Imagine sharing an awesome YouTube or Vimeo clip with mates who don’t quite appreciate how good the skiing or snowboarding is here in Japan.
We have some of the best snow in the world and some of the most spectacular scenery right on our doorstep; even from Tokyo it’s easy to get out there.
We increasingly share images from even the most mundane aspects of our lives through phone apps and social media these days but many of us want a way to record and tell everyone about what we’re up to while doing something a little more unique.
The chance to share a high quality video of one of our most exciting and at times spectacular winter pursuits is becoming more and more common.
The goggles, available in black or white, are sleek and will fit around any hat or helmet
The difficulty of taking an expensive camera or smartphone out of your pocket with your chunky gloves – not to mention the risk of dropping it in the snow and the impossibility of doing so while on the move – means the best images are often impossible to capture. But we love these new goggles from Eye on Asia.
A 5-megapixel, 720p HD camera is embedded right into the goggles, meaning that nothing protrudes from your head or helmet, and you can still look pretty sleek as you head down the mountain recording your every move with your hands free to concentrate on more important things – like keeping your balance!
The lens will capture anything within a 135-degree range and when testing with a (class 10) 4GB Micro SD card we got around an hour of HD footage that looks pretty sharp and has balanced colours; more than good enough if you are aiming to use your footage online.
Picking up the goggles for the first time, we were impressed with their look and feel – the cellphone-type battery and memory card are concealed behind the lens to the sides (a feature which helps them avoid snow) and the camera itself does not add a great deal of weight to the goggles.
Their polarized outer lens and inner, anti-fog coated plastic mean that you aren’t compromising on all the usual features you’d expect and straps (with silicone grips to avoid slipping on your helmet) are neat.
There is an LED right inside the goggles, allowing you to see when the camera is operating and in what mode without having to remove them from your face, and record and mode buttons are easy to press. We reckon you could use these for pretty much anything on your winter trip.
You’d get some pretty good footage of your kids’ first steps on the slopes, have some fun with mates comparing runs or, if you are a bit more extreme with your skiing or boarding, get real point of view and have a great time putting it to music.
For more details and to buy a pair of the Alps Series goggles that are pictured above, have a look at the Eye on Asia site.
