You’ve heard it so many times – the best camera it the one you have with you. As a pilot I have a special use camera – one of those extreme sports units that can shoot HD video. There are a bunch on the market – GoPro, Drift, Contour, and Oregon Scientific all make units. I like the Drift. I confess, I now own two. The Drift HD170 is a very affordable unit these days – mostly because it has been surpassed but the DriftHD. Two great features of the Drift camera are the RF remote and the on-board screen.

Lots of people use these for making videos. As a pilot, I know a lot of people mounting these in or on airplanes and getting video. Ives done a few. I also use the “repeating photo” feature to do some amateur aerial photography. I set it to “every 2seconds” and the use the remote to turn the camera on/off whenever I fly over something interesting. The odds are good that I’ll get at least one usable image. It’s a wide angle lens so it’s not very suitable for pictures of houses, but it does show broader expanses nicely.

So, what does all of this have to do with using one of these cameras as a point and shoot? Well, if you have one of these cameras, why relegate it to just one use? It’s a wide angle camera. Wider than most point and shoot cameras. If you like to hike or are at the beach, the wide angle can be handy. These cameras also can focus really close so you get some fun pictures of flowers or group shots – even the family pets! I’d say these cameras can do. Lot more than capture the epic snowboarding wipe out.

Care for an eerie overcast sunrise?