GoPro MISSION 1 Series Update Released – Zero-Lag Shutter, Continuous 50MP RAW Photos and Anamorphic Lens Support

Firmware Update

by Nino LeitnerToday

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GoPro has released a free firmware update for the MISSION 1 series that rebuilds how the cameras take photos, with a zero-lag shutter and continuous capture of more than 20 RAW frames at 50MP. The MISSION Monitor app gains waveform, RGB parade, false color and wireless connectivity. And for filmmakers, a new GoPro Labs build brings anamorphic lens support to the MISSION 1 PRO ILS.

The update arrives in three parts. All MISSION 1 series cameras (MISSION 1, MISSION 1 PRO and MISSION 1 PRO ILS) get a new photo engine with what GoPro calls Rapid Photo, a shutter that fires the instant the button is pressed, plus a Continuous Shutter mode that captures more than 100 photos at 12MP or more than 20 RAW photos at 50MP while the button is held down. The free MISSION Monitor app for iPhone and iPad adds a histogram, waveform, RGB parade and false color, and it now connects to the camera wirelessly. Finally, the latest GoPro Labs firmware adds anamorphic support to the MISSION 1 PRO ILS, with squeeze ratios from 1.33x to 2.0x, HyperSmooth compatibility and pixel aspect ratio metadata written to the file.

It has been a busy year for GoPro and for this camera line. We covered the MISSION 1 series announcement and the first $100 price drop, followed the company through its sale process to the $285 million sale to Starman Optical, a buyer that does not make cameras. After the merger, Nick Woodman wrote that the cameras are staying, and we also reported when GoPro joined the Micro Four Thirds System Standard Group with the ILS model. This free update is a concrete sign of continued work on the MISSION 1 platform under the new ownership. It does not change the hardware, but it does address two areas that matter to working users: stills responsiveness and monitoring.

A rebuilt photo pipeline

GoPro describes the photo changes as “a ground-up rebuild” of how the cameras capture stills. The headline feature is Rapid Photo, which GoPro says removes shutter lag so that the image is taken at the moment the button is pressed. Holding the button down triggers Continuous Shutter. According to GoPro, the camera then captures more than 100 frames in 12MP Standard mode, or more than 20 frames in 50MP RAW.

These figures are manufacturer numbers, and GoPro’s own footnote says that results depend on lighting, camera motion, camera settings and microSD card performance. A new on-screen buffer indicator shows when the camera is close to its limit, which is useful when shooting RAW bursts on slower cards. GoPro has also replaced the shutter sound with a new one that gives clear audio confirmation of each frame.

There are some limits. Rapid Photo and Continuous Shutter do not work in SuperPhoto, Interval Photo or Burst Photo modes, so users who rely on those modes keep the previous behavior.

The Point-and-Shoot Grip angle

GoPro links the update directly to the Point-and-Shoot Grip, a rubberized metal frame that turns a MISSION 1 series camera into a handheld stills camera. The grip has two cold shoe mounts for accessories such as the Light Mod 2, and it is sold separately or as part of the MISSION 1 PRO Grip Edition.

“For photographers, by photographers. That’s how we approached updating the MISSION 1 Series photo experience,” said Jensen Granger, GoPro’s Creative Director of Photography. He added that a MISSION 1 series camera in the grip becomes “a seriously capable travel camera that’s durable, mountable and can even shoot 8K video.”

With a 1-inch 50MP sensor and a fixed 14mm lens on the MISSION 1 and MISSION 1 PRO, the stills case was always there on paper. Shutter lag was one of the main reasons action cameras felt awkward for street and travel photography, so a fix at firmware level makes the grip configuration more practical.

MISSION Monitor gets real exposure tools

The MISSION Monitor app debuted recently as a live-preview, focus-check and remote-control tool for iPhone and iPad. Until now, GoPro marketed it primarily for composition and focus. This update adds four exposure tools that filmmakers expect on any monitor.

The histogram shows the distribution of brightness levels across the frame. The waveform maps brightness to position in the image, so it shows which areas are clipping or underexposed. The RGB parade displays the red, green and blue channels side by side to check that neutral tones stay neutral. GoPro points out that this is particularly helpful in GP-Log2, where a color cast is difficult to see on a flat image. False color replaces the image with a standardized color map that shows clipping, underexposure and whether skin tones land where they should.

The second change is wireless connectivity, which gives cable-free live preview and monitoring. GoPro has not published latency, range or resolution figures for the wireless link. The app also supports the new Rapid Photo and Continuous Shutter modes. The update requires iOS 18 or later; GoPro does not mention an Android version.

Anamorphic lenses on the MISSION 1 PRO ILS

The third part of the announcement is the most interesting one for our readers. GoPro Labs, the company’s public beta firmware program for features beyond the standard menus, now supports anamorphic lenses on the MISSION 1 PRO ILS. GoPro calls the camera “the world’s smallest, most rugged compact cinema camera with interchangeable lenses”. We describe it more simply as a large-sensor action camera with a Micro Four Thirds mount, which is an unusual and interesting body in its own right.

The firmware supports squeeze ratios of 1.33x, 1.5x, 1.6x, 1.8x and 2.0x. Presets let users switch quickly between an anamorphic and a spherical lens. GoPro says anamorphic shooting is compatible with HyperSmooth stabilization, although the press release does not say how the stabilization handles the squeezed image or how much crop it applies. The firmware also writes pixel aspect ratio metadata into the video file, so that Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve detect the squeeze and desqueeze the footage automatically. That removes a manual step in post, and it lowers the risk of a clip going through the edit at the wrong aspect ratio.

An on-camera desqueeze preview for the rear screen is not part of this release; GoPro says it is “coming soon”. Until then, operators will see a squeezed image on the camera itself.

What the squeeze ratios mean in practice

The choice of squeeze ratio matters on this camera. On a 16:9 recording, a 1.33x anamorphic gives an image of approximately 2.37:1, which is very close to standard widescreen delivery without a crop. A 2.0x lens on the same 16:9 frame gives approximately 3.56:1, which most productions would crop down to 2.39:1. The camera’s Open Gate modes (up to 8K30 and 4K120 on the ILS) use more of the sensor height, which makes them the more logical starting point for stronger squeeze ratios.

The mount is also relevant here. As we explained in our Micro Four Thirds article, the MISSION 1 PRO ILS mount has no electronic contacts, so it accepts only lenses with a manual aperture ring or a fixed aperture. For anamorphic glass this is less of a restriction than for photo lenses, because most anamorphic lenses and adapters are fully manual anyway. Lens coverage on the camera’s 1-inch sensor is the other factor to check, together with the weight of the lens relative to a body that is this small. At NAB 2026, we gave the MISSION 1 PRO ILS one of our CineD Best of Show awards, and we discussed the camera in detail in CineD Focus Check ep114.

Price and availability

All three updates are free. The new photography features for the MISSION 1, MISSION 1 PRO and MISSION 1 PRO ILS are available now through the GoPro Quik app or on GoPro.com. The MISSION Monitor update is available on the Apple App Store for devices running iOS 18 or later. The GoPro Labs firmware with anamorphic support is a free download from GoPro Labs.

For more information, please visit the GoPro website.

Would you put an anamorphic lens on a camera this small, or is the zero-lag shutter the bigger news for you? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!