Digital Hero 3

From 4LPH41337.com

I first saw the Digital Hero 3 Wrist Camera in the 2008 Primal Quest, during which one was given to each team to provide them with the ability to journal their races with video and photos from their wrists.

We had nearly exhausted our supply of disposable cameras provided us by our supportive sponsor TheElleStudio, and they decided to give the Digital Hero 3 a whirl instead of ordering another batch of the heavier, film-based disposables. There are two-buttons on the camera--a mode button and an action button. Following a simple design, they opted to forego an on/off button, deciding that a timeout setting would suffice. It took me about three minutes to discover all of the functionality of this two-button waterproof digital camera--it is easier to manipulate than a sports watch, and weighs about the same--most of which comes from the two AAA batteries (oddly, I don't believe lithium ion work and I seem to remember the manual saying not to put them in the camera) required to operate it.

Most of the weight comes from the waterproof shell in which the camera sits, with a velcro, foam-backed wrist strap for a comfortable fit. The foam does get hot in hot conditions, but I am unaware of any lightweight material that could provide the same level of padding. The foam padding is placed so that the plastic camera shell is not pressing on the top of the hand when the wrist is in open-throttle position, such as when riding a mountain bike or paddling with a feathered kayak paddle.

The Digital Hero 3 wrist camera supports three modes of capture:

Regular photo mode -- 1 press, 1 picture
M16 burst fire mode for action sequences -- 1 press, 3 sequential pictures
Video mode -- 1 press and hold, 1 video, release to end capture

The digital camera itself is 3.0 megapixel, operating at a decent shutter speed (?120?) and and low F-stop (?3.0?), though that is just speculation based on motion and high/low-lighting photos I have taken (see below). It is a vast improvement over the disposable waterproof cameras, which in the majority of cases either have a vaseline-effect or produce grainy pictures due to low-lighting scenarios. The alternative to graininess in the Digital Hero 3 is blurriness from camera shake. Digital cameras generally try to compensate by decreasing shutter speed, and since there is no chemical reaction as with film cameras, but rather a ghosting effect, the result is a visual blur.

Pictures
Motion in very bright environment. Desaturation.	Relative stillness in very bright environment. Oversaturation and hotspots.	Normal daytime environment.	Still image in normal lighting. Solar flare.
Motion close up. Warping/distortion.	Indoor florescent lighting.	Mostly shaded.	Shaded with sunrays. High contrast/hotspots.

I am not sure the quality differences between the regular photo mode and the burst fire mode. The video quality is decent, though motion waves are apparent when significant camera movement occurs. This indicates, to no surprise, a lower-quality imaging chip in the camera. Quite surprising, however, is that the audio recordings during video mode are decent. Even with the waterproof shell, words can be comprehended. This is pretty impressive as I completely expected speech to be muffled and sound like mumbling due to the waterproof enclosing. The video below will give you an indication of sound quality, while the still frame will give you an idea of video quality (Google video downgrades the quality of its videos to improve download speeds, so do not rely on the video below to indicate the Digital Hero 3's video quality, which you can see from the still frame is much better).

Do not expect a full color display on which to preview your photos; there is merely an LCD screen and a red light in the viewfinder and front of the camera to give user feedback. We are talking minimalistic design here, and if you are looking for in-camera editing/image manipulation, what you get from the Digital Hero 3 wrist camera is the ability to delete the last capture or all captures. How many captures is all of them? Well, it depends on your photo/video mix, since video will require more storage space than photos. The camera can hold 16MB on-board, while an inexpensive 2GB SD card can expand your storage potential ~125-fold. If you want to be able to take videos, I recommend the expansion.

Summary:

The Digital Hero 3 wrist camera is an extremely light and simple digital camera that seems to 
be built for outdoor activities such as adventure racing.  When making trade-offs between 
simplicity and more robust functionality, the makers seemed to have always chose simplicity.  
This makes it ideal for use cases when taking the time to toggle through a bunch of unnecessary 
camera modes is undesirable due to time constraints.  Its no-nonsense user feedback is intuitive 
and its old school black and green LCD panel conserves battery power over a full-color equivalent.  
Lastly, the mechanism for carrying the camera is the best I have ever seen.

If you have the cash and are looking for a way to capture your outdoor experience without having
to worry about grieving over a waterlogged device or Mother Nature destroying your camera, 
then consider the Digital Hero 3--it may be no-frills, but it may be just what you need.