Smart Investor magazine, Up To Speed column, February 2008

Gizmo

Gizmo was recently driving through a desert in the Middle East and wanted to record the sense of movement through a beautifully barren wilderness on his camcorder. There were numerous problem with this great idea, among them the fact that it’s impossible to drive and see what you’re recording simultaneously, and that it is utterly illegal to attempt to do so anyway, even in deepest Oman. Suffice to say nothing positive came of the experience. The solution, though, should have been simple: wear your camcorder on your head.

And now you can. A US company called Twenty20 Cameras has launched the VholdR. You can mount it on a helmet (for skiing or rollerblading), on handlebars (for that mountain biking experience) or on the bull bars of your car (to capture the moment when you accidentally hit a kangaroo at 120 km/h). It is designed for durability and simplicity, with a vast on/off switch designed to be operable in thick skiing gloves.

When you set it up there are two lasers which allow you to make sure you’re aiming at the horizon and not your shoes. And once you’re done, it comes with software to help you edit and export the video, including to websites like Youtube. At the moment the best way to get it is online from www.vholdr.com, where it sells for around US$350.

Pages: 1 2 3