Being a sporting person, enjoying watersports, motorsports, snow sports, cycle sports and alike, I have found great joy in using sports cameras over the years to capture all those brilliant moments. Whether it is on the water or on the side of a hill there is always that moment you think, this would be awesome to have on video. The advances in sports cameras over the last few years have made it easier and more affordable to capture these epic moments.
My sports camera passion began with a trusty old VIO POV standard definition helmet camera. These cameras were awesome. Waterproof, robust and versatile. An SD card and a handful of AA batteries and you could record for hours. From there we moved onto the ContourHD. A massive step up into the world of Full HD personal video recording with this brilliant little camera, but we found out the hard way, that water and electronics do not mix. That being said, I still have a ContourHD to this day and it is a trusty little unit.
Then came along the purchase of my first GoPro camera. A weird looking little thing that was cumbersome to mount in some situations, compared to the Contour, but in other positions it could capture some awesome footage. Used in conjunction with my ContourHD and ContourGPS camera, the GoPro HD HERO kit soon had a GoPro 960 as a friend, then not too long after that another HD HERO was added to the collection. Multiple cameras sure take some editing, but you can get some awesome footage with a kit of three of more cameras.
Next in line was the GoPro HD HERO2. What an awesome little unit. 11megapixel photos, timelapse photos down to 0.5seconds and not forgetting the enhanced video quality of the HD HERO2, what potential this new product from GoPro had. This was a game changer for me, as I had only really used my GoPro’s for video. Even though the original GoPro HD HERO could take photos, this function had never really interested me. But the 0.5second time lapse mode offered so many potentially great photo opportunities in the high action sports in which I partake.
Well needless to say, I have given the good and the not so good a crack to date. I have left out our endless trials of cheap copies trying to find a cheap little camera. After wasting so much time and money on cheap imports I have decided it is best to play with the toys made by the big boys. GoPro being the biggest of them all, always seems to hit the mark with innovative and trouble free cameras.
