video time.....your product suggestions and reviews please

[allterra]

The title says it all. I am looking into getting a vid cam to mount on my bike. After searching this and other forums it seems that most of the threads are related to the original GoPro. There are several more out there now including the Emerson and the Rage. What I want to know is what you have used, have and heard about. this is going to be used strictly on the bike.

[MANIAC998]

Just got a GoPro Hero2 HD, and used it down in Baja. Incredible picture quality too! I used a chest mount as I like seeing the handlebars in the video dance around!!

[allterra]

Just got a GoPro Hero2 HD, and used it down in Baja. Incredible picture quality too! I used a chest mount as I like seeing the handlebars in the video dance around!!

What did you find you had for recording time on the battery? Is that the one with 1080p 30 frames per second? How shaky do you think it would be mounted to the bars?

[MANIAC998]

Well, the recording time is one of the few things I was able to really find out about! I ended up losing my charging cord to a cactus so I just ran the GoPro until it died. I've got probably close to two hours of video, and even then, it was the card becoming full that did it in, not the battery. That's in really nice warm weather though. Cold temps will shorten it considerably. And yes, it's the 1080p with 30 frames/second. I don't know how shaky it would become mounted on the bars as I like to use a chest mount. It's safer, and I like people to see how hard were working while were "just riding"!!! A friend of mine mounted his on the handlebars, and while I haven't seen any video from it yet, he tells me it's not bad.

[n16ht5]

I have a gopro 2. works well, battery life sucks in cold weather though. I've mounted mine to bars, not too shakey. You should check out the Swann Freestyle HD 1080.. way cheaper and comes with a remote + LCD + LASER. how cool is a friggen laser on your helmet cam.

[GlennR]

I picked up an Emerson for $40 at Big Lots. I thought I'd test it out, and maybe it would be ok. I figure a helmet cam might be a fun gadget, but I didn't want to spend a lot of $$ for a toy that I may not use much after the "new" wears off.

I took it out today on the 4-wheeler today, but I screwed up something and didn't get much footage. (I started it and backed the 4-wheeler off the truck, then paused it because I wanted to pack the ramps away. I restarted it, but only got audio after that point...) I had an 8 gig micro SD and it ran out of memory before running out of battery. I looked online and saw I can get a 32 gig micro SD for about $16.

I'll have to try using it again soon.

[Alpha One Nine]

I have been using a Tachyon XC for the last few years and have been pretty happy with it other than an annoying popping sound in the audio from time to time that I cannot explain. It’s only VGA resolution (640x480) which is fine for YouTube but not much else these days. I think all of the current Tachyon cams are HD. I can get about 4 hours of recording with a pair of Ultra Lithium AA batteries and a 16GB SD card.

For Christmas I was given a Contour GPS cam. This will do full 1080p HD at 30FPS and 60FPS at 720p. It also logs GPS data in the video file so when played back using the Contour software or on their website you can see the video and a location reference via Google Earth. Seems like kind of a novelty but it might be fun. It has built-in lasers to help with alignment can connect to their Smartphone app via Bluetooth for remote control and (low fps) viewfinder functions. I haven’t had a chance to make any real recordings yet but I will post a link when I can.

Edited December 29, 2012 by Alpha One Nine

[GlennR]

It seems that there are lot of different helmet-cams besides the GoPro's.

I've seem them built into goggles too.

I'm still playing around with the Emerson, trying to figure out how to use it. I realized it was set on low res, so I switched it to HD. And I found the date stamp switch, but can't figure out how to set the date & time....yet. I don't think it will run very long on HD with only 8 gigs.

Obviously, you can tell it's going to be a "while" before I'm posting videos....

?

edit: I got smart and read the instructions again !!

Edited December 29, 2012 by GlennR

[allterra]

The more I look into it the more options that pop up. I can see this is going to be a hard decision.

[mslow]

I have a go pro and the liquid image goggles, i love the goggles, they work well and do a great job capturing sound without wind nose. The video quality is awesome too.

They are a bit heavy though and you need a helmet with a wide opening.

I almost never use the go pro anymore, and the new goggles have gps tracking and are ustream capable so your friends can watch you ride live from a laptop anywhere.

[GlennR]

The Liquid Image goggles sound great. How much do they cost?

I'd be concerned about long term durability. Goggles seem to wear out pretty quickly. I mainly have problems with the foam seal & the elastic strap wearing out first.

Are the wear parts replacable?

Btw, I've seen tiny security cams about the size of AA batteries. That would be much simpler to mount & protect than the chunky GoPro size.

[allterra]

Wow !! I like the sound of these liquid images. I would guess they have a short recording time? Please tell me more.

[mslow]

I've had two pretty bad crashes, both to the helmet and goggles and they only needed to have the lens replaced once, and they come with an extra. Replacements are pretty cheap.

As far as recording time, I got a 32g card for it and an extra battery, only to learn that one battery and a 16g card gives you 11 hours of high def recording.

Only negative is that it is pretty sensitive and picks up all of your head movement.

Here's an old video.....if you want to see some blood, go to the 2 minute mark....lol

Edited December 30, 2012 by msanna

[allterra]

I like how I'm not trying to look up beyond the top of the screen. I seem to find myself doing that while watching so many of the videos out there. I don't want to see your front tire show me where we are going.

[GlennR]

I took my Emerson out for another test ride today. It wasn't cold today, so fogging wasn't like it was last time when it was in the 20's.

I'm really pleased with the video quality. Colors are good & images are sharp. There was some vibration issues because I mounted it to the ATV's front rack. I need to get a better mount. Not sure which kind would be best. A helmet mount is out, since I ride in the woods a lot. Maybe a chest mount?

I need to test it on a motorcycle. I'm thinking a bike would be a lot smoother than a quad, since it has a lot larger tires, jolts around a lot less on 2 tires, and usually moves at a lot quicker pace.

I've found that my 8 gig memory only gives about 40 minutes in HD 720 mode. I'd expected a bit longer run time. I saw a 32 gig for $20 on ebay. Also, I'll test the lower resolution settings, maybe they'll be okay.

Anyway, I'm happy with my $40 camera. It's all I need, and all I wanted to pay. ?

Btw, I don't know how to display how steep the terrain is in photos or video. I'm pretty good with product photography and ok with portraits & landscapes, but I don't know the tricks for portraying how steep the grade is. I think you have to do it from enough distance to show both a low & a high elevation.

Edited January 8, 2013 by GlennR

[MANIAC998]

I use a chest mount for my GoPro, for the same reasons you mentioned, trees. Plus, you get to see the handlebars dancing while replaying the video, so people get some kind of idea of how much work it is to ride aggressively!