Helmet Cameras. 30fps/640x480/1.3mp?????????????????

Reece.

Reece.

Likes Dirt
Heya rotorfarkers.
Im looking at getting my first helmet cam, I will be using it for downhill, and also snowboarding (I am going on a big snow board trip and want some footage).
I have found one at a cheap price (i dont really want to spend too much on one just for the pure fact that it wont be used heaps) that is waterproof, takes a high storage memory card, has heaps of mounts for different purposes etc etc. But the video quality is 30fps/640x480/1.3mp.
So my questions are:
What will the quality of video be?
If possible would you be able to upload/point me to where i could view a similar helmet cam video
Cheers for reading.
Reece.
 
niftydog

niftydog

Likes Dirt
640x480 is VGA, or vaguely equivalent to standard def TV. 1.3M pixels sounds low to me too. But the numbers only go so far towards telling you what the video quality will be like as there are many, many other factors. Snow is a challenging environment to shoot in too, many cameras aren't up to the job.

Post a link to the camera you mentioned - people might have some direct experience with it that they can share.
 
Reece.

Reece.

Likes Dirt
Cant find the link (saved to a differnent computer) but will post up later.
With the snow filming quality does it have to do with glare?
 
niftydog

niftydog

Likes Dirt
Glare is one issue. Cheap cameras don't respond quickly to light level changes, so if you point it at a glare spot the iris closes down then you turn away from the sun and the iris takes a while to react.

It all just comes down to what you want from the footage though. If you just want a video to show your mates or whatever then perhaps it doesn't matter too much. But it sucks when the camera is having issues right when you nail a trick or someone bins it.
 
N

nskz

Likes Dirt
Dirt king said:
Just go all our Reece and get one of the new HD Pro ones. ;)
Click to expand...
Quoted for truth.

I think if you're going to buy a helmet camera it's worth spending the money, the cheap ones are just that, cheap and the quality is rubbish. As the owner of an HD gopro I can't recommend them enough, absolutely incredible camera. I payed $370 delivered from the US with a chest mount harness. Their after sales service is also awesome, if you have a problem they'll fix it asap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqqscFL9sYk Example of the video it produces (it's obviously even better in raw form). If you look at some of my other vids you can see how it goes in the water too...IE sweet.
 
MountainBikeMike

MountainBikeMike

Likes Dirt
Mate I've used a few different cheaper helmet cameras and the simple fact is that if you dont have the quality there and reasonable footage then you will simply watch the footage once and never look at it again. It will just take up storage space.

If you get a HD capable camera the footage has 3-4 times the quality... The resolution is increased from 640x480 to 1280x720 or even 1920x1080. The cameras capable of doing this such as the GoPro HD or ContourHD also have a much better lens, better software, adjustment, and light processing.

I own both a ContourHD and ContourHD 1080p and the footage is always outstanding. It has a very wide lens so I even use it by hand to record mates hitting big stunts when I'm pulled over. The higher 1080p model lets you adjust contrast and brightness with its software, and also lets you set what recording types it uses. On the camera you can change the options too. It can record in 60fps if you want it to (bad cameras do half) so slow-motion is possible while running smooth. It can accept a 16gb SD card so storage wont be an issue until you start filling up a few 1tb hard drives :rolleyes:.
There are also many different mounting options. You can rotate the lens on these to by 180 degrees so that you can mount it on its side, and it has two lazers to guide you when you're setting the angle.

Thats plenty of info but the footage speaks for itself. Have a look at the videos on VHOLDR website. Users upload their videos (a free feature for this camera). The skydiving in 1080p is a good video, the motorbike ones are sweet as well.

Anyway thats my sales pitch lol. Good luck dude, happy shopping.
 
ollieo

ollieo

Likes Dirt
dirt site

Reece. said:
Heya rotorfarkers.
Im looking at getting my first helmet cam, I will be using it for downhill, and also snowboarding (I am going on a big snow board trip and want some footage).
I have found one at a cheap price (i dont really want to spend too much on one just for the pure fact that it wont be used heaps) that is waterproof, takes a high storage memory card, has heaps of mounts for different purposes etc etc. But the video quality is 30fps/640x480/1.3mp.
So my questions are:
What will the quality of video be?
If possible would you be able to upload/point me to where i could view a similar helmet cam video
Cheers for reading.
Reece.
Click to expand...
camera footage on the dirt mag site with those spec and it looks crap..
Not even good enough for youtube viewing let alone reliving precious moments on the tele...
 
Reece.

Reece.

Likes Dirt
ollieo said:
camera footage on the dirt mag site with those spec and it looks crap..
Not even good enough for youtube viewing let alone reliving precious moments on the tele...
Click to expand...
I tried having a look, but couldnt find the video.
Would you be able to link me mate?
 
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