What, exactly, do shots of Patron have to do with newest helmet camera from V.I.O.? At first blush, not much. But when those shots are being consumed on the rooftop of Boulder's trendy West End bar and where flat screen televisions broadcast snippets of the most recent Teton Gravity Research flick and the V.I.O. marketing guy is indulging in said shots while insisting that this incredible new camera is about as custom as a mass-produced gadget could hope to be, and you (or, in this case, me) leave the party both tipsy and coveting a helmet cam, well, I guess you could say the shots have a supporting role in the camera's life story.What story? The one that says that if you're going to shell out some Ben Franklins for a helmet cam, (it retails at $599) you might as well buy the one that Sage Cattabriga-Alosa had a hand in designing. OK, enough insider baseball. What the hell am I talking about? I'm talking about the POV.HD, a matchbox sized high definition point-of-view camera that is as easy to operate as an iPhone and weighs only two ounces . The camera records up to five hours of footage and has a few bells and whistles. Namely the two-inch screen so you can edit your video in the field and make light adjustments.One more thing? This camera is much, much smarter than you. Its image processor is run by Texas Instrument's new De Vinci chip, which supports real-time video correction that corrects lens distortion, vignetting and image softness. It's also hearty. While we can't recommend tumbling head-first down a couloir, if you do while wearing this camera, you're not going to break it.Why a helmet cam? The easy answer is because everyone else does it, including the ski porn that's getting you stoked now for ski season. But that's way too conforming. The real reason to film your run from your own unique vantage point is because that is the closest you can come to reliving the experience. Sure, some runs are meant to be forgotten (though I will always maintain that a bad ski run is better than a good day just about anywhere else), but some are meant to be savored and cherished, and, yes, even shared. These days, everyone's a movie maker, and whether you're posting it on YouTube, facebook, or a yet-to-be-named-and-released-to-the-public program, you want to get in on the action. Not to brag. Not to gloat. But to share and inspire and laugh. It doesn't matter if you're stomping 20-foot drops or bopping off the small kicker left near the cat track. It doesn't make a difference if the powder is waist-high or absent. What matters is getting out there. And, for the days where you're chained to the desk or the babysitter doesn't show up or your car won't start, you can replay the footage from the POV.HD and experience the bliss once again.
--Rachel Walker