GoPro HD vs ContourHD vs All other contenders

Kaise

All, having seen a host of helmet cam videos being posted i wanted to group together the general riders concensus for these cameras. Do you own one?

If the answer is yes (or no but you have used one of a friends) then this is where i need your help.

Everyone says the GoPro HD and the ContourHD are the leaders in the field, but is this true?

I've read good reviews of VIO POV HD cameras and heard stinking reviews of mounting options for all cameras. So whats the beef?

The end result is i want to be buying myself a camera and the outcome from this will help me and hopefully others......


Here are some links as well for peoples interest

VIO POV.HD
http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/POV.HD.html - £500! :shock:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/04/pov- ... ra-review/ - Engadget Review



Ta

The Northern Monkey

There is the Veho Muvi 1080p camera for around £110 with all the accesories you could ever need!
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/10503109 ... n=gp_gifts

Films in proper 1920 x 1080 at 30fps, small and looks the part.

I think it is the one I'm going to get. I had one of the cheapo ones from Hong Kong a while back and it did the job, these come with the full UK warranty etc etc.

The Veho actually has a wider field of view than the go pro HD too! 160deg v 127 deg!

Its also got a small LCD screen on the unit and its remote control!

Tis the full package on paper!

redvee

Form factor is the deciding factor for many with the cameras on the market. Go-Pro isn't the best camera for helmet mount due to the shape where as the shape of the Contour range is. For £200 you will soon be able to get a ContourRoam.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/c ... -cam-31645

bails87

Yep, the Contour goes on a helmet better, but you can chest mount the GoPro.

I use a Contour as 'insurance' on my commutes. They're going cheap on Amazon, or they were last week.

bluechair84

I keep throwing the weight of the Kodak zx3 about - at £80 off amazon, for 1080p, 720p@60fps, waterproof to 10feet, very decent battery, you can't get more for your money. The issue with it is mounting - it's a stupid bloody upright thing. But we manage. Film of our local riding and there's a link in my sig to the alps video (bit long).

paul.skibum

I have a GoPro - like the mounting options, waterproofedness, but I havent found the footage that amazing for biking - not bad but not as clear as I'd like especially used witht he chest mount - good if on bike or helmet and very good for skiing footage.

Relatively easy to use although the many menus accessed by only two buttons and some pretty vague menu options means changing settings can be hit and miss or just a pain in the arse.

My friend has a contour - simple to use, great footage, one mounting option and that wasnt perfect (he had to fiddle with it and add some additional support to make it a solid fitting).

toastedone

I would also like to hear opinions on these as I am in the market

The Northern Monkey

bails87 wrote:

Yep, the Contour goes on a helmet better, but you can chest mount the GoPro.

I use a Contour as 'insurance' on my commutes. They're going cheap on Amazon, or they were last week.

I owe you my thanks! Just bought the ContourHD 1080p camera for £130, reduced from £350!

felix.london

Drift HD170.

All the features of the other two (I'm not including your kodak in that bluechair84 )

Plus water(splash) proof, an LCD screen and a remote (wrist strap) start/stop button

It's definitely not as small as the contour but it's a better shape than the GoPro.

The Stealth (Black) version is going for £140 on eBay.

(have I got enough brackets in this post?)

toastedone

I am looking at the drift stealth on ebay with all the extras, just wondering before i place my order if anyone else has opinions/experience.

paul.skibum

I thought the drift was pretty weighty and not so great to fit - looked to me like it would work with a full face but might be tricky with a vented xc helmet - havent tried it though.

I like the wrist start stop though and the ability to rotate the lens to get an upright shot where ever you mount it - better than the go pro film upside down or right way up options.

paul.skibum

Oh and worth noting GoPro now do a piggy back lcd screen add on for the gopro if you desperately need to see what you filmed. not too pricey either.

bluechair84

Did I mention the Kodak (£80) has a very clear screen?

toastedone

paul.skibum wrote:

I thought the drift was pretty weighty and not so great to fit - looked to me like it would work with a full face but might be tricky with a vented xc helmet - havent tried it though.

I like the wrist start stop though and the ability to rotate the lens to get an upright shot where ever you mount it - better than the go pro film upside down or right way up options.

the drift is 1g lighter

Muttly1981

paul.skibum wrote:

Oh and worth noting GoPro now do a piggy back lcd screen add on for the gopro if you desperately need to see what you filmed. not too pricey either.

The piggy back screen only works with the full HD GoPro as i found out when looking at the HD 960.

Am in the market myself but can't decide between the GoPro, Contour and Drift all have there pros and cons which is giving me a headache

GoPro 960
Waterproof, loads of mounting options but is bulky

Contour
Waterproof, great picture and looks a well built piece of kit but a lack of mounting options (helmet, bar)

HD170
Good picture, 60fps in 720p (slow motion), loads of mounting options but looks a fragile piece of kit.

Muttly1981

Just had one last look around to see what deals i could find and thought sod it so ordered myself a Contour GPS £195 on Amazon which isn't bad as i almost paid £350 for the same camera 6 months ago

bails87

The Northern Monkey wrote:

bails87 wrote:

Yep, the Contour goes on a helmet better, but you can chest mount the GoPro.

I use a Contour as 'insurance' on my commutes. They're going cheap on Amazon, or they were last week.

I owe you my thanks! Just bought the ContourHD 1080p camera for £130, reduced from £350!

Damn, they were £150 when I bought mine, mind you, it was £175 when I nearly bought it a couple of weeks earlier!

redvee

Makes my bargain of £165 last October expensive

WisePranker

I've got the Gopro but had the Contour before that. Both fantastic cameras but I'm tempted to get another Contour for £130 as a spare!

MattBee

You should also check out the new Drift HD. Not overly cheap at £329 (http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/drift-hd-action-camera) but packed with features and has some good mounts available.

Anyone had a play with the Drift yet?

The Northern Monkey

So my contour HD turned up today.... very very very impressed.

Nowhere near as bulky/heavy/crap looking as the go pro, it really is a nice piece of kit. the mounts seem fine too, can't notice any play as yet, but we'll see.

I've been playing with the settings, 720p at 60fps is probably what i'll use for mountain biking - the difference between the 1080p and 720p is fairly negligible though... so we'll see.

the video quality is second to none though. Not as much fish eye as the gopro, so there is less "smoothing" on the edges which seems to give a feel of more detail.
the change between light/dark is seamless too. I was showing my dad some of the footage from turning into bright windows from a dark room and the camera handled it superbly!

720p at 60fps does use more memory than the 1080p at 30fps.
I can get 10 mins of video per 1gb on initial testing when set to 720p at 60fps... that gives me 80mins of video for my 8gb card, which I reckon will be just enough before the battery runs out lol. Either way, I could just get another 8gb card if needed.

For £130, its bloody excellent!

thanks again to bails87!

bails87

The Northern Monkey wrote:

720p at 60fps does use more memory than the 1080p at 30fps.
I can get 10 mins of video per 1gb on initial testing when set to 720p at 60fps... that gives me 80mins of video for my 8gb card, which I reckon will be just enough before the battery runs out lol. Either way, I could just get another 8gb card if needed.

I use mine for my commutes, about 45 minutes on the way in, and then almost an hour on the way home, and the battery died right at the end of the journey yesterday, so yeah, an hour and a half seems like a reasonable expectation, just to be safe I'll recharge it at work from now on though.

Also, mine splits the file when it reaches a certain size (4GB, maybe), so you end up with File001 and FI001 on the card, where the first one is the start of the video, and the second one is the later half, after the split. It's a seamless split BTW, with no noticeable gap. Then if you stop recording and start a new video, it's called File002, FI002 etc.

You going to be videoing your DH exploits on the Canyon?

thanks again to bails87!

agg25

I don't know why people are saying theres no mounting options for the Contour, I've got a helmet mount for my Giro Hex that works perfect and handlebar mount as well. I'd rather that than the chest mount. The form factor was one of the main reasons I chose it, the video quality is great, pretty sturdy (survived some big crashes) and I got mine for only £160 about 6 months ago.
Good for commuting as well, bit of insurance, it certainly makes drivers think twice about what they do.
You can also get waterproof housings for underwater use for only £27.
Only misus's are - the back flap can come off when switching on/off sometimes if not careful (this has been fixed in the newer versions), the front rubber lens cover is easy to lose.

Horton

Well, having hunted high and low for a suitable thread such as this, I gave up and have just taken delivery of a Contour GPS... £195 from amazon. This will join a kodak playsport thing which has already served me well off the bike and whilst skiing but I wanted more P.O.V. stuff.

Of all the reviews I did find, about the only bad thing mentioned about the GPS was the noise from the mic, but given I generally mute them when I edit them, not a major issue. There were various other "issues" but these have been addressed by firmware updates.

You can now get the Roam for about 190 squid, but it lacks a 60 fps in 720 which is great for a bit of slowmo action. Basically, it's a more rugged version of the 1080p, a bit waterproof and cack proof, but ultimately not for me.

The biggest seller for me was being able to connect it to an iThing via Bluetooth (if you buy a little widget) so you can see exactly where you're looking, change all the settings etc without needing a computer.

First impressions are good - helmet mount is stuck on but am clamping over night for a solid fix so will report back on that.

GPS lock on from start up wasn't that quick (about 20-30 secs), but then again I was in my back garden with high walls and a load of terraced houses around. That said, it was accurate enough to show me walking up the alley to the side of my house on the map once I imported it.

The battery is a royal p.i.t.a. to get out as the little spring clip that holds it in place catches on the battery label on what is already a very snug fit, but that was fixed with a small piece of sellotape over the edge of the label.

Now all I need is a bigger sd card to record more than about 7 mins of footage...

The Northern Monkey

bails87 wrote:

The Northern Monkey wrote:

720p at 60fps does use more memory than the 1080p at 30fps.
I can get 10 mins of video per 1gb on initial testing when set to 720p at 60fps... that gives me 80mins of video for my 8gb card, which I reckon will be just enough before the battery runs out lol. Either way, I could just get another 8gb card if needed.

I use mine for my commutes, about 45 minutes on the way in, and then almost an hour on the way home, and the battery died right at the end of the journey yesterday, so yeah, an hour and a half seems like a reasonable expectation, just to be safe I'll recharge it at work from now on though.

Also, mine splits the file when it reaches a certain size (4GB, maybe), so you end up with File001 and FI001 on the card, where the first one is the start of the video, and the second one is the later half, after the split. It's a seamless split BTW, with no noticeable gap. Then if you stop recording and start a new video, it's called File002, FI002 etc.

You going to be videoing your DH exploits on the Canyon?

thanks again to bails87!

Yeah the file split is due to it being fat32... tad annoying at 1st, but it doesn't really matter as I can stitch them easily.

You got any footage of yours? Which setting do you use?

I haven't put mine down yet lol, keep testing the footage by running round the house and chasing the dog etc

Going to use it for all my riding, 1st test will be Whinlatter on Saturday!

bails87

The Northern Monkey wrote:

You got any footage of yours? Which setting do you use?

I haven't put mine down yet lol, keep testing the footage by running round the house and chasing the dog etc

I use the 60fps setting. I've only got cimmute footage, and it takes about 45 mins to import a clip into Windows Movie Maker, before chopping it down and then another 45 mins to export and upload, so I can't be bothered to upload anything boring. Here's one of the commuters who also uses one, for an example of 'on the move' footage: http://www.youtube.com/tr4veller

Also, have you been to Whinlatter before? I thought it was amazing, enjoy!!

The Northern Monkey

bails87 wrote:

Also, have you been to Whinlatter before? I thought it was amazing, enjoy!!

Nice video's! Quality is excellent!

Yeah been Whinlatter loads of times... I'm on holiday back home in Blackpool atm and brought the Boardman with me. Used to be up there almost every other weekend!

Possibly my favourite trail!

Muttly1981

Horton wrote:

Of all the reviews I did find, about the only bad thing mentioned about the GPS was the noise from the mic, but given I generally mute them when I edit them, not a major issue. There were various other "issues" but these have been addressed by firmware updates.

I found this video of a sound comparison between the HD and GPS and the GPS mic seems to be fine from my speakers
http://youtu.be/bhVYjQB7PiY

The biggest seller for me was being able to connect it to an iThing via Bluetooth (if you buy a little widget) so you can see exactly where you're looking, change all the settings etc without needing a computer.

When i saw the bluetooth conectivity that was me sold on the GPS and hopefully the camera will be here ether tomorrow or thursday but will need to wait a few weeks before ordering the bluetooth card.

felix.london

Cheers for the info Northern Monkey. Kinda swinging back towards a Contour from the Drift

meanredspider

I bought the Go Pro HD for motorsport stuff - I'm reasonably impressed but had an issue and Go Pro's tech support was rubbish - they wanted me to send it to the US. The mounts are also poor and flimsy - I use different ones in my car. I'd struggle to wholeheartedly recommend it. To see footage (including bike commute) search on my username on YouTube

toastedone

Well I just bought a contour HD1080p, i got.....

Camera

2 batteries

Helmet mount, Goggle mount, universal mount

8GB Sd card

All for £120