A good helmet camera?
- Thread starter Peter91
- Start date
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I'm now on my 3rd bike cam, a Drift Innovation HD170. I've never got on with mounting on the helmet, and prefer handlebar mounting. The camera is great in terms of useability, picture, features, battery and memory life, but the supplied handlebar mount will only fit thin handlebars, so I had to buy a 'proper' handlebar camera mount. I only use it for holidays, generally alpine descents; no battery or memory card would accomodate my slow ascents, and the end result would look like slo-mo!
gaz
Cycle Camera TV
- Location
- South Croydon
There is a reason why the links of ContourHD and GoPro cameras are several hundred pounds.
First the quality is outstanding, full HD.
But what separates these cameras from the likes of the Muvi and the cheap bullet cameras are:
First the quality is outstanding, full HD.
But what separates these cameras from the likes of the Muvi and the cheap bullet cameras are:
- a wide range of good mounting options
- removable battery
- good features
- water resistant / water proof
- easy to use buttons
- good support
- wide angle lens
Crazy580 have you had any issues with the GPS. I've had so many issues with the damn thing locking up I've requested a refund from Evans this morning.
gaz
Cycle Camera TV
- Location
- South Croydon
Have you tried contacting Contour? Their customer support is good.
yeah, been discussing this with them for about a month.
I though the last firmware had fixed it but finally got a locked camera on thursday evening. I then noticed there was a new firmwear posted so upgraded to that.
Now the damn thing locks up in the morning (whereas it was always in the afternoon) so I've had enough.
I paid a lot of money for it and it isn't fit for purpose (never has been).
Now I'm not slating all Contour GPS camera's just mine though a quick peruse on their support site shows and quite a few issues with the GPS camera.
I've asked Evans if they will exchange the GPS for the standard HD camera (especially as I've found it much cheaper than their site)
Their support staff are very good though!
mumbo jumbo
Senior Member
- Location
- Birmingham
I recently got a Dogcam Bullet HD - just £100 (plus SD card). Quality is not quite as good as some of the others mentioned above but you don't have to remortgage to get it
. Some example footage here : http://www.youtube.com/user/mjbeaker?feature=mhee
In terms of mounting, I made the happy discovery that this cam fits very securely in the helmet mount for my Exposure Joystick. Perfect!
In terms of mounting, I made the happy discovery that this cam fits very securely in the helmet mount for my Exposure Joystick. Perfect!
crazy580
Senior Member
What do you mean by locking up? Mine has been fine (touch wood), but I have heard on the support forums that a few have been playing up, and contour replaced them.
They are prone to lockup, especially when using larger memory cards (this first started after firmware 1.09). I had my camera replaced and it still had the same problem.
The way round it for me is not to use Storyteller by disabling it from starting up when the camera is connected to the PC (it writes a few files to the camera on connection which seem to trigger this behaviour), using the files within the application folder to configure the camera rather than Storyteller itself and by resetting the battery before use. It's also essential to format cards via the camera recessed button and not a PC.
The GPS version has picture quality problems which means that the 1080p non-GPS version is a better bet if gps is not essential. New firmware has closed the gap, though, and the GPS 1080p picture now looks very good. It still needs colour balance work, though, and 1080p is unuseable on a bar mount due to rolling shutter effect from road vibration.
Contour customer support is brilliant, can't praise it enough, but the GPS camera has felt like a beta release for months - presumably rushed out to get a step ahead of GoPro.
John
The way round it for me is not to use Storyteller by disabling it from starting up when the camera is connected to the PC (it writes a few files to the camera on connection which seem to trigger this behaviour), using the files within the application folder to configure the camera rather than Storyteller itself and by resetting the battery before use. It's also essential to format cards via the camera recessed button and not a PC.
The GPS version has picture quality problems which means that the 1080p non-GPS version is a better bet if gps is not essential. New firmware has closed the gap, though, and the GPS 1080p picture now looks very good. It still needs colour balance work, though, and 1080p is unuseable on a bar mount due to rolling shutter effect from road vibration.
Contour customer support is brilliant, can't praise it enough, but the GPS camera has felt like a beta release for months - presumably rushed out to get a step ahead of GoPro.
John
John you may have saved the GPS for me
. A very quick test and it looks like it could be the Storyteller application.
Well that's easily remedied... uninstall and another support request to Contour.
To be honest when the camera works it works perfectly. It was just the locking up issue that was so frustrating.
John you may have saved the GPS for me
A very quick test and it looks like it could be the Storyteller application.
Well that's easily remedied... uninstall and another support request to Contour.
To be honest when the camera works it works perfectly. It was just the locking up issue that was so frustrating.
Don't count your chickens - these things have a habit of recurring
Copy these files to another folder before uninstalling Storyteller;
ContourConfigure.exe
QtCore4.dll
QtGui4.dll
QtNetwork4.dll
Run the exe and you can easily configure the camera without using Storyteller (or you can ignore all this and just edit the text file in the camera).
You don't need to uninstall Storyteller - just don't use it and prevent the autoplay part from running (I use startup.cpl for this). I can't remember if it's a registry setting or a startup folder shortcut but what runs is C:\Program Files\ContourStoryteller\ContourAutoplay.exe.
John
John,
Yeah i've disabled the autoplay option from within Storyteller and done a few tests and it's looking good.
Just interested to find out what editing application you use instead of Storyteller.
I've very new to video editing and have found the Storyteller application doesn't do very much anyway.
I'm using Windows Live Movie Maker at the moment once I'd used Storyteller to get the files off the camera.
Yeah i've disabled the autoplay option from within Storyteller and done a few tests and it's looking good.
Just interested to find out what editing application you use instead of Storyteller.
I've very new to video editing and have found the Storyteller application doesn't do very much anyway.
I'm using Windows Live Movie Maker at the moment once I'd used Storyteller to get the files off the camera.
MossCommuter
Guru
- Location
- Salford
I know you said "good" but for anyone on a budget...
I got this the other day for 15 quid (excluding memory card).
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?&products_id=110355
It's not easy to use (I have a degree in software engineering but not in Chinglish so didn't undersand a word of the manual) but it does work and I am getting the hang of it and it comes with a handlebar mount.
Here is an example of the results.
[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e1IDJJse0Q[/media]
I got this the other day for 15 quid (excluding memory card).
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?&products_id=110355
It's not easy to use (I have a degree in software engineering but not in Chinglish so didn't undersand a word of the manual) but it does work and I am getting the hang of it and it comes with a handlebar mount.
Here is an example of the results.
[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e1IDJJse0Q[/media]
