Tuesday, March 01, 2011

I smileys Technology!

So I saw this ad on teevee last night and I thought "Wow... that's pretty cool!"  I'm talking about this:



Well, I only saw the opening ski sequences on teevee... the full-monty highlight version above (from the web site) has bikini-clad, surfer girl eye-candy (yum!), some motor racing, and aerial sequences that would go over well on teevee, methinks.  But the 30-second or so ski clip on my teevee was enough to pique my curiosity and I went to the GoPro web site to check 'em out, mainly because I invested in a Mino HD camera with an "action mount" two years ago.  More about that in a moment...

So here's a screen shot of one of their less expensive products:

(click for larger)

I'm pretty impressed actually, especially since I went to Amazon to refresh my memory concerning what I paid for my Mino HD a lil over two years ago: $219.92 (the total for the camera, action mount, and cheesy tripod).  The HD Hero 960... which is $40.00 cheaper than my Mino... exceeds the Mino's capacity by an hour and a half (Mino: one hour; Hero: 2.5 hrs), comes bundled with various mounting systems (I paid extra for my "action" mount), and can shoot in 960p while the Mino only shoots 720p.  Now, all that said... keep in mind the Mino was pretty much the only game in town a couple two years ago if ya wanted a handy HD video camera that could shoot "on the go" videos.  Mino has also released its third-generation recorder since I bought mine; a 3G Mino HD has specifications and a price point that are about equal to the Hero 960.

So... if I were to start all over again I'm thinkin' I'd have me one of these Hero 960s.  And as it's said:  I smileys technology!

Oh.  One more thing.  I've used my "action mounted" Mino HD exactly once... to record this lil excursion with the Lovely Miss Zukiko in September of 2009:


You can watch in full screen in 720p (HD) mode but it takes a while to download, even with a two Mbps connection.  Kinda cool, no?

4 comments:

  1. That is pretty cool! I only watched in 360p but the image quality is still pretty darned good. I got a Sony HD hand held for my 15 year service award and still haven't used it. I vote for a Happy Hour vid with our favoritest blog author complete with brew, stogie, veranda, ect. It has been a year and a half since the maiden film after all. ;)

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  2. I meant that Miss Zukiko vid was the only time I've used the "action mount," Anon. I've done 21 installments of Cheesy Videos, at least two of which were shot during Happy Hour. I'll prolly do more of that sorta thing in future, given my limited imagination. ;-)

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  3. Those are some great camera shots - just a bit wilder than your "cheesy video." Your life is almost as exciting as mine. Of course, I have dogs.

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  4. Lou: There are times I'd trade ya lives... straight across.

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