Alternative to SoloShot and Pixio?

[Smthn_Like_Olivia]

Was once again revisiting my urge to purchase one of the robotic cameras, and since Soloshot is clearly dead in the water as a company, I started looking at Pixio again and the Pixem. Looking at YouTube videos, I accidentally stumbled upon the OSBOT Tail. Have never even heard of it, but it was apparently released last year?

Found quite a few review videos and even one riding a horse. I gotta say, I’m super stoked. No big setup, no calibrating, or a bunch of moving parts. I would need to purchase an additional mic for sound, but already found one for $7 on Amazon with the link posted in one of the review videos. Looks like there may be some image quality issues under different lighting, but nothing I couldn’t live with. I just need to be able to record my rides!!

Anyhow, just wondering if anyone else here has stumbled across this one or has any experience with it for recording rides. I’m pretty stoked and planning to purchase one for my birthday next month. Here is a link to the riding video I found. The camera itself is $589 on Amazon and if I’d have ordered it today, it would’ve been here Saturday!

https://youtu.be/LHOR74Kj1qE
[h=1][/h] [h=1][/h]

[mmeqcenter]

Looks like it can only follow you up to ~130 feet away. But even still, veerryyyy interesting…

[Smthn_Like_Olivia]

I saw one video where a parent filmed his kids soccer game from up in the stands and it was a good distance away and it still followed him.

[kande04]

I’ve had good luck with just putting a camera at each end of the ring and letting them record. It gives me enough footage to be able to see what I want to see, it’s easy, and if I forget to turn one of them on, or one runs out of juice, I still have footage from the other.

I usually just buy used cameras, some higher quality and some cheaper ones, as the quality of the footage doesn’t usually matter.

[Arlomine]

The rider in the video is local to me and comes to ride at my facility when I host Nick Onoda clinics. She and her husband report that those camera are working out very well, and they use one to video her rides with Nick…I am thinking of getting one for the barn, and have students chip in $5 a pop for getting their lessons recorded.

[Smthn_Like_Olivia]

I LOVE the fact that you can see the video from your phone and make adjustments. Not having to spend a lot of time setting up perimeters, calibrating, or charging multiple parts like the other two options is a BIG plus. My mornings are hectic where I’m on a strict time schedule at the barn in the mornings before work, and I need to feed, ride, get chores done and be on the road by 10am. I’m excited to try it out and use it for upcoming clinics.

[Libby2563]

Looks interesting!! OP, please update if you get one!

It doesn’t have the best reviews on Amazon but there also aren’t that many yet. A few notes from Amazon reviews that might be pertinent to us riders:

“It has no covering for the port, so I’d suggest you avoid using the Tail in dusty and/or unclean environments.” – Might need to rig something for this if your arena is dusty.

“Learning how to do hand signals at the right distance, not less than one meter, took a bit to figure out.” – Need to be able to set it up where you can maneuver the horse within one meter, or start filming before you mount.

“I found that if I am videoing a soccer match, the tracking will select the nearest moving player which can get a little annoying, especially if you want the camera on one specific player. To help with this, the gimbal speed can be set to a higher setting which allows the camera to track people’s movement faster. My work around for the camera tracking a different person is to manually move the camera with my mobile device. I have found that the AI for the OBSBOT does NOT track objects like soccer balls. I’m assuming the AI is programed to recognize only human and dog/cats.” – May not work well in crowded arenas.

[Smthn_Like_Olivia]

There are some great full review videos on Youtube. I don’t think the 40M tracking distance will be an issue for me, since I can center it in the area that I ride. My SO is my camera man right now, but he can only come out on the weekends. I use my videos to learn from and work on things. They are SUPER helpful during clinics to review things the clinician instructed, see what I did wrong, and improve on it. I will definitely report back once I have purchased one.