I've been looking at rugged cameras for vehicle mounting and was familiar with the Go Pro stuff. But I just found the New Hottness. The VholdR Contour HD. The Contour HD has WAY higher resolution and frame rates, a rechargeable battery, the ability to run 16GB memory cards.

The VholdR guys are also a local Seattle based company - I'm going to try and go visit them. This seems like a serious little camera. They've been marketing to the helmet cam bros and I think they could do well with us car guys.

Anyone use this Contour HD yet? I may be the first

Comparison:

The GoPro Hero, which lots of people run.
Resolution: 512x348 30 fps
Memory: 2GB SD
Batteries: Primary AAA cells



VholdR Contour HD http://www.vholdr.com/
Resolution: 1280x720 30 fps or 848x480 60 fps
Memory: up to 16GB micro SD
Batteries: rechargable LiIon (cell phone battery)

 

Looks nice, but for $100 more and without the ruggedized casing and automotive mounts, I won't be buying one.

I also won't buy the GoPro because of the battery and small sd card issues.

 

The ruggidized case on the Go Pro is there to protect an otherwise flimsy camera made from common grade plastic resins. Even in the Polycarbonate case if it falls off the car at speed it is toast.

The Contour HD has an aluminum case which is very strong, but still going to be dicey if it falls off the car. It also comes with a standard suction mount, the accessory one is just a little more adjustable.

I'm going to try and go check out their place, and talk to them about vehicle mounting.

 

Never used this.

But I'm deff a go pro fan. I have used alot of POV cameras with my past skiing career. MO the Go Pro is terrific for everything you need to capture in POV.

 

I've got a go pro regular. Mounts are nice, you can stick the little things anywhere (like on the splitter). Camera is small, lightweight. Image quality is whatevers. Biggest criticism is the 2 gb sd card limitation.

Dunno if the later cameras have that issue.

 

Yeap Go Pro still has the 2GB limit.

The Contour HD is sweet for POV skiing/biking stuff, it comes with a clip that goes on your goggle strap. Seems much more stream-line compared the Go Pro.

 

The Go Pro comes with a goggle strap mount also with certain packages.. but if you do work in the park or in the woods or if you ride hard in general.. they dont cut it period. The go pro is great because of the fisheye they use. Its perfect captures the whole inside of a vehicle or the body of a skier when mounted correctly and it captures a smoother video.

My one complaint with the Go Pro is that I have had an amazing pow day and I filmed all of the chairlift ride and turned it off on my runs... because you cant tell if its recording unless you look at it. And the same thing happend with the car this year at STPR missed out on alot of amazing footage.

If you get the Contour HD let us know how you end up liking it and I'm curios if it gives you a recording indicator by noise?

 

the record function looks to be pretty fool proof. its on or off with a slider switch, forward on/ back off, and advertised as being glove operable.

yeah for sure let us know what you find out.

 

I have a GoPro and I freekin love the thing, mounts to the mountain bike, my surf board, the car, everything! Best $150 I ever spent!

 

I like my HERO but the video sure isn't what you'd call HD. The resolution is decent but nothing like a miniDV camera. I get great shots but they're not always super informative because of the resolution thing. Look at my videos on my website to see the difference.

http://www.flatlinemotorsports.net/Video_Vault.html

The older videos were taken with a handycam type miniDV camera mounted inside the car. The newer videos are with the HERO. I kind of like that I can take it in the ocean and such and get cool pictures of my boys. The battery life is good. Use rechargables and they will last at least 60 full minutes. That's enough for a whole day's racing. The memory card is decent. 2gigs should hold 2 sessions. As long as you have a laptop with a fast SD slot or a USB2.0 reader for it then uploading to the laptop only takes about 10 minutes per card. I can't get the sound right though... that sucks. On high I get LOTS of wind noise, and on low I get almost nothing. ...I guess "whaddya want" for $200 and at 140mph...

 

The Go Pro Hero (orig) camera is best used when stuck in places that normal cameras don't want to go - roofs, fenders, near wheels, etc. The sealing and size make for a camera that you won't have to worry about flying off the car. The quality isn't the greatest though, the battery life is short and it's hard to tell if it's on or not. Lost a few sessions that way. Still, the camera def has its uses.

 

I've used the ContourHD its a great camera and the res. on the video is great. Haven't used it in the car yet but love it for the bike

 

I like the Vholder idea, but two things:

#1 No roll bar compatible mount (for those that don't like suction cups).
#2 No screen to show you if you are aiming the camera in the right position.


Other than that, seems like a great camera, but those are deal breakers for me.

 

I felt the same way but the camera has lasers that show where your shooting. It doesn't beat a screen but it works well.

 

You can get a rollbar mount for the contourHD. The only thing I don't like about the contourHD is no external mic jack(the internal mic sucks) and vignetting and lens flare issues. An external mic can be modded but I am waiting to see if they come out with a version 2 before I buy. By then other HD pov cams will be out in full force, so who knows what I will buy.