Helmet Cams

[jeffs]

Cheap and cheerful $119 with a warranty in all big towns.

http://jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?...a&form=KEYWORD

[Cayman911]

There's also this from a very realiable source/shop.
$99
http://hobbycity.co.nz/Soldat/Produc...roductID=30421

[evilrsvrguy]

Dont go for the 3mp GoPro,i got one at the end of last year and have only used it a few times and it has stopped working, i took it back to the store i got it and they rang the distributor who said that 90% of the 3mp have had the same prob and i could have my money back or fork out another $200 for the 5MP

[Jonno.]

I'm just confused now

[Cayman911]

Dont go for the 3mp GoPro,i got one at the end of last year and have only used it a few times and it has stopped working, i took it back to the store i got it and they rang the distributor who said that 90% of the 3mp have had the same prob and i could have my money back or fork out another $200 for the 5MP

But from www.gopro.com you can get the 5mp package with all the mounts for $230 NZD, including post?

I'm just confused now

tell me about it dude.... i hate options sometimes...

[retro asian]

Ours (Active Components Mini DV Cam) comes with lots of mounting accessories, and a fully waterproof cover will available for sale soon too

It's great for posting vids on the internet.
But if you want really good quality for playing back on an LCD TV etc, go with the more expensive HD cameras.

[Jonno.]

How much do you think the cover will be?

[NordieBoy]

Torpedo7 are having a sale on helmet cams at the moment..havent got this one so unsure on how good they are though Click the link

Hmmm...
Looks quite good but the mount looks very ATK'ish. Same sculpted curves and all.

[paturoa]

Here is the cheapest I've seen http://www.svdownunder.com/index.php...76.0;topicseen

[sinned]

The choice of low cost helmet cams is growing. Check out ebay to see what is available - http://cgi.ebay.com/Lightest-Cordles...item3a59ffad1b
- this one is cheap but there are cheaper ones depending on the freight charges.
The VIO POV 1.5 still has to be the best IMO and the price has dropped by 30 - 40% since I was first interested in getting one.

[Jonno.]

Wow. 12 bucks. That's insane.

[1RIPOFF1]

Dam thats loose ride n was there two diff class race n at the same time ? top shot where you find the vid cam n how much$$ .
THANKS

[zeocen]

The VIO POV 1.5 still has to be the best IMO and the price has dropped by 30 - 40% since I was first interested in getting one.

It's definitely got the full package if you like to talk during rides, however it has a lot of shortcomings too. Which is why I would place the GoPro HD above the VIO if you are interested in video only, and not sound.

I would also advise against the non HD GoPro, they are still quite expensive for what they are and the HD version has some significant improvements over it that are well worth the money (including the upcoming wireless microphone and LED watch accessories)

Cheap and nasty ones are going to give you cheap and nasty results, however there are some stark differences between the high end ones also.

Firstly the Contour HD just plain doesn't handle bumps and jumps very well, the image stabilisation (or lackthereof) causes it to have wobbles in it's video. The internal microphone is also the worst of the bunch.

The GoPro is basically a box and can look cumbersome, if you don't mind looking like a bit of a whacko this isn't really a problem - and in fact if I were just looking for video only this is the only problem I can find with it. It's extremely versatile and the waterproof casing allows for both fun times in the water and clouds the microphone (which, if I recall, is placed in a different area than the non HD version, allowing for better clarity at speed).

The VIO POV 1.5 has the most features, but also the biggest downfalls. It's essentially two entities, the camera plus cord and the recording unit. Connecting these two are pins which are extremely frail and snap on a whim, what's worse is that this part isn't replacable. You need to buy a whole new unit (even though it actually is quite easy to remove if VIO had replacable pins to sell, but they don't). If you intend on doing any sort of intense riding like, say off roading, then you need to be wary of this because it's not as impact-proof as it claims to be. It is actually quite frail.

The microphone is good, it is attached to the cord so you can feed it up into your helmet and talk if you wish, however it can sometimes be overly sensitive (even with the sensitivity settings on the lowest) to wind and will make your voice/bike volume jump up and down trying to adjust to the random buffetts of wind.

But the worst part of the VIO is the support, there is absolutely no support to speak of. The contrast out of the box is laughable at best, but they expect you to pay 10 pounds for a firmware update that helps control the contrast a bit better, after you've shelled out a good dime purchasing the camera. Then there is the flimsy pin issue, they could send replacement pins, even at a price, but they won't. They expect you to buy a whole new unit.

The shock resistant does work, to an extent. While spills and hard knocks won't damage your unit (but may damage the pins), it will automatically shut itself off to prevent itself from any further damage. This is fine but you lose all the footage you were recording. This won't happen on either the Contour HD or GoPro HD.

Holy moses, this is a long rant! Time to rehydrate

Anywho, here's a random sample of the VIO that I've recorded to get an idea of the audio/video quality. With all it's shortcomings it's still the best for me as it allows me to talk random shit while riding (and ESPECIALLY good for video evidence when a motorist does something silly, "plate number XXXXXX just switched lanes without indicating rah rah" etc.