I recently stumbled on this;The Go Pro Hero Wide Angle Helmet Cam.
I was with Jeff in a local camera shop in downtown Missoula, Montana when I saw a case full of them on clearance. I had some money set aside for truck repairs and quickly decided to put those off until my next pay check. Mountain biking magazines have rated the Go Pro High high in equipment reviews and feedback from the hang gliding world seems to be similarly positive. It's cheap, small, shock proof, water proof, and simple. The trade off is video resolution that's slightly less than mini DV and it takes 5 mega pixel stills, which are relatively small compared most higher end digital cameras. The simplicity and size are worth the resolution and quality trade offs. The wide angle Hero has a 170 degree lens. It comes with a variety of mounts like helmet, adhesive, bike frame, suction cup, and automobile specific feet. It takes 56 minutes of video on a 2 gig SD card or will take 5mp stills every 2 or 5 seconds until stopped. It's so light that if mounted on my glider, I wouldn't need to counterbalance it to keep the glider trimmed.
I've tested it a few times, but nothing very long. With winter in full effect last week the best sport to test the Hero was snowboarding. Doug and I headed up to Loveland on a bitterly cold day. The conditions couldn't have been more extreme. Signs at the bottom of the lifts warned that only those with extreme cold weather gear should attempt to ski that day. At the top of the lift the temperature was -4 degrees Fahrenheit with winds gusting to over 40mph. Flat light mixed with white out conditions and wind-loaded compacted fresh snow challenged our abilities to just get down the mountain, much less with any speed or style. We stayed in the protection of the trees on the north side of the mountain and literally had the mountain to ourselves. The only other people we saw all day were two ski patrollers who commented that we were crazy. Every time we got on the lift, the operators laughed and shook their heads at us from the heated comfort of their lift shacks. It was a perfect testing ground. After the gaperfest I experienced at Copper earlier in the month I wouldn't have it any other way.
Here's a short video I compiled of our footage. It's nothing to brag about, the lighting was poor and I have some interface issues with Adobe Premier Pro that make the already choppy helmet cam footage nauseating. The footage repeats briefly at one minute intervals. I'm sure it's due to the inferior computing power of my old Dell. I also formatted it a little too small for YouTube which is why it's so grainy. I brought a 3M adhesive foot to mount the camera on my snowboard, but when the board flexed as I stood up it popped off and hit me in the head (last scene of the clip). I'm in the green jacket, Doug has brown pants.
I was with Jeff in a local camera shop in downtown Missoula, Montana when I saw a case full of them on clearance. I had some money set aside for truck repairs and quickly decided to put those off until my next pay check. Mountain biking magazines have rated the Go Pro High high in equipment reviews and feedback from the hang gliding world seems to be similarly positive. It's cheap, small, shock proof, water proof, and simple. The trade off is video resolution that's slightly less than mini DV and it takes 5 mega pixel stills, which are relatively small compared most higher end digital cameras. The simplicity and size are worth the resolution and quality trade offs. The wide angle Hero has a 170 degree lens. It comes with a variety of mounts like helmet, adhesive, bike frame, suction cup, and automobile specific feet. It takes 56 minutes of video on a 2 gig SD card or will take 5mp stills every 2 or 5 seconds until stopped. It's so light that if mounted on my glider, I wouldn't need to counterbalance it to keep the glider trimmed.
I've tested it a few times, but nothing very long. With winter in full effect last week the best sport to test the Hero was snowboarding. Doug and I headed up to Loveland on a bitterly cold day. The conditions couldn't have been more extreme. Signs at the bottom of the lifts warned that only those with extreme cold weather gear should attempt to ski that day. At the top of the lift the temperature was -4 degrees Fahrenheit with winds gusting to over 40mph. Flat light mixed with white out conditions and wind-loaded compacted fresh snow challenged our abilities to just get down the mountain, much less with any speed or style. We stayed in the protection of the trees on the north side of the mountain and literally had the mountain to ourselves. The only other people we saw all day were two ski patrollers who commented that we were crazy. Every time we got on the lift, the operators laughed and shook their heads at us from the heated comfort of their lift shacks. It was a perfect testing ground. After the gaperfest I experienced at Copper earlier in the month I wouldn't have it any other way.
Here's a short video I compiled of our footage. It's nothing to brag about, the lighting was poor and I have some interface issues with Adobe Premier Pro that make the already choppy helmet cam footage nauseating. The footage repeats briefly at one minute intervals. I'm sure it's due to the inferior computing power of my old Dell. I also formatted it a little too small for YouTube which is why it's so grainy. I brought a 3M adhesive foot to mount the camera on my snowboard, but when the board flexed as I stood up it popped off and hit me in the head (last scene of the clip). I'm in the green jacket, Doug has brown pants.
1 comment:
Dude I've been wanting that camera for over a month now. If its quality is acceptable to you I guess I cant debate its usefulness anymore, I'm in. I like the vid as well. The ending was a good laugh. BTW I got over 4 grand today flying my fag bag in SHORTS. Cali is good for somethings. Ha Ha!
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