In the Instagram and selfie era, you may not consider paying a ton of money on a head – mounted 4K camera just to capture your dog’s adventures in the front yard or to document your family’s vacation on a sunny beach. However, following the new trends and developments in the pro category of cameras, Panasonic intends to offer its loyal pool of customers a new and improved camera that has little (to no) competitors on the market. What is this all about?
Enter Panasonic HX-A500, a head – mounted camera (composed of the actual camera that goes mounted on your ear which furthermore connects to an arm strap provided with a 1.5-inch preview screen and all sorts of controls through a wire). It looks a bit futuristic, not to mention quirky, but it will offer you 4K technology and basically an action – oriented camera that can shoot at 25 frames per second, something you are more used to in cinema nowadays. However, since your HDTV can offer you action movies, sports, adventures and thrills at 60 frames per second, you might wish to have a gadget that shoots your kid’s snowboard freestyle maneuvers at 60 fps, which, by the way, can stir you towards the new Nikon 1 V3, a hit in the world of cameras, as it can shoot at 20 fps at continuous autofocus and 60fps in single autofocus.
But going back to the Panasonic HX-A500 specs and competitors, it really is a camera for pros filming into the wild, in underwater environments and in survival shows, as it is dust proof and water proof (no more than 10 feet though). Why do we consider it a pro camera? First, because it has the option to broadcast live or edit the material, as it streams the footage over WiFi to an app, and secondly, because the other type of camera of this sort is provided only by GoPro – a camera shooting at a speed of 15 fps, which kinda makes it useless for anything else than selfies.
Are you the nature’s specialist living in the jungle and broadcasting wildlife behavior? Are you the climber documenting dangerous escalations? Are you the travel blogger, sociologist, anthropologist or researcher walking in never seen before areas? Are you a fierce reporter broadcasting from war and conflict zones? Then tell your superiors they should put some money aside, as this piece of hi – tech is around $627 and it seems it will become available in May this year. …Or stick to your current gear…