Thread: Vholdr Helmet Camera - anyone?

No Mac software yet.

Interesting. 480 lines is low but not horrible. 2 hour battery time sucks so plan on 6 batteries or so. Need to turn off the lasers or I would ban it in tech. I wouldn't want the weight on my helmet but it would be good for other places and convenient. Not a bad price either.

Yeah, I should add I'm actually looking for a dash camera, and had the same idea as you Sheep - could attach it to something else rather than helmet. It's cool it has the flexibility though, so doing my tech videos and stuff I could have a friend.

I tried the SD1000 on a ram arm with the ram camera mount and it just ain't happening on the GS. For stills it's ok, but motion - fuhgettit, floating lens assembly goofs it all up.

Yeah, gotta see about them thar laser beams...

Originally Posted by ND4SPD

No Mac software yet.

So thats two thumbs up from me

Does anyone have any products from Vholdr? I just checked out the new ContourHD and it's HD video at 30fps for under $300, I'm thinking about getting one before Grattan so I don't have to deal with the whole camcorder issue with my helmetcamera.com setup.

ContourHD - HD Helmet Camera by VholdR

Just in time for Grattan...

sweet! how are you mounting it?

For the motard, I'll just use the handlebar mount (package below the cam box). Not sure about the CBR yet, that's why I got the extra adhesive pads.

Can we call you cyclops now?

Originally Posted by evl_twn

For the motard, I'll just use the handlebar mount (package below the cam box). Not sure about the CBR yet, that's why I got the extra adhesive pads.

Very cool.

I'll have extra 2" wide industrial Velcro with me, so if that is needed, look me up.

We should have this event covered.

I would go with some 3m dual lock myself...just attach it randomly all over your machine and go from there.

Originally Posted by evl_twn

For the motard, I'll just use the handlebar mount (package below the cam box). Not sure about the CBR yet, that's why I got the extra adhesive pads.

Still got some cash to burn?

www.stickypod.com

The camera itself is pretty easy to set up and use. It comes with a 2GB Micro SD card and a USB cable. I was thinking about getting a car charger kit for it, but it charges through the USB port so my cell phone charger works This is truly an all in one solution- no cords. It was a bit flaky at first trying to get it fully charged. It would shut off after just a few minutes, and the battery was barely charged. After repeating a few times, all seems good. There are status LEDs on the back to show battery and memory levels.

The handlebar mount was simple enough to put on, but I think I'm going to try a different mounting solution on the XR. It just seems to vibrate way too much. The mount is rubber isolated, but there's a lot of camera shake in the videos. I made two passes up around a local lake, once using HD (widescreen (16:9), 1280x720, 30 fps) and once again using the SD setting (848x480, 60 fps). If I cobble up a location for a more rigid mount, I'll make a couple more passes.

The software that supports the cam is pretty basic, and it took a while just to shorten these clips down to a size I could upload but my desktop is almost 5 years old. I'm sure the processing would be quicker on something newer. Odd thing is, I was just shortening the clips, they look no different than the raw data on the card. The raw files for a 10 minute loop were 376mb for HD, and 230mb for SD. I have two 8gb cards, so recording full sessions at Grattan should be no problem. The camera supports up to 16GB Micro SDHC, but it was a lot cheaper to get two 8GB cards.

These are in .mov format, but they also work if you change the filename to .mp4 and they work pretty good with VLC.

The video is nice and clear, but the bumps are pretty prevalent due to the mounting setup, I guess. I noticed too a sort of "waviness" that occurs periodically, much like I've seen a lot of with the GoPro cams. Hard to tell if that's just the bumps that make that happen, or something else. Once you get the mount more stable it will be interesting to see if it just looks clear and solid. I really like the idea of HD quality, if it winds up working well.

It sounds the camera is picking up some of the chain slap in places too, or your new exhaust is really thinwalled and the percussion of the pressure wave in the headers is messing with the camera mic. Either way, sound is decent considering what you're doing there....

That waviness is nothing to be concerned with, its all your mount though unfortunately . It is because the frequency and axis of the vibes is enough that while the camera is capturing a frame it's moving as well as in between frames. In a lesser camera you'd call this blur....but since you got a decent one, you can call that motion sickness . I experience it anytime I try to run a cam that is not well damped.

I'm not sure about your XR, but on my BMW the turnsignals are rubber based. If you wrap the stalk in some of the rubber electrical splice tape (IE: The non adhesive 3M kind, designed to be pulled/stretched around connections, looks like it has a white membrane attached to it which peels off, avail at HD or Lowes for 3$ or so next to the Super 33) to build up the stalk size to fit your bar mount, you might cure alot of your vibe issues thattaway?

Alternatively, if you get REALLY sick of it, there are anti vibe camera mounts out there they just aren't cheap.

Unused goggle strap mount + RAM base = (hopefully) WIN

I'll try and get some video with this setup tomorrow, I hope it works. The VholdR handlebar mount has large rubber isolators which are supposed to help reduce camera vibration, but I think on a thumper it just allows more movement.

That is really kickass that it has a tether! I love that...and your RAM attachment idea

Just picked up one of these mount kits for the POV.1. It really seems to have everything. Should have quite a few views to choose from this year.

POV Mount Kit Description and Image Gallery | V.I.O.

I went out for a couple of short runs with the RAM mount setup, and it still looks funky to me but I suppose that's the best I can get. I was also having power issues with it, I would prefer to have a backup battery but they're not even available yet. I might just go buy a battery that fits, and get a separate charger. Supposedly that voids your warranty, but I don't want power issues halfway through a session and have the thing crap out. If the power drops far enough, it's like it corrupts the entire file. The vibration might be an issue too though, I didn't have the power problems when I was using the rubber isolated handlebar mount I might be able to use my cell phone charger to hook it up to the bike's 12v, but that would involve some wiring which I'm getting short on time for.

If it makes you feel any better - quicktime just crashed on that file...

Furthermore...whatever you posted has end of frame messages occuring at frame 0.

I'm not really impressed with the software from VholdR. I'll have to find something after I get home that will let me edit .mov files. As long as I can capture the video at Grattan without issues I won't complain too much. I just got a laptop with a DVD burner, so I can at least burn full session .mov files for the people I'm following that they can take home with them.

I haven't found a good open source editor, but I like VLC for my player (www.videolan.org). Use that at work for testing stuff too, works really well.

Vholdr or GoPro? I don't know much about either but I can see myself knocking that gopro off my helmet on a tree branch.

The more svelte vholdr looks the part…it's almost 2010, that gopro thing is gigantic for the task it's performing…and off road that just means dangerous and expensive.