Hasta La Gadget!

Action camera company GoPro has filed the initial documents for its initial public offering, according to a press release from the company this morning and confirmed by GoPro to TechCrunch. The announcement is brief, revealing only that the San Mateo company intends to go public as soon as the Securities and Exchange Commission completes its review process of the IPO submission draft filed today, February 7.

GoPro only just appointed a new Chief Financial Officer February 4, bringing former Qualcomm Atheros SVP Jack Lazar on board to occupy the spot. Lazar has occupied high-ranking financial roles at a number of companies both public and private over the years, and began his career as an auditor at Price Waterhouse. At Atheros, he helped the company IPO back in 2004, a year into his tenure. In hindsight, it seems likely Lazar was brought on to help prepare for this transition.

The camera maker was originally planning an IPO back in 2012 before its $200 million private investment round, but CEO Nicholas Woodman confirmed to TechCrunch back in September that one was still in the works. When the company raised its $200 million round from strategic partner Foxconn, it was valued at around $2.25 billion.

In an interview at Disrupt SF 2013, Woodman discussed the challenges of fundraising for a hardware startup, and the benefits of bootstrapping even at a time when crowdfunding platforms are prevalent. The founder talked about how he started with $64K of his own startup capital, followed shortly from $100K put in by his father, and how that afforded him the ability to start with a clear and singular vision.

GoPro has seen its sales numbers for its action camera products and accessories double ever year, according to the company. It made over $500 million in gross revenue on the strength of 2.3 million cameras sold in 2012, and racked up over $100 million in sales last January, and Woodman hinted that the company might exceed $1 billion in revenue for all of 2013 in a Bloomberg TV interview last October.

.@GoPro CEO Nicholas Woodman hints at $1b in revenue this yr & shows me the new Hero 3+ bloom.bg/GzLTvh—
Emily Chang (@emilychangtv) October 01, 2013

There’s no shortage of wearable action cameras on the market today. The most popular action camera comes from GoPro and is designed to be worn or mounted on just about anything you can think of. A company called iON has unveiled its own ruggedized action camera called the Air Pro 3 Wi-Fi. The cool thing about this camera is that not only can it survive splashes and being submerged in a mud puddle, this thing can go scuba diving with the ability to survive up to 49 feet of water,.

The camera features a 12-megapixel image sensor and can record full 1080p HD resolution video at 60 frames-per-second. Wi-Fi capability allows the camera to stream the video its recording to Android or iOS devices running a free companion application as well. Once the video is shared with the mobile device, it can be easily uploaded to social networks such as Facebook or YouTube.

In addition to the included helmet mount and tripod, its maker also offers a number of mounting options for the camera including a vehicle mount for automotive sports and several wearable mounts. The camera can be pre-ordered now for $349.99(USD) and will ship on November 15.

[via Photography Blog]

JVC Kenwood is going to release a new rugged action camera “GC-XA2″ from their ADIXXION series in early August. The models are dustproof, shockproof, 5m waterproof and -10℃ low-temperature resistant.

It has a full HD 1080/60p mode, 8M backside illumination CMOS image sensor, F2.4 lens, and Wi-fi function built-in, and newly features “Hi-Speed REC” mode that allows you to record 120 frames per second in full HD quality.

Price: Open price
Size: W74 x H53 x D35mm
Weight: 110g
Image sensor: 1/3.2inch backside illumination CMOS image sensor, 7.99 million pixels
Effective pixels: Moving image 7.5million〜5.9million pixels, Still image 7.5 million pixels
Monitor: 1.5 inch
Zoom: 5X digital zoom

Polaroid‘s come a long way since, well, Polaroid. Now its portfolio includes retro devices, tablets and action cameras. It’s that last category we’re interested in today, as the company just announced a new shooter, the Polaroid XS80. The credentials break down thus: HD recording in 1080p and 720p and VGA, waterproof to 30 feet, 16- 5- and 3-megapixel still modes and 120 degrees FOV. The barrel-bodied camera also includes a G sensor for auto rotation, plus anti-shake technology, a memory card slot (good for 32GB) and an HDMI socket. The price ($130 including helmet mount) puts this just below the XS100 model, but if this is just the right level of extreme for you, the good news is it’s available now.

Filed under: Cameras

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Source: Polaroid

Sport and action cameras are big business, and even though there are a couple of main players, it doesn’t stop other’s trying to get a bite of the apple. Geonaute, however, have come at the situation from a different angle. Heck, they’re coming at it from every angle, with its 360-degree offering. Equipped with three 8-megapixel wide-angle lenses the camera captures an almost spherical field of view. This might initially sound like a strange idea… after all, who wants all of that in one video, won’t it all be warped beyond recognition? The short answer is no, in fact it’s much better than you would ever have thought, and we’ll explain why shortly. Going back to the camera itself, it looks a little like the innards of those security cameras you find in government buildings etc that peer at you ominously. However, in this case, the three lenses have color detail around them which makes them look anything but sinister, and the circular base section might look a little large, but in fact it’s light in the hand — and actually helps it sit quite comfortably atop a helmet.

In 360 video mode the advertised resolution is up to 2,048 x 1,024. In photo mode you’ll get single shot, burst and time-lapse modes with a top resolution of 4,096 x 2,048. The actual FOV is 360 degrees on the horizontal, and 150 degrees vertically, but the end result is a fairly complete viewing sphere. The 3,000 mAh battery should be good for two hours of footage, and the microSD card slot will take cards of up to 32GB. While there is a waterproof housing, the camera itself will take the elements on pretty well thanks to its IPX7 rating. Read on after the break for more impressions.

Continue reading Geonaute’s 360 degree sports camera catches all the action, even our hands on

Filed under: Cameras, Portable Audio/Video

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