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Head Cam - which is best

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 THE.WALRUS 24 May 2013
Can anyone recommend a helmet mounted video camera?

The Gopro seems to be the most popular, but it isn't half expensive. Are there any decent alternatives?
 rallymania 24 May 2013
In reply to THE.WALRUS:

what do you want it for and how much would you spend?
 Lew13 24 May 2013
In reply to THE.WALRUS:

Seen a lot of people using the Contour ones, they seem to be pretty popular and slightly cheaper. Haven't used one mind.
Phil Payne 24 May 2013
In reply to THE.WALRUS:

This comes up all the time. GoPro3 Black edition is by far the best on the market at the moment, but comes with a hefty price tag outside the US. It does mean that there are some decent deals to be had on the older GoPro 1 and 2, which are both great cameras.
OP THE.WALRUS 24 May 2013
In reply to rallymania:

I use it for rock climbing and mountaineering - so it needs to be robust (and with a jack that could be used with a solar charger).

It'd need to be full HD, too...so as not to get a blury image on larger screens.

And totally idiot proof, as it'll be me who's using it.

I was hoping to pay around £200, max.
OP THE.WALRUS 24 May 2013
In reply to Phil Payne:

Are the earlier go-pro models any good?
 rallymania 24 May 2013
In reply to THE.WALRUS:
either get a hero 2 or if you can find one for the money, a hero 3 silver edition

yes the hero 3 black is expensive, but it's probably more aimed at the pro-sumer market. the silver is basically the hero 2 in the new, smaller form factor.

i think all the old mounts work with the new hero 3 range so you still have all those options.

even the hero hd (hero 3 white) does 720p 50/60fps) or 1080p (25/30fps) (that's PAL/NTSC on the frame rates)

if you do go gopro, make sure you buy a decent memory card, slow ones can cause the camera to crash or freeze up... also upgrade the firmware on what ever you buy to get it working as well as possible.

BUT, there are other choices out there so might be worth looking at contour / drift / sony ar?

i have the hero HD with a few accessories and it's mostly been pretty damn good
 koolkat 25 May 2013
In reply to THE.WALRUS:
i have a drift hd and a contour hd both within your budget
iam happy with the results the contour is easier to use just a slide
to start recording , the drift has a screen on it to view what you are or have recorded .
here is a link to my edited vids
both are waterproof to 1m so good for british weather

http://www.youtube.com/user/iamkoolkat/videos?flow=grid&view=0
 Camm 25 May 2013
In reply to THE.WALRUS:
People go to go pro but they're a bit like the iphone/ipad etc (Decent Products + excellent marking = hefty price tag) there are other competitors with equal or better products for half the price, because they spend half as much on marketing.

For climbing, the contours are up there, with mine, I flick the large swith forward, can be done with gloves on, it bleeds once to let me know I'm recording, and flick it back, it will bleep twice. It's easy to lock the switch when recording too to avoid any loss of footage. The battery lasts brilliantly, it doesn't require a waterproof case as the camera itself is waterproof. Also, the form factor is really good, small and lightweight. You can charge the camera directly via usb too with it's built in battery, if I was to take a extended trip I would take my usb power pack which will power my phone and camera for a few days.
 Camm 25 May 2013
In reply to danrock101:
That should read 'bleeps once'
Phil Payne 25 May 2013
In reply to THE.WALRUS:

The original GoPro HD is still a great camera and I use mine all the time. 720p @60FPS is great and is pretty much the only mode that I use it in.

If it is going to be used on a helmet, then I can understand why people would prefer the Contour, because the shape of it makes it much better for helmet mounting.

Going purely on image quality, the GoPro wins hands down because the Contour has some sort of weird colour balance and images just don't seem to be as vibrant and dynamic as with the GoPro.

I think that what a lot of people forget about when buying these things is the amount of time it takes to edit HD video and the spec of computer needed to do it. It doesn't really matter which HD helmet cam you buy if you don't have the gear to produce a decent video afterwards.



robjob 25 May 2013
In reply to Phil Payne: I'll second that Phil, try rendering a 1080p hd video, makes your computer stretch its legs. My 10min dream of white horses came out of render at 1.2gb!!! (ok i need to compress it) but it took over an hour to render on my mac. Its all about the ram! Some of the guys I know on an editing forum a peruse have 64gb of ram or more just because it is manhandeling so much information.

it may be of interest to note that the new codec that the hero 3 uses is a bit of a monster, have been a few issues with it but it is resolvable with gorocineform in your workflow.

Also depends what you want to do with it, Imovie or window movie maker are free decent enough programs but if your really want the results shooting in 1080 can get you, then one of the higher (and more expensive) editing programs is a must.

Rob
 rallymania 25 May 2013
In reply to robjob:

it's not just about RAM I'm afraid. Your whole machine is worked hard with HD video rendering.

if you are applying colour correction or transition effects for example, it's the CPU (and maybe the video card) doing the work at that point

plus if you have a faster hard disk it'll load and save files faster.

but that said... you can usually queue your output jobs and have them run when you are sleeping... then it doesn't really matter how long it takes



Phil Payne 25 May 2013
In reply to robjob:

It's weird that the technology to edit the video isn't keeping up with the technology to shoot the video.

A decent system and software package to easily edit HD footage will cost you more than 10x the price of these little HD cameras.
 Albert Tatlock 25 May 2013
In reply to THE.WALRUS:

Sir

Are you intending to film more of your naked male group ramblings on the pretext of exploratory mountaineering ?

Mr T
In reply to THE.WALRUS:

I have a GoPro 3 Black edition and it is a superb camera... when it works. But I am now onto the third one (on guarantee) in just two months, because the first two failed. The first just packed up after about two hours cumulative use, the second kept on overheating and shutting down. The general consensus is that the GoPro 3 is more or less a beta release, hardly ready for prime time.
 Gene00 26 May 2013
In reply to THE.WALRUS: Contour HD is the one for you

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