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TECH NEWS
Panasonic unveils HX-A1 action camera
Yesterday Garmin released two new Virb action cameras, and today Panasonic has unveiled its brand new HX-A1, a compact HD video camera that weighs a claimed 45g and is built to be rugged and durable. It's expected to costs $200, but no UK price has been announced yet.
It’s clear Panasonic has designed the HX-A1 to appeal to outdoor sports like road cycling, mountain bike, hiking, climbing, kayaking etc, because it’s small (83.1mm x 26mm) and light (46g) and is designed to be rugged and survive some abuse. It has an IP68 rating and is waterproof to 1.5m, shockproof from a height of 1.5m, freezeproof to -10°C, and is protected against dust ingress.
The HX-A1 shoots video at 1080p at 30fps, 720p resolution at 60fps, as well as 480p at 120fps. That last mode will provide the ability to do super slow motion video. The Panasonic is one of the few cameras that offers a night mode, “0 Lux Night Mode”, when combined with an after market infrared light source.
Like the Virb, the Panasonic HX-A1 features WiFi connectivity allowing the camera to be partnered with a smartphone and Panasonic has developed an app that can allow you to use the smartphone as an external screen, to check the angle of the camera, useful if mounting atop a helmet. A number of mounts allow a plethora of mounting positions, from the handlebars to the helmet.
The Panasonic HX-A1 will be available in June, with a price of $200, no UK price has been announced yet. More at www.panasonic.com
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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6 comments
Personally I don't see why they cannot make them with a replaceable battery rather than a built in one that way with a few extras in your pocket problem solved.
still wanted a Garmin Edge type GPS with a decent camera. Now THAT would have been a great product.
still wanted a Garmin Edge type GPS with a decent camera. Now THAT would have been a great product.
Indeed, looks nice but I am still hanging out for the Fly 12
Hmmm...it has a max recording time of 1hr, with video chopped into 2min segments that get overwritten after 60 minutes. No mention if you can flag a section to be retained, i.e. after a near-miss or awesome descent / funny clipout fail.
Even if it has that function, battery life isn't looking great folks - the 'massive' (relatively) extended battery, over twice the length of the camera itself by the look, is only good for 2hrs 45 minutes. By that factor alone I'm guessing the non-extended runtime is going to be about an hour, hour thirty tops. This ain't a 10hr-recording Fly12-killer by the look of it.
The Gadget Show are saying it's £180. Yikes.
Proof>pudding.
p.s. nice AR video though, around Wanaka, NZ. Represent!
I'm not sure about the max recording time of 1 hour - it doesn't make sense (even if their own website does suggest that). It takes an SDXC MicroSD card, so you should have storage of up to 128Gb (let's ignore the battery life imitations for now). If you say that an hour of 720p recording is about 3Gb (from my experience with other devices), there's obviously a lot of scope to store more than 1 hour video before looping. Hopefully the 1 hour thing is just a marketing person writing it wrongly. Worth waiting for reviews I think.
I also have some fond memories or riding around Wanaka myself