GoPro HD vs ContourHD vs All other contenders

Muttly1981

toastedone wrote:

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

Camera

2 batteries

Helmet mount, Goggle mount, universal mount

8GB Sd card

All for £120

Should have gone for the Contour GPS

toastedone

Muttly1981 wrote:

toastedone wrote:

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

Camera

2 batteries

Helmet mount, Goggle mount, universal mount

8GB Sd card

All for £120

Should have gone for the Contour GPS

I heard the GPS and bluetooth cains the battery + I know where i am

RLyons

The Northern Monkey wrote:

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

I'll be at Whinlatter this Saturday too!

I have just bought a Drift HD for £150 and rate it highly! It mounts to the side of my XC helmet no worries although you need to have a helmet that holds on to your head properly - i.e. adjustable circumference strap. The quality is awesome + it has a slight fisheye lense which makes it look like you're going fast (makes me look better than I am). It's durable and has a 360degree lense so you can mount it upside-down etc and still have the picture the right way up. And the battery lasts for ages.

I went for the drift over the contour because of the quality on some of the youtube videos - drift quality seemed better. Probably not much in it though.

We can post the vids up and compare

Here's one I made earlier - sorry about the poor riding skills. Youtube also sucks the life out of the videos, looks better on my laptop in wmv form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xwbx6Jnu4k

Squarepants

toastedone wrote:

I know where i am

bluehelmet

toastedone wrote:

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

Camera

2 batteries

Helmet mount, Goggle mount, universal mount

8GB Sd card

All for £120

Where from?

The Northern Monkey

Well bit of an update... never ever ever use http://www.red-onions.co.uk/

The vented helmet mount won't be dispatched until tomorrow, even though I ordered on Sunday and delivery times were 3 days :evil:

Looks like I won't have footage until next weekend now... fucked off to say the least.

Muttly1981

toastedone wrote:

Muttly1981 wrote:

toastedone wrote:

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

Camera

2 batteries

Helmet mount, Goggle mount, universal mount

8GB Sd card

All for £120

Should have gone for the Contour GPS

I heard the GPS and bluetooth cains the battery + I know where i am

It's a sacrafice worth making though to have really cool gadgets at your fingertips plus you can turn each off if your just doing a normal ride. Personally i'll be using it when on the trails to see just how fast i was really going and not how fast i thought i was going

So i had a little test just shooting around the house to get an idea of the quality once uploaded to the computer, i now need to buy a new computer as my current one doesn't have the memory,speed etc to cope with HD footage :oops: Guess it gives me a good excuse to spend some cash i just wish i didn't buy my new tent last week now though

Horton

toastedone wrote:

I heard the GPS and bluetooth cains the battery + I know where i am

No idea about battery life so far as not used it enough, but I think bluetooth only uses power whilst connected to an iThing/Android phone.

GPS isn't so much for telling you where you are, it plots it against a map that runs in time with the video showing you speed etc as well (that's the theory but it's stopped working on mine for some reason)

Will post a link as soon as uploaded onto Contour's site - no frills, no edits so you can see it for what it is.

One bad thing... mounts... the "rotating mount" is pretty loose on mine so it flaps about a bit if you don't pack a bit of foam between the mount and the camera.

Horton

Ok, so here is quite literally, the first run (aside from the usual running around the house etc.)

Shot at 720p @ 60fps, pretty chuffed with the quality - handles difficult light changes pretty well.



Additional note re previous post about the mount, this was packed out with foam a little bit to stop it rattling, and I've already had an email from Contour's tech support guys to say they're designing a new mount and when it's ready, they'll mail me one, so top marks on support too!

http://contour.com/stories/first-time-out-with-the-contour-gps

toastedone

For the person that asked me where i got mine from, i got it from ebay second hand, and it has 3 batteries not 2,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280736471945

I checked the GPS vids out on the contour site and they actually look good with the mapping.

I tested my contour last night on a very quick road ride in the dark, the camera is no good in the dark but I will do a quick day test either today or tomorrow.

here is the night test

http://www.youtube.com/user/ToastC456?feature=mhee

BlueAdvocate

I went through the pain of this decision, the only mount the GoPro is not ideal for is the helmet. Chest, it is the only solution, anywhere on the bike is great. 720p 60fps the way to go.

Muttly1981

So took the Contour GPS out today for a ride but i may aswell have taken my kayak it was that wet (makes Penmachno seem dry) now the vid doesn't look that technical but for those who have rode the track from Winter Hill down to Belmont will tell you it's a bitch in the dry, the surface water made it a killer hence the stops/webbo riding but at least you'll get an idea of the video quality which was in 720p @60FPS

http://contour.com/stories/rivington-belmont-descent

The Northern Monkey

Muttly1981 wrote:

So took the Contour GPS out today for a ride but i may aswell have taken my kayak it was that wet (makes Penmachno seem dry) now the vid doesn't look that technical but for those who have rode the track from Winter Hill down to Belmont will tell you it's a ***** in the dry, the surface water made it a killer hence the stops/webbo riding but at least you'll get an idea of the video quality which was in 720p @60FPS

http://contour.com/stories/rivington-belmont-descent

Brilliant quality!

Are you using the vented helmet mount?

Muttly1981

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Muttly1981 wrote:

So took the Contour GPS out today for a ride but i may aswell have taken my kayak it was that wet (makes Penmachno seem dry) now the vid doesn't look that technical but for those who have rode the track from Winter Hill down to Belmont will tell you it's a ***** in the dry, the surface water made it a killer hence the stops/webbo riding but at least you'll get an idea of the video quality which was in 720p @60FPS

http://contour.com/stories/rivington-belmont-descent

Brilliant quality!

Are you using the vented helmet mount?

No i was using the google mount as thats what it came with along with two sticky mounts, will order a vented mount at the end of the month along with handlebar and maybe the flexi strap mount so i can play around with the angles

The Northern Monkey

Muttly1981 wrote:

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Muttly1981 wrote:

So took the Contour GPS out today for a ride but i may aswell have taken my kayak it was that wet (makes Penmachno seem dry) now the vid doesn't look that technical but for those who have rode the track from Winter Hill down to Belmont will tell you it's a ***** in the dry, the surface water made it a killer hence the stops/webbo riding but at least you'll get an idea of the video quality which was in 720p @60FPS

http://contour.com/stories/rivington-belmont-descent

Brilliant quality!

Are you using the vented helmet mount?

No i was using the google mount as thats what it came with along with two sticky mounts, will order a vented mount at the end of the month along with handlebar and maybe the flexi strap mount so i can play around with the angles

Ahh fair enough, couldn't tell from the vid!

Yeah i'm waiting for my vented mount, was annoyed because Red Onions website said they had it in stock but after 5 days I phoned them and they didn't have any. Gone direct to Contour instead and its already in the post!

Was the goggle mount good then? I do have goggles for DH but don't usually wear them, figure I'll use the sticky mounts for the full face.

toastedone

I just added 2 day tests to my youtube channel, a bit boring as was on the road it was just a test of the contour

Muttly1981

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Muttly1981 wrote:

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Muttly1981 wrote:

So took the Contour GPS out today for a ride but i may aswell have taken my kayak it was that wet (makes Penmachno seem dry) now the vid doesn't look that technical but for those who have rode the track from Winter Hill down to Belmont will tell you it's a ***** in the dry, the surface water made it a killer hence the stops/webbo riding but at least you'll get an idea of the video quality which was in 720p @60FPS

http://contour.com/stories/rivington-belmont-descent

Brilliant quality!

Are you using the vented helmet mount?

No i was using the google mount as thats what it came with along with two sticky mounts, will order a vented mount at the end of the month along with handlebar and maybe the flexi strap mount so i can play around with the angles

Ahh fair enough, couldn't tell from the vid!

Yeah i'm waiting for my vented mount, was annoyed because Red Onions website said they had it in stock but after 5 days I phoned them and they didn't have any. Gone direct to Contour instead and its already in the post!

Was the goggle mount good then? I do have goggles for DH but don't usually wear them, figure I'll use the sticky mounts for the full face.

I know Winstanlys are the cheapest for the handlebar mount but they need to be special order but my mate works there so i can get one sorted easy enough, pretty sure they can get the other mounts too.

I was quite happy with the goggle mount it's very secure once fitted + has the tether incase something went wrong, with goggles though it's certainly good for downhill but as you know you get hot when climbing etc. I'm undecided about the sticky mounts on the full face as there is nowhere you can tether them on the helmet and i don't know if i can trust just glue alone to attach the camera, Guess i can rig something up with some fishing line or something though.

pastey_boy

anyone used one of these ? good price with an 8 gb card and remote and 4ish hours of record time. footage off the interweb looks good
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/veho-vcc ... ess-remote

The Northern Monkey

Muttly1981
What metering settings do you use? Centred or average?

bails87

toastedone wrote:

here is the night test

http://www.youtube.com/user/ToastC456?feature=mhee

It's actually not bad in the dark, the problem with the cheap ones is that as soon as it gets just a little bit dusky the video just blurs and slows down to about 2 FPS as it tries get an image in the 'darkness'.

bails87

A couple of videos from my Contour, the first one is a bad overtake from a driving instructor and the other is me passing some slow roadies :twisted:. Both on my commute, so pretty boring really!

IhateDNS

Been following this thread .

The Northern Monkey wrote:

No vented mount. Now I see why no weekend ride video.

Is there any difference in Contour HD and the Contour GPS in video footage quality and is there must in battery life

Muttly1981

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Muttly1981
What metering settings do you use? Centred or average?

Sorry it took so long but i think it's on Average setting at the minute

Here's a video from last week shooting at 720p 60fps http://contour.com/stories/cattle-grid-descent i'm over the moon with the results so far. Now just need to save for a Mac so i can edit the damned footage instead of needing to upload each video seperate.

bails87

Muttly1981 wrote:

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Muttly1981
What metering settings do you use? Centred or average?

Sorry it took so long but i think it's on Average setting at the minute

Here's a video from last week shooting at 720p 60fps http://contour.com/stories/cattle-grid-descent i'm over the moon with the results so far. Now just need to save for a Mac so i can edit the damned footage instead of needing to upload each video seperate.

Err.... http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker

Or is it the spec of your PC, rather than the fact it's a PC that's stopping you?

Muttly1981

bails87 wrote:

Muttly1981 wrote:

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Muttly1981
What metering settings do you use? Centred or average?

Sorry it took so long but i think it's on Average setting at the minute

Here's a video from last week shooting at 720p 60fps http://contour.com/stories/cattle-grid-descent i'm over the moon with the results so far. Now just need to save for a Mac so i can edit the damned footage instead of needing to upload each video seperate.

Err.... http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker

Or is it the spec of your PC, rather than the fact it's a PC that's stopping you?

It's a bit of both from what i can gather yes my PC is a pile of dung and needs to be replaced

The camera itself films in .MOV files which is a quicktime file and Windoze doesn't recognise it in movie maker unless converted to .MP4 which takes forever even when using my brothers PC that is 20x better than what i have at the minute. I've been looking at going down the Mac route as the EX's uncle is massively into filming and editing movies/soundtracks, he has a spare copy of Final Cut Pro that he said i can have + will sit with me and show me exactly how to use it.

bluechair84

Well, I'll plug the Kodak again with a video from Cannock yesterday. It's an experiment on a new mount. There's a thread in the hub for people to share videos in if any one wants to view.

cannock from a kodak

R0B75

I have a Drift HD170 Stealth. I bought it when it first came out and have not had any problems with it and I've always been happy with the quality of footage, the mounting options (made some of my own) and especially the LCD screen. The downside is it not very well protected without buying the add-on cover.

The problem is there is no camera that is great at everything at the moment, but they are getting there.

There needs to be a camera that has:

Good quality HD footage
A large selection of INCLUDED mounting options, more than just the 1 or 2 that normally come with them
LCD screen
Rotating lens
Shockproof & Waterproof (or come with a protective housing as standard)
Remote control
Longer battery life or atleast a spare battery included
A range of video options, FPS, resolution, exposure (auto and manual), sound levels and proper night vision.
Small and easy to mount everywhere.
Light weight

Unfortunately at the moment its matter of picking a camera that is within budget and ticks the most boxes, for me its the Drift at the moment.

I have lots of footage on my youtube page below, all recorded on the Drift HD170 Stealth.

snotty badger

bluechair84 wrote:

Well, I'll plug the Kodak again with a video from Cannock yesterday. It's an experiment on a new mount. There's a thread in the hub for people to share videos in if any one wants to view.

cannock from a kodak

Where did you mount camera for that vid? It seems to be on your hip but very steady?!

bluechair84

On a tripod strapped up in my bag. We've got another interesting mount and when my mate and I get out next we hope to get a variety of shots to make a decent video.

pastey_boy

just ordered one of these http://micamcorderusa.com/camcorders/mi-96hd.html worked out at £142 posted, and that includes an extra 16gb micro sd card to go with the 2gb one you get with the camera. comes with a host of mounts and sample vids look great. should be here in roughly 2wks. will post some footage when it arrives. i got mine from deal extreme,looks like a storming deal. http://www.dealextreme.com/p/1080p-5mp- ... lcd-103053