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Have you heard? DPPL now has two GoPro cameras available to borrow!

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, when personal video cameras really made it into the mainstream, I remember there’d always be at least one parent with a video camera floating around at various childhood events, like little league games and track meets and birthday parties.  

I remember one particular sleepover in junior high when one of my friends borrowed her uncle’s GIANT video camera and we four girls spent the entire evening making up goofy sketches and recording them (and somewhere out there on a VHS tape in someone’s basement is some fantastic blackmail material!) 

These days nearly everyone walks around with a pretty fancy little video camera in their pocket, ready to capture little life moments when they come up and share them with friends & family on Facebook, or Twitter, or [insert your favorite social media channel here.]  I realized this past weekend as I was recording some of my son’s hockey game, however, that sometimes that act of recording (holding the camera, keeping it on the action, starting and stopping at the right time, etc.) gets in the way of you actually getting to see what’s happening in the moment, and that’s doubly true if you’re trying to record something that you yourself are involved in – that kind of multi-tasking can bring a whole new level of difficulty to a task!

This is where GoPro comes to the rescue! GoPro is a small, lightweight (<5oz) and sturdy camera that comes with a waterproof (to 130’!) case that attaches to a variety of mounts that allow you to capture video hands-free.  

You’ve probably seen video that has been captured on a GoPro: skiing or snowboarding or surfing, usually from the viewpoint of the person doing the skiing, snowboarding or surfing. 

But these aren’t the only ways that people are using GoPro – they’re capturing their golf swing, or a dive into the pool, or a skateboarding trick, or their waterskiing squirrel (yes, you read that right!)

As we head into winter, when there are all sorts of fun outdoor adventures (skiing, snowboarding, sledding, etc.) that you might like to capture, DPPL has some great news: we now have two GoPro cameras available to check out, as well as a selection of mounts that you can borrow. 

We have purchased two cameras, a GoPro Hero3 White and a GoPro Hero+ LCD, that are now available for checkout from the Reader’s Services Desk on the third floor of the library; the checkout period is for a week, and you can renew to extend your loan period so long as no one else has placed a hold on the camera.

We also have several mounts available to borrow, also for a week at a time: a vented helmet strap, a gooseneck clamp, a chest harness, and a handlebar/seatpost mount. We anticipate that the cameras will be a fairly popular item to borrow, so if you find that they’re checked out, go ahead a place a hold through the catalog and we’ll notify you when it’s your turn to borrow one.

We can’t wait to see what adventures you capture!