What is the best sub-$200 helmet mount action cam?

[kiwi-on-wheels]

I have the sony hdr-as 20, nice piece of kit, very happy with it. Bqttery life is 2 hours, which is about my max distance atm lol

[nerrrd]

...So I've been considering getting a helmet-mount action cam type of thing...

Odds are pretty slim, and motorcycle helmets would be a lot tougher I'm sure, but I gather the camera mount on Michael Schumacher's ski helmet is what gave him a much worse head injury than he might otherwise have had in his accident. Maybe consider mounting it somewhere else?

[Brainflex]

any thoughts on the polaroid cube?

http://polaroid.co.nz/polaroid-cube-black/

[samgab]

any thoughts on the polaroid cube?

http://polaroid.co.nz/polaroid-cube-black/

Yeah, I looked into that because of the price, but it didn't seem that great. I watched a youtube video that had a Polaroid Cube, a GoPro Hero 3 or 4, silver or black, and a couple of other action cams all side by side through a bunch of stuff, and the Cube didn't perform too well, I thought. It is already available http://www.nzcamera.co.nz/cameras/polaroidcube.html . But it only has a 124 degree angle of view, and I was wanting more like 170 degrees. And only 90 mins battery life. On a good ride, that wouldn't cut it.

I've been playing around with my Contour Roam which I just picked up. Turns out you can trick it into loading the firmware from the Contour Roam 2, and you get all the features of the Roam 2, such as more settings in the program to alter, and 720p with 60fps. I upgraded, but the down side is you loose low light performance quite substantially. I went for a great ride out to the lookout point at the top of the Waitakere Ranges this afternoon/early evening, and as I rode down through the bush, the view was great IRL, but the footage is unusable because it's too dark. So I've downgraded back to the early Roam 1 firmware, and the low light performance is markedly better, it must drive the CCD harder, with more gain. It's a little bit noisy in really low light, but that's preferable to just black video IMO. I also had a few bugs which I had to up and down grade the firmware several times to get ironed out, but I think I've got it all back to square one again with no bugs.
I'll do some more rides with the Roam to find settings and mounting positions that I prefer.
1080p 30fps is only 125 degrees angle of view, whereas I can make it do 60fps in 720p and it's 170 degrees angle of view, but you lose a lot of sharpness in 720p, but motion is blurrier at 30fps, so it's swings and roundabouts, and tradeoffs in each setting. And if it had a setting for 1080p 60fps, the tradeoff would be storage space and battery usage. You can't win. Or at least, there's no perfect solution. Yet.

[MarkH]

I recently bought a SJ4000, just the basic model without WiFi.
Here is a quick video from it:
http://youtu.be/-RcN3XaB5RE
It is a bit shaky due to the mounting, it would be better mounted on the helmet or possibly with a Ram mount.
Youtube did lower the quality, it looks better on the original files. The original files are 1080p at 30fps.

It may not be the best but it cost under $100 total to my door!
I think it is pretty decent for the price I paid.

[Muftin_]

I upgraded, but the down side is you loose low light performance quite substantially.

I never knew this, the first thing I did was mod it

I went for a great ride out to the lookout point at the top of the Waitakere Ranges this afternoon/early evening, and as I rode down through the bush, the view was great IRL, but the footage is unusable because it's too dark

Might be worth playing around with the exposure, white bal, sharpness, and contrast.

[kiwi-on-wheels]

My sony cam does 1080p 60fps, surprising quality at night too

[f2dz]

I recently bought a SJ4000, just the basic model without WiFi.
Here is a quick video from it:
http://youtu.be/-RcN3XaB5RE
It is a bit shaky due to the mounting, it would be better mounted on the helmet or possibly with a Ram mount.
Youtube did lower the quality, it looks better on the original files. The original files are 1080p at 30fps.

It may not be the best but it cost under $100 total to my door!
I think it is pretty decent for the price I paid.

That's an awesome price for the quality - this is probably the goer right here.

Where'd you pick that up from?

[f2dz]

Odds are pretty slim, and motorcycle helmets would be a lot tougher I'm sure, but I gather the camera mount on Michael Schumacher's ski helmet is what gave him a much worse head injury than he might otherwise have had in his accident. Maybe consider mounting it somewhere else?

As far as I know that was only hearsay originating from comments made by a French journo. There were talks that GoPro might sue him actually.

With the type of mounting systems that these cameras have, in all likelihood, they will probably snap off on impact - I know my one will. It's sturdy enough to stay in whilst riding but if it impacts with anything then it's gonna go.

[MarkH]

That's an awesome price for the quality - this is probably the goer right here.

Where'd you pick that up from?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Color-...item19f3e99098

Free international shipping, total price under $100, took 2-3 weeks to arrive.

[f2dz]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Color-...item19f3e99098

Free international shipping, total price under $100, took 2-3 weeks to arrive.

Awesome, ta. Might pick one up.

[samgab]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Color-...item19f3e99098

Free international shipping, total price under $100, took 2-3 weeks to arrive.

Yeah cheers for that, it looks good. I was worried it might be the "fake" SJ4000, but the website mentions the fake ones out there and shows a comparison of "real" vs "fake"... I think it's pretty funny that China has reached the point where they are making fake products of items which are already ripoffs of another product.
For anyone's info that is looking to buy an SJ4000, current stock of the real SJ4000's have the "SJCAM" logo on the exterior of the camera on the front under the lens. Of course, not having that logo doesn't mean it's necessarily a fake, as it might be older stock, like in this listing. And also, Just having the "SJCAM" logo doesn't mean it's genuine either, as it's just screen printed on the exterior, and if they can fake the whole camera, I'm sure they can manage to fake a screenprinted logo. The whole thing is fairly ridiculous.

But the camera looks like it has some pretty handy features, and the quality looks better than the footage I'm getting from this Contour Roam.

This is the home website for the real SJ4000's, for comparison: http://www.sjcam.com/en/cameras/9-sj...sport-dvr.html
I see they also have a WIFI version, which would be handy so you can use an iPhone or other smart phone to check your framing before setting out.

[MarkH]

I see they also have a WIFI version, which would be handy so you can use an iPhone or other smart phone to check your framing before setting out.

So far I've been able to use the LCD on the back to check framing, but the view is so wide you can get away with just pointing in the general direction you want.
I considered the WiFi version but decided to go with the cheapest option and see how things work out. Now I'm thinking that if I'd gone with the WiFi version I'd have spent more and gotten exactly the same results.
Better to spend the price difference on Ram mounts IMO.