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5 Easy Steps To The Site
1
In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
2
Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
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Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
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My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
5
The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
Did you also have a look at Nikon’s new “KeyMission 360” action camera at CES? With 360 degree recording in 4K I think it looks like an interesting camera.
We’ve got another post coming up that specifically talks to that (and a few other 360* action cams). :)
Just a few typos that I think you would like to correct:
While the built in LCD is nice for configuring and controlling while capturing footage, in the old days it was a convoluted mess of step-through menu options that took far to long to navigate through for the simplest of actions.
should be “…far too long to…”
As was as if you had to use a TI-82 calculator to program it.
I think you mean “It was as if…”
Sony is saying a late Q1 release time-frame, though, it sounds a bit in flex.
I believe that it sounds a bit in “flux”.
Good catch. All fixed!
Is it just my imagination, or did they also improve the waterproof housing with a flat “lens”?
Used to be round and the reason for bad underwater images on Sony actions cam’s, and if you wanted that, you would have to buy another housing with a flimsy looking flat glass.
Yep, they specifically mentioned that improvement also.
Hi Randy,
Any word on whether that new housing will fit other Action Cam models? I have the AZ1 Mini & would love to get it in a flat-lens case that doesn’t suck in the water.
On a related note, does the new AS50 feature a new battery design, or does it use an existing battery model some current Sony users may already own?
[Old man gets up on soapbox]
“TI-82? That is your Holy Grail of TOUGH?? Back in my day, we had HP RPN calculators and we liked it!!!”
[Old man falls off soapbox, breaks hip]
Really, though, Randy, when the TIs came out, it was like an angel coming down from the heavens, showing us how to slice bread. Of course, then EVERYBODY could tell what a secant wave looked like, not just us nerds…
Keep up the good work!
My 30 year old Ti56 is still going strong, and so is my brother’s Ti62 Galaxy. So how’s the HP doing? :)
It seems novel now that they came with a printed book of a manual.
My HP41CV is still working perfectly and looks like new despite over 30 years of use ;-)
Still using my HP 11C here – bought new in Feb 1983, on its 4th set of batteries!
Any word on battery life? That’s my biggest hangup for action cams. It would be great it they could get somewhere 6-8 hours on the stock battery so I could use one for long bike rides.
Same here. I don’t care about 4k – 1080p is enough for me. What’s not enough is that barely 2h battery life most cams have.
any word on ant+ ?
Nothing included.
What have you started? I couldn’t get passed the first paragraph …
Try the TI-30! Ah, those lovely bright LED digits; and those memories for constants pi, e, c, µ, e.t.c.
Of course, the slide rule had to go.
… Excellent way of polling your reader demographic though.
A Sony action camera? As you say “it’s a start.”
link to en.wikipedia.org
Hi:
I prefer buttons based navigation than touch screens. I think they are safer and more accurate (and you can press them with gloves!), and menus can be messy in touch screens also…
Sorry, I didn’t know you used gravatar, and I thought the photo was for avatar. The photo has NOTHING to do with my answer.
Sorry, again
I’m just not seeing how this works as an *action* cam. It looks like a smaller version of their old Handycam models.
Seriously, is that a camera or an antenna? Do you need to request clearance from the FAA if you attach this to the top of your helmet?
In general I think folks will be disappointed with helmet mounted 360 cams (I’ve tried). Instead, handlebar mounting is far more interesting because you get to see rider too.
I’m guessing you could, instead, use it upside down and it would look a lot less conspicuous.
What kind of adapter is that btw?
Sony VCTHM2, got it.
If you want a good action shot Id agree the handbar is better but the helmet seems better if your goal is to record in case of a problem (car passing too close, etc). Now they just need to support linking to the Ant+ radar profile to only record when a car passes and maybe an accelerometer to save the last minute before an impact.
(Side note: In my half-asleep period on the plane, the answer above about being helmet vs handlebar location based, I thought I was on the 360* action cam post, not the Sony one. Doh!)
Normally you mount on the side of your helmet, not on top. The Sony helmet mount is quite good, or one can simply use industrial strength Velcro. The steady-shot function on my AS200V blows most other action cam images away quite nicely.
Would you know if Sony have sorted the massive issues with audio I encountered on the
HDR-AZ1VR – when mounting the camera on a motorbike or bike helmet?
When used in the waterproof case the camera vibrated against the case producing an appalling racket.
I exchanged mine twice (three units tested in total) and they were all the same.
I ended up with GoPro copy – £50. Not as pretty but much more functional.
Any idea where I can get the “finger grip” mount?
Yeah, I like the finger grip… Link please!
Has anyone any idea where you can get the finger grip mount shown above from? I have searched and searched, its almost as if DCrainmaker made his own, its brilliant but no one anywhere seems to sell it.
And with that comment within 5 minutes he finds it on ‘presale’ at bhphotovideo.com. And UK shipping at five and a half dollars. Bargain.
how to setting the balancing colour in AS50 ? i’m really disappointed with this camera.
the picture not clear like the other camera ,the setting with1080p & WB , the cheapest action cam is better i think. i try to find how to setting this camera, but i could’t find it.. pls share if you have it.
this camera have auto focus ? because the object very blur.
thanks before