60 Minutes Loves GoPro

 Did goe to watch 60 Minutes on a computer link was gretely entertained.


The news feature filmers have discovered the GoPro system and are enamored of it - and why wouldn't they be. It is a perfectly simple way to record whatever people are doing in front of its stubby little lens - usually in bright colours and with a startling level of detail. The camera can survive a fair amount of water and shock and as it can be mounted on everything from a fighter plane to a broken femur, there is every chance that something eye-watering will eventuate.

They seemed to enjoy themselves using it to film surfing, bicycle riding, jumping off cliffs, and a number of other stunts. Apparently it has been used to film "sting "operations when television teams entrap their subjects, and they also admit that it has been used as a surveillance camera over forbidden territory.

One particular sequence seemed to involve a group of young men in the middle of a light plane crash - though from what I saw the chap in the back seat filming it was holding a different brand of small regular video camera. No matter, I suppose - the GoPro would have made equally good job as the Piper ploughed through the trees. I wondered whether anyone had been killed or injured in the crash but I don't believe the 60 Minutes reporters mentioned it - perhaps they did not know...

This is the closest thing I can think to what the wing cameras and gun cameras on WW2 fighter planes were: a fixed recording system that lets you see what is going on directly in front of you - with the provision to record it for much longer time than the short burst of a film camera. And as they are readily available to the public from many suppliers - us included - I think we can expect to see a lot more video from them in the future.

I suspect that a great deal of this footage, if that is the right term, may be classified as " Hey, look at what I can do!" stuff. And I also suspect that given this mindset, a good deal of it will also involve " Oh Oh Oh f*#+  OW OW OW HELP GET ME OUT OF THIS OW OW OW! and this is as it should be. Good sense rarely comes without being taught, and never at a cheap price. These cameras may well prove to be valuable stimuli to character reform in those users who survive.

I am particularly intrigued at the use of the camera as a surveillance device. I suppose it will depend upon the particular details of each case as to whether the video footage created will be legally or illegally useful, and I also suppose that by the time that surveillance machinery is thought necessary, any question of morality has been long answered...For myself, I am going to make sure than none of the little things are near me when next I rob a bank or engage in a torrid affair on a yacht. Either that or make sure that my hair looks really good that day.

The quote from the show that stuck with me was the one that said the GoPro name indicated that use of the camera would turn amateurs into professionals. Perhaps it will, but they did not specify into what sort of professionals. I am going to look very closely at the next anaesthetist, solicitor, or civil engineer I consult- if I see a baseball cap worn backwards, a Bali Chinese tattoo, or a GoPro the deal is off.