anybody know much about THIS NEW BEASTY?

any possible links to vids or reviews?

muchly appreciated!

got too excited with my youthful enthusiasm and went ahead and ordered one. i’ll let y’all know how much more AWESOME than everything else it is when it arrives.

I like it, but thats a lot of money, contourHD are reduced to about £200 now.

contour was going to be my choice, but then i saw a direct comparison to the go-pro and the colouring was weird, greens (leaves, grass etc) didnt look right compared to the Go-Pro…..

plus neither contour or GP have a screen or built in tripod mount, which would have meant buying a second camera to film all my static/panned shots, this has the best of both worlds.

time to upgrade my PC now with some RAM, a new graphics card and getting rid of vista… any pinions on windows 7 and the various versions?

you’re better off with more than one cam anyway..
helmet/chest cam vids are very dull if there’s no static/panned footage to keep them interesting and if you have separate cams you can actually use footage of what you rode rather than re riding the trail again and again.

helmet/chest cam vids are very dull if there’s no static/panned footage to keep them interesting

agreed!

the thing is, buying 2 separate cams would mean i run out of cash… this way i can film both styles in HD. re-doing the same run a few times is good practice and something i should probably do to improve my skills..

the other option is i’m planning on getting other people to do the riding for me, but they all have to dress up in my clothes and ride the same bike as me so it looks like i’m a good rider 😉 height and weight may vary between cuts but thats just your eyes playing tricks on you, honest 😉

helmet/chest cam vids are very dull if there’s no very good riders in them

fixed that for you.

Looks good, will be nice to see how the footage turns out! Do you know if it can be used for stills as well?

Oh and Windows 7 is the way forwards! Get 64 bit OS, a good processor and a load of ram and you should be good to go. Half decent gfx card and a big, fast (7200 rpm) HDD may help as well. Video takes up a LOT of space.

another good point, i’ll just have to provide an open invitation for the good riders of STW to come play if they want to be filmed having fun 🙂

EDIT – didnt look at stills TBH tom! i’m not a photo person so wasn’t something i’d consider using it for. when it arrives i’ll have a butchers through the manual and let you know though 🙂 i saw the link to software you posted on mtb britain (if you’re the same _tom_), how comprehensive is it?

so windows 7 64bit… i’m literally going to strip nearly everything i can off the PC, throw some more RAM in (i’d like to get it up to 4gb) put a new graphics card in (hoping to get a 1gb thing) and reformat it with windows 7… sound like that should handle it?

i’m also storing everything i can on external HDDs to leave the internal hardrives as empty as possible for faster editing.. sound about right?

hmmm…

helmet/chest cam vids are very dull if there’s shit riders in them

no no no.. fixed that for you. 😉

seen plenty vids mixing helmet/chest/bike/static/panned cam with just half decent riders.

I know Vegas says it’s quicker to have source files on one drive, and render to a seperate drive

Good find on the cam, give us some samples when you get it 😀

whats the in my inbox… dispatched, due tomorrow… why thank you dogcam chaps 😀

i hope STW is ready for 4 minute videos consisting of 3 minutes worth of trees and 1 minute of actual riding 😆 I’m going to hurt myself climbing trees to get weird shots instead of hurting myself riding….. now how do i construct one of those wire things with bike wheels they use at the bbc?

This could be the same? And you’ll want one of those zip-wire thingies they use in Roam and The Collective next 😀

i saw the link to software you posted on mtb britain (if you’re the same _tom_), how comprehensive is it?

Yep that’s me, use the same username on pretty much every forum I go on 😆 I haven’t used Lightworks enough yet but for simple riding videos it should be fine I would have thought. It’s getting new updates soon for a title tool etc I think.

It’d be better to edit off the main HDD as using a usb external will limit how fast the data can transfer.. firewire or eSata might be ok though?

A lot cheaper if you just get 2 mates to throw the cam between them 😀

shiney new toy… they wont be allowed to be in the same room as it let alone touch it to throw it 😯

Good find, this cam looks good. I was going to get a go pro hd but if this uses the same sensor etc then best of both worlds. It seems like a very well thought out set up, the tripod thread will be very useful for using after market mounts and clamps.

Please provide feedback as soon as you get it as I want to order one! I’m moving to Switzerland so this will get a lot of use!

will do my fine feathered friend!

without trying to sound like an advert for it (a bit excited so will anyway) its very light, same electrical internals as go-pro and contour, rotating lens with lazer alignment like the contour, screen like the drift but much smaller and lighter, comes with tripod thread built into the unit so as you say… very adaptable and dont need to buy extras to begin with like the go-pro and contour. comes with a remote switch and mains charger as well as usb charging. the “handlebar mount” should fit an oversized bar but also because of the rotating lens it should work as a seat post mount also 😉 and spare battery is only a tenner 😀 has not only the 30fps but also 720p @60fps, oh and 25/50fps so its in line with broadcast speeds.

really does seem to take the best features from all 3 main HD cams at the moment… hope i can do it justice with some filming!

Yeah its an impressive list of features, I’d be interested to know about the build quality and robustness of the supplied mounts. It is only water resistant too but they do say a waterproof case will be available soon.

It does seem a little too good to be true!

sorry for possibly a very silly question _tom_ but would you think putting in another internal HDD at the same time as the RAM and graphics card would be a good idea?

tim – on the phone they said about six weeks for the waterproof housing but that would make it waterproof in a “can go diving underwater with it” type way, at the moment its mud/rain/snow proof apparently.

i’ll have a little play tomorrow if i can, although may not be able to edit yet due to underpowered PC, but i will be able to comment on build quality, ease of use, mounts and such as quick as i can 🙂

You might as well if you have the space inside – 1TB hdds can be had for so cheap now so it sort of makes sense. Also what processor do you have? Something which is at least dual core would be advised 🙂

If you want to get proper geeky and into video then a good thing to do is build up a system which will be compatible with Snow Leopard, and do a “hackintosh” (it doesn’t actually require any hacking now) – Final Cut Pro is a really great bit of software for video work but may be overkill depending on how in depth you’re planning on getting.

Tom, just out of interest, how does running snow leopard on a PC now not require any hacking? I always figured trying to bodge a “mac” would lead to all sorts of problems with operating system updates and licensing issues. Is this not now the case?

Sorry to go slightly off topic but I’m sure OP will bring it back on topic when he gets his camera tomorrow!

ohhh i will 🙂 trust me!

Well I dunno about updates but so long as all your hardware is compatible, all you do is run a disc with boot132 on, which then lets you boot to a legit Snow Leopard disc and install from there. As it’s a proper copy of the OS it should update fine I guess?

The only thing near to “hacking” I had to do was run a program called Chameleon which allows the computer to boot to the OS without boot132. I still haven’t got wireless internet on it without a usb dongle though, it’s really picky about network cards for some reason.

my home pc

looks like its got enough slots to throw in another 3-4gb RAM, new graphics card, 1tb internal and change to windows7… any reason why it wouldnt like the 64bit OS?

might post that link in a new thread with a title about computer geeks needed… that’ll attract some STW attention and hopefully some arguments 😉

😆 Yeah you’re probably better off starting that thread, I don’t really understand techy stuff beyond a certain level! In most cases though, if it’s compatible with Vista then it’s most likely compatible with 7.

So have you got it yet?! There are a couple of boring vids on YouTube to demonstrate its image quality. Seems to deal very well with dark, snow and headlights which will be a challenge for any sensor.

Double post (stupid phone)

just got back to my main building after spending a few hours dealing with a very angry murderer, telling him we’re not paying for milk and splenda did not go down well 😯

but the world is good again as its here! i’ll borrow mrsconsequences point’n’click camera to take photos of packing and the unit etc along with a first play review tonight. first impressions = sexy!

From checking out the youtube vids it has a better low light capability than the HD Hero .

Phil I am hoping you will do some films with the Liberator too 😀

haha i’m going to film at night with both the LL and the mini on full, night rides are…. well wayyy too much fun not to film! in fact i’m going on a night ride tomorrow, if the larger memory card arrives from play in time (not dispatched yet so doubt it) then i’ll have lots of footage to play with, if not them i’m limited to not very much on the card it comes with.

until my PC is sorted i’m a bit screwed with being able to edit something together so at the moment the best i can put together is a few photos and a review asap… but trust me i’ll have some footage up as soon as i can 🙂

You can upload hd vids to you tube and it does the rest

true… i suppose i dont have to upload anything swish and edited, just something that shows the quality… although i might have to find a pc to use that can handle HD footage to upload it through!

no you dont straight off the sd card or thats what I have done in the past with the now for sale hd hero

ohhhh i hadnt thought of such a direct route! well worth a try, will charge tonight and get on it! i’ll try filming similar things at different resolutions and frame rates too for comparison.

its sooo light!!! really is only 115grams including the battery. tasty times ahead 😀

right, i was planning on taking lots of photos at different stages of unpacking the box, listing all the contents and such but i was way too excited, put it on charge then started playing. so no pics, but i’m taking it out tonight to get a little night riding footage, will try getting some daytime footage in my lunch break at work today to show the comparison.

first impressions, incredibly simple to use… couldnt be more simple if it tried which is nice (not scared of lending it to mrsconsequence or friends to play with as i know they cant screw any settings up or something.

very very light, nice size, the screen is great, mounts all attach very firmly, tried it on goggle mount and im confident its not going anywhere when riding over rough terrain. handlebar mount is big enough to go around a seatpost and the tube on the frame that the seatpost sits in.. so lots of mounting options from that!

comes with a SD card adaptor, so no need to buy one of those 🙂 comes with an HDMI cable too.

i will (once i’ve got various little clips to show quality) write up a full review and put the box back together to get some pictures. but yeah…. first impressions after a little play last night are sexy!

Thanks for the info. Can you use the screen in a live view mode, can you use it as a view finder to position where the camera is pointing? I’m assuming not, but thought I’d ask. Think I’ll order one tonight.

you can use the screen in a live view mode…. there’s a button to turn the lcd screen on at any point during filming and it comes on automatically for a while when you first turn it on/press record to act as a view finder, but to save battery turns itself off automatically after a while. pressing the lcd button turns it back on at any point.

it does take stills as well – @ 2560X1920p but thats using a little photo button on top, no function to take stills at a set rate that i’ve noticed