It’s undeniable that the action cam market is crowding up these days. Despite that, there’s really little option among the products for using with standard lenses to give you more flexibility in your shots. Not the case with the Novo Action Cam, which repurposes the GoPro’s guts into a slim form factor that’s compatible with C-mount lenses.
Made by Radiant Images and View Factor Studios, it’s not a new camera, by any means. Instead, it literally just takes the guts of a GoPro Hero3 Black Edition and stuffs them into a new housing — one that’s thinner and lighter than the popular action cam’s original shell.
The Novo Action Cam uses an all-aluminum housing that makes the already compact action shooter even more space-economical, measuring just 2.47 x 1.85 x 0.5 inches (w x h x d). Despite the change in housing, all the standard features and accessories of the Hero3 remain operational, including the touchscreen LCD, the power backpack, the video quality (4K cinema quality at 12 fps and 1080p HD at 60 fps), and WiFi connectivity for wireless control.
More than a sleeker appearance, though, the device’s primary purpose is to inject the GoPro Hero3 with capabilities that allow it to get past its cinematic limitations by way of a C-mount lens system with back focus adjustment (for extreme macro shooting), exposure control capabilities, and an internal CPU for carrying out various functions (such as disabling the auto-exposure and adjusting the aperture manually via the lens).
The catch? You can’t actually buy a Novo Action Cam. Instead, you can rent it, priced at $295 a day and $885 a week.