4K video resolution has now become mainstream for action cameras and the online world has responded such as you YouTube, allowing 4K resolution videos to be uploaded. This means even more high quality videos can now be produced by professionals and amateurs alike, including our airsoft YouTube celebrities, provided that bandwidth of most viewers can allow for smooth play of such heavy videos.

While GoPro Hero 4 is the king of 4K action cameras, feature and quality wise, big name competitors are nipping at its heels to claim the 4K Action Camera Crown.  The latest of which is Garmin and they just announced the Garmin Virb Ultra 30 4K Action Camera that comes with tricks of its own that GoPro can really worry about as it may just have taken the thunder away from their product launch as they preparing for the unveiling of the GoPro 5 this September.

Apart from 4K at 30 fps (2.7K/60fps; 1080p/120fps; 720p/240fps and 480p/300fps), the Virb Ultra 30 has 3 axis-stabilization for smoother videos. If you have been planning to get a 3-axis gimbal for your action camera for stabilization, then why not just go for this action camera as you do not need to spend on a 3-axis gimbal as it is already built-in.  With the higher frame rates at lower resolutions, you can have the option of editing the videos for slow motion scenes and many airsoft videos can benefit from some slow motion video.

It comes with a high-sensitivity mic that it will be able to record better quality audio in and out of the waterproof casing. And speaking of high-sensitive mic, I wonder if this is mic that is used to capture voice commands allowing you to control the camera by taking to it using Garmin’s Sensory TrulyHandsfree technology. This is a good thing for airsoft players as they don’t have to take their hands off their airsoft weapons to record the action by pushing the record button. They can say “start recording” or “take a picture” or “remember that footage” to tag a recording for easy recall.

Like other action cameras nowadays, the Virb Ultra 30 comes with a touch screen LCD but what makes it better is that it works even with the waterproof case.
Also another feature in more well-known action cameras is a mobile app and the Virb Ultra 30 can work with a mobile app to control multiple cameras, edit video, and share footage. With it you can do livestreaming on YouTube when you connect the action cam via Wifi though for now the YouTube livestreaming works only when paired with iPhone and iPads.

Now a strength of Garmin is in their sensor technologies that are used for the outdoors. In this case, the Virb Ultra 30 comes equipped with sensors and GPS capture G-Metrix data to show how far, how high and how fast you’ve gone.

All such features are neat though I am most happy with the voice controls. What I am not sure though with using voice controls is if it will be able to isolate the voice commands from the background noise such as crowds or in an airsoft event, the staccato of airsoft rifles in a firefight.

Will Garmin be able to steal some market share from GoPro and other action camera makers, especially the big ones such as Sony, Panasonic, Ricoh, and Olympus which are all giants in imaging technologies? I can’t tell, but surely they have a very compelling product in the form of the Virb Ultra 30. Its introduction makes the action camera competition even more intense.

The Garmin Virb Ultra 30 4K action camera is now available in the USA and it is priced at US$499 with the cage mount not included.