GoPro HD Hero - What you want :)

[banditderek]

GoPro HD HERO®: Sample Footage

[freeflyd]

I have 3 of them and they are possibly my favorite new toys!

[Miquel-Silvestre]

HD Helmet Cam - ContourHD and ContourHD 1080p by VholdR

How about this? I think is even better

[colebatch]

The Contour HD has much better shape, profile and weight ... and a better (not too wide) angle of view at 110 degrees. And according to a review on their own web site "Terrible wind noise"

The GoPro HD Hero is heavier, doesn't look as durable, has a wider more distorted angle of view (127 degrees) ... BUT ... it seems they have put more effort into sound. This is very important:
"GoPro's obsession with sound has conquered the wind. At 85 mph on a motorcycle, you’ll enjoy the throaty sound of your motor, not the wind. Inside even the quietest street cars, hear the pull of your motor...not the drone of the wind and road."

For quality video, you cant over-estimate the importance of good sound.

There is a bit of a comparison at this review: GoPro HD Hero review and helmet cam face-off -- Engadget that includes some video of a go-cart going around the track. The total absence of wind noise is quite amazing, even if the camera wasnt aimed properly. Summary is the GoPro has much better audio, slightly better video but is awkward shaped, awkward to mount and awkward to use in comparison with the Contour unit.

[HendiKaf]

I have the new HD one , great for all type of riding but my only problem with it is that you have to convert the MP4 format into a AVI or other to work on it with movi maker, any one use it and edit it with some other software??, it also a bitch to upload on youtube as it take hours due to large file (2G).

[HendiKaf]

here is a sample before editing :

YouTube - GOPR0007.MP4

[banditderek]

I'm sold on the Hero

[lbendel]

These are nice products, but they both suffer from the same problem: very strong rolling-shutter artifacts. This is also called "jell-o" effect, and can be seen on rapid pannings, where all lines are skewed. This looks terrible, especially on a moving platform such as a bike.
To me it is disturbing to the point that I focus on this instead on the images themselves. I wish they would come up with a product at a similar price point without this problem.

Laurent

PS: the V.I.O POV is much better in that respect, and the form factor is better for a biker, but the image quality is pretty low and it is more expensive.

[Neil]

The problem with the V.I.O. POV is that, it requires a lot of rigging up lots of bits and bobs to sort out and cables running all over the place, and even though it probably is a better piece of kit, (and is more expensive) it really requires a lot of planning and prep before you just place the cam on the helmet/forks/handlebars/tank/etc

[Chris Scott]

More compact cams reviewed here including GoPro I think. That's the way to go as long especially if they're up to dvd or even TV, and not just youtube.

Ch

[AndyWx]

GoPro and ContourHD are both good cameras in my opinion if you're thinking of doing something more that youtube (unless ofc. its youtube HD 1080p ) They work just fine in the US and Canada but they give us one main problem in Europe - they're NTSC (30 fps) and we have PAL in Europe 25fps. I've got a seperate camcorder (PAL) for my walking around/ diaries footage and am looking for something good that I can work with for my helmet. Both of these cameras would be great when it comes to the video quality but don't know about the NTSC -> PAL conversion. I've written an email to VHoldR about this - they will think about releasing PAL version of their camera in HD. I also asked about a sample footage so that I could work with it on my editing software and see what the outcome quality is after the NTSC->PAL conversion. Will download the footage this weekend and try editing it a little - will let you know about the outcome!

Thanks!
Andy

[Neil]

Yup great bit of kit, check out my latest footage to Wales

[nik huzlan]

Hi all.

I have been taking bike videos since 2000 and have gone through the DIY route of hooking up a DV cam to a bullet cam. Had to live with all the wiring rigged all over my body. Had to construct a battery pack for the bulletcam, including a microphone pick-up as well. Lots of trouble for just some footage.

Having found the GoPro HD I am amazed by the ease of use and the quality of the camera. But, the GoPro is a bit cumbersome as it only has two menu navigation buttons given that it has many modes.

i also bought the VholdR Countour HD1080 and found it a lot easier to use although it only shoots videos.

I am now using the GoPro for interval still shots and the VR for video.

Here's my comparison;

GoPro HD VR Contour
Video 720&1080 16x9, 960 3x4 1080 & 720 16x9
Battery life 2.5 hours 2 hrs
Waterproof casing rain resistant only
Better sound no as good
Plenty of bundled mounts only two mount pads
Pic quality about equal
Bigger frontal area streamlined shape better for helmet mount
Good 5 mp still pix Video Only
3.5 - 4 gb per hour for 1080p video.
MP4 format MOV format

The GoPro's capability of shooting stills at 2, 5 & 10 second interval is really awesome. Just set and keep it running, and there will be some really nice wide angle shots among the few hundred shots taken on every ride. Both the camera formats can be easily edited using Final Cut on Mac or the Pinnacle Suite in windows.

IMHO, there's no need to look further as these two cameras offers the best bang for bucks.

Some pictures from the GoPro












The PAL/NTSC is actually a non issue if the footage is to be exported onto DVD. Most TVs nowadays are multi system by default. Just make sure that the footages are similar in frame dimension and frame rate when shooting so there will be no issue when editing footages from different cameras.


Cheers from Malaysia

[AndyWx]

The PAL/NTSC is actually a non issue if the footage is to be exported onto DVD. Most TVs nowadays are multi system by default. Just make sure that the footages are similar in frame dimension and frame rate when shooting so there will be no issue when editing footages from different cameras.

That is NOT true. The cameras have to be compatible as the framerate is determined by the camera you're shooting with not the software you're using. There is no way of combining PAL footage with NTSC whilst editing(the cameras you've mentioned are NTSC) - or maybe I should refraze - there is no way of combining the two without a HUGE quality loss (both the image and the smoothness).

I wonder why there isn't a good helmet cam that shoots full HD in PAL. ARGGH!!!!

[barothi]

I bought this GoproHD to shoot videos of my trip. The video quality is very good when there is enough light to work with. I use the 720p format, it is good enough for me and is half the size of the full hd videos. My only gripe is the bad wind noise... it only works well when the camera is on the tank, when it's in the wind the noise is awful. An external mic would be the only solution in my opinion, but you can't get one.

See some examples I shot so far:
YouTube - barothi's Channel