The Best Action Camera

If you spend a lot of time outdoors and want to be able to relive memorable or particularly exhilarating moments, an action cam is essential. It can also be an excellent option for vlogging, if you don’t want to invest in a more complicated or expensive rig. Action cameras are uniquely suited to capturing footage from a first-person perspective, with a very wide-angle lens. Action cameras are great for capturing as much of the slopes or racetrack as possible. Cheap mounts allow you to attach the camera to a helmet (video), fasten it to the tip of a surfboard, strap it to a hockey stick, or put it on a tripod that’s super close to the action. However, unlike a rugged point-and-shoot camera, an action camera doesn’t have an optical zoom lens, so what you see is what you record. Rugged cameras, on the flip side, lack the mounting abilities, wide-angle lens, and compact nature of an action camera. Those models are also typically designed to capture stills first and foremost, while video is where action cameras shine. Whether you’re flying down a double black diamond slope or clipping perfect apexes on a hot lap at the local race track, you need an action camera to prove you did it—or at least relive the wild wipeout. This list will help you find the best one!