Hi all

Just got a Contour 1080i HD helmet camera any tips for best results mountain biking?

might just be me but the footage so far seems a bit shaky compared to my Gopro Wide

Any advice would be helpful Thanks

Martin

I’ve been reading up on the Contour and GoPro.

The Contour appears to have a better picture quality (both detail and colour) but does suffer from shakiness. Most blame the mount but I saw a comparison vid where both cameras were on one helmet, the Contour was in the Go Pro’s shot and it didn’t seem to be moving at all…yet the footage was still a little shakey. So maybe its just that the higher quality image makes the shaking more noticeable.

I find all the mounts a little bit loose, not the rail system but the mounts themselves, so you need to be a bit creative with old inner tubes or insulation tape – my vented helmet mount has side play on the pin it pivots on so I put a piece of inner tube in it to stop it moving, and a piece of neoprene inbetween the 2 parts of the goggle mount.

Good prices HERE btw

Been looking too and I found the GoPro has better quality colours and image but I’m very interested in the GoPro GPS for it’s geek factor. The GPS tracking and it with it’s bluetooth there’s an App due out to use iPhone or Android as a view finder and colour adjuster.

Nice price there cheers that’s bookmarked now.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpvQwSAv2Po[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eumejpF9zDM[/video]

You can make the colours better on the Contour with the Storyteller software, I found if you adjust the contrast (to make it slightly darker) you get more vivid colours, out the box it’s a bit washed out so it takes a bit of messing around with. There’s also a great piece of free software you can get for adjusting videos, I’ll put a link up if I can find it. The GPS and bluetooth/smartphone is a great idea.

This is the software I was thinking of VREVEAL it’s more for visual effects but good at smoothing out, enhancing colours, contrast, white balance etc. 🙂 … but you can only output to SD on the free version.

thanks for all the advice so far will try your advice with the mounts

For a shaky picture adjust the settings to 720p – this setting has a higher Bit rate of 60fps rather than 30fps – this eliminates everything you are talking about.

It took me ages of trial and error, but now the footage is superb.

Incidentally it also improves, light transitions and subsequently this has a massive positive effect on the colours & clarity too!

PS: I use the bar mount and this is solid and gives a really good view of the riding (IMO).

I don’t have the cash for such fancy toys but I have managed to get myself a free bullet cam…now needing something to capture the amazing riding footage that no doubts follows me wherever I go!!!

Any suggestions on cheap DVR kit that is small and has some form of remote control for switching recording on/off? Not looking for anything fancy but as long as it can hook up the camera and record what is being looked at that would be good. Ideally small and SD card compatible (makes it easier to get from camera to PC.

Also any suggestions on software to edit out all the (mostly) crap bits of my riding – figuring an hour of footage will give me about 2 mins of decent footage.

Sorry for thread hijack but as folk are talking about filming thought I’d ask.

You can also clean up some camera shake with some of the tracking tools available in editing software – things like Final Cut Pro/Final Cut Express on Mac will definitely do this – you can sacrifice a small amount of the edges of the frame for a stable image – it’s a software version of the way an oversized CCD with electronic correction works if you don;t have the room (or the weight!) for an optical stabiliser.

In that video above the GoPro looks so much better! From what I’ve seen chest mount works best for riding vids – not sure if the countour can do this?

For a shaky picture adjust the settings to 720p – this setting has a higher Bit rate of 60fps rather than 30fps – this eliminates everything you are talking about.

A higher frame rate will not eliminate camera shake 😕 It will make it look smoother/more lifelike (as there’s more images to fill in the gaps between each second) but that’s a different thing to camera shake.

Had a contour for over a year now and love it, its used mostly for DH so the goggle strap mount is perfect and as long as I remember to tighten the strap then its fine, some of my vids would not have been as good with a chest mount…this one for example

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/141637/

Anyway plenty of examples good and bad here :-

http://stranga.pinkbike.com/channel/Helmet-Cam/

Just remember to set it high enough and it will be fine.

Not shakey at all 😆 http://www.pinkbike.com/video/144703/

A higher frame rate will not eliminate camera shake It will make it look smoother/more lifelike (as there’s more images to fill in the gaps between each second) but that’s a different thing to camera shake.

I am aware of what a bit rate does and I was not saying that it would eliminate ‘camera shake’ – I was saying it would eliminate a ‘shaky picture’ and as I didn’t want to get get technical I thought this was the best description – the bottom line is, it will help smooth the OP’s footage which is exactly what he was asking.

It is assumed that the picture ‘shakiness’ is down to the mounting of the camera ‘only’ – this is not the case, hence my reply.

doh… Just bought the ContourGPS with a spare battery as I hear it can last as little as 40 minutes in cold weather!

What software does everyone use for editing HD movies? I’ve tried using Premiere, but it seems a little overkill for trimming down files.

Where does everyone mount them? Handlebars, seatpost, top of helmet?

For the vented helmet mount a couple of dabs of superglue on the pin stops it drifting out. then I covered it in harry black/duct tape to reduce the rattle and switched to SD to get the greater frame rate.
as Kojak suggests various bits of inner tube and tape can be added for that Heath Robinson effect.

anyone seen the shots from the side of the pedals? must be some kind of extension bar that bolts onto the pedal, presumably home made by someone far more competent in the workshop than me. plus, I’d be terrified of mashing the cam on rocks.

I’m looking for an all round clamp for the contour to go on forks, frame, wherever. anyone seen anything?

use this software to stabilize your video, have used it to good affect
linky

I’m looking for an all round clamp for the contour to go on forks, frame, wherever. anyone seen anything?

I’m looking for something similar. I’ve been thinking of using the helmet mount which has a strap and sticky pads.

The XL handlebar mount clamps to 15-33mm bars, so you may be able to attach to seat/chainstays?

Anyone know how you overlay GPS data like this?
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s7LaakeQxU&hd=1[/video]

Don’t forget to check out the camera settings. There are tuneable setting on the camera such as exposure, contrast, metering as well as the settings for the hi/lo switch.

Ahhh… Still waiting for it to arrive, hope it turns up for the weekend!

Found out how to add gps data overlay. There are two programs:

Dashware which has a free 30 day trial
RaceChrono which is free.
You can even add your GPS data from your garmin.

Hi Guys try the HD Extreme from {the company that I shamelessly plug… link removed – Mod}

I;ve found that a thin piece of stick wedged in between the countour camera and the mount stops the shaking…
I mount mine on the headtube and could literally see it shaking wedging the stick in solved it 🙂

for best results with POV footage, is to set the cam to 720p… i use a contour GPS, had the 720p for a while before it, and was amazed at the improvements they have made with the new one…. i use the vented helmet mount, i find for best results i need to keep my chin strap tight.. the only down side with the contour is there is no chest strap… but I’m planing on making my own… will only be using it for specific footage when I’m putting a video together…

the pov footage was taken by the old Contour 720 and the Time Laps footage was taken by the new GPS version

[video]http://vimeo.com/20952199[/video]

Here’s my test footage, mounted to the bars:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYaJ-tiRJ2k&hd=1[/video]
First minute is only worth watching, I was knackered after that.. Really unfit!

I used 720p, 60fps and quality set to High. It takes up 1gb /7minutes! 😯

Waiting for my helmet mount arrive..

There is another Firmware update (v1.12), which gives it better image quality and enables the Contour Connect View app to work with Android or iPhones (iPhone abusers will need to buy the Connect 4000 Card).

Waiting for mine to arrive!