ContourHD test

[Wavex]

got one today locally for $139.00

It works well...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84VnXzr2uCM]ContourHD 1080p motorcycle test - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Motogiro]

Torque Monster! :rockon: Looks great David! :thumbup:

 

[Lefty]

Thanks David for the additional mounting ideas. :thumbup: I like the swingarm perspective idea. On the fork mounting, how/where exactly did you mount it up?

 

[Wavex]

For the fork I got this mount:


And I got a couple of these as well (used one for the swingarm):

I got a couple more ideas for mount locations I want to try...

 

[rsw81]

Hey David, looks good. I've been toying with idea of the same camera. Where were you able to get one so inexpensively?

Also, what's with the minivan in the driveway bro!?

 

[Wavex]

ContourHD 1080p Helmet Camera : Test Category

Owner is a mountain climber... his shop is in a little house in Costa Mesa lol he told me he bought 8000 contours! he gave me a really good discount on the mounts too... cool dude

the minivan is my step dad's, but I want to buy it off of him because it's great for the family :thumbup:

 

[Wavex]

oh and something else, I ran the settings at 720p, 60fps, instead of the 1080p 30fps standard mode. It works better against vibrations...

Of course that's an issue specific to the Buell

 

[Kazza]

Impressed :rockon:

 

[rsw81]

ContourHD 1080p Helmet Camera : Test Category

Owner is a mountain climber... his shop is in a little house in Costa Mesa lol he told me he bought 8000 contours! he gave me a really good discount on the mounts too... cool dude

the minivan is my step dad's, but I want to buy it off of him because it's great for the family :thumbup:

That's an amazing deal he gave you!

Don't tell me you sold the Acura for a minivan! I know it's not the best family car, but oh so fun to drive!

 

[DigitalOverride]

Nice, the swingarm mount looks pretty good.

I also find that running the cam at 60fps eliminates a lot of the vibration problems when the camera is mounted directly on the frame/on the bike itself, while the helmet mount does not seem to suffer as much from this.

I've got both a Contour+ and a ContourGPS, bought them for when I was going to Sweden to drive an F1 car, and haven't posted any local pictures because of.... ehem... well, the GPS feature and the hypothetical issues this could have with regards to various traffic laws

Check out my profile here for two sample vids from the F1 experience.

 

[Erci]

Can't watch the vid (blocked at work ), but just wanted to chime in about the camera.
I've been using ContourHD for a while and it's a great unit with lots of mounting options. The one feature mine's missing is the still picture mode and the only models to offer it are quite a bit more expensive.
Well.. it just so happens that today I learned Contour released a new version of the camera which is completely waterproof, comes with longer battery life, takes still photos AND retails for $199

Contour | Products | Contour Roam

Be sure to confirm about the picture mode, if you decide to buy that one.. they don't seem to be very clear about it in the manual.

 

[Wavex]

Nice, the swingarm mount looks pretty good.

I also find that running the cam at 60fps eliminates a lot of the vibration problems when the camera is mounted directly on the frame/on the bike itself, while the helmet mount does not seem to suffer as much from this.

I've got both a Contour+ and a ContourGPS, bought them for when I was going to Sweden to drive an F1 car, and haven't posted any local pictures because of.... ehem... well, the GPS feature and the hypothetical issues this could have with regards to various traffic laws

Check out my profile here for two sample vids from the F1 experience.

Nice! I'll have to check out your videos tonight from home

Did you ever use the Viewfinder (iphone or android as screens for your Contour)? I can't use it for the standard contourHD, but was wondering about it...

Can't watch the vid (blocked at work ), but just wanted to chime in about the camera.
I've been using ContourHD for a while and it's a great unit with lots of mounting options. The one feature mine's missing is the still picture mode and the only models to offer it are quite a bit more expensive.
Well.. it just so happens that today I learned Contour released a new version of the camera which is completely waterproof, comes with longer battery life, takes still photos AND retails for $199

Contour | Products | Contour Roam

Be sure to confirm about the picture mode, if you decide to buy that one.. they don't seem to be very clear about it in the manual.

Yeah mine doesn't have the still picture mode, but I don't really care about that since I have other toys for that... The guy in Costa Mesa did have the Roam version, and I hesitated for a while, but it's got a 170degrees lense as opposed to the 135degrees lense of the standard ContourHD, and I did not want the wide angle to be too wide for riding because it tends to make everything in front of you look way too small and look far out (kinda like the GoPro wide angle)... the waterproof feature is cool, but then again, I live in California :cheer:
I did get an extra battery for $20...

 

[Wavex]

I rode to work with the Contour mounted on the front fork today (still testing things out), and for a 15min21s trip, the video file in 720p, 60fps was 1.76GB... so it's about 115MB per minute of video, which is around what I expected.

So for my 16GB mini SD card, I can get a little over 2 hours of video.

 

[Erci]

Cool angles! I found that putting a piece of clear tape over the microphone helps reduce some of the wind noise. You can also adjust microphone gain via settings in a text file (see manual).

 

[Wavex]

Thanks Erci, did you play with the gain settings? Any recommendations?

 

[Wavex]

Check out my profile here for two sample vids from the F1 experience.

I finally watched your videos. Dude. You drove an F1 car!!! :rockon:

as in: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSHToyGIxWE]Testing an F1 Engine - YouTube[/ame]

and these are Formula Renault: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkrm0s_eurotrip-2011-part-iv_travel

Driving an F1 car is on my lifetime todo list

 

[Erci]

Thanks Erci, did you play with the gain settings? Any recommendations?

For motorcycle application, I found mic setting to work best at 27 (with tape over mic). Still retain sound, but reduce wind noise enough that's it's usable. There will still be wind noise shooting forward, but if you shoot backward sound should be relatively clean.

I also kicked contrast up 1 notch which reduces total recording time, but I really have no desire to edit through 2 hours of video to put together a 4 minute clip anyway

And of course I also use software to add contrast and saturation to the raw footage.