Helmet cam experience ?

[mjkaliszak]

Helmet cam Go Pro HD, just bought 1 ( for my wife & she doesn't ride ). Guess It will have to go on my helmet. I just did a search and read some threads. I have a couple of questions and also looking for others experience & advise. I bought 2 8gb SD cards & an extra battery. From what I remember that was in a previous post ( that I can't find now ) I should get about 2 hrs of record time on a battery ? How much room does that use on a 8gb card ? Should I mount the cam about eye level on the side of the helmet ? Any input is appreciated, we will be literally opening presents Fri night and leaving Sat morning for a trip. I won't have anytime to dink around or learn. Kind of hoping to record our Gogebic trip with a good sized group.

Should I be working on the helmet mounting part NOW ?

 

[dfattack]

Helmet cam Go Pro HD, just bought 1 ( for my wife & she doesn't ride ). Guess It will have to go on my helmet. I just did a search and read some threads. I have a couple of questions and also looking for others experience & advise. I bought 2 8gb SD cards & an extra battery. From what I remember that was in a previous post ( that I can't find now ) I should get about 2 hrs of record time on a battery ? How much room does that use on a 8gb card ? Should I mount the cam about eye level on the side of the helmet ? Any input is appreciated, we will be literally opening presents Fri night and leaving Sat morning for a trip. I won't have anytime to dink around or learn. Kind of hoping to record our Gogebic trip with a good sized group.

Should I be working on the helmet mounting part NOW ?

Yes. You should be working on mounting now. I have to sit/stand on your sled to get the best idea how the recorded angle is.

I don't have your camera. I have the contour HD 1080P. I use a 16gb card and never need to carry more than that. An 8GB card should be fine for most of the day, maybe 7-8 hours. This depends on which settings you have chosen. 1080P will consume the most, 720P a little less. You may have to decide on 30fps vs. 60fps. Again, I don't have your camera so I'm not exactly sure what you will see. I have found the batteries for my camera last about 2 hours at 70 degree temps. When I'm riding I get about 45 mins to an hour per battery. I carry (4) batteries and never change the SD card. My guess is your camera will be similar to mine. Last thing...make sure you have one of the better/higher class # SD card for shooting video. If I remember correctly at least a class 6 or 8, but could be off a little.

let us know how it goes. I've been considering purchasing the same camera as you for a different angle or view. Maybe looking behind me. From what I can read it looks like the Go Pro handles the sound a lot better than the Contour does.

 

[beakjones]

I believe you will be more worried about battery than memory card space. We've used a gopro for the bike park at marquette mountain and overall it works pretty well. Biking was too quiet to pick up much of the sound inside the plastic case, but I imagine you could hear a 2smoke.

For mounting... it's going to be trial and error. I'd reccomend somewhere it won't get torn off by a branch! Probably higher is better aside from that so it can see over the windshield. I don't reccomend waiting to mount it on the helmet, there's so many microcorrections we made on the mounting that it DID take a lot of time. It's also a tricky thing to make sure it's recording.... I have about 20 videos starting with my buddy looking straight at the thing lol.

I'll see if I can pull some and put them on vimeo or somewhere to give you an idea of what to expect. Nothing in winter though, sorry.

 

[edmarino]

Unfortunatley you can not review what you have recorded until you plug it in to your computer. So don't expect any great video until you have used it some and gotten an idea on what you are taking. Un like camcorders that have a screen where you can look at what you are doing. Mounted to the side of your helmet at eye level should show what you are looking at.

 

[mjkaliszak]

Thanks guy's you saved the day and a few more. If I got to the UP and didn't have this set-up I would be scrambling. I set a couple of mounts, took a vid and played it back. Had to download VLC for the codec H264. I did buy 2 of the class 10 SD card, I'm going back for more batteries and to see if I can get more mounts. I had a click in the video everytime my son punched it. I think I found it, the snap mount is loose, going to add some felt to tighten it up and do more testing tomorrow. VERY GRATEFUL for the help. As soon as i read these posts I tore the box open and started " learning ". I set up a TOP of helmet mount and a side helmet mount. Just tested the view of the TOP. Alkso going to set up another on the back of 1 sled. Pic & Sound was good ( IMO )

Any recommendations for a making videos Program ? Movie Maker ? I am tech challenged and always end up cursing alot , then the kids come over sort it out and I'm better.
The easier the better.

 

[polarisrider1]

Hey Mike, I found with my contour HD 1080 that I never need to change the 16MB card but batteries go fast. Carry batteries next to you to keep them warm and They last much longer.

 

[kirk600]

I just opened mine last night after reading this I spent a few hours setting up both helmets. I did the side mount as we have chatterbox's on the other side. Hope to test it next week, and was wondering if anybody has mounted the camera to the sled?

 

[mjkaliszak]

I have 1 mounted in the back of 1 sled but didn't test yet. I'm still working on this " click " noise everytime we punch it ???? Almost put 1 on the front of my XRS but couldn't do it to that gel coated bee. I did buy a bar mount that I think I can put on the back bumper. That should be fun... running up front with our gang involves having 3 " young bucks " on my tail constantly showing me how young I used to be..... I can take them in the corners & the stretch out of the hole but they have stamina and wear me down . That's OK... I make them earn every inch ! ! ! Actually I bought that to get the connections so I could get the camera out away from the helmet. I was a little concerned with the field of view being obstructed on the side of the helmet ??? The stores around here are kind of lacking on accessories. I need more sticky mount tabs. I went to get another battery last night but the line in BBuy was rediculous. I'm going to get 2 more batteries.

 

[mjkaliszak]

Here is what I came up with, I would say that the " Roll Bar Mount " is worth it. Gets the camera away from ( whatever ) more flexibility. I tapered the latch legs of the mount clips and applied Velcro fuzz to the bases, it seems that the clips wobble in the mounts. Glad I started this mount debugging yesterday. I didn't find any mounting examples on line anywhere, so I want to post this for reference and to benefit any other potential users.

 

[mjkaliszak]

We have been - will be testing with this in Gogebic this week, what I'm finding is that the camera is great if you want to capture shots of yourself or some scenery. BUT I don't ! I want to capture the action shots of our group. It seems that even when driving all over someones " tail " the pic still seems far away. Just a heads up. What I read in my investigation is to buy the editing software with a " zoom " feature and you should record in 1080. Any input on this ?

 

[kirk600]

I have been playing with mine the last few days also. I actually got video of my girlfriend going over the bars as she found a buried log on a little hillclimb, but as you mentioned it seems far away compared to where I was actually standing. Where do you get the video editing software, and what options should we look for.

 

[cobraindy]

Any recommendations for a making videos Program ? Movie Maker ? I am tech challenged and always end up cursing alot , then the kids come over sort it out and I'm better.
The easier the better.[/QUOTE]

I use power director 8 to edit videos, it is really easy to use and has a ton of options. I am not sure if you can crop or zoom video though. I will have to check that.