The new wave of helmet cameras

[Bjorn]

Hi Gxdoyle,

The suv cam looks neat. How much did you pay? Can it record sound in its most basic setup, or do I need an Elmo brand microphone?
How do you mount it on your helmet?
Have you tried mounting it elsewhere, i.e. near the foot-pegs... for more dramatic shots?

Cheers
Bjorn

[SeniGreg]

Originally Posted by Bjorn

Hi Gxdoyle,

The suv cam looks neat. How much did you pay? Can it record sound in its most basic setup, or do I need an Elmo brand microphone?
How do you mount it on your helmet?
Have you tried mounting it elsewhere, i.e. near the foot-pegs... for more dramatic shots?

Cheers
Bjorn

Hey Bjorn,

I believe I paid about AUD 1,000 for the whole setup - this included a velcro patch that sticks to the helmet that you connect the head unit to. You can buy extras of these patches so that you can have different mounts all over the place - I never tried it on the footpegs but that sounds like an interesting idea. If you look at my first vid it gets very dramatic near the end when I fall off (about 5.5 mins in)!

Any kind of microphone will work - I am connecting it up to the microphone I have in my helmet for phone & UHF sine that is windproofed.

The only thinf I did not like about it was that I could not get a 12 v charger for it - however since I have a small inverter I was able to keep a spare battery on charge. The other thing I didn't like was that it only too a max 2 gig card so I had to carry a few different cards with me.

[billy_b57]

http://VholdR.com

I bought this outfit for $300.00 at Seattle Bike show.
No wires and a nice set up.
I used it on my recent trip to Death valley and it works great.
Indoors not so good but you can upload to yours and VHOLDR site to shre with friends.

[Alexlebrit]

Originally Posted by billy_b57

http://VholdR.com

I bought this outfit for $300.00 at Seattle Bike show.
No wires and a nice set up.
I used it on my recent trip to Death valley and it works great.
Indoors not so good but you can upload to yours and VHOLDR site to shre with friends.

I don't suppose you have one you could share with us do you?

[billy_b57]

Titus Canyon

Now my language isn't for all but hey I was a bit nervous .
My first off road on my 800GS .

As with most helemt cams there is wind noise.
This camera has the mic in the body and I have a latex glove over the body .
I will make more modifications to eliminate noise.

[photographicsafaris]

I have the Dogcam 420 camera and am quite impressed with the camera unit itself. I found their service to be really good too.
I have mine wired (loads of wires) into my mini DV camera (tape) which has produced very satisfactory results. My technique on the other hand needs allot of attention.
I do have my eye on one of these though. DV500 solid state video recorder but for travelling I would look more towards the Mini DV tape option, as storage is a problem, and tapes as so easy (still.) you need loads of 32 GB CF cards, not cheap or a laptop and external harddrive or DVD burner.

I have wired the lipstick camera into a DV recorder, (A 20GB storage device similar to the Archos) 20Gb Mass storage device (micro) review - Photo.net Filter, Bags, Tripods and Accessories Forum

I have since upgraded computer and have been battling with the video editing software... something to do with older codecs... fun!

Cheers G

[edteamslr]

Helmet cameras are a nice addition to your filming setup but don't confuse the ease of being able to 'hoover up' the scenery with a helmet cam with the real challenge of creating engaging, meaningful stories. To put it another way, you could spend 1000AUD on a helmet cam and bore everyone senseless or spend 200AUD on a standard def camcorder to film a couple of drive-past's and a bit of well-researched 'talk-to-cam' that leaves the viewers feeling interested and engaged. Sadly that all sounds a bit more challenging and people just don't take the time. No wonder people just smile politely when we show them our motorbike 'shorts'.

[barraman]

Great thread guys and lots of good info. Hats off to theose who contribute.

I have a VIO 1.5 POV.
It does everything I want it to do with 1 exception. The focal length of the lens is too short. In order for me to get some decent footage of a bike in fromt of me I need to be way closer than what is ideally a safe following distance. if i drop back to a good distance the subject looks as if he is being viewed from the wrong end of a set of binoculars. Unfortunately VIO have been repeating the same line over and over the years regarding the lens length and say that something is in development etc etc..??

Someone here menioned an Archos device acting as a recorder. I dont undrestand these things but If I wanted to go down this route I just neeed to get a sony lipstick cam or similar and plug it into the archos thing and thats it? or is therre more to it than that.?

anyway here are a couple of vids from my list.

YouTube - daytona 675




YouTube - Cbr1100xx currumbin

[Little Dom]

Originally Posted by edteamslr

Helmet cameras are a nice addition to your filming setup but don't confuse the ease of being able to 'hoover up' the scenery with a helmet cam with the real challenge of creating engaging, meaningful stories. To put it another way, you could spend 1000AUD on a helmet cam and bore everyone senseless or spend 200AUD on a standard def camcorder to film a couple of drive-past's and a bit of well-researched 'talk-to-cam' that leaves the viewers feeling interested and engaged. Sadly that all sounds a bit more challenging and people just don't take the time. No wonder people just smile politely when we show them our motorbike 'shorts'.

Top comment!
I went to Vegas, hired a Softail for a week and rode around Arizona back in 2010 - I took a camera with me and decided to film the event with the idea of making it interesting for other people to watch because I was alone (I had no one to reminisce with after). It took me and a friend 1 year to complete the editing but the resulting DVD was fantastic and many people even wanted me to make copies for them! (how often does that happen with a holiday vid?)

In contrast to that a friend and I went to France for a short break on the bikes, we both filmed the trip and did just a little editing, the result is so crap neither one of us have bothered to watch it since! (and if someone tries to watch it you can watch them glaze over in about 4mins 38 seconds!)

I think it was Grant Johnson that told me "the difference between a pro photographer and an amateur photographer is the size of their rubbish bins" - With the Vegas trip I filmed hours and hours of footage, 90% never made it to the final cut.

With having said all that, for my big trip im looking at this -

VIO POV HD Camera | DogCam Sport

Main reasons are 1080p HD in Pal and the tagging system =
"New tagging and pre-record modes have been included. When you press the tag button on the remote controller, the unit goes back up to 10 mins and starts recording in the past."

So you don't need to take hours and hours of rubbish footage "just encase" something cool happens!

Only problem with this system - ITS FLAMING EXPENSIVE!!!!

Dom

[PatHorne]

Ladies of the Trail on Vimeo

Thought some of you might like to see this little DVD i have made from our weekend away in North Wales last weekend.

I use the following cameras

POV VIO
GOPRO HERO
ATC 3k
Sanyo Xacti E1
Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1
Kodac Z18

Hope you like the DVD?

Just enjoy and make dirty movies....

Pat

[KevOK]

for all your mounting needs,

RAM Mounting Systems, Inc.

[peekay]

There is now an HD version of the VIO POV available for pre-order: V.I.O.

The POV.HD shoots 1080p at 24, 25 and 30 fps as well as 720p at 60 fps. It uses H.264 instead of the DivX codec used in POV 1.5. Published bitrate is 15 mbps.

The "bullet" style camera is wired to a remote unit (unlike the ContourHD which is self-contained). On the plus side, the remote unit has a 2" LCD and is powered using standard AA batteries, both are nice attributes in the field.

The POV.HD has a very wide 1080p field-of-view at 142°. The 720p view is "cropped" narrower at 95°.

As a reference the POV 1.5 has a field-of-view of 110°. The ContourHD shoots at 110° (1080p) and 135° (720p). The GoPro HD is at 127° (1080p) and 170° (720p).

[khjphoto]

Take a look at the DRIFT HD170.

Waterproof, Shockproof (dropped it while riding). Shoots in 720 or 1080.
Only flaw I see is the remote, there is NO indication if you are reording.
The On/Off switch needs to be more positive and impossible to use while wearing gloves.

[Xander]

Originally Posted by khjphoto

Take a look at the DRIFT HD170.

Waterproof, Shockproof (dropped it while riding). Shoots in 720 or 1080.
Only flaw I see is the remote, there is NO indication if you are reording.
The On/Off switch needs to be more positive and impossible to use while wearing gloves.

Also the new Drift HD Ghost Action Camera

Cameras - Drift Innovation




it has a 5 minute back record... priceless unless you want to record everything and have to edit 6 months of video!

[ozranger]

Originally Posted by Xander

Also the new Drift HD Ghost Action Camera

Cameras - Drift Innovation




it has a 5 minute back record... priceless unless you want to record everything and have to edit 6 months of video!

that settles it! i already thought drift was the best only lacking the loop function, now it has everything! and you don't have a brick strapped to the top of you head! i used the drift HD 170 for my africa trip. great camera and great customer support. the ability to speak into a mic is great too.
here is a taste
Ride For Rangers: Part 1 starting off... - YouTube
i'm so excited by the ghost! well done drift!