helmet camera???????

Wrong Way Dan

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
hey guys and gals. i am looking for a helmet camera. i will use it every now and then when i mountain bike but it will mostly be used for skiing. i am a way better skier then i am a mountain biker. just wondering if anyone has one and what they think of it. i would like one that mounts on the side of the helmet. i am already 6'1 and skiing tress sometimes gets a little tight. dont want the camera getting ripped off by a tree. i really want to get some on the powder skiing on film this year. last i was a ski bum chasing snow out west and plan do the same this year, but this year i want video of it. so throw out what you guy have and let me know what you think of them.
 

Dr Superb

Active Member
I do not speak from experience, but i have heard very good things about this one:

Link

I am sure someone else will be along to elaborate more from experience.
 

BiknBen

Well-Known Member
I do not speak from experience, but i have heard very good things about this one:

Link

I have two of those. I've used it for many things including skiing, MTB, and roller coaster riding. This thing is MADE for the skiing/boarding enthusiast. They have helmet mounts and goggle strap mounts. This should be a no-brainer for the OP.

Here is an example of me having fun in the snow.
http://www.vimeo.com/8304498
 

newspills

Member
GoPro has a chest harness that you can wear. Camera sits on your chest so we wont get to see what you're looking out but limited chance of it getting ripped off.
 

FFT

Gay & Stuffy
Gropro hd files have to be converted to edit on a pc, if you dont have a mac look elsewhere. I was very disappointed when I started fiddling with hd gopro.
 

Yo Eddy

Member
Gropro hd files have to be converted to edit on a pc, if you dont have a mac look elsewhere. I was very disappointed when I started fiddling with hd gopro.

GoPro HD shoots in MPEG-4 (H.264) format...isn't that a universal HD standard? Would be really surprised if you had to convert anything on PC to edit it...
 

kush

Active Member
I know the 4 out of 5 dentists who do recommend Contour HD. The one holdout doesn't ski.
 

Wrong Way Dan

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
does anyone have an videos i could check out either skiing or on the bike from the contour and the go pro. leaning toward the contour set up
 

ChrisRU

Well-Known Member
GoPro HD shoots in MPEG-4 (H.264) format...isn't that a universal HD standard? Would be really surprised if you had to convert anything on PC to edit it...

H.264 is a major PITA to work with on a PC. I think I have tried all the readily available editing software none of which has been a complete solution for this format. I would love for someone to prove me otherwise, I have several days of footage lying around that I don't have the patience to edit without better software.

What format does the contour use?
 

BiknBen

Well-Known Member
H.264 is a major PITA to work with on a PC. I think I have tried all the readily available editing software none of which has been a complete solution for this format. I would love for someone to prove me otherwise, I have several days of footage lying around that I don't have the patience to edit without better software.

What format does the contour use?

I had no trouble dealing with a .mp4 file I got from a GoPro user. I use CyberLink PowerDirector to do all of my editing. I've been very happy with that software. It is similar to Windows Movie Maker but better.

All Contour HDs save to .mov format. PowerDirector can handle that too.

This video contains mostly ContourHD footage but has a small segment of GoPro in it. http://www.vimeo.com/15799940
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
ive had 3 helmet cams. A go pro (non HD), a countour hd (720p), and a drift x170.
The go pro was really good and i can only imagine the HD version is much better. But the camera mount looks goofy as hell. Seriously, i felt like a fool with that on. But it worked really well. They chesty mount is appealing though.

The drift is ok. Crappy picture, but its cheap, durable, and has a remote which is a cool feature. Once you get used to it, its pretty useful.

The contour is the best overall IMO. The size, video quality, battery, etc.
But.... I cant....for the F'ing life of me, find a way to mount it so it doesnt rattle and take a shaky video. Very frustrating. Maybe if I get a 6 inch travel bike at six mile it would take a smooth video, but that obviously not gonna happen. Its fine on the road though, as Ben's awesome NYC video proves. But thats not why I bought it.



EDIT: And yea, what Ben said about power director.... Best program by far.
 
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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
But.... I cant....for the F'ing life of me, find a way to mount it so it doesnt rattle and take a shaky video.

I had it pretty good with the original mount until I went and rammed the helmet into a boulder. Ever since then it's impossible to get steady. Utah says he's got a bar mount coming to me.
 

BiknBen

Well-Known Member
I think anything you mount to the bike is going to be shaky, especially off-road. Helmet mounting provides the HUGE advantage of being able to look around and show the viewer what is going on. Mounting it elsewhere provides an interesting vantage point but I think those shots are only good in short segments to supplement the helmet-cam footage.

The ContourHD allows for recording at HD resolution at 30fps or at lesser resolution at 60fps. I believe Ilya has stated that he got better results in the Standard resolution recording mode. I've seen other similar comments elsewhere.

I have been happy with the HD mode recording. I once tried the standard mode and saw no improvement, just less resolution. I keep mine in HD mode all the time now.

FWIW, I have never been able to get over the hideous look of the GoPro. It looks like someone mounted a tripod to their helmet. The Contour is sleek and stealthy in comparison. The GoPro chest strap is laughable. It reminds me of safety patrol in grade-school. :hysterica
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Ok so I have had Norm's contour for about a month now, and after that, I decided to get a go-pro. Mainly based on the mounts. The video quality is equal as far as im concerned...im never watching this video on an 46" HDTV, so though you tube and vimeo, they look equal to me. IMO the rail mouts for the contour are just not stable enough to eliminate the shake. After playing with norms helmet mount, I wanted to smash it. You pull the straps off, the pin falls out. I fixed that with some small pieces of electrical tape. Then I removed the standard straps and replaced it with one of these velcro strap from my nite-rider light

Strap.jpg


You can make it tighter and wrap it around items such as the frame. Plus it stays tight...the straps that come with it get loose in 2 min.

But this doesnt solve the problem that the camera shakes on its mount. So I ALWAYS would use another strap to wrap around the entire camera to hold it steady to the mount. This works great and is easy to do, but it sucks that the rail mount is not stable enough

Im not into the bike helmet mounting. In a cross race its fine. There are tons of other people and you can see whats going on. But solo, you cant see the bike or anything to give you perspective...I think it looks, just a camera going through the woods. Plus, bike helmets are just not tight on your head and they move around. Full face helmet, fine, bike helmet is too unstable IMO.

So I picked up this mount for norms camera:
contour-contourhd-vholdr-xl-handle-bar-mount.jpg



I put it on the stem of my cross bike and made this. I happen to like this view better then the helmet cam. You can see the bike and you can get a feeling of whats going on. Take the bike out of this pic and you are looking at grass go by.
http://www.vimeo.com/15901941

But in the end I went with the go pro. I agree with ben, its ugly as hell. But the mounts WORK. I put the stick on mount onto my dirbike helmet and ran it through 50 miles of trails, wacking it on countless branches and it was rock solid. I also like the wider viewing angle, the case is waterproof, I can take pictures with it, and they make 9000 different mounts for it.

This is one I made on sunday with the go-pro on my dirtbike helmet. When on a helmet, I like this view....helmet+bike in the shot.

http://www.vimeo.com/15969172

The go-pro does look goofy, but anyone who knows me knows that I dont give a shit what I look like.
 

BiknBen

Well-Known Member
I cant....for the F'ing life of me, find a way to mount it so it doesnt rattle and take a shaky video. Very frustrating.

But this doesnt solve the problem that the camera shakes on its mount. So I ALWAYS would use another strap to wrap around the entire camera to hold it steady to the mount. This works great and is easy to do, but it sucks that the rail mount is not stable enough

I've dealt with this and shared my solution.
http://s248.photobucket.com/albums/gg188/biknben/?action=view&current=vholdrmounts.flv

I suggest you guys watch the entire thing but at 1:50 I show how I dealt with the shake or jiggle in the mount.
 
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