Tony Hawk Helmet-Cam (another one!)
They’re a plague upon us! We’ve found yet another recording type device designed especially for the extreme sports arena. This time it’s a Tony Hawk branded (what exactly does that mean in this context anyway? That it shoots great angles? That it costs more money?) digital camera, which attaches to your helmet, or straps round your head if you’re feeling reckless (and want to look like a caveminer).
It started out with the sale price of about £50, but it’s already dropped to about £25, meaning this is now something you could buy and not worry if it’s fairly useless. Which it just might be.
It’s wireless, with a 32mb memory card that you can take out and put into your computer, to mess with video you’ve taken. The adverts and sale pitches say things like ‘record your wildest stunts first person!!’ but frankly recording your wildest stunts first-person is going to be really frustrating… can you imagine watching the footage and trying to justify to your friends the fact that the ground just twirled past the camera three times means you did a triple back-flip mid air?
Cynicism aside, certainly it has its uses, and would probably be a good gift for someone to have a laugh with for a few days. And apart from anything it signifies that the days when hi-tech do-anything gadgetry will enable any budget of extreme sportist to capture their accomplishments on digital video are not far away at all.
