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Contour Roam vs GoPro Hero helmet cameras
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
Hi guys
Im just wondering whether to get a Contour Roam or a GoPro Hero for mountain biking and also some everyday activities
Any thoughts or suggestions, Strengths and weaknesses?
Any suggestions would be greatful
cheers
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GoPro Hero2 has much better colour rendition,the mount doesn't rattle anywhere near as bad and with a quick 5 cent mod can be made rattle free,and is much more flexible to use in the field.
The Roam, being an integrated unit instead of in a separate water housing, is less hassle to manage fogging if you're going to immerse it. The form factor is better for helmet mounting.
However, the settings you leave home with are the ones you are stuck with for the session. You cannot change them in the field with the Roam.
The chest mount with the GoPro gives much superior results for cycling use and mtb
I've tried both GoPro and Contour. I paid retail for a GoPro in preference to the reviewer's discounted price for the Contour, so that should give you a clue as to where I'd put my money.
On Saturday i take delivery for review of a new waterproof unit called the iDV. Looks interesting.
Yeah basically what Hawkeye said. The layout of the Contour looks appealing at first glance, but it is actually the gopro that has the mounting options you want for MTB.
Chest mount being the best POV for MTB but it has many other great mounting options too. And if you happen to be a skiier, chest mount again gives the best perspective.
Image quality the GoPro wins - no contest. I bought mine off TBSM who were selling them a bit off retail.
Here's a couple of my clips:
http://youtu.be/vRDSGcY7EH0
http://youtu.be/xN4fzgbNLLg
http://youtu.be/GHUckqVRFyc
No chest mount option for the contour really sucks the balls.....I wish I had brought the go pro for MTB.
That rattling is very annoying. That can be stopped with a mod can it? Is there an option to turn the sound off altogether?
I run the chest mount, which was a quick-release clip. It is the clip which rattles.
2 layers of Nitto wide electrical tape on the base, on the flat surface between male and female parts was enough to do the job. Cut around the outline on the centre spine on the female base to stop it jamming.
Yes, you can turn sound off altogether with (from memory) the gain setting.
*Disclaimer: I work at Launch Helmet Cams (here in Midland)*
You can chest mount a Contour with our little adaptor. How to vid here.
The Roam image quality is pretty good. The GoPro Hero 2 is definitely the best out there, but how much of a videophile are you?
Also, check out the Drift HD which beats the other 2 for usability. (inbuilt screen, remote control, rotating lens). A firmware upgrade has just been released for the Drift HD, which has improved the image quality from acceptable to downright outstanding.
GoPro and Contour aren't the only players!
And now - the sales pitch
drop me a line and I will sort out fellow mountain bikers with a deal.
I had a look at that unit too, although I didn't actually trial it. It's available quite cheaply offshore under a few different badges, and gets very decent reviews.
Saw a couple of guys riding Manly Dam with them last year. The issue for me when I saw it in the flesh was the size of the unit - too big and bulky, and heavy. It tilted their helmets much more than the Contour unit, and I almost burst out laughing when the weight from the unit tipped his helmet forward and almost blocked the kid's vision as he was negotiating a quite technical section of the track.
Fortunately it swung back in time, but the question is then how it looks on screen with the camera moving about that much.
The little wireless remote is a great idea, though.
If you take a look at Techmoan's video blog, he does regular reviews on all sorts of digital video cameras, and he calls it as he sees it without fear or favour. Well worth a trawl.
"under a few different badges" seems a bit misleading. There are many cheap ripoffs, of all major brands. This is not to say it is the same camera - the firmware, at the very least, is both proprietary and critical to image quality.
Your assessment of weights is off the mark. The Drift HD and Roam are roughly equivalent in weight, with the GoPro coming in 25% heavier.
Measurements taken just now, with batteries:
GoPro 184 grams
Drift HD 151 grams
Contour Roam 146 grams
The Drift HD isn't big & bulky - it's the same dimensions as the Contour. Like, almost exactly the same. Perhaps you saw the older Stealth unit? It was a fair bit longer. Weighed 1 gram different to the new smaller camera tho - must have been full of air! I can't comment on what you saw, but perhaps the guy needed to tighten his helmet...
The GoPro is the most unwieldy camera to wear on your helmet - both because of it's higher weight, and because this weight is positioned further away from the helmet. It's unique "toaster" format makes it the most prone for tangling in trees... If it wasn't for the high image quality and immense marketing budget, this camera would be something of a joke! How do you like pressing those little buttons with gloves on... explains why so many GoPro clips start of with someone's face peering quizzically into the lens...
The GoPro is very dependable tho - great build quality.
"The GoPro is the most unwieldy camera to wear on your helmet - both because of it's higher weight, and because this weight is positioned further away from the helmet. It's unique "toaster" format makes it the most prone for tangling in trees.."
That's only if you top mount it.
The preferred helmet mounting for the go pro is "front mount" which is basically just above your forehead. I did this for skiing recently and it worked a treat.
example: http://monsterstuff.co.uk/images/gp2013.jpg
Ive got a drift hd I dont use & would sell 4 cheap !
Cheap and worth a look. Imagine quality seems good, mount options maybe limited
@maxfacta, I can only call it as i see it (or saw it in this case, at 19th Hole).
As for wearing the GoPro on my helmet, the crap result with the Contour on the helmet was what turnwd me off going helmet mount altogether and onto the GoPro chest mount, in addition to the noticeably better video and vastly better adjustability in the field. Oh, and i should mention much reduced camera shake on the chest mount as well.
The Drift Innovations unit looked like it covered most of the real estate on the top of this guys lid... not much room to see over any permanent light mount fittings and it tipped his helmet a long way to one side.
The cheaper units i saw were from the original manufacturers, not after Drift Innovations had stuck their badges on it.
For some guys the Drift unir will be the better fit. For me, the GoPro works best. Some times I want to put mine on the seatpost. That's going to work less well on the Drift unit will be better.
I'm sure Contour will leapfrog the GoPeo soon. They seem like a competirive bunch
ok, so the general consensus is that GoPro have more mounts available compared to the Contour Roam. But one last thing i want to mention about. Is the image quality comparable between the Gopro and Contour?
GoPro is better. Colours on the Contour are more washed out in comparison.
In the old day swith film still image cameras you'd fix this with a lense filter, something like Skylight 1B but filters seem to have gone the way of film camera!
I'd have to say the low light performance of the Contour is better - it still captures a half-decent image under streeet lights. The GoPro isn't quite as good. However, to get that with the Contour Roam you need to switch it to low light mode, which you can only do while it is connected to a computer.
The Contour GPS gives you the option at least of two modes you can flip between via a switch inside the back cover, or via your Bluetooth Smartphone app, but the GPS is not waterproof and lacks the nice 170 degree field of view the Roam gives you.
The GoPro Hero2 has none of these constraints. I rarely used the GPS feature on the Contour GPS I reviewed - it halved the battery life.
Having played with the Contours, GoPros, Drifts and VIO POV I agree with most of what has been said (especially about the chest mount for the GoPro, just remember to invert the mount and the camera). So GoPro over the Contour for sure for me.
The Drift is a very interesting package. I haven't played with the new HD unit which is more compact but side by side with the GoPro it looked on par. With the ability to review straight out of the camera in setup I found the drift very easy to quickly swap around between riders for different angles (yes GoPro now has a back for that).
If you're still unsure, chat to Maxfacta at Launch, they sell all the units your looking at.
Drift HD with helmet kit yours 4 $200 bucks ,barely used as we use our new SLR camera with HD vidio .(negotiable)
I purchased a Contour plus last year after reading the reviews vs the original go pro. My brother has the new go pro 2 which is an awesome cam and the battery last heaps longer than the contour plus. I love the Contour but I think the go pro is a better cam. The go pro comes with a water proof cover which is also awesome as a sound buffer, no wind noise. Plus local camera shops also stock bits and peices for the go pro which is handy because Launch Helmet Cams close at 4:30 everyday!!!! Check our YouTube channel which has vIds using both cams.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MadBikeVids
Hope this helps mate.
yeah, the go pro hero 2 is better!! cheers for your help everyone
I bought one of these for a 2-week snowboard trip, and my only complaint was that we didn't take enough HDD storage with us. Ended up with over 100GB of footage over the 2 weeks, most of which is fantastic. Super slow-mo is good fun too. I've also had no problems in pulling reasonable stills out of the footage (they aren't great, but they're still fine for facebook or showing friends how awesome you looked, while neatly not letting them see you land on your face).
I digress though. The HD hero 2 is a great little camera, have done surfing, snowboarding, mountain biking, snow-mobiling, and rock climbing with a forehead-style mounting, and been very happy with the results.