ContourHD 1080p Helmet Camera

I got this camera about three weeks ago, and of course my computer broke down at the same time. The old lap top I was substituting couldn't hack the video requirments so I couldn't use it. I got a new computer and tried it today and it works pretty fair. Let's get the gripes out of the way first ok?The manual (that's a stretch) that comes with this thing is nothing more than a folded up leaflet kinda thing. For people not familiar or a bit challenged by newer electronics this could be kind of intimidating. For this kind of money I think a decent manual should be printed up in ENGLISH, with some clear illustrations. There are illustrations in the leaftlet that comes with it but it took me a couple of times reading it to make sure I got things going right with it.The software is supposed to start up when the camera is first plugged into the USB port on your computer. Mine didn't start, not even on the new system. You can go to the website and download the software. I think the software is a real joke. There's not much there to edit it with, and no explanations or intuitive controls. Trying to figure out what it wanted me to do before watching the video was a bit confusing. Who thinks this crap up anyway? I finally figured out it wanted me to establish a library location. I hate trying to wade thru abbreviated help menus they get me mixed up worse than I was before. So if you are using Windows 7 just let it take care of downloading the video, does it with much less trouble.My first video I mounted the camera upside down on an optional windsheild suction cup mount, that comes for about $27.00 extra in this kit with lots of other helpful goodies. Buy it if you can afford it. IF you are just mounting it as a helmet camera I think it has enough mounts to work for that without the optional kit. I thought that righting the upside down video could be accomplished with the editing software. Well I didn't find that anywhere in the software. That's a bunch of crap too, because there are probably lots of times when the camera needs to be mounted upside down. This was just a test video shot in lower res. No big deal, it could have been a base jump that got screwed up because it was upside down. Well now I'll just try to figure out how to get it mounted right side up. I might build a new mount for it anyway. The video the camera shoots is pretty good I think. The edges of it have a slight fish eye look to it due to it's field of view, no big deal to me. The camera worked just fine with ambient light ih the house (flourescent to boot!) It's so small you can carry it in a shirt pocket and its light too. Fairly robust construction, the mounting faces are made of anodized aluminum. It's really a pretty amazing little piece of hardware. The controls are pretty straight forward. The back end of the camera slides down to unlock this plastic backing cover giving you access to the USB plugin, SD card and battery. You can change the resolutin from 720 to 1080 by sliding a little switch either up or down. The camera is put into standby (on) by pushing on a button centered on the sliding back cover. There is a longer switch on top of the camera body that puts it into the recording mode or not. Pushing the sliding switch forward makes it record. Sliding it backwards turns that part off. The camera still remains on. I don't know if it automatically shuts off after a period of no use or not. I just shut it off, which is done by holding the main on off switch in for a couple of seconds. The battery is charged like an ipod off your computer hot USB port. Pretty neat idea, charging the battery while downloading the video. You can also check a box on the software that will erase the video from the camera when it's done downloading it. That's cool. Using it for video on sport bikes is a great idea I think! Behind the wind screen would probably cut down some on the wind noise. Up on top of a Harley the wind might make too much noise. I'm going to put it inside my pro street Olds Cutlass when I get it done. Mounting this camera inside a drag car would be just too cool! Inside any race car would be farm out. Hell I might even use it on my John Deere! For the money it's a great little camera I think. It probably won't match a high end dedicated camcorder that also shoots HD, but you can't exactly strap a large camera onto the side of a helmet or hang it off of a window, mount it behind a wind screen on a sport bike or have it flopping around on the triple tree of your cruiser. The only advantage I can see to a larger lensed video camera is the lack of fisheyeing, a the periphery of the field of view. If your computer is marginal in it's ram and processor speed you might not get the video to work smoothly or at all. My old lap top totally choked on it. Most new systems should run it fine with a gig or two of ram. I like the camera a lot so far. Just make sure you read the mickey mouse manual a few time till you think you have it wired.

The ContourHD 1080p has been a fun little camera in the 4 weeks or so that I've had it. The picture quality is good in good light, but rather poor in low light. This is par for the course for any HD camera below $1k and good low light performance just shouldn't be expected from a camera this small and this inexpensive. I rate picture quality as 4/5. Colors and its auto white balance (the only choice) are impressive. I only record at its "high" quality and 1080/30p video setting. There are "low" and "mid" settings that increase the compression, increasing the amount of video you can shoot on one card, but decreasing the video quality. I find "high" to be the only acceptable setting for HD video. If you shoot mid or low, you are probably okay for downrezzing to SD video, but I suspect the compression artifacts will still be visible. Even at the high setting, there are some compression artifacts that I wish weren't there. Few people you show your video to will notice them, but if you are a video enthusiast and picky about picture quality, you'll notice. I'm not at all impressed with the 720p setting. You can set it to 720/60p, but the image is terribly soft and even pixellated in my opinion. After testing this, I decided not to use it - ever. This was a bit disappointing, since I would have liked 60 fps to have some slo-mo, but it wasn't worth it.The mic is next to useless if there is wind rushing over the camera (as there probably will be in many uses for this cam). To me, this is part of what you are shooting, not a short-fall of the cam. While it does make other sounds harder to hear, the mic does pick up other sounds. I mounted it to an ATV and caught the entire conversation of the occupants quite clearly. So, if you don't expect the sound to sound like it was recorded in a studio (which it isn't), then you won't be too disappointed.The operation is simply point and shoot. I actually love its simplicity. Some might complain that there is no viewfinder or screen. I haven't found this to be a problem at all. If you think even a little about where you are aiming it and you test it out for 5 minutes, you should have no problem knowing what is in the frame and what isn't. The camera has audible signals to indicate "on", "off", "start" (recording), and "stop". I've never had the audible indicators give a false reading in 25 or so hours of use.I use this as a special-purpose camera and I would not recommend this as a camera someone would buy as their only camera. It is purpose-built as a camera for extreme sports or action photography. Thus, it isn't meant to replace your camcorder. For me, it is essentially a toy -- a great toy, but not my real camera. I have used it with the headband. I rode a few roller coasters and caught great (if a little nauseating) video. I even strapped it to my 9-year-old daughter to wear on rides at a well-known Orlando theme park. Getting her POV was priceless (plus it picked up her conversations with her cousin, also priceless). I also have the window/suction-cup mount that I've used a lot on the windshield of my car. Works very well and video of driving is great, which was one primary use I wanted for the cam.My cam actually died after about 15 hours of use (recording time -- I had used it in terms of carrying it around for about 40 hours and had not abused it). It seemed to be a mechanical problem in which the contacts came loose or something. I contacted vholdr (Contour) customer support. They quickly assessed the issue, gave me an RMA, and sent a replacement after receiving my cam. I paid shipping to them, but they shipped on their dime. I rate this as excellent service. They were responsive and communicative. Do I wish the cam was built better and there was no problem in the first place? Yes. Did they make it right for me? Yes. If (see below) I ever break this cam, I'll gladly shell out the purchase price to buy another. I'm that happy with the cam and the manufacturer's customer service.The replacement cam has been great and rugged. I had it mounted on the suction-cup mount on an ATV. I mistakenly mounted it to the ATV's plastic body. The suction held for about 15 minutes of paved, but bumpy roads and then fell off while going about 15 MPH. So, I have a great video of the ATV passengers, the fall of the cam, the pavement, and the person picking up the cam. The cam took it all. The lens didn't even break (which you can replace if it happens). There are a couple of nicks on the cam's body, but all is fine otherwise. I'd say it is rugged. Don't get me wrong, I don't plan on dropping it on the pavement often and I wouldn't have been surprised if I killed it that time. But, I will continue using it as a rugged cam, which is why I bought it.My rating is 4/5 stars. To me, this is a great cam. If compression wasn't noticeable at high quality setting and my first unit hadn't failed, I'd give it 5/5. I'm tempted to give it 5/5 even with that, given its price.

It took me a long time to make up my mind between this contour and the go pro.. In the end it was the contours sleek looks that won me over as i couldnt imagine myself doing mountain biking with the bulky Go pro strapped to my head! Well anyway when i decided upon the contour i was next left with the dilemma of which contour!! i was stuck between the roam and the older but higher spec VholdR.. they both cost the same so money was not an issue.. In the end i went for the older model as it had the 60fps option which i deemed quite important for fast action recording.. In retrospect i can see how the roam benifits from lots of tweeks made after a couple of years experience! Firstly the slide record switch on the VholdR is flat and quite awkward to use especially with gloves..this has been rectified on the roam also the power button on the back has been greatly improved.. Also the roam comes with more rotateing options on the lens.. i didnt think this would be an issue but there have been moments where i could have done with it! Also when the lens is set in the 'neutral' position there are a couple of millimeters play which is very annoying and quite off putting especially if you expect to be traveling downhill at high speed over rough ground, the last thing you want is your lens rattleing from side to side.. this is apparently an issue with a lot of reviewers.. luckily for me i dont have it set in the neutral position so it hasnt been an issue to date.. But now for my major gripe with the contour! i could not get the software to upload on my windows vista computer.. In fairness to the contour support team they were fantastic.. spending hours with me on the fone trying to sort out the problem.. But alas to no avail.. apparently there is some hitch with vista and the quicktime player needed to view my videos and it seems impossible to rectify.. its just a pity this wasnt made aware to me on the contour website prior to purchase! i am thankfully at least able to upload and view my videos on my daughters windows 7 laptop...Oddly enough i am still very happy with the contour, i love its simplistic stick it to your helmet and go approach! i would however have liked a HDMI socket so i could just connect it to the tv etc.. this is available on the top of the range model but i dont see why it shouldnt be on all models... Also i think contour should have included a few more mounts with the camera.. mine came with a goggle mount as standard which is only of use to skiers! i had to buy the vented helmet mount seperatly which works fantastic!!! I just wish some of the big players like Sony JVC Panasonic etc would jump into the market!! would for sure drive down the crazy high prices both contour and go pro charge and greatly improve quality!!!If you want to check out the contours quality take a peek at my youtube videos.. try typeing in contour HD masseys woods ... that should take you there!!

I paid £120 for this camera including postage. For the money, its unbeatable value, very good quality video, plenty of different modes and a 16gb card costing just £10 can record about an hours Action-HD... Perfect for riding my bike and skiing, fits to my helmet without too much obstruction, and its nice and light. Fits my goggle strap for easy mounting when skiing.Can't really ask for more, its a headcam, its a small form factor, its HD, its good, its cheap!Only bad point is the mic is very sensitive to wind noise, then again, I would plan to put some audio over the top of any film footage I take!

Great product, great value. Used on a snowboarding holiday. I would suggest you get a big microSD for the videos so you don't lose anything.

After using the amazing gopro camera for 6 months or so I decided to add to my arsenal by getting a Contour HD for helmet use, it being a little more discreet than the Gopro for helmet use. I opted for the Contour HD 1080P as it offers 60fps recording something that the new Contour roam doesn't offer.Initial thoughts were it was nice, light and well made, the software was easy to use however a problem quickly became appararrent, the lens on the camera when rotated in to the horizontal position was loose? and rattles from side to side by 2-3mm? it was OK at the other end but not on the horizontal, this it totally unacceptable IMHO as I have read that after as little as 1 month of use this can happen? (happened out of the box for me) leaving folks to wrap inner tubes or rubber bands around the assembly to stop it shaking? this camera was 300 quid when new! this is poor poor quality.I am going to stick with the Gopro and in fact will go for new Gopro 2 instead, also the video quality on this unit was not as good as the Gopro, all of the footage appeared to have a bluish tint to it and any kind of vibration resulted in a horrible wobbling effect this is due the nature of the shutter on the camera I am led to believe.I would warn folks away from this unit, Amazons returns procedure can not be faulted however and I expect a full refund in due course, OH also don't bother with the vented helmet mount either its pretty useless too so that's going back as well.All in all this was enough to scare me away from this make of camera for good, I suppose there is a reason that Gopro are the market leaders.

Wow - what a product. Have only used it a couple of times since receiving it.Delivery was exactly as stated - 3 days. Well packed and arrived complete. Easy to set up, and use - so long as you read all the manuals/instructions carefully.A great product with fantastic video quality. Its a pity that some of the parameters of the camera are only settable using a pc, but once you have set it up how you want, then it is a sinch to use!