EmailCasio, a company known for their rugged watches, has announced an action camera, the GZE-1, designed for extreme situations.
Action cameras have become a huge subset of cameras since the initial success of the GoPro action camera. While GoPro still has dominance over the market share, many other companies have produced their own.
Casio has integrated its watch technology to produce a shock-proof, dust-proof and water-proof action camera. The camera has a reinforced circular body that can easy strap onto your body or other surfaces for simple shooting. The GZE-1 shoots in full HD and can shoot in slow-motion and full speed in the same sequence. It can be remotely controlled through a smartphone app or with a Casio Pro Trek Watch.
It is currently slated to be released in Japan later this month and possibly will see world-wide release later in the year.
Action cameras, particularly this one, are mostly designed for sports and extreme activities, but they have shown that they have a lot of uses outside of surfing and skydiving, and have been used in many creative ways by video producers. Sure they are great to strap on while you are snowboarding, but they are also great secondary cameras no matter what you are shooting. You can attach it to a car and get great driving shots close up on the wheel or on the hood like you see in action movies, or you can use them to get a timelapse while you are getting other shots. This is a great example of a piece of technology disrupting the workflow and video producers finding new and innovative ways to tell stories in video. When the GoPro was first released it was marketed for sports, but since it has been appropriated into many other shooting situations.
Here's a breakdown of the camera (in Japanese).
Here's an example of what you can shoot with the Casio GZE-1:
Pre-order one from Casio here.
