If you’ve ever found yourself on holiday and trying to work out the best way to get a nice family photo of the occasion then you’ve probably concluded that there are 3 options; take a round of pictures with a different person missing each time as they hold the camera, try to balance your camera on a nearby surface or give it to a stranger and hope they don’t leg it with it.
It’s fair to say that none of these are exactly ideal – a fact generally confirmed when you get back home and find yourself sorting through a host of blurry snaps. Now though, all this trouble could be a thing of the past as the new Soloshot mount lets you capture all your most memorable moments without the need for a cameraman.
The Soloshot mount
The Soloshot technology sits between the tripod and the camera itself, attached by nothing more fancy than some standard mounting screws. From there, it automatically tracks the movement of individuals wearing an included armband and, because of the lack of wires, is capable of turning a full 360 degrees at speeds as high as 40 degrees per second – so it’ll even be able to capture that footage of you driving off into the sunset movie-style.
The armband is completely waterproof so you can feel free to splash away to your heart’s content without worry, and the Soloshot has a whopping 2,000 ft range so the camera will lose you far before it does.
Are there drawbacks?
Apart from the armband, which admittedly isn’t exactly discreet and might leave you with some bizarre tan lines, at first glance the Soloshot seems pretty perfect.
That said though, there are still a few drawbacks. One thing the device can’t do is deal with zoom, and so you’ll have to set this yourself beforehand. You’ll also find yourself relying on autofocus and hoping for the best, and whilst it might eliminate the worry of giving your camera to a stranger you could well come back from your self-filmed surfing adventure and find that someone’s stolen your equipment while you were out enjoying the waves.
The mount can be securely attached to the tripod and the developers say that it’s a good idea to then attach the tripod to something like a lamp post, but this all sounds like a bit of a faff and I can’t see it deterring someone who wants your Soloshot badly enough.
How much will it cost?
The mount will set you back $479, and the company state that the device will be shipped 6 to 8 weeks after payment – so you’d best be planning your holiday well in advance. That said though, they’ve promised that they’re working on a much more streamlined service so this should improve drastically in the coming months.
Rob writes about photography for spectacles provider Direct Sight.