Another helmet cam thread

David Lund

I didnt want to hijack the other thread but im totaly confuzed so here goes..
What is the difference wetween these 2 cameras?

http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/acatalog/ATC3k.html

http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/acatalog ... meras.html

The both say 640 x 480 which i asume is the resolution however one is £200 more, am i missing something here?
Also iv been watching videos from each of them and the second is far better.
How do i know which one makes the better picture?

Im looking at getting one of these-
http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/acatalog ... _Hero.html

However the resolution is less at 512 x 384 but videos iv seen make it seem pretty good.
These is also this one which is more expensive but is 752x582

http://www.sport-cam.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=kit1

has anyone tried either of these last 2?
Also how do you know which has the better picture?
Thanks
David

Northwind

The vholdr gives a much better picture from what I've seen, it's not all about resolution. You get different compression hardware, different optical sensors, sometimes different optics. If you want a biking comparison, it's like saying "What's the difference between a Suntour XC and a Reba, they're both coil forks"

The ATC's a good camera on paper but the problems it has with image tearing and wobbling can pretty much ruin it... Here's something I shot which shows you what I mean-

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XH3Z-xQYEMU

The most annoying thing with this is that it does it so inconsistently- on one run up north I stopped for a stretch, turned the camera off, then started again- never dismounted it, changed card, anything. The footage before I stopped was perfect, the footage after was completely useless. This isn't uncommon, you can see it on a lot of ATC videos... So I would recommend you steer clear, unless it's to be purely a toy. On the plus side, it's durable and waterproof.

Vholdr doesn't seem to have any probs like that... Here's some vholdr footage shot from a US bike forum I'm on, to be fair it's a very high quality upload but I've compared it with footage straight off my own ATC2K and it's so much better. Reliable source too, so it's not going to be the usual doctored demo vid But there's been an awful lot of bad reports on reliability, software issues, etc. And it's so expensive, you could get a top quality camera and a good PMP recorder for less, though that's more of a faff with wires and power. Personally I'd steer clear but ymmv. Oh, and it's not waterproof.

http://nichelob.smugmug.com/gallery/5103609_84jRG/1/#307983738_u9bky-A-LB

Oh yeah, remember that most uploaded vids are compressed to hell anyway. I used to think that made higher quality cameras useless but I've been proved wrong, even though the quality drops you get better results dropping a high quality vid to youtube standards than you do with a lower quality one.

David Lund

Thanks Northwind that was a real help
That cam Vholdr looks amazing but sadly a bit out of my price range.. nice bike though :twisted:
I understand now and was aware that sites such as youtube compress the files.
iv finaly found a site which explains it all near enough, some of the hero cam videos are realy good so il take an extra look into that, just need to get the extra cash now!
Cheers
David

Northwind

Yeah, I'd like to see more hero cam stuff, I've not seen much from them.

breezer

God knows what hes done with his vholdr to get that quality. My first one broke so sent it back for a replacement that worked but its all washed out, terrible in the dark, where he was in the car park it wouldnt have worked at all, ie like when in most darkish woods......will go see if theres a firmware update! It also suffers from vibrations really bad which I can get rid of mostly with software recoding but not the point. My £100 credit card sizes 14mm thick digital camera which also uses xvid and 640*480 is infinitely better as I strapped it to my bike, perfect colours, no virbations....

Northwind

Yeah, I've seen a lot of comments like that, they just seem so variable and unreliable, that's what put me off them. That footage was right after the cam launched in the US so it would have been on an early firmware too. It's a guy I know from bike modding so I know it's not just a random forum plant/viral advert sort of thing.