In an age of shameless navel gazing and epidemic self-absorption, how do you know if something really happened if you don’t have a clip of it on your YouTube channel? Thus, the profusion of so-called point of view (POV) cameras that can grab video from perches unimaginable a decade ago—including airplane wings and cockpits.
GoPro dominates this market with a line of cameras at three price points, but there’s competition, most recently from Garmin, which is taking on GoPro with its VIRB action cameras. Cameras might not seem a natural fit for a GPS company, but Garmin has leveraged its presence in the sports/fitness segment and tailored these products to aviation, offering unique capabilities. There are other options, too, including the revitalized Contour, the Sony Action Cam, the JVC Adixxion and the Panasonic HX line. But because this is a limited interest area for pilots, in this review, we’re focusing on a head-to-head between GoPro and Garmin. Either, it turns out, is suitable for aviation photography.