Cal Club Autocross Forums

http://www.filmtools.com/vhold-contourh ... -1200.html

I think that a helmet mounted camera would produce very interesting and useful footage. It can also be easily mounted pretty much anywhere.

Hmmm ... only issue might be remotely triggering it ?

Sample video: http://www.vholdr.com/videolist

Comparing helmet mounted footage to a stationary camera would be interesting, might show how far ahead you're looking.

The reason this camera is on close-out is that it has been replaced by a 1080p model, which I bought. If you are a watcher of the Corbert Report you may have seen it in action last week. He has been doing these Olympic training segments and has been wearing this camera while he rides bobsleds, etc. The pictures are OK and at least they are in the 16x9 aspect but the camera achieves exposure by use of an electronic shutter. So all the bright scenes are flicker-vision. With a big micro-sd card (16G) you can get over an hour on a card. The advantages are it's self-contained (no cables) and it has audio. It also has a laser aiming function to help line up the shot without using a monitor. The disadvantages are it's stupid hard to mount. The kit that comes with it assumes you will only mount it to one thing, ever. The base is a glued plate that can be stuck once and that's the camera angle you're stuck with (pun, hehe). The other mounting plate is a bit useless and has little practical value. I'm still trying to figure out a good way to mount it (it doesn't have screw holes in it). But, like everything else, duct tape to the rescue. It weighs nothing at least. For my business, it's a good thing to have around for that once a year gag shot that impresses everyone. I might try it as a POV camera for AX but I'm not sure of it's value for that. If you move your head a lot (which you should be doing) the resulting footage might be nausea inducing. Although used as a shot to be cut with other angles as part of a sequence would be entertaining at least.

$.02

Ya ... found out that they now have the higher rez versions. No remote on/off, but with the long recording time that isn't to big a deal.

That FilmTools link shows a number of mounting option accessories?

Here is a short clip using Henry's camera ... a few years ago. Battery dies shortly into the lap. I forgot to level the camera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUAxzpt4ztQ

Mako Koiwai wrote:Ya ... found out that they now have the higher rez versions. No remote on/off, but with the long recording time that isn't to big a deal.

That FilmTools link shows a number of mounting option accessories?

It does indeed. I didn't see them before. I actually got the camera from REI so my coop discount would apply since it was the same price as FilmTools. So yes, you can get (and I just did) the 1/4-20 adapter and extra glue pads (which seems a bit messy in theory).

Thanks for pointing that out.

t

I did quite a bit of research into this cam about a month ago. The biggest thing that turned me away was its weak audio recording capabilities.

The general consensus was that anything above 30mph and all you got was wind - absolute no-no for convertibles (it's even relatively bad for non-convertible cars). You can see videos where people are just cruising in their cars on the contour community site - the wind noise ruins it all.

There is a fix for it if you are handy with a soldering iron: solder on an external mic input.

Everything else about the camera, I love: awesome recording time, awesome quality (and 60fps w/ the 1080p model in 720(?) mode, woo woo)... there's even a waterproof ORANGE camera shell for it that has a 1/4-20 adapter... even then, I was turned away, so you know how bad that wind noise is for me!

I wonder if there is some way to in effect put a "wind sock" over/around the Mic opening? This issue seems to plague a number of these "sport" camera systems.

Wind socks are something like those furry or foam coverings that you see on pro mic applications when there is wind ... used to cut out or minimize wind noise.

So are there any other All in One camera systems worth considering?

Randy's ChaseCam is probably the best ... but I would love one-piece and inexpensive. Sound DOES add a lot to the feedback one would like to gather.

Mako Koiwai wrote:So are there any other All in One camera systems worth considering?

Randy's ChaseCam is probably the best ... but I would love one-piece and inexpensive. Sound DOES add a lot to the feedback one would like to gather.

GoPro--HeroHD for motorsports at $299---I haven't used my new one for autocross yet, but it has two plastic cases, one good up to 100 mph and not waterproof and the waterproof one that is good above 100 mph. It also has several glue on mounts and a suction cup one. It does not come with a tripod 1/4-20 mount but one is available.

Will have it set up for the practice next week.

Don

Wow ... the Hero HD footage in the link below looks great ... better then from the vHold footage. The surfing footage is some of the coolest I've ever seen ... and I've seen a lot of those big theatrical release surfing movies:

http://www.goprocamera.com/

Now this is "pro" quality HD footage!

http://www.goprocamera.com/hdheropreview/

See the Motorsports clip on the right. The PORSCHE one is some of the best in-car I've ever seen! The Sequential down shift into turn one at Laguna Seca is so cool ...

Mako Koiwai wrote:

GoPro's obsession with sound has conquered the wind. At 85 mph on a motorcycle, you’ll enjoy the throaty sound of your motor, not the wind. Inside even the quietest street cars, hear the pull of your motor...not the drone of the wind and road.

They must have been focusing their obsession on the HD version, cuz the non-HD version I bought a few months ago has wind noise galore. I really wish they'd include a jack for external sound sources.

Some other people tried putting similar material around the contourhd, mostly where the microphone hole is, but the wind noise was still very bad. They figured it was actually the design since the microphone was picking up noise from wind hitting anywhere on the contourhd case, not just the microphone area. A windsock around the entire thing might help, but compared to the gopro hero, which is suppose to have external mic support as well, I don't know if it's worth the cost to be a guinea pig...

I was hoping the waterproof case installed around the contourhd would also help, but I don't want to spend all that money just to test that.

With that in mind, I might try your windsock idea on my Creative Vado HD. That thing has very bad wind noise - if it helps a lot w/ that, it might help w/ the contourhd.

Ya ... we tried Kat's SD GoPro camera at the last event and the results were pretty bad ... sound almost non-existent ... low resolution, but the Slo Mo is working well. ;) Sometimes people don't realize that there are adjustments for some cameras. Some systems use software adjustments via a laptop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx5o5sLaCjY

The new HD version's results are pretty spectacular, including sound, if we are to believe the many samples on their web site ?!

The GoPro HD looks really good. The sound quality seems great compared to the SD model.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wleYE-qdew" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've had the original SD version for a while and I would call it OK. The big problems I have with it are the sound quality, the battery life, and the memory it requires.
The sound is basically worthless no matter what setting you use if inside the car with the windows up, but it sounds like they have fixed that. The batteries would only last a couple of hours and you have to use the lithium ones. The new one comes with a battery pack but it still probably doesn't last much longer. I would recommend getting the car charger for it but the only question is whether it can record while plugged in. The old one only took 2G cards which would be full with only 5 runs. The new one can take the 32's but now being HD it might not be much better. Hopefully they will come out with a little DVR rig or the ability to record to an external usb hard drive.
I think the wide version is probably better than the regular for tight autocross courses

Hi Matt,

GoPro actually has a firmware update for the HERO which allows you to use up to 8gb SDHC cards.

http://www.goprocamera.com/fwupgrade.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I thought I was the only with the crappy battery life.

We'll have a GoProHD to try out on Saturday.

A lot of the concerns with the original GoPro have been resolved with the HD model ... battery life, storage, sound ... We'll See!