What's the best helmet cam?

[Headbanger]

Well if you intend to use it for putting videos on Youtube, that actually seems like the best idea to me.

I think what people actually mean here is that every time you compress a piece of video, it looses quality. You compress it again, it looses even more. Now all little cameras like this must compress the image as it is being recorded, else you'd fill a memory card up pretty bloody quick. For example, DV tape video cameras at 720x576 25p take about 13gb an hour, so storing that quality of footage on a tiny little device with a tiny memory card would require some very expensive hardware.

So these little cameras compress the image a fair bit. It's the only way to keep the size down and the power consumption low. Then of course when you put this on youtube, they compress the image again. So if the image looks like crap on youtube, it means that there was a lot of compression in the first place so the output of the camera pre youtube compression won't be impressive. But if it's very watchable on youtube it means that the compression within the camera isn't so lossy so the original product will look much better.

Sweet, I can see where your coming from now, Though I'd suggest the resulting footage being of reasonable quality once encoded by youtube would more to do with the compression used in the camera being similar to youtubes methods.

[grusomhat]

Sweet, I can see where your coming from now, Though I'd suggest the resulting footage being of reasonable quality once encoded by youtube would more to do with the compression used in the camera being similar to youtubes methods.

That's what I meant. I believe it's safe to use use youtube footage to rule in a camera but not to rule out. If it's good on youtube, the camera can't be too bad. However if it's bad on youtube, the original footage might still be ok.

[Headbanger]

Well, I'd still disagree with you when using it as a basis for judging a cameras capabilities, the basic rule of thumb is if you want to finish with quality then you have to start with quality.Crap in=crap out.

Low quality footage that by chance doesn't get too badly raped by the youtube encoding doesn't make the camera a good one, Unless of course your purchasing decision is loaded 100 by youtube and nothing else.

And even then you would have to ignore the fact that the better the source material, the better the final product.

[grusomhat]

Well, I'd still disagree with you when using it as a basis for judging a cameras capabilities, the basic rule of thumb is if you want to finish with quality then you have to start with quality.Crap in=crap out.

Low quality footage that by chance doesn't get too badly raped by the youtube encoding doesn't make the camera a good one, Unless of course your purchasing decision is loaded 100 by youtube and nothing else.

And even then you would have to ignore the fact that the better the source material, the better the final product.

Of course youtube isn't the only basis of camera buying. I also flip a coin

Here's my steps

1. Read manufactures specs/ sales spiel.
2. Check out demo footage, (hopefully downloadable from their site)
3. Check out joeblogs camera footage (ie, inperfect conditions)
4. Read reviews
5. Flip a coin
6. Decide you don't really want a camera.

[the booyar]

If you want an ATC2K, I'll sell mine for $100.

Do you have any videos that i could check out? still in good working order with all the mounts and stuff? how does it mount to your helmet? Thanks.

[Sensei]

VHoldR " Wayne Gardner tested & approved " .

[Waihou Thumper]

I just got a VIO 1.5 from dogcamsport.....
Very nice bit of kit and will definitely get the HD camera when it arrives. Made by Texas Instruments, so it will be good, quality is outstanding and the gear is well worth the price.
By the way, I got it here for a lot less than any NZ distributor can get it for, pity that as I would have bought local, but at the end of the day the service and price from the UK was outstanding!

[Big Dave]

Nice dredge.

Go Pro Hero HD got my $.
Not perfect, and needs some trial and error to optimise usage - but I'm pretty happy with the output.

[AD345]

Nice dredge.

Go Pro Hero HD got my $.
Not perfect, and needs some trial and error to optimise usage - but I'm pretty happy with the output.

Any tips for the set-up? Mine should be here in a couple of days

[Big Dave]

Any tips for the set-up? Mine should be here in a couple of days

Spend the money and buy the best SD card you can. NOT dick smith.
Experiment lots.

[AD345]

Spend the money and buy the best SD card you can. NOT dick smith.
Experiment lots.

yeah, I've ordered the Kingston 32Gb SDHC card locally. It's the one that GoPro recommends and its considerably cheaper than the Dick Smith card

http://www.fdc.net.nz/productsandser...?itemid=177902

[R-Soul]

I found a cheapie:

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...post1129959355

[BoristheBiter]

I found a cheapie:

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...post1129959355

And you get what you pay for.

[Crisis management]

Go Pro Hero HD got my $.
Not perfect, and needs some trial and error to optimise usage - but I'm pretty happy with the output.

So what's a good price for a Go Pro Hero?

The reason I ask is that my son sells them for skydiving and suggested that if there were a bulk order (that's about 6 or so) then they would be around $400 to 450 each, if thats a reasonable price and there is sufficient interest I can arrange a bulk purchase.

I know nothing about these things other than they have been used to catch me grovelling in the mud after missing the trail yet again so keep your answers to simple terms....

[evilrsvrguy]

Torpedo 7 has them for $400 at the mo....
mine arived on friday..oooh yeah