Forums The Gear Room Helmet cam advice? Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total) Author Posts February 22, 2006 at 3:02 am #567528 jack 323 Posts looking at picking one up. anyone have any advice? dont want to spend too much more than $150. thanks. February 22, 2006 at 3:14 am #586835 jack 323 Posts right now i’m looking at getting the Viosport Cam II. February 22, 2006 at 3:19 am #586836 jimw 1421 Posts Good luck finding something that records decent quality video for that price. Probably your best bet is to look around on ebay for someone selling an older model. If the quality isn’t super-important you could check out something like Viosport’s Tony Hawk cam, and I think Oregon Scientific has something similar. I’m using the Viosport AdventureCam III. It has good quality video, but it’s pricey and to make it really effective you have to get some of the accessories (battery pack, remote control, etc). And of course you need to actually have a camcorder that it can work with. You can probably find Viosport AdventureCam II’s around these days for a decent price, and they have pretty good quality video. There’s a Samsung one out there that is a neat concept – it’s a handheld camcorder that comes with a remote helmet-mount lens. Basically the same idea as using a regular camcorder with one of the commercial helmet cam lenses like the Viosport ones, but with one huge advantage – it records to flash memory, which means NO MOVING PARTS. The main problem I have with my setup is the camcorder (a Canon I got off ebay – which may be part of the problem!), which records to MiniDV tape. It’s always getting jammed or misaligned or something. With the camcorder bouncing around in your pack it’s nice to not have to worry about this. Unfortunately I’ve heard the Samsung doesn’t have very good video quality. February 22, 2006 at 5:26 am #586837 jack 323 Posts thanks for the input. i’m going to pick up a digital camcorder that records to solid state memory, so luckily i dont have to worry about problems with tapes. for the record, that samsung camcorder with the included helmet cam is complete garbage. i tried it out over the weekend, and rushed back to the strore today to return it. February 22, 2006 at 5:54 am #586838 jimw 1421 Posts Cool. Let us know what you end up with and how it works for you. February 22, 2006 at 7:32 pm #586839 NoKnees 336 Posts RF Concepts out of the UK. I picked up a cam from them two years ago and it’s been pretty solid. Don’t use it much, and don’t really have anything converted to digital to share right now, but have had good luck with it, and it’s a bit cheaper than VIOsport’s stuff. http://www.rfconcepts.co.uk/helmet_cameras.htm Delivery was less than a week, and it’s all good… Only think I don’t have with it is the remote, as I have a cheapo minidv without one… Think I got what would be equal to kit 3, with the 480line cam… Greg - NoKnees February 22, 2006 at 9:52 pm #586840 jack 323 Posts cool, thanks NoKnees February 22, 2006 at 10:05 pm #586841 mergs 100 Posts I’ve been using the one from http://www.HelmetCamera.com for years now and I have no complaints. the damn thing is bombproof too. https://helmetcamera.com/store/products.php?cat=10 I have the 380 line one above and its adequate quality, and its only $189. I’d prefer the 480 line camera but i did not have the cashishe at the time. 🙁 and take it from soneone whos done a fair amount of this, if you do get one: make sure that the video camera you have is able to take a “LANC remote” ( its a little button that allows you to pause the camera between shots). why? bc you don’t want to be fishing that video camera out of your pack, constantly hitting pause and record, bc your friends won’t wait for you. 😆 i personally would not bother getting a helmet camera unless the base camera is LANC capable. its that important. March 2, 2006 at 8:00 pm #586842 jack 323 Posts After researching helmet cams, I came to this conclusion: all the companies that sell helmet cams sell the same Sony units with different lines of res. (with exception of random plastic junk you may run into) even the Viosport cameras are the same Sony ones everyone else has. With that said, I basically surfed around for the cheapest camera. I ended up getting one from http://www.actionvideocams.com on ebay (they sell them through ebay brand new with the buy it now option). One slight difference you may find is the mic that is supplied. For instance Viosport has the mic inline on the cord from camera to camcorder, while the camera I got has the mic on its own cord. Personally, I could care less, as I don’t plan on using the mic. The camcorder is still in the mail, and I will update when I find out how everything works outside. March 2, 2006 at 9:00 pm #586843 jimw 1421 Posts @jack wrote: One slight difference you may find is the mic that is supplied. For instance Viosport has the mic inline on the cord from camera to camcorder, while the camera I got has the mic on its own cord. Personally, I could care less, as I don’t plan on using the mic. It can be handy to have the mic… it’s cool to mix in some of the original audio sometimes with your soundtrack so you get some “environmental feedback”. The inline mic on the Viosport bugs me. It’s located pretty far away from the camera lens on the cord, so sometimes it makes it difficult to keep it outside the pack. With a separate mic you can put it wherever you want it. Then again, that’s another cord to keep track of in a system that is already kind of a pain with all the cables coming out of the pack. I see those systems don’t come with a LANC remote control. I think you can get these separately from other places (probably even Viosport). This is really handy as mergs mentioned. You don’t want to keep taking the camcorder out of the pack to start/stop it. Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total) You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
