Snowboarding
More Products to Change the Way You Ride
Part 2 of our guide to the latest innovations in ski and snowboard gear dropping in 2016.
Gear Upgrade Part 2
© Jason Horton
StabCam: Bringing Steadicam to the masses
StabCam: bringing steadicam to the masses
© StabCam
Steady, stabilized action footage — the holy grail of snowboard filmmakers. There’s nothing quite like it for giving your footage the professional polish it deserves. Stabilizers have often been too big, heavy and expensive for regular consumers. But as cameras have shrunk in size and cost, so have stabilizers.
These days, compact stabilizers with an under-hanging counterbalance are cheap and easy to use on foot. They aren’t much use, however, when you’re blasting down the mountain. Enter the StabCam. Using a series of motion sensors and motors, this lightweight stabilizer attaches to any existing GoPro’s waterproof mount or accessory (helmet, suction cup, rod, etc.) to smooth out even the bumpiest ride. Better yet, it has a "follow me" function that allows it to remotely lock onto a subject’s smartphone using GPS tracking. This allows the camera to pan and tilt to keep the subject centred within the frame.
Although it’s still in development (soon to hit Kickstarter) and there are already a couple of other motorised Gimbals on the market, the StabCam's focus on on-mountain performance makes it worth waiting for.
DxO One: The best camera is the one you’ve got with you
DxO One: A tiny camera with an SLR-grade sensor
© DxO One
Quality or convenience? Every photographer wrestles with the decision, especially when shooting on the mountain. A good SLR camera with a bagful of lenses is the pro’s choice, but it’s bulky. Even a quality compact camera is too large to slip into your pocket like a smartphone. But, great as they are, smartphones can't match the power of real cameras.
Which brings us to the DxO One: a tiny camera with an SLR-grade sensor that operates through a smartphone. It comes with a fast f/1.8 lens, full manual control through the smartphone app and a 20.2 megapixel, 1” sensor — currently the world’s smallest 1” sensor camera. The DxO One even shoots 240fps high-speed video — everything (and more) you would expect from a high-end compact camera, yet small enough to slip into your pocket.
It’s a genius concept: a high-quality camera that’s been stripped down to a tiny lens and big sensor. Everything else is outsourced to your smartphone, which you’d be carrying anyway.
The latest in in-helmet audio
Hearing Voices: The latest in-helmet audio
© Outdoor Technologies CHIPS®/Poc’s Receptor BUG helmet
Bringing headphones and helmets together is nothing new, but there are a couple of new products set to take your on-mountain audio experience to the next level.
Outdoor Technologies CHIPS® Bluetooth wireless audio drop-ins are simple to use. They connect easily to a device using Bluetooth and are compatible with any helmet equipped with an audio enabled liner. Besides freeing you from the tyranny of cables, they feature a mitten-friendly button on each pod that allows you to play and pause, raise and lower volume, answer calls and skip tracks without removing your gloves or reaching for your phone.
Poc’s Receptor BUG helmet doesn’t have Bluetooth connectivity or the mitten-friendly buttons of CHIPS, but it does have the distinctive Beats By Dre logo on each ear. For some, it's all about the Beats, right?
Make sure to check out the first installment of our look at the latest in innovative ski and snowboard gear.
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