DIY Action Video Cameras using Raspberry Pi

Wearable action video cameras have certainly caught a wide attention among video and photographers all over. Stable images, good battery life, tough casing etc. are some features that set such cameras into a different from conventional hobbyist or professional ones. Of course, when it comes to extreme action uses like wearing the camera while going surfing, you do need such features that make the recordings a fun and adventurous experience for the viewer.

While buying these built-to-use cameras, usually, one is made to trade off a feature or two making the gadget fall short of expectations. Sometimes need or burden of a bigger battery is felt, sometimes it is the lens, or any other such common feature that limits the use. This won’t be so if one can DIY his own camera. Making your own camera? Well, a conventional one can be made but a wearable action camera? Yes, with the Raspberry Pi, its camera, a moisture proof casing and a few more accessories, you can.

Many of us are aware of that Raspberry Cam add on to the Pi, which when accompanied by a longer connection cable, can be placed somewhere relatively distant from the Pi. For instance, while the Pi is tied to your waist, the cam is placed on your forehead. As far as powering up the Pi is concerned, you can power it up with a portable battery bank of any capacity that you want. The hobbyist oriented Raspberry Pi Cam can do standard definition video recording of 640 X 480 resolution at 90FPS as well. Being an assembling DIY, you can change the power bank supply as per your need and avoid the unnecessary waste of time and energy while charging a larger bank for a short time purpose. Even if you own only one power bank and still save a lot of charge, you can always unplug and use it to charge or power other gadgets. As far as the camera is concerned, it is decent enough to give an experience rich video and would always give an opportunity to replace it with better versions as and when they come out. Besides, options to mount it are also there as one can mount them on the forehead or neck or wrist or even ankle. So, this DIY fetches us some simple gadget integration gets us a long serving and versatile machinery with a lot of options to customize and choose.