A good helmet camera?

[BSRU]

Yeah, it's not very good is it? But then none of the others are either, even the contour. Mags has the best night time footage from a contour I've yet seen on youtube, most of the other contour users aren't showing nearly that quality. Is it a new camera/new firmware, or something else?

I noticed with my Contour that the street lights make a huge difference, the quantity and type are important.

 

[Origamist]

Yeah, it's not very good is it? But then none of the others are either, even the contour. Mags has the best night time footage from a contour I've yet seen on youtube, most of the other contour users aren't showing nearly that quality. Is it a new camera/new firmware, or something else?

There was new firmware for the GPS model a couple of weeks ago - it included image quality tweaking.

I've always thought that the Contour handles night time filming better than the GoPro. I mainly put that down to the ability to select the appropriate (night) light level.

 

[BentMikey]

Well, yes, a tiny little bit better, but Mags video is the first I've seen that shows such a large difference.

 

[magnatom]

Ok you caught me out, I enhanced it....

Seriously though, I just filmed it and posted it like all of the others. It was actually before the recent firmware upgrade. Mikey, is the footage you've seen from a GPS model? They do apparently use some different hardware, so it could be that.

In part 3 I'll be discussing all of this.

 

[gaz]

We all know that CMOS sensors are not great in the dark.
I suspect that we all experience different quality issues due to where we mount them, the light around us and the lights we use.

I must say, I am dyeing to get my hands on a contour+ and have a play with it.

 

[Origamist]

Gaz, if you want to borrow my GoPro to compare to the Contour (particularly for night comparisons, let me know).

 

[magnatom]

We all know that CMOS sensors are not great in the dark.
I suspect that we all experience different quality issues due to where we mount them, the light around us and the lights we use.

I must say, I am dyeing to get my hands on a contour+ and have a play with it.

Mind you, in my test, everything was equal. They were all tested in the same light and conditions. Yes there were very slight variations in the mounting position, but not enough to make a significant difference.

 

[Origamist]

I must say, I am dyeing to get my hands on a contour+ and have a play with it.

I didn't know they had a new cam coming out. It looks good. Hopefully they'll have learnt from the myriad bugs on the GPS version and it'll be a step up. After seeing the results of HD POV (and its steeper price), I'm leaning towards waiting for the Contour + now, however, I'm going to hold fire until I can see some reviews.

 

[gaz]

I didn't know they had a new cam coming out. It looks good. Hopefully they'll have learnt from the myriad bugs on the GPS version and it'll be a step up. After seeing the results of HD POV (and its steeper price), I'm leaning towards waiting for the Contour + now, however, I'm going to hold fire until I can see some reviews.

There where also issues with the Contour1080p when it first came out.
I'm not sure contour is doing the best they could do with there testing of new products. but they have good support and do seem to fix things eventually.

As you say, wait, watch and read what other people are saying.

Only downside I see to the contour+ is the fact that 1080p is still running at a smaller fov (125degrees this time) where as 960p and 720p are at the 170degrees.
I don't think that is the case with the gopro or drift cameras.

 

[Origamist]

There where also issues with the Contour1080p when it first came out.
I'm not sure contour is doing the best they could do with there testing of new products. but they have good support and do seem to fix things eventually.

As you say, wait, watch and read what other people are saying.

Only downside I see to the contour+ is the fact that 1080p is still running at a smaller fov (125degrees this time) where as 960p and 720p are at the 170degrees.
I don't think that is the case with the gopro or drift cameras.

The GoPro is 127º wide angle at 1080 as is the Drift Stealth.

Contour do seem to be improving the GPS model with firmware, but there's still quite a bit of discontent on the Contour forum (as it has a better processor than the 1080 model). GoPro also made promises that it took a long time to put into reality.

 

[BSRU]

There's no lasers on the Contour+, I would have preferred a camera similar to the 1080p but with a better CMOS sensor and new CPU.
I don't want a GPS camera, the novelty would last only one ride, I want better image quality and more things to adjust/play with. Some form of optical zoom would be great.
At $499 I do not think it has enough to make it a worthwhile upgrade.

 

[gaz]

A massive bonus from gps is having proof how fast you where going. Having been in a collision and having the driver suggest I was travelling much faster than I was. I could easily prove with the video and gps data that my speed was sensible and much less than suggested.

 

[BentMikey]

In fairness the frames on the video will do a good job of that too, and the GPS data might be a little delayed in accuracy.

 

[BSRU]

A massive bonus from gps is having proof how fast you where going. Having been in a collision and having the driver suggest I was travelling much faster than I was. I could easily prove with the video and gps data that my speed was sensible and much less than suggested.

I thought you had a Garmin for GPS speed, like BentMikey stated, at 30 fames per second it can be straight forward to calculate speed if really required.
Since GPS chips are dirt cheap these days, the mark up by Contour is not justified and I would rather the camera CPU used as much processing power as possible on the image processing.
The best improvement on the Contour+ is the ability to use an external microphone and it should have better video image quality. If it's on sale for $499 in the US, it means it will probably be on sale here for a similar number but in pounds and not dollars, making about twice the price of the 1080p. Contour have left themselves open to another company introducing a higher resolution camera and cheaper price.

 

[BentMikey]

That's a big bonus on the VIO - sound quality is excellent, although as with any mic you need to wind protect it if you want to avoid loud wind noise.