A good helmet camera?

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Miquel In De Rain

No Longer Posting
766.jpg

Im using this on the front at the moment,the old one the time stamp wouldn't work but it got a stamp of it's own when a bus went over it.The new one,the timestamp works fine.Think it was a firmware issue.Also have an imported helmet type cam and it looks very good if not a bit heavy duty compared to the last one I bought which was crap.

Sports-Action-Camera-AT26B-.jpg

The new one,haven't worked out how to fit it yet.Replacement batteries are only a fiver a throw on ebay (NP 120 batteries) and timestamp.Also it has a seperate charger plus yo can charge the battery in the camera.
The old one of this type had a flimsy wire,lasted five minutes.No good on the bike.
 

Rezillo

TwoSheds
Location
Suffolk
The big boys are coming into the market now. There's this out soon:

http://cdn.jvc.eu/adixxion/#

with image stabilisation and rolling shutter prevention. It looks bulky but is the size of a Contour with the front half inch or so cut off.

Then there's this, possibly later this year:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-t...era-to-go-head-to-head-with-gopros-offerings/

John
 

BSRU

A Human Being
Location
Swindon
The big boys are coming into the market now. There's this out soon:

http://cdn.jvc.eu/adixxion/#

with image stabilisation and rolling shutter prevention. It looks bulky but is the size of a Contour with the front half inch or so cut off.

Then there's this, possibly later this year:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-t...era-to-go-head-to-head-with-gopros-offerings/

John
The JVC has a problem with battery life, only 1hr 10mins using it in full HD mode, also fixed orientation, not a great selection of mounts and only a 5MP sensor on a brand new camera.
 

Rezillo

TwoSheds
Location
Suffolk
The JVC has a problem with battery life, only 1hr 10mins using it in full HD mode, also fixed orientation, not a great selection of mounts and only a 5MP sensor on a brand new camera.

Horses for courses, though.

1 hour 10 minutes is only 20 minutes less than my Contour+ running at 1080p with max quality settings. It runs off a usb charger as well, so my existing battery pack should run it for many hours anyway and it may be that the shorter battery life reflects a higher bit rate recording - I don't know if this is the case, though. All I need is a handlebar mount, which it has. Fixed orientation doesn't matter to me.

The deal breakers for me are the image stabilisation and rolling shutter compensation (if it works). At the moment, road vibration forces 720p use for me for handlebar mounting, although I can just about get by with 1080p on a steel frame/forks bike without too much rolling shutter. It was interesting that the JVC demo footage cut away just as the bike moved from a flat to a rough paved surface road, so they weren't keen on showing the results.

I would like to see some raw footage and not something transcoded through Youtube before buying as image quality is important. The 5MP sensor is no worse than the Contour and my opinion is that the restricted bit rate used is more of a limiting factor than the sensor on the overall output quality of Contour cams, which is pretty good. I've tested a number of Contour betas that use slightly higher rates (which cause other problems, so there is always a trade-off) and the picture quality is markedly better. I still use one of them in the Contour+ as I prefer it to the official release.

John
 

BSRU

A Human Being
Location
Swindon
1 hour 10 minutes is only 20 minutes less than my Contour+ running at 1080p with max quality settings.

Strange I am getting at least 1 hour 45 minutes from my Contour+ running 1080p with max settings, which is just enough for my morning commute.
 

Rezillo

TwoSheds
Location
Suffolk
Strange I am getting at least 1 hour 45 minutes from my Contour+ running 1080p with max settings, which is just enough for my morning commute.

Yes, but I'm using an old beta with a bit rate substantially higher than the release version.

Not that it matters that much - unless its in the car it runs at 720p on my bar mount, which lasts a lot longer. On long rides, it's powered by a battery pack. I can get a 100 mile ride on a 32gb card at 720p with the pack (just!). There's a picture of it with my old Contour gps at http://kjh.ca/contour_mods/doku.php?id=external_battery_pack:start

John
 

manalog

Über Member
766.jpg

Im using this on the front at the moment,the old one the time stamp wouldn't work but it got a stamp of it's own when a bus went over it.The new one,the timestamp works fine.Think it was a firmware issue.Also have an imported helmet type cam and it looks very good if not a bit heavy duty compared to the last one I bought which was crap.

Sports-Action-Camera-AT26B-.jpg

The new one,haven't worked out how to fit it yet.Replacement batteries are only a fiver a throw on ebay (NP 120 batteries) and timestamp.Also it has a seperate charger plus yo can charge the battery in the camera.
The old one of this type had a flimsy wire,lasted five minutes.No good on the bike.

Miguel,

What is the name of the second cam the one with the Display? It looks ideal as a Helmet cam
 

Miquel In De Rain

No Longer Posting
Miguel,

What is the name of the second cam the one with the Display? It looks ideal as a Helmet cam

IT is but it's heavy duty and heavy,the best I have seen but bulky.Haven't worked out how to fit it yet.Haven't tested it yet,may do tomorrow.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HD1080P-...orts-Action-Helmet-Camera-AT26B-/280894352851

Basically this is it.Not disappointed with it,it looks the best I have ever had but using the other cam at the moment with the new Nickel Zinc batteries.
 

BSRU

A Human Being
Location
Swindon
Yes, but I'm using an old beta with a bit rate substantially higher than the release version.

Not that it matters that much - unless its in the car it runs at 720p on my bar mount, which lasts a lot longer. On long rides, it's powered by a battery pack. I can get a 100 mile ride on a 32gb card at 720p with the pack (just!). There's a picture of it with my old Contour gps at http://kjh.ca/contour_mods/doku.php?id=external_battery_pack:start

John
For an experiment I hacked together a 9600mAh 12V lion battery with the Contour 12v car adaptor and had the camera running for over eight hours with lots of battery power left, although had to change the memory card a few times.
 

Miquel In De Rain

No Longer Posting
The first camera lasts two commutes with nickel zinc batteries.AA's.Great.

May do better than last years trip to Thailand Bike Tour.May use alkaline if it comes to battery life.
 
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