Huge news from Contour today as they announced their ContourGPS camera will soon have the ability to use a smartphone (such as an iPhone or Android-based device) to view what the camera is seeing live. This is incredibly useful, allowing you to line up your shots easier and review the footage you just recorded while on the scene (rather than learning it was a crappy shot back home on your computer)!

Not only will the new viewfinder allow you to better align your shots, but you can also update your camera settings out in the wild without your computer! This is HUGE for Contour, as one of the biggest complaints about the camera is that you can currently only switch between two pre-programmed settings while out in the wild. Forget to pre-program your Contour iris for a snow-based setting? No problem. Need to change to a night mode on the fly? No Problem!

Even cooler is that the functionality is already built-in to our currently selling ContourGPS camera. They secretly integrated a Bluetooth chip within the camera, without disclosing what it would be used for. I can think of a few other useful ideas for that chip if it has that type of programability, such as synching it with a remote so you can start/stop many cameras at once (currently available in the Drift HD170). Or how about synching it to your bluetooth headset better sound of a driver?

In any case, we are really happy to see Contour come out with this news. In fact, we here at camarush were working loosely for a year on this concept but could never make it come to fruition. Now Contour has stepped up the game and come out with a great little piece of technology!

Buy your ContourGPS here and get in the game early!  This newly announced functionality is expected to appear summer 2011.

Source: Engadget