At the recent office-warming party for NYCRuns, the first thing a friend said to me was "Did you bring your camera?" In some circles, I am known as the guy who usually has the camera to make a record of events. It's true, I love to take photos. I am more of a quantity guy than quality. I don't have any fancy camera, just the usual point-and-shoot type. Recently I came across two cameras that I fancy someday owning. They are both hands-free cameras, each with their own advantages.
The first camera that recently piqued my interest is the Memoto Lifelogging Camera. Hmm, what is Lifelogging? That's the process whereby a person logs everything about his life. He captures everything arounds him through audio-recording, video-recording, photographing, etc. All in the hope of able to go back later and finding out exactly what happened when. As I once commented at http://www.fastcompany.com/58604/feedback , I am no fan of the process, but the Memoto camera still intrigues me. It's tiny and light, you wear it and it takes a photo every few seconds. You'll end up with lots of photos but then there is a piece of software that will do the highlighting for you. Besides the obvious privacy issues, there's also other unfavorable facets of using the Memoto, like no access to the photos to share them on social media, or the extra fee to store the photos online. If I have the Memoto, I would use it only for special occasions, definitely not as a life-logging device, i.e. not constantly taking photos 24x7.
The other camera, or more exact, the other video-camera, I like is the GoPro Hero series for sports enthusiasts. Lately I've seen people at foot-races or on the street wearing these helmet-mounted cameras. Stick them there, go on your ride or foot-race and everything is recorded. Or at least "everything" that the flash memory can hold. Just last week, I came across some photos from a runner of the NYRR NYC Half-Marathon. Still photos, not videos, and they look great. The latest version, Hero 3, seems to be unreliable, per the many reviews on Amazon. Maybe by the time I have some disposable income they will have a more reliable version available. Maybe too, by then the Memoto will be widely available. The Memoto's development was funded partly by Kickstarter and the first batches of cameras are going to the Kickstarter investors. I have heard/read about Kickstarters but this is the first I know of a product that I might want.
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