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Off to the Alps this summer and thought it might be nice to take some helmet cam footage - any suggestions as to a reasonable package?
Can't claim to have tried one, but the Drift X170 looks pretty good to me. Like the idea of the remote stop/start as well.
[url] http://www.driftinnovation.com [/url]
£12.50 ebay ones and a 8gh SDHC class 6 card off 7dayshop.com
For £12.50 you can crash and bust it and not worry, 2 hours in the rain and a big stack with nothing but some clingfilm to protect it and mine is still going!
Footage is actually quite presentable, easily good enough to look good on a laptop screen. Shoots at about 31-32fps in sunlight, drops to about 15 indoors.
Good points
+ its good
Bad points
- no screen or battery life or memory remaining indicator
- doesn't work well in really low light (struggles indoors and deep in the woods, fine on woody single track though)
- doesn't have a great depth of exposure. Dark bits can appear quite black and the sky is often white as you go through the trees. In the open its fine though, just doesn't cope with a mix of light levels.
and my vote of the contour hd. love mine.
+1 contour hd
And another for ContourHD
From today
If I was to buy one of these it would be the go pro with chest mount, it gives a far better perspective of the rider, bike and trail.
Guy I ride with has a GoPro HD and loves it. He usually rides with the chest mount and has the helmet mount usually for backward facing shots. Quality is pretty good but a remote would be useful for it.
ContourHD doesn't really look all that IMO
...that's a range of prices for cameras...I am off to france in a few weeks and fancied taking a camera along but not spending a fortune...got an MD80 off ebay that I think thisisnotaspoon refers to above. £12.00 delivered and the footage is not too bad at all for a camera that is no bigger than your thumb. I did a test and put it on youtube. Do a search for "flints moor". Mounted on my camelback chest strap and pointing too far down but will be tweaking mount a bit. Shows quality though. My lairy nephew is thinking of getting on to mount on his stem looking back up to his face to record those "oh crikey" moments.
I reckon the GoPro is pretty good. The wide angle lens gives a good impression of what it actually looks and feels like when you're riding. I've only played with the non HD one but it gives good results. Reckon I might buy teh HD one at some point.
YouTube compresses it a bit, but you get the idea
[url= http://www.youtube.com/user/admstick#p/u/4/zJCE2EROe48 ]Jumps[/url]
[url= http://www.youtube.com/user/admstick#p/u/18/1pDu6ivDqRs ]Brechfa[/url]
The chest mount for the Gopro is their killer app really, the HD cameras are all pretty similiar in performance but nothing else can match them for mounting. Shame they didn't get it quite right (there's a lack of position options as standard so it tends to point too far down) but you can work round that. Other mounts work well but the chest is by far the best I've used, way better than helmet mounting (helmet mounts tend to remove any feeling of motion and speed as they're so well stabilised and so high up)
I had a go at making a chest strap, it pointed down too much, but I got some pretty good results by zip tying the camera to my Camelback strap. Seeing the wheel, handlebars and arms gives more impression of what the rider is doing.
another one for the go pro HD - if you get it in the sales, and considering it includes the battery, its not a bad deal.
I agree, the chest mount is the usp - if anyone's interested, heres some footage from the Forest of Dean using it
The chest mount videos look much better to me as well.
chest is best...helmet mount ends up panning aorund too much as you look around or ahead. also seeing the bars, hands and front wheel are more realistic.