Best for picture – battery life…and everything else…

Problem with this question is that most people who reply will have limited experience of the one that they own, which the naturally think is the best thing since sliced bread. So, you have to buy a GoPro 960 😀

Actually, I have been able to compare that with a Drift X170, which doesn’t handle transitions in light levels very well, and also suffers from high wind noise. The little preview screen is useful on that though. My latest/first effort, which gives the best idea as it’s the least edited.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Fe_yCk_fA[/video]

Going to say Gopro… Not the one I’ve got, the new 960, it’s a fantastic bit of kit at the price. Drift is too obsessed with its gimmick and not good enough at actually being a camera from what I’ve seen of it… Contour is very good, about the equal of the Gopro in fact and either one would do you fine but the Gopro’s packaging is so much better, you can mount it more places more easily so even if it wasn’t quite as good a camera that’d still make it the best choice.

Getting the mounts does add to the price though, you’ll want the chest mount most likely and the handlebar mount is good too. Rollbar mount will mount round stems, frame, forks etc but is a bit harder to get good use out of so not really as obvious a buy.

I use the Contour 1080p (when riding its set at 720p @ 60fps) this is a video taken at the end of last year (watch it in 720p for full effect) – the thing I looked out for most was the light transitions, as this is one of the main things to consider when choosing (as we are always in and out the trees and you want to actually see ALL the ride! 😀 ). However, to add to this, the storage space on the card is FANTASTIC and also the battery life is endless!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_hV8QMqiFI[/video]

wet myself at tthew’s vid!

“he’s coming, he’s nearly behind me, coming up level… FALL OVER NOW, NOW, NOW!!”

Aye me too………lol

it has to between the contour or gopro.. both have good and bad points and both produce good quality footage, arguably the contour edging it… but all that gets cancelled out any way, once you render it down for uploading on the net…

the new features on the new contour look good but a bit gimmicky.. i reckon most of us will get bored with the gps feature fairly quickly, especially as you loose the data once you start to edit the footage with 3rd party software… when they activate the blue tooth feature, i can see that being a winner… being able to live view your cam with a your smart phone will be a very handy feature, not to mention being able to adjust camera settings on the fly.. the one big down side with the contour is not being able to chest mount the cam where as you can with the gopro… but then the gopro doesn’t look so good on the helmet mount, the simple choice there is do you go for functionality over looks…

btw I’m punting a contour 720p on ebay just now.. a couple of hrs to go

Some good suggestions…Cheers Folks..

Here’s my test footage from my new ContourGPS at the weekend:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYaJ-tiRJ2k&hd=1[/video]
I used the contour handlebar mount.

The Contour battery life doesn’t seem to be very good, especially recording 720p 60fps with quality set to high and GPS on. It was the first usage, so I expect the battery life to get better, I hope!

Contour are also bringing out an app for mobile phones (spring 2011), so you can have a live feed of the camera for setting up and you can edit the settings.

Milkie – that looks good for handlebar mounted! Can it be mounted on the frame using the handlebar mount too? And how did you get the route and speed etc in the video?

Apparently you can extract the GPS data from the video of the Contour and put it back again if you want to edit it, I did ask support as I was thinking of using 2 cameras, one GPS and one HD and combining the 2 and having the map on it … but don’t know how you’d do it as I haven’t tried it.

Can it be mounted on the frame using the handlebar mount too?

My tubes are too thick, the XL Handlebar Mount goes upto 33mm diameter. I’ve tried it on the seatpost and my leg hits it everytime.

And how did you get the route and speed etc in the video

I couldn’t get the GPS to lock on the ContourGPS, so I used my Edge to log the GPS Data. I’ve found one program to overlay the GPS Data on to the video called Dashware (it recognises ContourGPS data), they do a free trial too, I was so impressed I bought it.
There is also another web based app called BikeTelemetry that will output png’s for each frame or an .mp4. I have no idea how to use this with Premiere.

I was thinking of using 2 cameras

I have a little Muvi camera thing, I was thinking of taping it to my seat post and overlay it in the corner or something. I’m not sure how this would work as its a different frame rate and things. I think I need an idiots guide for Premiere.

…having the map on it

Apparently (haven’t tried it), you can load your GPS data into Google Earth and then run the route in realtime and capture the video with screen capture software then overlay that into your video. Simples.. Apparently!

I’ve got a GoPro 960 so obviously i’ll say that 🙂 but in my defence I saved money by making a chest mount using the head mount (cost about £5 and some chocolate to bribe the other half into helping me) then bought a 5.99 helmet light mount from halfords to make a multi use frame/stem mount, can do pics of it if it helps.
So don’t discount the 960 based on the mounts adding cost, bodge ’em is better 🙂

I’ve just bought a GoPro 1080 with LCD bacpac and it is awesome (Thanks JensonUSA 🙂 ). The bacpac is pure genius for setting up the shot and checking the footage but does drain the battery unless you switch it off when not needed (or you buy a second battery).

Very impressed so far – quality bit of kit, just wish my PC was up to the job of editing footage 🙁