GoPro is best known for sparking the action camera revolution, but the brand renowned for small, rugged cameras will enter an entirely new category before the end of 2026 with a GoPro mirrorless camera.
When GoPro announced the new Mission 1 series earlier this year, the action camera giant also marked its entry into compact mirrorless cinema cameras.
Ahead of the launch of the GoPro Mission 1 ILS later this year, I sat down for an exclusive interview with GoPro’s senior vice president of product management, Pablo Lema, to chat about the first mirrorless GoPro.
The idea for a mirrorless GoPro dates back to DIYers cracking open Hero4 cameras
While the announcement for the Mission 1 Pro ILS earlier this year came as a surprise to fans of the action camera brand, Lema says that the idea of a GoPro with swappable lenses has been circulating among the company’s team as far back as the GoPro Hero4 – which came out the same year Lema joined the team, in 2014.
Lema explained that fans have been tearing apart GoPros and modifying them for years, but GoPro’s usual action camera sensor wasn’t well-suited to an interchangeable lens setup – until the 1-inch sensor on the Mission 1 series.
While it’s the sensor of the Mission 1 Pro that’s inside the ILS, the first prototypes were built from a modified Hero13. “We were all blown away by the footage,” Lema said of the prototype, “and we decided to make it into a product.”
The GoPro Mission 1 "isn't for every creator"
GoPro is very aware that the Mission 1 Pro ILS isn’t like any other mirrorless camera on the market. On the one hand, there’s 8K open gate, 4K 240fps, and FullHD 960fps on a camera that retails for $699 / £599 / AU$1099 / CA$949.
But, on the other hand, the ILS uses a one-inch sensor paired with a manual-focus Micro Four Thirds (MFT) mount.
Lema says the Mission 1 ILS “isn’t for every creator” but is built for filmmakers looking for a small, mountable system, as well as run-and-gun videographers.
“This won’t necessarily be their only camera,” Lema adds. “[The Mission 1 Pro ILS] is kind of like this pocket rocket of an 8K, open gate, 4K 240 – which is golden – and 1080p [FullHD] 960 bursts.
"These high [framerates] really create something that you can’t see with any other package, paired with the ability to have creative control of the optical look of the film. It will be a really good tool chest for all kinds of cinematographers from automotive to birds to street videographers.”
The first photos of the ILS that GoPro has shared ahead of the official launch look like a quintessential GoPro with the small boxy design – but a Micro Four Thirds mount at the front.
GoPro wanted to strike a balance between all the features that the action cameras are known for, while still stepping into a new category.
The GoPro ILS isn't meant to go up against established mirrorless brands
To strike that balance, the ILS body still has GoPro’s well-known HyperSmooth image stabilization and GoPro’s compact design. But the ILS isn’t submersible (though it is splashproof, if paired with weather-resistant lenses) and the camera is manual focus only.
“We wanted to find our own corner of that world. When we make our first step into this market, we're not trying to go directly against very established ILS options from other companies,” Lema says.
“We wanted to come from our place of authentic, small, normal-priced, very high-performance imaging and create this flexibility in imaging composition that you can get from the MFT ecosystem.”
One of the key types of creators that GoPro sees being drawn to the ILS is those looking for mounted footage without the size or complexity of cranes and gimbals.
“[Mission 1 ILS] still comes with the stuff that we're really well known for,” Lema says.
“What we're excited about with Mission ILS is a combination of ILS with HyperSmooth. That is something that we don't see in the market really at all. A lot of cameras have IBIS in them, but it doesn't get to the performance that you can get with HyperSmooth.”
Micro Four Thirds opens GoPro up to hundreds of lens choices
Pairing a 1-inch sensor with a Micro Four Thirds Mount is an unusual mix that means lenses will have a 3x crop factor.
GoPro originally toyed with the smaller C-Mount format, which is designed for sensors up to one inch, but the wide range of readily available and affordable Micro Four Thirds lenses drew the company to a mount larger than the sensor.
“We shot a lot of video with a different series of lenses,” Lema said. “In internal blind tests, it was very obvious that the MFT lenses were gonna be a better match… and they're affordable, they tend to be small. There are some really wide ones, too.”
The 3x crop factor can make getting that ultra-wide GoPro look more of a challenge, but not impossible. The Laowa 6mm T2.1 Zero D creates an 18mm equivalent view, which sits between the 15mm and 21mm equivalent views from the fixed lens Mission 1 Pro’s different crops.
GoPro says the response to ILS has exceeded expectations
One of the classic GoPro features that an interchangeable lens can’t replicate is fixed focus. The fixed-focus lenses of GoPro’s action cams rely on the fact that ultra-wide lenses have a wider depth of field, making it possible to get most of the shot in focus with a fixed lens.
Lema says that the camera system would have been much more complicated with autofocus, but the response from filmmakers at NAB was exactly what the company was hoping for – with many filmmakers saying they don’t use autofocus or already use follow focus rigs.
According to Lema, the Mission 1 Pro ILS isn’t for the creators who want a point-and-shoot but is targeted towards filmmakers already versed in filmmaking focus techniques.
While GoPro had an idea of what to expect for the fixed-lens Mission 1 Pro and Mission 1, the company was a bit more cautious on what the response would be to the action camera giant’s first mirrorless camera.
“We’re putting our feet into a new pond,” Lema said, “and the response was way more positive on ILS than we had expected.”
While the fixed-lens Mission 1 and Mission 1 Pro cameras are already on shelves, GoPro says the Mission 1 Pro ILS is coming in the third quarter of 2026 – so filmmakers can expect the camera to arrive before September 30.
This story is part of a four-part series on GoPro's next era.
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