At first glance, one would think HTC's new RE Camera is a new snorkel technology or an inhaler for those who have asthma. You won't be blamed with that first impression since the REcamera does indeed look like those. In case you haven't heard word about it, the RE Camera is HTC's first venture into wearable/action camera category, and it's a jump from their mobile phone camera expertise.

Also looking like a PVC pipe, the RE Camera is aimed at non-action sports or outdoor enthusiasts and more for the average person on the street. To put it simply, it's more of a product that wants to put the art of taking selfies on another level. Oh God!

It's almost a surprise to find HTC in the camera market, though one who is much into smartphones would realise that HTC has good cameras in their smartphones, especially their flagship phone, the HTC One M8 which pushed smartphone design to even greater heights. Bringing such technology to a standalone camera is just a natural course for the company to take to have other revenue areas as the smartphone market is tightening.

The HTC RE Camera is really a lightweight one at 65.51 grams and small enough to fit in a purse so one can carry it daily to take photos and videos of a scene that one would encounter in their daily lives. So be it meeting friends, going to parties, and taking photos of the food at the restaurant and upload it on Facebook or Instagram (another Oh God!), the RE Camera wants to be handy daily tool.

Operating the camera takes two buttons: the first button for still photos (pressing once) and videos (pressing longer for video); and the second one is for slow-motion capture that you can activate before taking a video, which means two buttons to press and giving you 4x slow motion 720p video. For still photos, you can get 16mp ones and 1080p 30fps for high definition video.

It's also an always on camera, so there's no power button at all! There are fleeting moments that you really don’t want to miss and preserve for posterity and powering up the camera might take longer with the scene gone by the time the camera's ready. With sensors that can detect that you are want to take a photo or video, the HTC RE Camera will be ready to take that decisive moment in an instant. Citizen journalists will love this always on feature.

Here's a first look video from Android Central:

Apart from its very simple look, it has an LED indicator light, a microphone for audio capture, and a micro-SD card slot which can take up to 128GB micro-SD which should be a lot for video and photos. It has a micro-USB port for charging and at the bottom is a quarter-inch tripod mount which you can use with some mini-tripods, or even the Gorillapods.

According to HTC, its 820 mAh battery is enough for 1,200 photos, or 1hr 40 minutes continuous FHD video recording. But there are some people who may just immediately drain the battery with all those still and video selfies.

Just like existing action cameras in the market, you can download the app so you can use it with smartphones. You are not limited to HTC smartphones as it will work with other Android devices (4.3 up) and even iOS (version 7 and up) devices!  You can then transfer your files to the smartphone to free up memory, use the screen as a viewfinder, change settings, and even do timelapse photography, you can indicate the intervals for the camera to take a series of photos.

For airsoft players already famous on  YouTube, you can do live broadcasting with it as long as you have an internet connection. This means one can broadcast the action happening live, be it a moment in history or that awesome room clearing missions in CQB games, or whatever that can give you an embarrassment online.

You might think that might not be ready for airsoft games but it is IPx7 compliant, meaning that it is water and dust resistant. Buying a waterproof cap will make it even IPx8 making it even usable for underwater shots.

For airsoft games, there are no helmet/head mount accessories for it, so far. But you can easily imagine that once you use it, you would look like someone with a small snorkel. Still, its design and smartphone compatibility would allow you to adjust the camera easily, just rotate like a screw for front, side, and rear views.

So another camera in the market to choose from amongst a myriad of offerings from various competitors, and it’s priced at US$199.99. The HTC RE  Camera is now on pre-order and will be coming to the US this October to rain on GoPro Hero4's parade.