Let’s not beat around the bush – GoPro is the market leader in action cameras and it could be seen that the majority of the success and size of the market is due to GoPro and their action cameras. However, this does not necessarily mean the GoPro range of action cameras are always the best action cameras to go for: especially when you look at the ‘high end’ price of some of the GoPros. With this in mind, if you are looking to buy an action camera this summer, here are a few things you should look out for as features in great action cameras, irrespective of their price.

#1 1080p 60FPS

Although the quality of action cameras are always improving, the bare minimum specs you should look for in an action camera is a quality of 1080p and a frame rate per second of 60. Although there are cameras out there that can go beyond both this resolution and frame rate, the amount of devices that cna actually play such footage is minimal. Therefore, to make use of the majority of technology now, this is the specification to go for.

#2 144 Degree Wide Angle Lens

When it comes to capturing footage of action, it is best go use a wide angled lens so that you can be 100% sure all of the amazing footage you are recording is actually captured by the camera. For this reason, you will usually find the vast majority of action camcorders to adopt a wide angle lens – to what extent the lens is ‘wide angled’ is another question. The majority of cameras out there will have lens that have an angle of view of around 60-90 degrees. For most photographers and video recorders, this is sufficient. However, for action camcorders, you will need something much more wider from 120-150 degrees. What you will usually find is that action camcorders (the best ones for that matter), will have a 144 degree wide angle lens.

#3 Waterproof

It is an absolute necessity to make sure the action camcorder is waterproof and dust proof to survive all the different climates and location the camera is likely to be used at.

Now, with this, there are two types of ‘waterproof’:

1. The action camera itself is strictly not waterproof. However, the manufacturer has created a housing to put the camera in which will make it waterproof and dust proof.
2. The action camera itself if waterproof/dust proof. Therefore, it does not an additional housing.

The housing seems to be the preferred option for makers of action camcorders to go for. However, there are a few cameras out there that are completely waterproof without housings. This enables the action cameras to be a lot small and lighter too, since the weight and size of the housing is not needed. With this in mind, it depends what you want. If you don’t mind a slightly larger camera (with potentially more ports on it such as microSD and SD card slots), then the housing waterproof option is for you. For everyone else, getting an ‘already waterproof’ action camera would be a good option such as with the GoPro Hero Session or Polaroid Cube.