I Technology!

So I saw this ad on teevee last night and I thought "Wow... that's pretty cool!"  I'm talking about this:

Well, I only saw the opening ski sequences on teevee... the full-monty highlight version above (from the web site) has bikini-clad, surfer girl eye-candy (yum!), some motor racing, and aerial sequences that would go over well on teevee, methinks.  But the 30-second or so ski clip on my teevee was enough to pique my curiosity and I went to the GoPro web site to check 'em out, mainly because I invested in a Mino HD camera with an "action mount" two years ago.  More about that in a moment...

So here's a screen shot of one of their less expensive products:

(click for larger)

I'm pretty impressed actually, especially since I went to Amazon to refresh my memory concerning what I paid for my Mino HD a lil over two years ago: $219.92 (the total for the camera, action mount, and cheesy tripod).  The HD Hero 960... which is $40.00 cheaper than my Mino... exceeds the Mino's capacity by an hour and a half (Mino: one hour; Hero: 2.5 hrs), comes bundled with various mounting systems (I paid extra for my "action" mount), and can shoot in 960p while the Mino only shoots 720p.  Now, all that said... keep in mind the Mino was pretty much the only game in town a couple two years ago if ya wanted a handy HD video camera that could shoot "on the go" videos.  Mino has also released its third-generation recorder since I bought mine; a 3G Mino HD has specifications and a price point that are about equal to the Hero 960.

So... if I were to start all over again I'm thinkin' I'd have me one of these Hero 960s.  And as it's said:  I technology!

Oh.  One more thing.  I've used my "action mounted" Mino HD exactly once... to record this lil excursion with the Lovely Miss Zukiko in September of 2009:

You can watch in full screen in 720p (HD) mode but it takes a while to download, even with a two Mbps connection.  Kinda cool, no?