When we first wrote about Contour being raised from the dead after a year-long hiatus and with fresh investors, they promised that they will release new models soon. From that announcement until this month, most of the products from Contour are basically the old models as they moved to their new location in Provost, Utah. Well, at least there are some ROAM action cams that can be ordered whilst other competitors are releasing new models.

Now they released the Contour ROAM 3 Action Cam, which is waterproof up to 30 feet so no need to get that waterproof carry case for it when you do some water action as long as you don't go scuba diving. Will that feature, coupled with a locking instant record switch and price of US$200.00 be enough to convince us to fork out the money?

It is indeed an affordable action camera but in order for Contour to arrive at this, they had to remove the following features: external microphone jack, GPS video mapping, mobile connectivity, and live streaming which Contour ROAM 2+ has and was such a hit. They are still stuck with 1080p at 30fps and 720p at 60fps. The GoPro Hero 3 plus offers 4k video recording and 1080fps at 60fps which allows one to do slo-mo when editing footages.

Overall, we find it to be an underwhelming action camera, if we base it on the specifications. The waterproof feature is nice, but with the fusion of action shooting with mobile connectivity to harness the power of smartphones, ROAM 3 maybe more of a miss than a hit.  But if you’re on a budget and content with the basic features that most action cameras in the market now have as standard, then this is for you given that Contour already has a good record in the action camera market.

Contour ROAM HD action cams are popular amongst airsoft players as they are sleek and can blend nicely with the loadout as compared to the boxy GoPro series and we love its form factor. We don’t know if airsoft players, who like the bells and whistles in airsoft, would welcome the introduction of ROAM 3 when GoPro and similar offerings from Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Casio, and now Ricoh, can provide more features and options in recording the airsoft action than ROAM 3.

So far, there's no compelling reason to upgrade from ROAM 2+ and getting ROAM 3 is more of a downgrade rather than a real upgrade. If you have the ROAM 2+ then stick with it for the meantime until Contour would perhaps release a ROAM 3+ that has all the features or ROAM 2+ and ROAM 3 plus a bit more of the stuff that other competitors are offering.

The action camera market just has gotten tough, Contour needs to put out a real winner quickly in order to be considered a serious contender as it once was.