Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 20 total)
  • Head cams – what's good or bad, any reccomendations?
  • smoothchicken
    Full Member

    Interested in getting a head cam so I can bore everyone with videos of my riding exploits! Anyone got any recommendations?

    This one look good and reasonably priced – http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/at-1-wireless-helmet-cameras.htm

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    cheap cheap. MD80 from ebay.

    mine cost £23 all in with a 4GB memory card and i'm impressed with the results.

    http://vimeo.com/8680495

    quality is good enough for me.

    Kojaklollipop
    Free Member

    There's been quite a bit of discussion on here recently about the MD80 D001 Muvi type cameras here http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/mini-dv-camera-thoughts-question I got one myself as I was curious and it's great value for the money, but some seem hit and miss with battery power and footage quality, I've got some short test videos here http://www.vimeo.com/8336181 but if you look at the Morocco videos I've put up there too they were done with the POV1.5 but some of the quality has been lost in reducing the file sizes for upload (yeah, looks a bit slow but hire bikes with slipping gears/chain, worn brakes and crap forks … that's my excuse … it seemed fast at the time!), there's loads of cams to choose from, I think they all have good and bad points, I like the POV1.5 but it's expensive but runs on AA batteries which you can get anywhere or recharge, uses normal size sd card and it's a small, less weight, camera on your helmet, but it's a bit of a pain dealing with the cable and turning the recording unit on and off (I keep it in my camelbak) but I've had invalid clips a few times so it's not foolproof. The self contained type cams look good but add a bit of weight on your helmet … and why the hell gopro don't design their cams NOT to look like a brick strapped to your helmet I'll never know? 😆

    Anyway, lots of choice at places like http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/ give them a call very helpful and great service 🙂

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    Northwind
    Full Member

    The Helmet Hero Wide (not the HD, the old one) is a pretty good mix of value and performance. the picture quality's only adequate but it's user friendly (though no "space remaining on card" display, which is poor), durable, waterproof and the wide angle lens is brilliant. And replacable batteries are good, for longer rides, weekends away etc.

    The wee MD80 is amazing for the price, though it's kind of the absolute opposite of user friendly- I can't really understand a word of the manual and I'm never really confident that it's doing what I tell it to. But it's so tiny, you can mount it anywhere and just forget it's there.

    Helmet Hero HD and the Contour HD seem to be the best option if you can afford the price of admission, I really dislike Vholdr as a company, they launched the original vholdr with huge known flaws and used the early buyers as beta testers, then did nothing to compensate them when they revised the camera- even stopped supporting the early ones with bios updates. Terrible. But they do seem to have a good product this time.

    I'd say myself, that seperate cameras and recorders aren't well suited to MTB use. Often means multiple power supplies, as well as trailing wires etc. For motorbike use I loved my old solid state recorder/vio camera, and it was better quality than either of my new ones but it just wasn't very practical on the bike. And now that the good self-contained cameras have excellent performance, I'd say they're clearly the better choice for most folks.

    saladdodger
    Free Member

    Northwind

    Ta for the recomendation for the Contour HD, mrs SD got me one for crimbo.

    Bless

    Just gotta use it and keep my head still

    smoothchicken
    Full Member

    Cheers all for the info guys, shall be getting onto fleabay later to see what's available. Nice vids of Morocco more exciting than an night in with Jools' Hootenanny 😀

    JonEdwards
    Free Member

    Had a Veho Muvi for xmas. Only used it once, but so far pretty impressed fro something the size of a PP3 battery. Quality is fine (got a fast microSD card), although not big screen stuff, and it's a piece of piss to mount, use and download from.

    owenfackrell
    Free Member

    I have an atc5k which is the one that came before the one in your link. I got mine from dogcam and they are a very good company. I would say that i reall notice the weight of it on my helmet at first but soon get used to it. If i was buying again then i would consider the one you posted as the cam part is smaller and would be easier to mount in place.
    My vids look like this.

    ruminant
    Free Member

    sorry for the hijack

    but, I was watching the threads about the md80 mini dv cam and just seen this on fleabayhelmet cam what do we think?

    worth a punt or what?

    realsie its not in the same league as the dogcam etc that have been mentioned, but nopt going to spend shed loads in the first instance

    cheers

    Kojaklollipop
    Free Member

    Morocco more exciting than an night in with Jools' Hootenanny

    Definately! 😀

    Shorts and t-shirts for a week, it was so hot one day at a lunch stop I had to get in the shade cos my arms were burning!

    I've done the trip before and wished I'd filmed it which is how I got interested in helmet cams, so I wanted to get one for trip over the Himalayas and got something similar to the ATCK cameras but was disappointed with the footage, so ended up splashing the cash for the best I could get at the time – the POV cams are waterproof (to 3m I think?) have a small LED screen for setting the camera up, although I still manage to get it at some odd angle, single cable to power and record from the camera, takes 4 AA batteries – I think the energizer lithium are suppose to last 12 hours on standy? – so didn't need to worry about having a power outlet for charging, important in the middle of Tibet. But it's great being able to look back at the footage in good quality.

    Kojaklollipop
    Free Member

    Oh yeah, that cam that you linked to in your first post, there's a clip of someone on youtube somewhere who mounted it on a motorbike, footage looked ok but got some interference from the engine, I rember that cos I looked into that one too … search youtube?

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Oh, that's another one… There's no reason at all to buy anything by Oregon (ie, ATC2K etc), they're all too big, too heavy and every last one of 'em has the exact same rolling shutter defect which can cause horrible wavy videos. They don't all do it, but they all can. What's most annoying is that they throw bells and whistles- built in screens etc- at them but they've never fixed that problem which they've known about since at least the 2K. There's better cameras out there for less. Er, sorry Owen.

    Just noticed how cheap Contours are now, I still want a Helmet Hero HD but that's pretty tempting…

    caterhamnut
    Free Member

    Agree entirely with what Northwind says about Oregon stuff – not tried most recent, but the ATC2K one I had was useless in terms of a wavey picture.
    We use bullet cams etc quite a bit with the car, and I have tried various options over the years. Used a bullet cam with camcorder recording, and all the associated cables and battery packs when we did Les Arcs on the bikes – right pain, but a good picture.

    Have had good results with the Hero WIDE Cam – but having just got a Hero HD cam, I have to say I am VERY impressed with the picture. They have sorted out the sound a little better as well, and it is so much easier having self-contained, no-cable set ups. Yes, it looks like a Brownie Box camera, and the menu system is a pain, but I like the mounting options and the new one now has a rechargable battery built in – can't wait to try it on the bike, hopefully this weekend. I think this is the first camera that surpasses the seperate 'bullet cam + camcorder' option we used. A friend has a Contour HD (not 1080 though, his is the slightly earlier 720 version) and the Hero looks better, IMO. Laser site in the Contour is fantastic though.

    Incidently, I bought mine from an american site, which shipped very quickly, and didn;t charge a silly amount for courier (which GoPro themselves do) – even with the import charge of £30 I got today (£10 'handling'..???!!) I saved about £80

    caterhamnut
    Free Member

    Here is a pretty old clip I made with the ACT2K Oregon cam – it shows the sort of wavey effect we are talking about, that I have seen on some other (older) solid state recorders. Turn the sound down, its crap.

    Clip

    Crell
    Free Member

    Just noticed how cheap Contours are now, I still want a Helmet Hero HD but that's pretty tempting…

    I've literally just ordered a 1080p Contour HD for 279 from Tredz. They're doing the 720 HD for 199.

    Caterhamnut – I assume it didn't come via UPS / DHL a you'd have had "disbursement" and all sorts of other ridiculous charges added on top. Did you get it from B&H?

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Caterham, I'll see your wobbly vid and raise you by Uberwobble:

    The annoying thing is, the ATC's perfectly capable of doing good video, but I never knew when I took the card out whether it was full of usable footage, or instant seasickness… This is from the same camera:

    Not bad at all. But every other video from that night was unusable. Even this one turned off mid session 🙁

    So all in all- a horrible piece of ****. But at the time, there was no Helmet Hero etc.

    caterhamnut
    Free Member

    Crell – got it from JensonUSA
    UK charge same in £'s (£300) – Jenson used FedEx, and I think the charge was something like £13 for express – I ordered it between Christmas and New Year and it was with me about the 4th Jan. Total bill was £200, but I did just get a duty charge today…most other US sites were charge ing more than $40 to post….

    Don't get me wrong, I think Contour are way ahead in terms of packaging and ease of use – I am sure the 1080 version will be great. I stuck with GoPro as I now have a collection of clips and mounts.

    Northwind – nice! I think it is the engine vibration from cars/bikes that make the wobble worse – I never used it after that test of mine for the same reasons as you.
    (Would love to get up and try Knockhill in the 7 sometime…)
    Loads of other bullet cams on my youtube channel. A few crap bike ones, but youtube reduced the quality too much – will try and upload HD vid with this one.

    This one here was taken using the Hero WIDE – still a bit too compressed, but I like the fact that the Hero is small enough to mount anywhere – and facing backwards makes you look like you are going far faster than you are…. 😆 …particularly with the Star Wars effect in the trees around 4.50

    Northwind
    Full Member

    The Hero's mounting options alone make it great, I reckon. It's definately not just vibrations or engine interference with the ATC though, I thought it was for ages until I noticed it doesn't stop when the engine does 😆 I guess that would be considered a clue!

    (Knockhill's a great wee circuit btw, loads of elevation change and it's simple enough to learn fast then work on perfecting. Turning into duffus dip feels like riding off the end of the world if you're up to pace. I'm slow and broken now but I had some great days there a few years back. Hey, if the Stig can drive a 7 to Scotland…)

    coastkid
    Free Member

    tachyon 2010 xc or there micro xc.. available here in the UK
    alot tougher than a go-pro but not HD..but good enough…
    heres some vids..edited on vista moviemaker puplished on youtube…

    motorcycle ride…

    cycling

    walking…

    stanfree
    Free Member

    Got a Md80 from ebay today and to be honest Im really impressed for the money I paid. My question is what is the best way to mount it. i tried cable tieing onto the headset and cutting a small bit out the ventilation holes in my helmet (ouch) anyone else got any ideas as all though its cheap I dont want to lose it first time Im flying down spooky woods.

Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 20 total)

The topic ‘Head cams – what's good or bad, any reccomendations?’ is closed to new replies.