Helmet Hero questions

Northwind

I finally bit the bullet, sold my cumbersome old seperates bullet cam system, and got a Hero Cam... Just arrived today. Seems a lovely little thing, just waiting for some batteries to recharge so I can have a crack with it tomorrow, such a pleasure to not have a hundred foot of wire...

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for the best mounting locations? The helmet strap seems very effective, so that's an easy one. I've rigged up a handlebar mount as well, easy enough. Any others worth trying? Is it worth doing a fork leg (or crown) mount, or an under tube one? I might get the chest mount but I'm holding off on that for now...

Oh, and can anyone translate the numbers/letters/gibberish on the front LCD for me? I'd sort of assumed that it'd display run time, or remaining memory, but it just seems to be random cack...

Ooh, lastly, there's a beta patch for 4gb SD cards doing the rounds- some reviewers have it- does anyone know if I can pick this up anywhere? The official release has been "imminent" for 9 months :?

The Northern Monkey

Seat tube

the numbers after recording are how many video's you've recorded I thinkg.

Tesco were uber uber cheap for 2g memory.... I don't think they take 4g do they?

Madtag

well if u go to amazon you can pick one up for about 12-15 squid for p&p

Northwind

The 4gb thing, there's a beta patch but it's never been fully launched (they promised it in 2 weeks, in December 08, but apparently they couldn't get some of the bugs out). I don't have any 4gb cards around, but apparently it'll work fine with most 4gb cards, it just can't save any file over 2gb (and if the file runs over 2gb, it deletes itself and you lose the whole thing... Which obviously sucks).

Seatpost hmm? Does that work? I've seen some footage someone did of a rear view on the mega and tbh, it was rubbish If I ever get my orrible old ATC2K back I might stick that on the rear.

The Northern Monkey

Northwind
helmet hero on my seat tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DnPHHAXgJM
All of the videos I got are from the seat tube due to my bars being very slippy

Northwind

Oh, I see! I thought you said seatpost, I misread. Very nice that! I'll need to check that out.

My bar mount's awesome... You know how the camera comes stuck to a big bit of black plastic, with a base stuck to it? I took the whole thing and taped it to my stem with about 6 foot of electric tape Looks horrific but it's absolutely perfect, very stable. No way am I spending £20 for the "proper" bar mount...

Palimanto

They work fine with 4gb cards, had mine 6months and been using 4gb cards

Northwind

Have you been able to save any files over 2gb? That seems to be the problem, not so much the card compatability as the file structure.

Anonymous

bigbenj_08 wrote:

Northwind
helmet hero on my seat tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DnPHHAXgJM
All of the videos I got are from the seat tube due to my bars being very slippy

Middle one? Chicken :twisted:

I don't own a helmet/frame cam, but I have to say, I hate watching handlebar mounted vids.
On slow sections, you're constantly adjusting the bars, so the video goes from side to side.
Also, frame mounted vids tend to rattle madly at speed, so the best option (as a viewer) has to be helmet, or chest mount, but I prefer helmet cam videos.
The hemlet cam gives you a nice stable video, and you get to see where the rider was looking as he was riding, which is generalyl much more useful and entertaining than any other gimmicky angle.

Northwind

Yeah, but then height can rob the shot of the sense of speed and make obstacles and drops look smaller. The chest mount seems to get a best of all worlds really but I reckon (from doing similiar jobs with motorbikes) I can get a better bar mount- wee bit of damping and mounting the sensor directly over the steerer to reduce the movement. I really like that seat tube shot though.

Anonymous

Ah, but with motorbikes, you won't have that combination of fast, twitchy, and large steering input. Unless you're crashing.

Northwind

True that. Depends what you're riding as well of course, slow techy stuff usually looks absolutely horrendous from the bars, faster stuff can be pretty nice.

Northwind

Oh, here's an update, the firmware patch to allow a hero cam to save over 2gb files has actually been released, they just didn't tell anyone. It can be accessed here.

http://www.goprocamera.com/fwupgrade.html

Apparently it also has an upgrade for bright light conditions, though it doesn't sound like that'll make much difference to us unless you're riding in snow. But the bigger save file thing is a bonus I think.

I tested my bar mount out... I quite like the footage, it's a bit wobbly though as I didn't build any damping into my first attempt. It certainly has a better impression of speed than most helmet cam stuff (it actually looks a bit like I can ride) and as I'd hoped mounting the camera right over the stem does reduce the seasick effect. Not really good enough yet but it's a good start. Quite pleased with the video quality too, though it all goes very grainy as the light levels drop (looks a bit blair witch once it gets dark!) All in all, a good first flight. Now I've got to buy a load of memory cards!

Oh, also bought this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0461829204

Which looks pretty much ideal, holds 2 SD cards and 4 AAA batteries so that's 4 hours of battery and memory, nice and handy.

paul.skibum

I have been considering getting one of these as I want to take videos of my skiing exploits and biking - need to get a laptop too though!

I fancy a ski pole mounting for skiing shots and like the idea of mid handlebar too - what about rigging it to front of headtube though? Cant be any more vibe than on the bars and would stop the motion sickness?

Northwind

I thought about that but on mine, that'd just get you a nice shot of a lot of hoses and cables