A new photo accessory keeps your camera pointed at you no matter how far off frame you go. Get video of yourself surfing or running around on the beach, or set it up at your kid's soccer game and spend the time watching instead of holding the camera.
The Soloshot works by tracking an armband, which they designed to be waterproof and rugged enough to survive a hard fall. That also, unfortunately, makes it a bit bulky, but at least you'll probably never have to replace it.
It'll track you as far as 2000 feet away, and can spin 360 degrees in either direction. No vertical movement or zoom, but that can be solved with careful composition. They've tested it up to 40 degrees per second, which was fast enough to catch a car going 143 MPH — unless you're planning on going faster than that, it should be able to keep you in view.
The devices will retail for $479 once they're in production (camera sold separately of course), but the company has also set up a Kickstarter project to help get the first few hundred out the door. The company is almost at its $50,000 goal, and the first 100 are already reserved. At this moment, you can still pledge $349 for the device on Kickstarter — and that's a pretty deep discount.
There are other devices that automatically direct a camera, but the Soloshot is the only one I've ever heard of that you can take surfing. You can find more specs and information at the Soloshot website.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
