You are going on a hiking trip to a waterfall that is far into the mountains. You are riding a wave on a beach you have been longing for for years. You are riding a mountain road winding down through the mountains at sunrise, or skiing down a powder slope with your friends just in front of you. You want to record all the seconds of it–but an ordinary camera would be smashed or drowned, or shaken into pieces. And this is precisely where action cameras come in. Little, incredibly hard, and adapted to the situations when everything would fail.
Action cameras are small and tough cameras that are used to record quality photos and videos when taking part in severe physical activities. They are waterproof, shockproof, and can be mounted on a helmet, a handlebar, a surfboard, a boat, or even in the harness of your dog. The category was in effect created by GoPro, which was introduced in the early 2000s and has taken over the field since then. Nowadays, the competition has caught up in exciting ways.
What action cameras can really do nowadays.
The GoPro HERO flagship shoots at an impressive 4K and even 5.3K at high frame rates and delivers smooth and amazingly detailed shots even when you are moving fast. Image stabilization (or HyperSmooth as GoPro calls it) is a feature that is built in and so efficient, it borders on miraculous. Video that would have been hideously shaky and unviewable on the older cameras now appears to have been captured by a professional cameraman on a costly gimbal stabilization shot. The comparison with three or four years ago is truly dramatic.
DJI, the worldwide leader in drones, produces the Osmo Action line, which competes with GoPro on a very high level of both video quality and stabilization capabilities. Insta360 has approached it in a totally different and innovative fashion with their 360-degree cameras, which record all things in all directions at the same time. Then you pick your angle and framing retrospectively in editing – a technique that puts you in a place of creative options no conventional camera can imagine.
One of the most exhilarating characteristics of the current action cameras is slow-motion shooting. Framing at 240 frames per second will allow you to replay a wipeout, a jump or a moment of impact in the most beautifully dramatic slow motion showing details that can not be seen with the naked eye. The time-lapse features will make a thirty-minute sunset or a lengthy mountain hike look like a spectacular thirty seconds video. The use of night shooting has also become a lot better in recent years, the use of night shooting has been able to provide usable and, at times beautiful footage in conditions that would have been impossibly dark to action cameras just a few years ago, such as around campfires, under the stars.
Accessories, Battery life, and getting started.
One of the largest benefits action cameras have over smartphones is mounting versatility. The ecosystem of accessories that surrounds the brands such as GoPro is massive and spans nearly every possible application. Chest mounts provide a first-person point of view. Wrist mounts ensure the camera is in easy reach. Suction cup mounts fit cars’ hoods, kayaks or motorbikes. Jaw clamps catch the poles, handlebars or trees. These cameras can be installed in any practical place which no phone camera, no matter how good, can afford to do.
The only weakness of action cameras is battery life. Most record about 60 to 90 minutes at maximum resolution, and then require a new battery. Users of action cameras with experience nearly always have at least two or three additional batteries in a pocket or pack. The positive aspect is that batteries to many popular models are cheap, extremely tiny, and can be easily replaced within a couple of seconds.
To begin with action cameras, it is a good idea to purchase a middle-tier product, as there are numerous great models costing less than $200. You will soon know what features do and do not really appeal to you, and what features you hardly ever use and that will inform your future upgrade choice much better than the immediate purchase of the highest priced one.
The democratization of adventure filmmaking by action cameras is truly astonishing. The type of impressive, moving filming that was previously only accessible to high-budget professional gear and a crew of skilled filmmakers can now be achieved by anybody who has a spare couple of dollars to buy a small, rugged box and go out in the street. An action camera can be one of the best investments that you can choose to make if you live an active life, and you want to remember and share it in detail.
