New helmet cam - Replay XD

[cheese]

Looks not too bad. Better shape than a gopro for bikes and helmet mounting.

http://www.replayxd.co.nz/

Or is gopro still the best?

[TrentNz]

Think ill always be a Gopro person myself, just because of its versatility,durability and picture quality.

[hayd3n]

gives no view on wind noise

[Scuba_Steve]

yea saw these awhile back. Been interested in one as on paper they're quite impressive but I can't find anyone with one to know for sure & reviews are few & far between.

[hayd3n]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=ZjkjyZvclF0

[steve_t]

I didn't like that the video they're using to showcase it had a quarter of the screen full of the side of the dude's helmet. Small form factor looks good. I'd still at this stage be wanting something that had image stabilisation if I was to upgrade from my GoPro

[IIIRII]

I would be disappointed buying a camera that only has 1,036,800 Mounting Positions

[cheese]

I can get one quite cheap, so I was tempted....

[oldskool]

I can get one quite cheap, so I was tempted....

Looks good...how much?...

[WRT]

I've got one, personally I think it's quite good. Haven't used a Go Pro, so can't compare to that, but all in all it's a nice unit. It comes with plenty of mounts (stick on ones), and you can get a lot of other mounting accessories to attach it to just about anything. Doesn't seem to have a goggle mount, which seems like a bit of an oversight to me, but just about any other option is covered. I've stuck one of the mounts onto my MX helmet, works well there. I've also got one of the suction cup mounts (an extra) which works well in the car or mounted on the tank of a road bike.

Couple of thoughts:
- Seems like a quality unit, well put together. Nice and compact too, probably one of the most aerodynamic cameras available.
- Has a decent POV angle. Wide enough for most situations, there is a slight distortion as you tend to get with wide view cameras, but it's not too bad and generally only noticeable when you are looking at something with rigid straight lines for more than a glance.
- The audio is pretty crap. You can get external mics for it, would probably be a good idea if you're expecting to make feature films out of it. I find the built in mic too quiet, and it picks up vibration when hard mounted. When mounted on the tank of a road bike it seems to harmonise with the engine at certain revs. It's ok when used on a helmet though.
- The Full HD is just hype really. There's very little improvement from 720 to 1080 on this camera, it just makes the file larger, so I tend to record in 720/60fps. The extra frame rate works well for high speed action - naturally it uses more space, but that's to be expected. Either way, don't expect broadcast quality. It's good for a compact camera, but it's certainly not cinematic quality.
- The extras that come bundled with it are quite comprehensive, I was impressed when opening the pack. Carry bag, soft case, cables, mounts, card adapters (to SD, and USB) etc are all included. No software is included though, you'll need to source your own video editing software. Doesn't play nice with Windows Movie Maker either, but then again, what does?
- In addition to the lights to tell you when its on and recording, it also vibrates. Very handy when mounted on your helmet, you can press the button to start recording and hear/feel the vibrate alert through your helmet (no rude comments please) so you know it's working without having to take off your helmet to confirm.
- You can also use it as a webcam through your computer, or as a live cam through any TV with an HDMI input. It also includes basic playback functionality via HDMI, but given there's only really two buttons on it you can't do much more than play and stop.
- Connecting it to your computer to copy the files off is a funny process. There's some combination of buttons you have to press which I manage to forget every time. That's just a familiarity thing though. Transfer speeds are reasonable, I've not tested the performance so can't quote any figures, but seems fairly reasonable for a USB device.

I'm pretty happy with it. Does what I need it to, and the quality is easily up to Facebook/YouTube standards. It'd be nice if the picture quality was better on screen, and if the audio quality was better full stop, but it's still pretty reasonable.

Cheese - give me a yell if you want some sample vids (uncompressed) or if you want to borrow the camera to try it out for yourself.

[Scuba_Steve]

Cheese - give me a yell if you want some sample vids (uncompressed) or if you want to borrow the camera to try it out for yourself.

^ I was going to ask it you wouldn't mind sharing a smallish 720p60 video (as this is the mode I'm most interested in) you able to chuck one up on a file sharing site or something???
One other question tho, how well does it do low light or change in light i.e. trees to sun transition?

[WRT]

The Replay XD does handle change of light relatively well - works ok in the forests, etc. Mounted on your helmet it can get a bit shakey when the ground is really rough, but that's to be expected. Would be interesting to see side-by-side footage comparing it with a camera with a decent image stabiliser to see how well it does fare. I've not had it fixed on the MX bike yet but on the road it works well when hard mounted.

I'm not a member of any file sharing sites, but happy to sign up somewhere. Anyone care to recommend a free location for me to drop a couple of example vids?

[slofox]

The Replay XD does handle change of light relatively well - works ok in the forests, etc. Mounted on your helmet it can get a bit shakey when the ground is really rough, but that's to be expected. Would be interesting to see side-by-side footage comparing it with a camera with a decent image stabiliser to see how well it does fare. I've not had it fixed on the MX bike yet but on the road it works well when hard mounted.

I'm not a member of any file sharing sites, but happy to sign up somewhere. Anyone care to recommend a free location for me to drop a couple of example vids?

Photobucket is free and easy to use.

[Scuba_Steve]

Photobucket is free and easy to use.

also 4shared, mediafire, dropbox etc plenty out there

[WRT]

Photobucket is free and easy to use.

I've signed up, but when I uploaded a couple of videos its re-encoded them:

http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/...720p-60fps.mp4

also 4shared, mediafire, dropbox etc plenty out there

I'm using drop box, didn't realise I could use that to share files publicly (despite it having a public folder! Doh). I'll get some vids in there and share the links.