in the back of my beater Prius (Where I learned of it unpleasant smell btw), and took it to my house to use my upholstery cleaner on it. I did a video of the cleaning mostly as an excuse to use my Hero 8 Black to do a time lapse. Still, pretty neat to see it go from absolutely disgusting to, well, to kinda passable, but still. Here's the video. 

If you've been following my recent posts, you already know I picked up a Hero 8 Black through GoPro's trade in program. I've determined that it's a nice little package, especially when paired with GoPro Plus to store all your pictures and videos and also half price on most accessories.  Since I could get it for half price, I went ahead and ordered this sleeve with lanyard.

One of the duties I'm using the GoPro for is auctions. I go to at least three auctions a week and take lots of pics and videos to determine what I'm going to bid on, how much, etc. 

I don't like carrying around multiple phones, and I don't like filling my iPhone's camera roll with endless pictures of cars, most of which I don't even end up buying for one reason or another. The Hero 8 with GoPro plus is perfect. I take pictures and videos all willy-nilly like I just don't even care about storage, then connect the GoPro to power and it automagically uploads them all. I can pull down the ones I need for sharing or my records and just leave the rest alone. I can format my SD card with reckless abandon since everything is backed up in full resolution on GoPro's cloud. 

Anyway, I figured this sleeve + lanyard would be great for that. I can have it around my neck instead of taking up pocket space, it's always close at hand, and I'm less worried about my dumb ass leaving the camera in a car at the auction. It seems like it will be perfect for that. As you would expect from a first party accessory it feels well made, and everything lines up correctly. The lanyard is long enough to put around your neck but has an adjustable little clasp on it should you want to use it as a wrist strap while shooting, which I imagine will come in handy for the more precarious shots GoPros are subjected to. It has a window in the bottom so your mounting prongs can still flip out. It also comes in a variety of colors. 

The only downside I have found is that there's no concession for charging. If you want to charge your camera, you have to take it off and put it back on again. It's not difficult to get in and out, but I am worried about stretching over time, as I take it out every single time I need to charge or transfer photos via cable or anything that requires I access the battery, power port, or SD card. 

Having said that, I don't actually know how it could include charging access given that the new design uses an entire side of the camera for a battery door. I'm still pretty happy with it for $9, and honestly it will probably last a year at which point I will likely upgrade anyway. Here are some pics so you can get an idea of how this thing looks and fits. 

I've been messing around with the Hero 8 Black some more. I had initially left the stabilization on High, today I tried it on Boost, and I definitely prefer boost. I'm shooting in 4k30fps in Linear mode. Here's the video. 

Looks pretty damn solid to me, and the crop isn't even noticeable since the field of view is so large anyway. I think I'm gonna stick with these settings for a while. I have a few mounts and other accessories on the way, I'll post pics and my thoughts on them as they arrive. 

I also took a few still photos, mostly trying out the HDR. I don't think this is ever going to be my primary stills camera, but it's honestly pretty solid and actually great for the auctions. The wide angle lens allows me to get the whole car in the shot even if it's close to another car or I'm trying to get a shot of the interior or something that most cameras wouldn't be able to capture. It's definitely coming with me to auctions. 

Maybe I'm just still in the honeymoon period, but I REALLY like this camera. The improvements over the Hero 7 Black seem minor on paper but really do add up to an overall better experience. I'm really looking forward to the media mod, I'll be preordering that when it's available. 

As an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission from items purchased through a link on my site. This costs you nothing and gives me money to spend on alcohol, gadgetry, and car parts.

It took 6 days using their prepaid return label to for them to receive my trade in. It was delivered today around 2pm PST, let's see how long it takes them to ship my Hero 8 Black now. 

Like I said in my previous post, I returned my Osmo Pocket and picked up a Hero 7 black, primarily for vlogging and making car videos for my YouTube channel. So far, I really like the Hero 7 Black a lot, but I would like the ability to mount a shotgun mic. The built in mics do a pretty damn good job if I'm somewhere even remotely quiet, but I feel like my Rode VideoMicro will work a lot better, particularly in noisy cars. 

While GoPro does make a USB C microphone adapter for their cameras, they don't make a case or a mount to easily pair it with a camera. I searched around and the case with the highest rating that includes a cold shoe mount is this one from Puluz. 

Name aside, this thing is pretty impressive so far. It's very sturdy, (in fact one of my only complaints would be that it's pretty damn heavy), though you can't have it both sturdy and lightweight and cheap. All the mic and LED holes are lined up perfectly, it accepts a 52mm filter on the front (I've ordered this from amazon, will report back).

The side is cut in a way that allows you to open the charging door with it still in the case, unlike the stock cases that require you to remove the battery door completely if you want to charge while it's in the case.  

So far I'm happy with it. I have it mounted on a just-arrived GoPro "3 way" selfie stick type thing, eagerly awaiting my mic adapter. I'll post some videos to showcase the external mic performance as soon as it shows up.