I'll add a bit to the discussion, constructively hopefully.

I didn't use the lithium battery GoPro, so that's a big upgrade.

I'd say that a still shot from the ContourHD is worth quite a bit picture wise, meaning just saving a frame as a still shot.

I may have been a beta tester on the GoPro (I wasn't, but generationally speaking, from the point of view of camera versions), but the experience soured me. Although not a total idiot, I managed to really screw up recording things.

side note: Interesting - someone's hacked the DNS for goprocamera. Go to the amazon link instead. I don't know how long these diversions last (5/26 6:55 AM Eastern).

I forgot the GoPro has a battery life indicator. As far as its accuracy I don't know how it is, and I can't see it when it's mounted on the bike, but that's something the ContourHD doesn't have. The little LCD screen is what screwed me up - since it wasn't my unit I was using, and I was doing long rides with it, I didn't carry the manual with me. If I did I probably would have been better off. It took me a few days of use to get a good recording (including help from a friend who had it longer than I did), and I paid for some lithium batteries to do it. What's funny with the GoPro is the beginning of each clip is of me (or my friend) looking very intently to something just next to the camera - the LCD screen. If it's outside, maybe a lowering of sunglasses and a close peering. Then, satisfied with whatever is there, the face/s disappear.

The ContourHD is pretty straightforward. Power button. Record "slide lever". You can set the resolution on it when it's plugged into a computer - I set both settings (hi/lo) for the same thing. This way I have nothing to screw up. I have to power on (look for light, beep). Then when I record (I usually wait until I'm ready to go) I slide the record thing forward. Wait for beep. If no beep, it is either off or out of battery (this is my test if I want to see if the thing is recording without taking off my helmet - I slide record lever backward and forward - if it beeps it's good, if not then I've gone past my battery or memory. The final thing I'll add is to make sure the trash folder on the card is actually empty - in Windows it's done automatically, on a Mac it's not.

I had two screw ups with the ContourHD - one was the record lever was forward so I recorded a couple hours of the top of a table. The other was when I deleted clips on a Mac (which doesn't free up space). I got only 15 minutes of video before I ran out of memory.

I've used it as a "situational recorder" in case something happened (i.e. I happen to have it and turn it on to record what's happening, like recording something weird happening on the road when I'm in my car). I could see it used to take short clips, seconds long, in order to capture stills from the clip.

Back to the OP:

For vacation/general use, I agree with CyciumX - I think using a CNC camera mount with a decent normal camera would satisfy most uses.

A bike cam, except on crazy sections or for incidents, is usually pretty boring to watch. A helmet cam is only slightly less boring, just because you can pan your head to pan around. But climbing a hill is really tedious to watch in either mode. Descents with switchbacks is slightly less tedious. I have some panned clips of Red Rock Canyon - they're reasonable if I wanted to show someone what it's like to ride there, how far away from the rocks the road sits, etc. The good clips are those of places/things or of "action". I see very little action on a training ride, so although I've been recording them, I haven't sat down to put them into a finished clip.

If you use an inexpensive camera on a bike and it has a decent LCD screen, you'll have one thing neither camera offers - feedback on what you're recording as you record. You can also focus on stuff in stills, unlike fixed lens cameras. You'll miss some wide angle stuff unless you have such an option on your camera. You can also use the camera off the bike. See if you can get smoothing software, either for editing or some upgrade for the camera itself (like a new camera), that would help stabilize images with a bike mounted camera (I haven't used the latest iterations of Windows Movie Maker, but iMovie has a smoothing function). Cameras are so cheap nowadays that it may be worth buying one just for trips and such, and you could use it on the bike in general. A one handed quick release would be nice - you could take the camera while you're riding and do some pan shots etc then put it back into its mount. Using a tripod mount as the point of contact, I think you could machine a pretty nifty twist-lock or similar mounting system out of aluminum/etc.

I personally hate having stuff sticking up from the bars - I occasionally bang the stem with my helmet accidentally. I would try and mount everything under the bar.

I have a camera I got as a rejected alternative to the Canon ZR100 (a "real" camcorder with DV tape). It's an HD camcorder (Aiptek something) with still shot capability. Because of its fixed lens, it takes pretty bad pictures, even at 10 MP. But the video is decent - if I had a slightly smaller version I'd use it mounted to the bike. Battery life is unreal - I recharge it every month or two, and I use it almost every day to take pictures/videos of some feral cats I take care of (with strobe flash) so I can note any changes. On vacations I'll carry it in my jersey pocket and take pictures or videos when I ride. This seems to be a decent compromise between the helmet/bike cams and a "real" camera.

cdr