The GoPro Hero Camera is a go anywhere, do anything video and still camera. Aimed at sports enthusiasts, it uses flash memory, and is waterproof so can be used pretty much anywhere! The camera has a range of extra mounts and straps allowing you to attached it to; handlebars, helmets, chests, surfboards, snowboards/skis, cars, – pretty much anything!
Down to the nitty gritty – The camera has a 170-degree wide-angle lens. Now while this may make everything (such as jumps) look smaller, the wideangle produces excellent light collection and pretty blur / shake free imagery. The housing is tough plastic casing, locked tight allowing the camera to be waterproof to submerge it upto 100 feet.
Video quality comes in at 512×384, and works well on cloudy days, and even better in bright environments. Still pictures come in at 5MP and will record continuously at 2 or 5 second intervals. The f/2.8 lens has 170-degree field of vision which allows for better light sensitivity, and full views of you nailing a trick, or falling off and breaking bones.
SD cards are used for storage, while it eats 2xAAA batteries to keep it alive. With a couple of batteries and 2GB of storage expect just under an hour of video or 2000 pics, even in cold weather when battery performance tends to be a little worse.
You can grab the camera and case from about £120 which I think is pretty cheap, then expect a £160 – £180 total when you start adding various mount kits.
I am looking into getting one for a wakeboarding holiday over Easter and with payday tomorrow, expect it on my head by the weekend!
Even if you don’t want one, check out some of the videos, absolutely crazy!