Outdoor Test: Going Wild With 3 Sports Cameras

20. I Want All Three, and Yet...

For my intents and purposes, the GoPro Hero gets the nod. But so does the Kodak Easyshare Sport, which I will shortly purchase, either to keep for myself or to replace the one I broke if Kodak insists that I pay the company back for breaking the camera. But that does not mean that the Contour HD is not good for different types of extreme sport use, either

Here is what I mean: the GoPro Hero was obviously developed with surfers in mind and for water sports in general, such as sailing, which I also prefer. Specific to sailing, it sits small on my board,  and to my untrained eye, just takes crisper and better-quality pictures and video when surfing than the Contour HD does.

Whether surfing or sailing, the GoPro Hero can be turned on and off while inside its waterproof case, which is an obvious huge plus. Again, when you are pounded by waves or are repeatedly drenched in ocean spray, the last thing you want is to have to take the camera out of its waterproof mount to turn it on or off like you have to do with the Contour HD.

However, for biking, skiing, or other non-water-related sports, the Contour HD offers at least comparable quality video and will work just fine—it is also slightly cheaper with a retail price of $229.95 including a goggle mount, which gets you started for over $50 less compared the cost of a GoPro Hero and an additional mount.

As for the Kodak Easyshare Sport, the $79.95 retail price gets you a lot of camera use for a cheap price. I plan to buy one and always have it handy ready to take shots or videos of bears raiding my camp when backpacking, whales approaching my boat, and hopefully, one day, getting shots of some of my buds in a tube.

Any of these cameras will likely get destroyed one way or another as I continue to use them, whether they dumped in the sea from a boat or smashed when my board plows into reef, but who cares, really. I will just have to buy another one.