Adventure travel is all about capturing moments that are going to be the witnesses of the adrenaline rush one’s been in. It is usually these times that it dawns upon the traveller that their most important gear aka camera is missing or haywire. As soon this reality gains ground, second reality sets in; their budget is as much as the size of a pea. Not a very pleasant situation to be in? Take a quick look at our pick of 5 GoPro alternatives of their absolutely hi-tech expensive cousins that not only fits the pocket but are as good as them.

Garmin VIRB XE

VIRB action cameras capture all the action in brilliant HD. In addition, they record data from sensors within the camera for speed, altitude, G-force, GPS position and more. They also wirelessly connect to compatible devices and sensors so you can capture even more data.

With 12 megapixel sensor can shoot burst photos at up to 30fps, it captures even more of your action with G-Metrix. However, it loses its screen to the expensive VIRB Elite. Also, it doesn’t support recording in 4K. The battery issues crop up now and then. All in all, this is a good gear when compared to its pro alternative.

Panasonic HX A1

Panasonic  HX A1 has a compact built and is ultra light which enables its usability in various scenarios. Also, the night vision makes it the only action camera suitable for shooting in the dark. It is the right buy in action camera bandwagon for budget –minded buyers.

However, A1’s picture quality gives it a little setback in the adventure photography segment. The camera doesn’t have an underwater case for waterproofing beyond its low built-in rating so underwater filming is restricted. Pedestrian battery life won’t suit those shooting for long stretches of time.

Xiaomi Yi

With powerful hardware and a lightweight compact design, the camera takes outstanding HD videos and crystal clear 16MP photos. The built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity allow you to stream live footage, edit videos and photos and share instantly all from your phone. This being said we can conclude that it offers more than what is asked for at this price.

However availability is an issue with this one. It is available only in some parts of the world yet and it is a little tough to get your hands on one, No memory card, mounts or housings are included and the Yi isn’t waterproof on its own. Battery life could have been better but it isn’t very bad considering the battery life of GoPro.

ClickPro Prime

ClickPro Prime action camera is a lightweight entity in its segment and offers a 1080 picture quality at a 30 frame per second. As it is said, it gives a high-resolution video with a bang for the buck. The auto-exposure part works well to capture the well-lit shots.

The weight of the camera is ultralight making it insecure to be used without casing. The picture quality is as good as your smartphone camera goes, hence, this device is fair to document selfies/family/fun with its 170-degree wide lens.

SJCAM SJ4000

SJCAM’s Sports HD DV 1080P camera, the SJ4000 has taken the same cue in design as its GoPro alternative. It has a field view of 170 degrees and can record videos up to 1080p. It comes with all sorts of mounts and accessories including the waterproof case for all the action packed sequences.

All this being said the camera lacks high fps recording for slow motion videos. The 60 fps mode isn’t true 60 fps and is just frames duplicated to create 60 fps.

What camera accompanies you on your adventure trips? Do tell us about it.

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Every motorcycle trip I take is followed by a dozen calls to those two friends to share videos, who were shooting everything on a GoPro, because they were too lazy to process them. While most action cameras have come a long way in terms of quality, we are still relying on the old school techniques for processing. It appeared that the action cameras have hit the ceiling in terms of innovation but a young company from Mumbai seems to have a different idea. Started by a bunch of travel, adventure and photography enthusiasts, Nexgear recently introduced Frodo, a smart wearable camera at CES 2016.

Frodo not only records video clips but also processes them to give you instant videos that you can share right away. There are multiple preset styles and it keeps learning your style with time. This way you end up with videos the way you like them without the hassle of spending hours on a video editing tool.

Frodo takes an entirely different approach to the design of an action camera, so different that one takes a while to figure things out. The removable camera is mounted on a band and can be used in a variety of ways. At first glance it looks like a large square watch that happens to have a lens instead of a display, well, turns out it has a display as well. There is a hidden LED display on its face which can double up as a watch.

If you are interested in numbers, Frodo has an 8 megapixel sensor with a wide angle lens with 120 degree field of view and f/2.6 aperture. The videos are recorded in full HD at 30 fps and it can record straight up to 1.5 hours on a single charge. We would have preferred 60 or 120 fps but it isn’t a deal breaker. The camera is ready to shoot in just 0.7 seconds which is really impressive.

It doesn’t miss out on popular connectivity options either. So apart from the standard USB connectivity, you get Wi-Fi and low energy Bluetooth to transfer data. It also has a 6 axis motion sensor. When you are not shooting, it sits around on your wrist as a watch and an activity tracker eliminating the need of that basic activity tracker you have been using. It is waterproof, dustproof and shockproof so you don’t have to worry about keeping it safe from the elements.

While Frodo might look like an interesting piece of tech for your next adventure trip, you can’t buy one yet. Nexgear will be running an Indiegogo campaign for Frodo that starts from April 4. It will be available with storage options of 16, 32 and 64 GB with prices expected to start around $200. GoPro, we’re looking at you!

You can find more details about Frodo on www.frodocam.com.

Update (April 4, 2016)- The Indiegogo campaign is now live and early bird prices start at $149 for the 16 GB version. You can check all the options on their Indiegogo campaign page.

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Travellers all over the world love GoPro. There are no reasons not to. Their cameras offer quality images, can be mounted almost anywhere and can survive quite a lot of abuse. Surprisingly there haven’t been any strong competitors to the high end GoPro cameras, until now. Recently Nikon unveiled the KeyMission 360 during CES, an entirely new kind of camera that we have wanted for long.

The Nikon KeyMission 360 is company’s first action camera which comes with rugged exterior to handle your outdoor adventures and can capture 360 degree footage in 4K. The camera is waterproof up to 100 feet and is resistant to dust, shock and low temperatures. Nikon hasn’t revealed any specs yet but we know that this marks the start of a new series of cameras and there will be more such cameras. The camera being a Nikon, we hardly have any doubts about the quality of videos and images.

While this space has been long dominated by GoPro, other players have gradually started to make their presence felt. DJI recently introduced the cameras it puts on drones as standalone cameras. There is market for action cameras and there is market for 360 degree video cameras. Nikon is eyeing both of them here with this one of its kind product. YouTube has supported 360 degree videos for long and Facebook recently added support for the same so the Nikon KeyMission 360 would possibly give us new kind of videos to watch in our cardboard viewers. It shouldn’t be long before some travel brand takes up this new tool to come up with interesting video campaign.

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