Review of Scorpion exo900 + ContourHD 1080p

[tcmalker]

Hello all. I'm going to kill two birds with a stone here. I have the Scorpion Exo 900 (Transformer Helmet). The reason I bought it because I thought it might be beneficial to be able to lift the front up when stopped in traffic and my head is hot. But it turned out I never do that. Even though the helmet can be transformed into a 3/4 helmet, I always ride it full face configuration for safety reason.

Here are the things I like about this helmet.

1. The internal sun visor. How can anyone live without such thing! When it's hot, you just life the visor up and put the sun visor down. Full wind in your face and your eyes are protected.

2. The perfect fit. This is my first helmet and I was worried about getting a helmet that was 'too big' because you don't want the helmet moving around I guess. I don't think I have a small head but I ended up buying a small. I could NOT put this thing over my head no matter how much I tried without opening up the front first. Hence, the advantage. Once I get this thing on my head and closes it. The perfect fit. It also has an air pump thing like you see on running shoes to ensure better fit and reduce wind noise.

3. The perfect mounting solution for my contourHD 1080p. On the side, there's a perfect flat spot to mount this video camera. This part is not connected to your visor, so when you lift up your visor it doesn't affect the camera at all. The video is awesome. I shoot my video in 1080p at 30fps. I also have other options like 720p at 60fps or 30 fps but I find that best quality is 1080p. Of course it takes lots of memory, so I updated to 8gb card. You also need a pretty fast computer, I have core i7 so I'm good.

I will post sample video up soon. When you buy the contourHD 1080P you can register at contour.com website to post your video free. I recommended you guys check out this product and website.

TC

 

[Wavex]

I am very tempted by this camera over the GoPro as it's much easier to turn on/off while riding... and it's also easy to know if you're recording or not thanks to its sliding switch...

How much did it run you? and where did you get it from?

 

[tcmalker]

Got it from Buy.com for $279 shipped (no tax)

There's two versions: the contourHD & contourHD 1080p. I got the 1080p. The non-1080p shoots at 720p @ 30fps, but I think it's about $50 cheaper.

The reason I got this over the go-pro is because I wanted to mount in on my helmet. There's no way I'm having the go-pro on the side of my helmet, it just looked too silly. On the other hand, if you want to tank mount or chest mount, go pro seems like a good choice too.

The problem a lot of people complain of is wind noise. Yeah it's there, you need to lower the mic gain. That helps somewhat.

*update*
I just checked buy.com website and looks like you can pick one up for $239 shipped. Could have saved myself $40. Dang!

http://www.buy.com/listing/sellerlistings.asp?sku=213888066

 

[Wavex]

Nice! Thank you

 

[tcmalker]

Here's a sample. It was shot in 1080p, but b/c it was uploaded to the contour website the picture got degraded. Sorry I can't show you the raw video. It's damn clear. Easily read license plate from all angles and speeds.

dropping off bike

Contour just came out with a new model, the contour GPS. Go figure.

 

[Botch]

tcmalker, I have the EXO-1000 and agree with you on two things, an internal sun visor is GREAT, and the fit of mine (even though it's not a flip-up) is the best I've found.
A warning, be very careful when removing the lining for cleaning. They didn't design the snaps very well on the 1000, and I broke two and had to send it back; hopefully they've corrected that on the 900.

 

[tcmalker]

Thanks for the warning. I haven't removed the lining yet since I only have this helmet for about 3 months. I'll be careful if I have to remove it. It's a good thing Scorpion have I think a 3 year warranty. (Shoie have 5 year warranty I believe)

tcmalker, I have the EXO-1000 and agree with you on two things, an internal sun visor is GREAT, and the fit of mine (even though it's not a flip-up) is the best I've found.
A warning, be very careful when removing the lining for cleaning. They didn't design the snaps very well on the 1000, and I broke two and had to send it back; hopefully they've corrected that on the 900.

 

[Motogiro]

I am very tempted by this camera over the GoPro as it's much easier to turn on/off while riding... and it's also easy to know if you're recording or not thanks to its sliding switch...

How much did it run you? and where did you get it from?

That's one of the biggest downfalls of the GoPro when you're riding. I've missed more great video because knowing whether it's activated is so iffy. I was testing my neighbors GoPro HD and got it into the picture mode instead of video mode and got 5 nice pictures. They were great quality pics but I didn't know I had it in that mode and had no video. A simple fix would be to tap into the red LED in the front of the camera and have it flash in the back and or on top of the camera. Hmmmm......... Mod time!