Okay, onto “wireless cameras”. Careful though, as some cameras claim to be WiFi when all they really do is copy files to your computer.
Why is WiFi such a great thing for filming tennis matches? Well, just from consulting your smartphone, you can do the following:
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You can make sure the camera is still running (or that you turned it on in the first place),
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It lets you change the settings such as field of view, resolution and frames per second without taking the camera down.
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You can check the battery life.
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You can check to make sure the initial setup is exactly what you want.
In making this review, I just purchased a GoPro Hero3 Silver edition (I’ve been borrowing a Hero2). Here’s my first try at using it:
By the way, the total battery life, with Wi-Fi on, was 1 hour 30 minutes, not that bad. I expect it to increase as the battery gets broken in. With a battery pac, it would last at least twice that long.
Why the Silver? Well, the white edition, at $199, will only shoot in medium and ultra-wide modes. The Black Edition is $399.00 – a little steep. I wanted the option of shooting my tennis in Narrow (90 degree) FOV. And here’s an example of where you want a narrower field of view.
There are other camcorders out there also, like the Sony Bloggie (on back order) and a line of JVC and Canon Cameras. While these may work fine, the question is whether or not they have the right FOV.
One last consideration, on the pricey side, is the Sony CX-380. It is one of the few cameras that has a wide enough FOV built in. Not as wide as the GoPro and somewhat expensive at $450 (you’ll need to add on some more batteries) but worth a second look. On to part 3 – Summary!
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