The Best Video Cameras for Skateboarding in 2021

Skateboarding Video Cameras, from Casual to Pro Grade

Man on skateboard

 

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What's the best video camera for skateboarding? Whether you are making your own Sponsor-Me-Video, or creating a skateboard video to share or sell, making sure you get the best video camera for skateboarding is important. Check out this list of the best video cameras for skateboarding, go get one, and start filming! These cameras aren't in order of best to worst - each video camera here has something great to offer.

GoPro Video Camera

GoPro on Helmet
GoPro

GoPro cameras have been getting a lot of great press. Basicly, it's a small camera that you can attach to different places, like your helmet or your skateboard (or the front of your car, your wrist, your surfboard, or even to a tripod and film regularly!).

The Helmet HERO Wide, for example, costs about $190. It shoots 56 minutes of high-resolution video and can also do 5 megapixel photos. The battery should last for 3 hours of filming. You can use the GoPro as a hand held camera, too. It's shockproof and waterproof to 100 feet (30 meters).

GoPro Video Cameras are small, easy to handle, super durable and use a handy SD or SDHC memory card. They'll give you good video, and can provide some very unique angles and shots.

VholdR Video Camera

VholdR Video Camera
VholdR Video Camera. VholdR

The VholdeR is another helmet camera option, similar to the GoPro. Personally, I think the GoPro is better, but the cameras are very similar, so I wanted to make sure I mentioned it here. The VholdR does have laser alignment (something the GoPro doesn't have), but the GoPro is waterproof and shoots up to 1080p resolution, where the VholdeR only does 720p. Also, the GoPro can hold twice as much memory and shoots at twice the frames per second. On the other hand, the VholdeR has a really easy to use on-off switch (even if you are wearing gloves).

Personally, I think both are great. They both go for around $300.

Replay XD Camera

Replay XD

 Walmart

This is easily one of the smallest action cameras out there. There are 3 sizes, with the smallest being about the size of a tube of chapstick, and weighing 30 grams.

It captures video at 30 fps, has an internal omnidirectional Mic to combat wind noise and distortion, and is "weather resistant". It gets 120 minutes of battery life on a single charge. The kit includes a 4GB micro SDHC card that can hold up to 2 hours of video and can use up to 32 GB cards.

Canon HV Cameras

Canon HV10
Canon HV10. Canon HV Cameras

Canon makes a couple of different video camera options that come highly recommended. Both cost about $1000.

The Canon HV10 and Canon VIXIA HV40 are both compact, easy to use and connect, and capture true 1080 High Definition resolution video in 16:9 format using MiniDV cassette tapes. They can also record in standard definition using SD memory cards. Either of these cameras should work well for filming skateboarding.

Sony VX2100 Video Camera

Sony VX1000 Video Camera
Sony VX1000 Video Camera. Sony

The Sony VX2100 video camera came out in 2004. It followed the the VX2000 and VX1000 cameras, all of which have been favorites for filming skateboarding for many years. This is because these were some of the first pro-grade video cameras that consumers could afford, but also the cameras simply take great raw film that's easy to access and edit.

The Es company even came out with a VX1000 Shoe inspired by the camera!

Today, these cameras might not be the top of the line (compared to Red, below), but they are great options if you can find one.

Red Digital Cameras

Red ONE Digital Camera
Red ONE Digital Camera. Red Digital Cameras

For top-of-the-line video cameras, I'd direct you to Red. Expect to pay several thousand dollars on one, but you get what you pay for!

For example, the Red One is a newer modular camera. According to the Red company, "Typical high-end HD camcorders have 2.1M pixel sensors and record with 3:1:1 color sub-sampled video at up to 30fps. RED offers the Mysterium ™ Super 35mm cine sized (24.4×13.7mm) sensor, which provides 4K (up to 30 fps), 3K (up to 60 fps) and 2K (up to 120 fps) capture, and all this with wide dynamic range and color space in 12 bit native RAW. At 4K, that’s more than 5 times the amount of information available every second and a vastly superior recording quality."

Check out a slo-mo skate video shot on a Red.