"He who buys what he does not need, steals from himself." - Unknown
For the last several weeks, I've been reading on and researching "Action Cameras." In the simplest form, these are small battery powered camcorders that have some weather resistance. Elaborate features go up from there.
When I first joined the company I continue to work for, my first office (a desk really) was adjacent to Ron's office. As a Mac user, he was forced to standardize to the windows platform at some point in corporate IT history. This was during the end of the Windows3.1 era and the beginning of Windows95. Being a glutton for punishment, Ron hated the forced 8.3 naming convention of Windows3.1 and installed Windows95 which was not actively supported. This led Ron to be brought into the pilot use of Windows95 - and its own corporate IT support line. With one problem after another, Ron was on the special help line one day for an extended period of time. At some point he was disconnected (which would have brought him to the back of the help-line when he called back) to which he responded by screaming something unintelligible and smashing his phone onto the office floor; he left in a huff. Minutes later he returned, picked up the phone on the desk next to me and calmly asked site services to get him a new phone as his was broken.
On of my time-lapse cameras BROKE recently and the idea of an Action Cam as a replacement seemed appealing. These cameras all have time lapse capabilities as well as being able to mounted outside for weather resistant use. I'd love to time lapse a cross country trip, or film my next motorcycle trip through Lolo.
Being in vogue, Action Cameras are easy to research online as long as one keeps in mind that negative feedback is much more pervasive than positive. Many professional, semi-professional and blog-type reviews are available to compare and contrast Action Cameras. Amazon makes a great platform for getting real world reviews and prices in one place.
"What consumerism really is, at its worst is getting people to buy things that don't actually improve their lives." - Jeff Bezos
The GoPro is the most common camera but is also very expensive (probably due to the copious advertising that accompanies it - it is everywhere). Sony's AS15 gets very good reviews, especially in professional web-site reviews. Being a camera company first, and a manufacturer of helmets cams second, this unit appears to be the best optically, but I'm not sure that is the point for an Action Camera. Both of these cameras require a hard plastic waterproof case to function in a weather resistant environment. The cameras themselves are rather fragile in order to remain lightweight. To paraphrase one review - they seem rather like a turtle outside of the shell.
The Contour Camera and the Drift Ghost get around this by being natively waterproof. The Drift Ghost also has the feature of a preview screen. This brings up an interesting point - most of these Action Cameras do NOT have preview screens. This leads to the potential for a situation where minutes, hours or longer may have poorly aimed images or smudges on the lens. Very likely in a waterproof turtle-shell case. Many of the cameras have started to get around this by offering "features" like streaming to a cell phone. This adds much in the way cost to the camera and complexity, and cost, and cost. So without a preview screen, we're expected to stream our waterproof camera to our more fragile and non-waterproof smart-phone to compose the shot and hope it stays that way I guess. This functionality seems to cost hundreds of dollars. Some cameras come with a preview screen as an add-on option, creating the option of a bulky, more fragile camera that costs even more.
On the subject of cell phones, I need a new one of these as well. I'm perfectly happy with my Motorola Atrix, but I'd like an LTE phone soon. My phone is my internet connection (I'm using it to connect as this is written) and while I may not get an LTE connection at home, I might. There are other times when I know I would have an LTE connection that it would be worth it. However, newer cell phones (at least those available at AT&T) are HUGE. These might be usable as a handset if I had Andre the Giant hands and pockets, but I don't. Phones such as the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4 are around 40% larger than my Atrix in square inches. I'm currently of the belief that there is very limited individual thought in the cell phone industry so it is assumed everyone wants to carry a small TV around in their pocket. I don't need massive octocore processing power in a cell phone either. Remember the Toshiba Libretto?
I'm more interested in the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini which should be available soon. Or, I've read that a version of the fabled Motorola X-phone may have a smaller version. At this point small and functional would be nice.
“The assumption that everyone else is like you. That you are the world. The disease of consumer capitalism. The complacent solipsism.” - Davis Foster Wallace
I narrowed my camera choices down to two. The Wingman HD looks very promising as it has a native preview screen. I'm not fond that it requires a turtle shell to be water resistant. The price is right at less than $150 but Delkin isn't known as a great camera company, while they do make adequate power strips.
The Drift Innovations Drift Ghost was the other camera that made the cut. It has a preview screen and is waterproof without a turtle shell. It also has replaceable lenses. Both of these cameras have standard 1/4-20 mounting which allows for lots of options. Unfortunately, the Drift Ghost has all the bells and whistles including cell-phone streaming. Not sure of the benefit of cell-phone streaming when it has a preview screen? And, the cost is commensurate with the bells and whistles of $400. There is also the Drift HD at less than $200, which is "water resistant" without a case. I note it has an "optional" waterproof case.
I had some Amazon Gift Cards ready to purchase and decided to sleep on the decision about which to get.
The decision?
Neither.
I recently read an article on how much money it takes to be happy - a topic I'm always interested in. Predictably, there wasn't an answer; there is enough money in 95+% of American households to make the question moot. My take-away from the article was one nugget which suggested research had shown people who made $50,000 with friends who made $25,000 where happier than people who made $100,000 if their friend's made $200,000. This likely true, if also sad. Very sad.
There is a great liberation in not purchasing. There is no major hole in my life to filled by the purchase of an Action Camera or a new cell phone. At least for now...
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