With all digital camera equipment having gone 'High Def', it's not surprising that helmet cameras have now reached the esteemed HD level too. So is it safe to assume that if you were to buy a HD helmet camera today, that you would be future-proofing yourself against better cameras being released?
Action camera technology has been continually improving over the past few years: each new launch was able to top the competition by being slightly better in video quality then the others and thus claiming to be the 'best on the market. Most of these claims were fairly accurate but now we've effectively reached a glass ceiling in terms of video quality. There are a good number of cameras for extreme sports on the market boasting 1080p High Def video and while there are yet higher levels of HD, no standard computer would be able to edit, let alone play videos recorded at higher levels. Therefore, until standard PCs can handle higher quality videos it is unlikely any helmet camera brand will be be able to offer consumers an improvement on the current sticking point of 1080p.
So this begs the question, what's next? How are these action cameras going to carry on improving over the next few years? We predict that the price and the camera's features will become the main points of differentiation in the action camera market.
Most people tend to have a set budget for their camera and so it's great to see that they can now get more for their money compared to just a year ago. Previously the best action cam on the market was £550 and offered DVD quality video but today you can get a 1080p HD action camera for under £300. Not a bad trend for the consumer.
So with great quality video at relatively cheap prices, the next stage of development for the helmet camera is an improvement in features. Over the next few years we are likely to see helmet cams offering GPS video logging, g-force logging, 3D, and much more.
If you are in the market for an HD helmet camera then rest assured that the video quality is not going to be significantly enhanced in the near future. The only way in which helmet cameras are likely to improve is a greater development of features which may improve usability and that simply means you'll be able to use these action cams in more extreme sports in more ways to get more extreme videos!
