Helmet Cams 4 Biking..

[brannen]

just wanted to try and get some footage of a bunch of the "cheaper" helmet cams in one place. ive been borrowing different ones from buddies to try and make a smart purchase. ive got the Vholdr and the Oregon Scientific one so far, so if anyone has any other footy from the other cheap ones, it would be sweet to see. figured id put this post in here since i am mainly using the camera for biking. ive done the search thing and most of the helmet cam footage is of skiing, or go-carting. want to get more of an idea of how well the cams handle the bumpy singletrack stuff. pretty sure i want a POV for winter time.....

Vholdr - centennial cone mayhem creek trail

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Oregon Scientific ATC2k Waterproof - Three Sisters

having problems w/ youtube, should be up soon

[Yukonrider]

I have to say even though its probably a lot more coin than you want to spend, look at hte VIO POV1, ive played with one and it is just awesome. bomb proof, and so easy to use.

[kidwoo]

Get a real camera :D


http://kidwoo.com/images/movies/1004Q4.bak.avi



panasonic hdc sd9


Costs less than a pov1 and looks a million times better.

[brannen]

very nice quality
how do you mount it? only tape?

[kidwoo]

very nice quality
how do you mount it? only tape?

Tape?

Heh


It's bolted to the side with an L bracket.

[brettf]

woo - codec error. what codec is being used? i suck at interweb video but am interested in the POV cam (would already have it if the price weren't what it is...), so cheaper (and better?) alternatives are very interesting...

[pechelman]

nice video woo
i was disappointed when you skipped that one ramp and just looked at it though
looks like a lot of fun there
do want moar

[kidwoo]

nice video woo
i was disappointed when you skipped that one ramp and just looked at it though
looks like a lot of fun there
do want moar

That's why I looked at it. I'd never seen it before.

FWIW, no one with a brain should ever hit features on that trail without inspecting them.

Just ask tyrone about the quality of jumps built there. :D


Brett: try using vlc player, or creative media's player if you have that.......or nero. You should be able to see it in quicktime but QT washes out colors pretty badly.

My psa/rant: helmet cams are a tool in a larger work. They are not a means unto themselves for a 5 minute video. That shit is boring:D

[pechelman]

oh for sure
i just assumed you built that trail or something

guess that explains why i was thinking to myself, "hmm, it seems like hes riding kinda slow and conservative compared to the other videos ive seen"

[brettf]

Brett: try using vlc player, or creative media's player if you have that.......or nero. You should be able to see it in quicktime but QT washes out colors pretty badly.

My psa/rant: helmet cams are a tool in a larger work. They are not a means unto themselves for a 5 minute video. That shit is boring:D

Just had to download the XVID codec. Works in pretty much anything at that point I believe.

So... the quality of this looks pretty good. Really a million times better than a POV? I haven't really seen a POV-made video that hasn't been ruined by YouTube though... What is your setup? You've bolted the entire camera to the side of your head? (Are you using a counterweight on the other side of your head, then?) Are you running a smaller cam to the camera in your bag?

Actually, I found this:
http://www.vio-pov.com/vio_movie_gallery/gallery.php?category=Motor-Sports

Here is a POV shot MX jump video... looks okay, lower quality than yours, but I have no idea what kind of raw quality you get out of something like this. And something like yours. Maybe the POV has higher quality than the linked video shows yet was exported/encoded at this lower quality....?

How much of a headache is working with your setup woo? Is the increased price of the POV actually worth the ease of use? Not that I can really justify that much for the stupid camera.

Details, man.

[The Reverend Floater]

Here's a sample vid I took today from a Go-Pro mounted on my handlebar. Not too bad for how cheap they are. The sound is rough, obviously. Might be better if it was on my helmet.

The ride is a flattish, undulating downhill so don't get too excited. I was simply trying to dial in the aim before a real ride tomorrow night.

http://www.vimeo.com/1162775

[brannen]

thats pretty nice quality, definately needs some stabilization, which seems to be a problem with most of the cheaper ones
ill go check that Go-Pro out, dont know too much about it

[The Reverend Floater]

thats pretty nice quality, definately needs some stabilization, which seems to be a problem with most of the cheaper ones
ill go check that Go-Pro out, dont know too much about it

Agreed, though much of that is probably due to the fact it was mounted on my bars.

[davep]

FWIW, no one with a brain should ever hit features on that trail without inspecting them.

Just ask tyrone about the quality of jumps built there. :D


You don't know what you're talking about. All the features on that trail are extremely well planned-out and built, especially that step-up to uphill-boulder-landing that you pussied out of :FIREdevil

[brettf]

Here's a sample vid I took today from a Go-Pro mounted on my handlebar. Not too bad for how cheap they are. The sound is rough, obviously. Might be better if it was on my helmet.

The ride is a flattish, undulating downhill so don't get too excited. I was simply trying to dial in the aim before a real ride tomorrow night.

http://www.vimeo.com/1162775

not too bad, though the sides of the frame seem to really distort like when i put on someone else's glasses or something. how wide-angle is it in terms of field-of-view? any idea?

[The Reverend Floater]

That's one of the main criticisms of the Go Pro, though a wide angled lense is supposedly in the works (might be available now--haven't checked in a while. I hear you, though...it's like it's trying to focus on the passing scenery.

My next ride will be helmet mounted and much faster so I'll post that, too.

[kidwoo]

So... the quality of this looks pretty good. Really a million times better than a POV?

Is high def so there's more resolution, you can shoot in 60i which is what the pov does but also in 24p (the clip you saw). Most videos with that filmish look are 24p. You know it when you see it. You know you watch a TGR video and everything has a nice polished look......then you go to the sage afro cam and suddenly it looks like 'video'. You just left 24p. Plus since it's a complete handheld camera you get true optical image stabilization.

Plus the pov uses a rolling shutter. It actually doesn't look as bad as some but I can definitely see it. Read this (http://dvxuser.com/jason/CMOS-CCD/). It's the best explanation for what accounts for some of the funky edge movement you always see with a pov (at least I see it). That's the wierd jello vision in the reverend's clip. Why people put cmos/rolling shutter systems in pov cameras I have no idea. They're designed to be used in settings where EVERYTHING is moving.

Plus that sd9 I'm using can be set to full manual settings. That's iris, shutter speed, and gain. Not something the pov can do I believe.


I haven't really seen a POV-made video that hasn't been ruined by YouTube though... What is your setup? You've bolted the entire camera to the side of your head? (Are you using a counterweight on the other side of your head, then?) Are you running a smaller cam to the camera in your bag?


Yup. Bolted on the side with a small water bottle for ballast on the other. It looks gay as hell but so does most helmet cam footage not shot like this :D


Actually, I found this:
http://www.vio-pov.com/vio_movie_gallery/gallery.php?category=Motor-Sports


That doesn't look shaky and strobelight-esque to you?



How much of a headache is working with your setup woo? Is the increased price of the POV actually worth the ease of use? Not that I can really justify that much for the stupid camera.

Details, man.

It shoots in AVCHD mode. Panasonic puts out a converter that will make this compatible with most editors. There are a million different cameras out there that use this format but for some reason there's not a lot of support for it yet. I downloaded a free converter and it doesn't but me at all. My biggest problem is that the high def files are huge and slow down my computer. That clip I put up was downrezed to standard def. The orignal looks friggin awesome.