Helmet cams

cgarossi

Who owns one? Is it worth it?

I'm looking to get one (budget around £150 max). I saw some of the reviews in MBUK but they are all way to expensive.

dot1

ive got an action cam atc2k. its good to have, quite good quality video, sound is pretty poor once your going quite fast (think talking to someone in a windy place on the phone) mounts are pretty poor, but i cant imagine many in that budget would have solid mounts. has a helmet mount which i cant get anywhere near tight enought, BUT, i use some electrical tape coming off the front and back of the cam as guy ropes, and tape them into some vents of the helmet and it holds it solidly and doesnt move at all. handlbar mount is alright but doesnt fit oversized bars, but i never use it anywhere as it doesnt give very good footage. getting the position right on the helmet is very difficult and i am still yet to get it perfect. overall i would recommend it, can get about 2.5 hrs of footage on one 2gb sd card i think, camera has a handy and suprisingly loud beep when you turn it on/off, stop/start recording and when the batteries/memory runs out. just dont forget the electrical tape!

Skonk

I have a GoPro Helmet Hero Wide 5.

The basic kit is around £150 but only comes with basic mounting gear, it's around £190 with the vented helmet mount and some other bits n bobs.

Image quality is "ok" but working in the media department of a college (so having access to lots of very good quality video equipment) I do wish the quality was better.

The whole package works very well though, easy to operate, mounts are strong, captures a nice wide angle so you can see the bike below you up to the sky above, waterproof to 100ft and can take some hammer; image quality could be better though.

Couple of sample vids...

My m8 falling down a hole yesterday at Dalby (bit of swaring in there): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQGDhBgOtRk

Some clips edited together from our first trip to Dalby last weekend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTRQ4Do95B4

James.

cgarossi

Thanks Skonk

The quality looks quite good to be fair. Not sure of the Fish Eye view though, seems odd. Can you change the wide angle?

Any possibility of creating a mount without forking out an extra 40 quid?

Skonk

They do a non-wide version but it's a seperate unit; tbh though while the wide angle does distort the image it allows you to capture much more stuff.

I've used some standard lens cameras before (we have some at work that we've used for recording motor sports and stuff) and for biking you end up with a pretty boring video because you get a very small field of view; meaning you either aim it at the handle bars (so you can see the front wheel) but then you dont see any of the trail, or you aim it up the trail and you dont see the bike wheel or what your doing with the bike while you ride.

Wide gives you the biggest field of view so you get to see both the bike and the trail, which IMO makes for more interesting video.

As for mounting, I'm sure you could make something yourself to hook it up; gaffer tape stick pretty much anything... to anything.

James.

cat_with_no_tail

Skonk wrote:

My m8 falling down a hole yesterday at Dalby (bit of swaring in there): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQGDhBgOtRk

hahahahahaha Epic fail!

Why was your mate wearing your helmet cam though? go on, adimit it, it was you wasnt it.

Skonk

I wish it was me tbh so I could tell ppl the story, but sadly it wasn't.

The first time we visited Dalby was last weekend and I was the only one who wore the camera, so this time I said someone else should try it.

We were just about to go down one of the short black graded bits when we heard a noise and turned around to see him dissapear out of sight, poor guy was covered in nettle stings (chuckle).

Daz555

Skonk wrote:

Wide gives you the biggest field of view so you get to see both the bike and the trail, which IMO makes for more interesting video.

...also cuts down the impact of camera shake.

naefearjustbeer

I have an ATC2k and to be honest the footage linked above from the go pro cam blows it out of the water!. If I were to buy one again I wouldnt go for the atc2K.

delcol

i have a few..
a atc2k its ok but to heavy to have on helmet, quality is ok..

i have a arcoss helmet cam it has a bullet camera and a recorder, quality is very god
it's easy to use..

i also have a AT-1 Wireless helmet camera
it's wire less so is easy to mount come with recorder and mounts. the camera is a little bit larger than a bullet camera so is ok for helmet mounting..
the quality os ok not as good as the arcoss, but you can use it with a normal bullet cam. the camera that come with it is a 480 tv lines...

my bro has a helmet hero these are ok cameras pretty good quality.

see links in my sig for vids...
the comforatably numb decent young lust and danimal are filmed on the AT-1 Wireless helmet camera
the winter hill to belmont decent is filmed on arcoss.
and the cut yer bars on my bro's helmet hero..

you get what you pay for for the best quality you want a 520 pluss tv lines.

SDK2007

Skonk wrote:

Wide gives you the biggest field of view so you get to see both the bike and the trail, which IMO makes for more interesting video.

One disadvantage of a wide lens is that it makes your riding appear slower. It’s the same with camera mounting height, the higher you have the camera the slower you appear to be going.

lawman

i have an atc5k, the one with the screen, its great for filming but battery life is shite so take a spare pair with you on rides. adds a heck of alot of weight to ur helmet too as its all in one unit, but overall its great value for money

CommandoBoy

I was testing a go pro helmet cam for work today

http://spider987.pinkbike.com/channel/G ... -cam-demo/

Zeroman_IR

VholdR have released a new ContourHD cam, probably the one you saw tested in MBUK, with the result their older model, the original VholdR can now be bought new off eBay for less than £100. Great camera, not HD like the new one but handles abrupt transitions from light to dark arguably better than the GoPro though it doesn't have the wide angle lens. A steal at that price though. Here's one on eBay to start you off: VholdR. You'll probably want the vented helmet mount too but again they can be picked up cheap.

Bungalow Bill

GO PRO Wide, I post my vids on here when I up them to the tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx0AanzvEH4

Got 3 up and will have a new one up this week of when we got caught in a tropical thunder storm :-D

breezer

I have a vholdr which I somehow managed to get my work to buy for a project (heh). Theres no way it was worth the original £300 but as mentioned above you can get them much cheaper now. They give a far better picture than others mentioned on this thread. They dont like the low light much and go quite grainy but if mounted tightly suffer from none of the camera shake of others. Here are a couple of videos I took playing around with mounting positions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHAPty2WMt4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeD4BOL2U2s