Whats a good helmet cam to buy?

[donbrown]

For under $90 delivered is the

Oregon Scientific ATC2K Waterproof Action Camera worth it ???

Weighing in at half a pound (with batteries), this self-contained, hands- digital video cam delivers full color digital video in 640 X 480 VGA at 30 frames per second - even underwater. Snow, Rain, or a dunk in a kayak? No worries - ATC2K is waterproof to 10 feet! PC and MAC compatible, ATC2K works seamlessly with most video editing software. Expandable up to 2GB on a standard SD card, ATC2K mounts easily and all mounting hardware is included.

Right now a person in the group of riders just stops an tapes the other riders.

 

[donbrown]

What he said.
6 hours of high quality recording on one stick.
Totally water proof, easy to use.
Has a remote control you can mount to your handle bars or where ever you want to turn on recording.

It is one of the more expensive helmet cams at 600 dollars.
Heres one I just threw together after a recent ride.

This gets you 720 x 480 for 600 dollars? Is this a good deal for $600. I am reading this ... not trying to be knocking a product. Just wondering if $600 is a good bang for the buck at this resolution.

http://www.vio-pov.com/products/tactical.php

 

[Ollie]

Size, ease of operation, length of play, actually water proof (not-just water resistant), I looked at all the options out there and this is the one I settled on.
Are there better units out there.
Of cource there are.
Just depends on what you want to do with it and how much you are willing to pay.
Also, how hard is it to move the media into different programs to work with it.
The basic POV software sucks (imo), however it is very easy to move it into what ever medium you want to use.

Just do your homework and make the best choice you can given your situation.

 

[Mjunkie]

For under $90 delivered is the

Oregon Scientific ATC2K Waterproof Action Camera worth it ???

Weighing in at half a pound (with batteries), this self-contained, hands- digital video cam delivers full color digital video in 640 X 480 VGA at 30 frames per second - even underwater. Snow, Rain, or a dunk in a kayak? No worries - ATC2K is waterproof to 10 feet! PC and MAC compatible, ATC2K works seamlessly with most video editing software. Expandable up to 2GB on a standard SD card, ATC2K mounts easily and all mounting hardware is included.

Right now a person in the group of riders just stops an tapes the other riders.

Don't waste your money on that POS!!!! A couple years ago my dad bought one (mainly for riding motorcycles in the sand dunes), so I decided to buy one (without trying my dad's first), and it sucks!! The picture is garbage, and when you're traveling at any speed, the video is very very choppy. Not worth a dime IMO. By the way, I have an almost new ATC2K for sale if anyone is interested!!?? Scratch that... I have 2 almost new ATC2K's for sale!!??.

I also bought a POV1 and am very happy with it. The picture quality is really good, it's compact, very easy to use, and with 4 rechargeable AA batteries it lasts long enough on a charge (more than a full day of riding).

 

[afrank3594]

I just walked in the door with my new gopro from a day of ridding. I think the picture is OK , Im trying to learn how to use it and deal with the battery life. I had a set or duracels in it at that I was playing with yesterday at work and the lasted 4 min on the hill . I then put in a set of Sony rechargeables and they lasted 10 min a set. To be honest I don't know if they were fully charged or not . For the price I think it will work well. Its kind of a odd view but it seems to work

 

[knee deep in it]

the only problem I have with my GoPro is that you will have to buy the Lithium batteries and they are pricy. $20 for a 4 pack in Revelstoke.

nothing else will last in the cold, you are wasting your time with rechargables or regular duracells.

 

[racincowboy]

I have a helmet cam from www.helmetcam.com and so far I have only used it in one off road race so far. I havent gotten to use in on the mountain yet. But for an hour of constant pounding the video was good quality and never had a battery issue. It uses a DVR to record the media so no worries about the problems with camcorders. My camcorder only lasted 3 laps before it gave up the video the audio was still good though. My system has interchangeable lenses mounts ect. Also extra batteries for the dvr are easily purchased. I purchased the entire system and it came with everything i needed including the 4 gb card for video. I was impressed that they ran over the camera with a truck and smacked it with a hammer and it was just fine.
just my .02

 

[jgd]

I have a Viosport that connects to my mini DV cam corder. I place the lens on my helmet, the cam corder in my pack. There is a cable to the lens and a "lanc" cable to run the camera by pushing a button. The setup works well for me. The rig was around $300 or so a few years ago. Not sure if they still offer this setup, as I didn't see it on their web-site. Might be worth inquiring about if you already have a good cam corder...

 

[Sanman63]

The audio is ran on a seperate cable to protect it from the wind noise etc. We tested all types of mics and found that we needed to be able to run it somewere that we could dampen the noise a little. especialy with motors involved the majoprity of the sound always ended up being wind with motor or motor with wind.

So our mic has a 12 cable that ataches to the video cable and can be ran inside your coat or pack. The cable also can be detached to record with out audio to add music later.

 

[Sanman63]

i have a pvr with an analog input, can i buy just the camera? how does your system record audio?

The camera itself has a single pin conector with three contacts on it. Similar to your head phone jack. So if your PVR will accept this conection it should work. The problem is usualy powering the camera and the need to have extra battery packs etc.. That is why we includedd the power conection with the audio/video conector (one of the few bullet style cameras that does).

 

[mccbrothers]

Motocam 360

Top of the line set up I think around 700$ but well worth it, that is if you want it to last and shoot the highest quality footage you can get, we have been through lots of the cheaper set ups, and now found these ones and figured out that spending a little extra is the only way to go. I could of had three motocams by now after buying all the other junkers.

 

[Horsepower800]

VIO, It doesnt require a separate camera, it is waterproof, great picture, easy to use. http://www.vio-pov.com/

 

[bjewell350]

GoPro Hero Wide Motorsports

I got the GoPro Wide Motorsport a couple months ago. It works well. Use Energizer Lithiums- about $10 for 4- and they last a little longer than one 2GB card. I talked to GoPro a couple weeks ago. They will have a software update for us to download sometime this month that will allow it to use the 4GB cards. That will mean more like 2 hours of recording. If they had one with about a 100 degree lens I would buy that. The Wide is 170 degrees and the regular is 54 or something. 170 makes it easy to aim and pick everything up you intended to, but things get pretty small after they're a couple hundred feet away (like someone climbing a hill). The 54 looks a little narrow and you might miss some stuff if you're not looking right at it. Very easy to use though. The first day out I was having to ask everyone if it was on or off. That got old. I took a little plastic mirror and stuck it to the velcro on my coat sleeve. Then I just look in the mirror to see if the red light is on. Works great.

 

[Sled Solutions]

We've been using and selling the VholdR POV camera and it's worked flawlessly for us and our customers so far. Great camera for $279.

http://www.sledsolutions.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=145&products_id=445

Some footage from a couple weekends ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz4SbQeFrF0

 

[AK-Rider]

I noticed a little banding on the POV-1 footage posted earlier. I'd think that for $600 it would have a little better picture quality. Of course, I'm watching it over the web, so it may be better in person. But the video was bright and fairly clear, and the audio was good.

But, in my opinion, the footage posted from the GoPro was entirely unwatchable. There was WAY too much fish-eye distortion in that video. It was actually giving me a headache when I was watching it.

So, even though I would cringe a little at spending $600 on a camera with some banding, I wouldn't use the GoPro at any price.

My 2 cents.

edit: The video on the VholdR was decent, and even though it was clearly bright outside (could easily see shadows) it seemed dark and grainy. And the audio was really, really bad.

 

[Mjunkie]

I noticed a little banding on the POV-1 footage posted earlier. I'd think that for $600 it would have a little better picture quality. Of course, I'm watching it over the web, so it may be better in person. But the video was bright and fairly clear, and the audio was good.

But, in my opinion, the footage posted from the GoPro was entirely unwatchable. There was WAY too much fish-eye distortion in that video. It was actually giving me a headache when I was watching it.

So, even though I would cringe a little at spending $600 on a camera with some banding, I wouldn't use the GoPro at any price.

My 2 cents.

edit: The video on the VholdR was decent, and even though it was clearly bright outside (could easily see shadows) it seemed dark and grainy. And the audio was really, really bad.

If you hook the POV directly up to a TV (which it comes with the cables to do) the picture quality and sound quality is 10 times better than after you post it on youtube, the same is true once it is downloaded to your pc, the quality is much better before it is put on the web. Just my experience with it.

 

[Ollie]

If you hook the POV directly up to a TV (which it comes with the cables to do) the picture quality and sound quality is 10 times better than after you post it on youtube, the same is true once it is downloaded to your pc, the quality is much better before it is put on the web. Just my experience with it.

Yep, mine too.
When you upload it to youtube or photobucket it seems to compress the video a little and you get some distortion and grainyness.

Take it from your PC to a CD and the video and audio are fantastic.