Monday, April 5, 2010

Fun with the helmet cam

Last week I finally got a piece of equipment I've been thinking about for a long time -- a helmet-mounted camera. I saw this particular model -- the "Contour HD" -- reviewed positively in a motorcycle magazine, and decided to try it out.

So far, I like it a lot. It's very small and light, and has simple-to-operate controls. And the quality of the video is excllent (although -- perhaps unavoidably -- the microphone in the camera picks up a lot of wind noise). You might not be able to see that from this example, as I had to reduce it in size and resolution to make it a feasible upload.



The video here is of a short ride on a local dirt road through some woods that I like to take occasionally, especially when I'm riding a more dirt-oriented bike than the street bikes I usually ride. In this case, that means my BMW 650. -- PL

4 comments:

Adam Riches said...

That's really neat, I can't wait to see some of the future rides you post on here! Being in Florida, I don't get to see a whole lot of cool rural scenery like that so now I can live through your rides vicariously. :-)

mikeandraph87 said...

A helmet camera is one of those gagets that looks os silly,but are so much fun.

Next up a wild ride over to Mirage Studios and a tour for us all,right?....Okay,I'm dreaming big.:D

Fritz Moog said...

Hi Peter, I think you should just put something before the microphone to avoid the wind crashing directly on it, a little piece of rigid plastic maybe, a kind of "micro-windshield", I don't know. You can notice that when you turn your head, in the video, the noise disappear, it is because the wind doesn't chrash directly on the microphone.
I'm sure you'll find out a good solution, good luck. :-)

PL said...

"Fede said...

Hi Peter, I think you should just put something before the microphone to avoid the wind crashing directly on it, a little piece of rigid plastic maybe, a kind of "micro-windshield", I don't know. You can notice that when you turn your head, in the video, the noise disappear, it is because the wind doesn't chrash directly on the microphone.
I'm sure you'll find out a good solution, good luck. :-)"

Thanks for the suggestion! I would like to try to find a way to cut down on the wind noise, and that might work. I notice a very big difference in the recorded wind noise when I am riding a bike like the BMW (which has a tiny windscreen and no fairing) versus a bike like the Victory Vision, which has a very large windshield and fairing. -- PL