I’m off to Les Gets for 2 weeks on Friday. Always been tempted by a helmet cam especially to show the other half what I’ve been up to as I’ll mostly be biking solo, but I’m concerned I’ll a) look a bit of a tit and b) shoot hours of footage which I’ll never look at again.

Has anyone else bought one and never used it? Or bought one and loved every minute?

So – buy or no buy? 😕

Never bought one, never would, I like to ride my bike, I don’t need to show the world how fantastic I am on a bike.

I’ve bought one. Just film bit here n there and edit it together at home. More for my fun than anything else and to remind me if what a great day I’ve had. Also an extension of my stills camera to put a different perspective on a photography hobby.
Get one if you want to have some memories that won’t fade.

Some time ago I would have said yes, but not any longer. This is fuelled by a recent skiing holiday, but I fear that the same will creep in to bikes as well.

Almost all the people I saw with a camera were skiing for the camera, not for themselves. As such, they were behaving like male chickens and endangering others.

I think it takes some of your focus away from what you’re actually doing and puts that in to stylin’ it up for da yootoobers, innit? 😉

as above.

unless you are naturally very good, or (preferably) following a pal who is very good.

then no.

I don’t need to show the world how fantastic I am on a bike

It is the exact opposite for me. I don’t use one as I don’t want folk to see my uber-jey mincer riding style.

If yer crap, no, if yer good, yes… nothing worse that crap videos online! why I don’t bother filuming my shiteyness!

certainly no hero on the bike – more for my own memories than anything – no intention of posting crap videos online!

I agree with all the arguments above – which is why I’m torn!

Defintely – I took one as did a friend – we met about 6 months after to view the video (Admittedly one of the guys had spent much time editing) and it was awesome to look back – the footage was great, (..speeded up in parts..) but unless you go 3 times a year for the effort it takes I would certainly take one.

OK serious response..

Unless you are very good at the said chosen sport you tend to look at the video and see just how bad you are, and although what your doing may feel very quick to you, on video it looks as though you are crawling along.

I did a days rally driving and paid £25 for the privalidge of in car video. For me I felt like I was flying and doing spectacular slides etc. On video it looked as though I was doing 10mph and barley sliding the car.

Yes. If you want memories of your holiday/riding and don’t care what other people think about your riding abilities.

No. If you’re not awesome and plan to post them on the web for all to criticise.

(Secretly always wanted one but worried the resulting footage will shatter my illusion of how rad I look.)

Just got back from les gets, the amount of ppl with helmet cams are ridiculous, you won’t look out of place.

IMO, don’t get one, it’s literally the worst filming angle ever, combine this with shakey filming and poor quality imagery, it just looks rubbish. Don’t bother.

I’m concerned I’ll a) look a bit of a **** and b) shoot hours of footage which I’ll never look at again.

I’d say your concern b) is valid.

Unless you are a great rider doing something epic, and have loads of spare time and skills to edit, there’s a good chance you’ll spend hours faffing with the camera and messing about to get loads of footage you’ll never bother to edit into something worth watching, instead of just enjoying the ride!

I do sometimes use a very cheap (~£10) “Muvi” copy on my Lid, the footage is generally pretty toss, but can still be a nice reminer of your descents when it does come out OK, I’ve also go one of the old Oregon “Action Cams knocking about somewhere, very robust housing, runs of AAs but I never shot anything worth watching on it, Hmmm might un-Earth it actually see if use can be made of it again…

your 2nd worry is the main one really. if you can get a helmet cam mounted at the right angle then you might get good footage, it often depends on how rough the trail and your riding is that particular day…

Mounting on you chest/shoulder can work better as it seems to be more stable, however I always seem to angle it too far down and get lots of ground in the frame, it would seem my torso is angled more towards the ground than I manage to estimate when positioning the camera, have a few practises before your trip just to be sure you are not shooting lots of ground or sky…

Mounting on the Bike is a Non starter in my book, too much vibration and the only people who ever seem to do this go and point the camera at the suspension components of their bike so they can have a “kinematics” **** off later “OOOh look at the bump response over those roots”, you want to shoot the trail not the bike…

TBH unless you are a riding God, riding with other riding Gods I can’t see the point in buying a Go-pro or other similarly expensive units just to post boring films of joe-average “free-trundling” on youtube, but I’m all in favour of us mortals being able to capture our own riding for a bit of a review later, just get a cheap binable micro SD cam…

Cookeaa – I like your theory. I too had one of those old school action cams but it chewed through batteries so fast and was very temperamental writing to the card so I sold it after 2 or 3 goes. But a similar cheapy might be the way to go. Captures the feel of the action, but without spending a fortune. If you spend £300 on kit, you feel you have to create LifeCycles style masterpieces. If you spend £50 and get some shots trundling along the trails then great. If footage is crap or can’t be bothered to make a video afterwards then so what – no real loss.

No…because I’ve had to cancel my Alps trip and I’m bitter 😥

Why not? If you can afford one and you would get joy from watching back the video’s then do it. I used a friends this weekend and we had a good time watching it back after a quick edit. It’s good to discuss parts of the run etc that you can’t when your riding. Doesn’t matter if your any good.

I take a video camera with me on holiday, not because i’m awesome at holidaying but because it’s nice to have footage / photo’s of things you’ve done to remember the good times.

This is the one I got: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/183959 – it was on for about £10 (which is about the most it’s really worth)… you can’t turn off the date stamp, it reacts slowly to changes in light, in short it’s shite if you’re really into cameras..

But comes with plenty of mounting bits, it’s small, light, does the job I need and if I fall on it I will not cry…

Agree with cookeaa. Get a cheap Muvi copy. 7dayshop have them for £11, £16 with 4gb or £20 with 8gb micro sd card – Bargain!
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=109557
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=109457
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=109578

Aren’t there issues with the memory chip malfunctioning, with the Muvi/cheap cameras?

I have a GoPro and will be taking it to Morzine with me next week. I like shooting video and then editing it together, either to look back on a great holiday at a later date, or for my SO to prove to my life insurance providers that it wasn’t suicide and that they should pay out to my surviving dependants.

Another perspective: I think you need to be doing something MaxRad to make poor helmet/chest/toptube/fork cam stuff watchable, but the GoPro picture is so much better that if the scenery’s pretty, the trails are a little bit interesting, and you vary your shots a bit, you’ll probably come back with some stuff you’ll watch more than once.

Trouble is, they’re pricey.

So you could look for something 2nd hand. But I found that the ones that do get sold on aren’t much cheaper.

So buy one, try your best with the footage, it’ll giove you somthing else to break things up every now and then as you’re on you’re own. If you get back, play with the editing and think still looks shit, sell it on! Look at it as £50 to hire it for the week (or a bit longer).

Edit: I wish I’d taken one on a recent trip, but I couldn’t take a laptop, so no editing for 3 weeks, so that = eff loads of SD cards. would have needed another solar charger, too. I bloody wish I’d had one, though!

Yes, buy one. You’re riding will look crap compared to NWD etc, BUT watching the rides does bring back memories. I’m just back from Whistler and bought one for the trip and I’m glad I did. I’d say the opposite to most of the above posts and buy a GoPro. The picture quality is so much better that it’s worth the (admittedly large amount extra) over the cheap muvi style ones. Never used the helmet mount though. Spent most of the time using the chest mount, while using the bike mount for arty shots facing backwards or looking directly down on the front wheel while riding skinnies.
The only problem is you will have to spend time sifting and editing all the footage, but for me thats half the fun. I’ve got 12gb to go through!

Been there, done it, can’t say I’d be in a hurry to do it again. A handheld camcorder on a mini tripod will give you much better results, knowing how to use a stills camera is better again. It’s hard to flatter anyone’s abilities on video…