POV Cameras and Extreme Sports
Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 10:18 pm
It's been a while since anyone has started a controversy on BAK, and after an absolutely KILLER week of wave kiting and powder skiing, I felt up to the task. Surrounded by kiters and skiers/snowboarders with POV cameras all week was just more than I could take.
Let's face it: POV cameras attached to helmets record videos that suck. They show a tunnel-vision view of what is happening in front of the rider, all the while bobbing back and forth in tandem with the rider's head. At best, someone viewing the video feels like they are playing a video game. At worst, it's the Blair Witch Project on crack.
When I watch kiting or skiing videos, I don't want to see "what the rider sees". I see that every time I kite or ski myself. I want a fly on the wall view, 20-50 ft. off to the side or in front of the rider, showing them smacking the lip/busting air/dropping a cliff/slashing some turns, etc.
What people should do, if they want to record videos that they can use to impress their friends and anonymous Youtubers, is mount the POV camera on their wrist and follow their friends around while they are kiting, capturing the sights from a 3rd person angle that really shows what is happening. Then, after spending an hour or two immortalizing your friends, hand them the wrist-strap mounted camera and ask them to reciprocate. This is how all the best extreme sports videos are made.
Please accept my apologies in advance if you have recorded hours of yourself kiting and think anyone actually wants to watch it, unless they are a bulemic who has had all their fingers amputated.
Let's face it: POV cameras attached to helmets record videos that suck. They show a tunnel-vision view of what is happening in front of the rider, all the while bobbing back and forth in tandem with the rider's head. At best, someone viewing the video feels like they are playing a video game. At worst, it's the Blair Witch Project on crack.
When I watch kiting or skiing videos, I don't want to see "what the rider sees". I see that every time I kite or ski myself. I want a fly on the wall view, 20-50 ft. off to the side or in front of the rider, showing them smacking the lip/busting air/dropping a cliff/slashing some turns, etc.
What people should do, if they want to record videos that they can use to impress their friends and anonymous Youtubers, is mount the POV camera on their wrist and follow their friends around while they are kiting, capturing the sights from a 3rd person angle that really shows what is happening. Then, after spending an hour or two immortalizing your friends, hand them the wrist-strap mounted camera and ask them to reciprocate. This is how all the best extreme sports videos are made.
Please accept my apologies in advance if you have recorded hours of yourself kiting and think anyone actually wants to watch it, unless they are a bulemic who has had all their fingers amputated.