I'm sure everyone knows of the the Soloshot robot camera man and I am not too ashamed to claim that I own one.

For those of you who think it might be cool to get one, I'll leave a little bit of feedback of the product on here. First of all, they've made big improvements from the Soloshot 2, so the difference is definitely noticeable when it comes to user friendliness. The pros of it are touchscreen and auto calibration, which makes it now fairly easy enough to use. It also has a two button tracking tag which allows you to start/stop recording. (nothing new from the S2, but it's slightler smaller and more comfortable)

The cons,

given the amount of time it's taken for the new product to be manufactured you'd think they would've made much bigger improvements. (Now given, that there are no substitutes for it except for the Pixio maybe that should be expected). It tracks, is easy to setup, and is moveable. They are also saying that you'll soon be able to manually film with it also so it could double as your everyday sports camera as well.

However, it seems as if they've put alot of efforts into R&D for the wrong features. They've created a Soloshot App which appears to be like a knockoff of an Instagram feed. The app is useable, but I really don't see the point of it unless your goal is to share your videos only with Soloshot App users. The file size of recording with the camera comes out to be in GB's so quickly downloading and posting to social media or other outlets is not possible. Another con, the tag itself is only mountable through an armband, so you can't tell if you're recording on not. Not to mention the start/stop button is the size of pencil eraser and doesn't provide any recording cues such as a light change or beep so you don't know if you've pressed or not. (It shows a small icon, but even if it does, you can't see it easily as it's up on your arm with a super tiny icon as a visual cue. Also, the icon sometimes show's off, yet the base keeps recording so it's not the most reliable cue to go by... a software update might fix this issue soon). Finally, the tracking doesn't always keep you centered like it should, but I believe they are quickly improving on that through continual updates.

It really only needs a few minor changes to be super user friendly and functional for surfers so I hope they have enough feedback to want to make those changes. They are more than halfway so why not go the extra step.

Overall, I'd say its nice to have if you just want to film for training or wave review, but not so much at a professional level. I ordered it discounted assuming it would arrive at the projected shipping date so the price seemed good, but at retail it might still be a little bit on the expensive side for the current functionality of it. Hopefully, my review of it isn't too harsh to turn people away from the product as it is a great concept and I hope we continue to see improvements of this. I don't think it's anywhere near professional quality so won't be taking away from the pros, but is a great idea for the average Joe who can't get their gf to sit on the beach and film them. (In my case, mine surfs so never get that chance.

Edit: Video quality is 4k so films good video, the tracking is still so-so, but improved with the software updates. The future software features are supposed to allow easier uploading for media sharing or web.

As an edit to my intial review regarding the recording which I think was a bit harsh... You can tell that your recording through the icon on the armband which is small but visible. The armband is convenient enough to see and reach, but might not be easy to see the icon in gloomy conditions. (I've found that if you press and count to 3 it'll start/ stop every time so not being able to easily see it isn't that big of a deal. Just check it between sets that you have recording off.).