Helmet- Full face mountain biking

Adapter plate- universal mountplate from bonehead.com

Camera Sony HVR-HC7 high def

is that a goitercam?

hey LAYC, i replied in your thread to answer you questions

anyway, i was just going to mention that after my H-cam was ripped off with all my other stuff, i dont think i will replace it. i just never really used it enough to justify buying another one some day. maybe you will drag it along more though.

Dang – I was just looking for the single best argument for helmet cam footage… jimw’s conness video. But the link is broken. Jim – where is it?? That one cracks me up every time!

@TEX wrote:

[quotetex – if no one has said so before now; with all due respect, that combo is kooky. Hell, I wouldn’t even wear it if I were mtn biking

Well LAYC….it may be kooky……but I dont subscribe to the everyman world. I quit giving a shit about how I look when my teeth turned yellow and my hair turned grey

.[/quote]
Yeah, he’s a grizzly old bastard now.

Just to clarify, your teeth aren’t yellow- they’re closer to green.

@SanFrantastico wrote:

Dang – I was just looking for the single best argument for helmet cam footage… jimw’s conness video. But the link is broken. Jim – where is it?? That one cracks me up every time!

I think bcrider deleted it to make room for all his HD footage. 🙂 But not to worry, it’s still here on Google video. I also put it up here for download. The download is probably a little higher quality than Google too, I think they re-encode it. One of these days I’ll get around to re-encoding the master with H.264 or something.

That video is only about 80% helmetcam though. I think my best 100% helmetcam attempt so far is this (or download here).

As far as POV shots being boring, I think that can certainly be true. I’ve also seen plenty of boring HD footage. Whether you’re using helmetcam, handheld, or pro, the magic is in getting the right shots, and in editing. A lifelong pursuit for sure.

A helmetcam does offer you an angle on a shot that you can’t get any other way. It also limits the options you would have when shooting with a regular cam (zoom etc), so you have to pay attention to other factors. Field of view is important. A wide field is nice so you can keep the subject in view while also having plenty of background, for context. It’s harder if you’re solo. Again a wide field helps by getting part of the board in the shot for context. If the lighting is right, your shadow can also provide a context hint. That’s one thing I’m not liking with the new POV.1 – I think it really needs a wider field of view.

LAYC – to answer your question. If you want to use a camera for 60% non-helmetcam footage, then I would go with a regular camcorder and an external cam that can plug into the camcorder. Using a purpose-built helmetcam for shooting family shots around the house might be fun for a couple minutes, but would mostly probably just be an exercise in frustration. It sounds like you don’t want to fuss with the helmetcam side of things much, but from my experience, helmet cams are a hassle. You will have a bunch of cables hanging out, and you’ll still probably need to fish the camcorder out from time to time just to check the angle of your shot. Make sure you review the recommendations from the helmetcam manufacturer regarding camcorders that work with their system. Having a camcorder with a LANC input is great because then you can have remote control, but not many consumer camcorders come with this anymore. Check out Viosport and Extreme Recall. There’s a lot of good info at Helmet Camera Central. For what you seem to want, one of the small standalone helmet cams like the GoPro or Twenty20 might be the ticket. Maybe not as high quality footage as other solutions, but lower fiddle factor.

A setup like Tex has may look kooky, but that’s what you would use for high end helmetcam shots. Setups like that are what they use in all the movies. Obvioiusly you pay for it a bit in confort and convenience… and you better hope you don’t crash. 🙂

good points about making the HC look good JimW.

one thing i found in making the difference between good and bad HC footage is you need something “on you” in the shot. this works well for skiers because they can usually get their hands and poles in the shot. also good with mountain biking because it is easy to get the handlebars or forks in there. Without a part of the user in the shot, it looks like the helmet cam is floating down the hill, and the viewer really has not frame of reference of how the HC user is getting down the hill, or how fast the camera is moving.