Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Adventure Tech: Helmet Cams Are So 2009!


Helmet cams have become a very popular way to capture exciting, exhilarating video footage from any action sport. Over the past few years, we've seen them used in everything from skiing and snowboarding videos to mountain biking, climbing, and more. These nifty little lightweight cameras can easily clip onto the top of your helmet and record our most adventurous (or embarrassing!) moments. But now it seems that the helmet cam may be falling out of favor, as new products hit that have cameras integrated directly into them.

Take the new Underwater Scuba Mask Camera Mask from Etronixmart. (The company name sounds a bit...err... fishy!) The mask comes equipped with a built-in camera and 4GB of onboard storage to capture your next snorkeling session. The camera takes a surprisingly high resolution (1280 x 960) shot, in both still and video modes, and it seems very easy to operate. According to Engadget, you simply rub an included magnetic ring across the camera housing for one second, and you'll take a still shot. Rub for two seconds, and the camera will start shooting video. The mask also vibrates to let you know that it is working. The price for this gadget? $116.99, snorkel included.

Perhaps even more tempting for outdoor enthusiasts is the Summit Series Snow Camera Goggles from Liquid Image, LLC which the Gear Junkie featured yesterday. These ski goggles incorporate a 5.0 megapixel camera right into the center of the mask, capturing still images at a resolution of 2560 X 1920. Video comes in at a resolution of 720 X 480 while maintaining a reported 30 frames per second. The googles are easy to operate, even with gloves on, as two large buttons make it easy to turn on and take your shots. The goggles uses SD cards for storage, accepting up to 16GB at a time, and the built in, rechargeable battery is good for two hours of continues shooting or approximately 2200 still images. Not bad at all and all of this can be had for $150.

It looks as if aspiring adventure filmmakers will have some new toys to use to capture their next outings.

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