Face off: life-logging cameras - Narrative Clip versus OMG Life Autographer
While your compact camera gathers dust, prepare to leave your smartphone in your pocket too, as a new generation of clip-on cameras seek to automatically record your entire life. Which will catch on?
Though both the OMG Life Autographer (HK$3,100, autographer.com) and the Narrative Clip (HK$2,167, getnarrative.com) are designed to be worn, they couldn't be more different. You certainly get more for your money with the Autographer, although its 37x95x23mm dimensions stretch its claim to be a clip-on. Available in black yellow or blue and green, its 136° eye view lens has a cover that instantly deactivates the device, perhaps to put your dinner companion at ease. No such privacy exists with the Clip, whose 36x36x9mm size and barely there 20g weight make it a much smaller, more hidden device. Judged purely on wearability, it's an easy win for the less intrusive Clip. But those same clandestine characteristics could make it socially unacceptable in company.
Both are about producing spontaneous, hands-free photos. And it's here the Autographer's extra bulk makes sense; inside it is a Bluetooth module that's capable of streaming pictures to a smartphone, but also a GPS unit and five in-built movement sensors (comprising an accelerometer, magnetometer, temperature, colour and infrared motion detector) that - together with help of a "sophisticated algorithm" - activate the camera. When you move, the Autographer takes a five-megapixel picture and stores it on its 8GB flash drive. That's a bit different to the Clip, which also takes five-megapixel images, but does so every 30 seconds. But it's also possible to take a picture whenever you want just by tapping the tiny device. Unlike the Autographer, the Clip has nothing but a lens and an 8GB flash drive; to get photos off the device means hooking-up to a PC or Mac via a micro USB cable. The Autographer runs for about 10 hours on a single charge, while the Clip manages a full 24 hours.
The Autographer and Clip both have free smartphone apps, but they operate over very different architecture. The Autographer uses Bluetooth to send images to the app on any smartphone, while there's also some desktop software to sync with that puts images in a chronological stream. Meanwhile, the Clip uploads its contents to a computer, and then to a remote cloud, where your photos are divided into "moments", then synced with an app. Both apps are excellent and offer something genuinely new - candid photos beyond your control.