My DriftHD's still work great, however, their casings are starting to break down (4-5 years of Texas heat will do that to plastic), and it's difficult to get replacement shells. I still think they're overall the best helmet camera for paintball given their overall design.
Sony HDR-AZ1
This revision of the camera received a significant shrink from its previous versions; enough so that I would actually consider using it now. It kind of looks like they just ditched the retarded accessory shit on the bottom.A large part of the shrink is probably the removal of the internal GPS. I kind of suspect maybe some other things under the hood, but that's the biggest one. The GPS is a part of the live view remote now, which is actually a sensible thing to do.
The SteadyShot mode I think will be pointless for paintball use, but possibly more interesting for RC, which is the primary reason why I'm looking at it.
The remote feature I really like. Originally, I didn't think it would be that big a deal, but having used Drift's remote for a while, it's something that I appreciate much more. (Like forgetting to turn the cam on before a game, and being able to turn it one while you make your initial breakout.) You can also use it with a smartphone instead of the official remote, which is really nice.
The lens housing looks kind of crappy. If I'm not mistaken, there will be 3 layers of glass before the sensor. The waterproof "exo-suit" is one layer, then the inner camera will have one layer, and then you get the lens. That screams "lens flare" to me, and some of the sample footage I've seen confirms this.
(Drift HD, when run bare, which I do, has 2 lenses, and not very much lens flare.)
The online video samples of the HDR-AZ1 unfortunately seem kind of "meh". Most of the videos look like someone farted on the lens, kind of like when GoPro's seem to go in one of their moods.
The housing and mount options are still shit, but the size reduction might help alleviate some of that.
The bare unit itself is "splashproof", but I wouldn't trust that alone against a paintball hit.
Other notable about the HDR-AZ1 is the file format and the editing software it comes with. Haven't had much time to look into those, but they might make nice bonus features.
Also notable: the WiFi control API might actually be documented. Something about some JSON-RPC interface.
Oh, and the battery is replaceable.
Questions remain: can the thing record on external power alone? Apparently it will pick up the time from the Android phone that connects to it, but does the live view remote keep time as well?
What is the threading on the front mounting hole? 1/4-20? Looks smaller than that.
Panasonic HX-A1
This one's not out yet, but it's pretty small and has a nice, sane round body which will be much easier to make mounts for. Also appears waterproof without another outer housing, which I like.
They appear to support an external power supply by default, which is somewhat unusual, and sounds great at first that they thought ahead...
... but then you realize it's probably because you can't get at the internal battery.
This is speculation until the camera comes out, but we'll see.
(Drift HD allows access to the battery AND an external power supply to be used.)
(I'm telling you the Drift HD's are kind of the gold standard for usability.)
Panasonic HX-A500
Totally crazy 4k action cam. I can barely handle 1080, and now we're moving to 4k?! This one goes back to the remote-image-sensor unit design of old, which fell out of fashion for obvious reasons.
It's tough to say whether this form factor will ever really be popular. You only do it because you have to. In this case, for the 4k.
4k itself is interesting because it will allow for digital zoom down to 1080p, so you can still possibly see what happened on arc'd shots if you gun mount. Kind of.
They might have some image stabilization as well, but again, for paintball I think that's pointless.
I can say that having the battery on a remote unit can be useful for cold-weather usage, but then again, an all-in-one unit which supports and external battery pretty much can do the same thing. Details on the battery are sketchy right now.
Drift Stealth 2
Drift came out with some other models as well, but the one I think is really interesting is the Drift Stealth 2. Basically, it has all the features I liked about the Drift HD, but minus the live screen, which is replaced with WiFi connectivity, which is just as good (I'm pretty sure the screen absolutely chewed up power, even when it was off). Slight size and weight shrink I think which is also good. Good picture quality, good mounting options, rotating lens, works without an extra exo-suit, replaceable battery, external power capable, remote control, the whole bit. My favorite action camera. And some of you know that it's rare that I give something top billing, but this camera gets it.
Possibly significant caveat: WiFi preview appears to cut off when it starts recording.
What I'm Actually Going to Do
Right now, I'm leaning toward the Sony for use in both paintball and RC, mostly because I want to try the stabilization out on my quadcopter. If only for paintball, I would go for the Drift Stealth 2 hands down. In fact I will probably wind up buying both.
On, and as usual, GoPro came out with some revisions to their Hero's, and they all suck. Shit case, shit mounting, shit overall. A lot of guys talk a lot of shit on the forums about the Hero's, but surprise surprise, most of them don't post shit for videos. Because Hero's are shit and unbearable to actually use for paintball.
If you're thinking of shitting on yourself with a GoPro, save yourself some money and just buy the Xiaomi Yi.
