Audiophile121

im trying to figure out how to make a helmet cam, im having difficulty .... anybody have any pics of their own helmet-cam rigs, or have any how-to tips or anything?

jiiiim

tape an i-sight on the helmet and carry an i-book in a backpack
jk, i wanna make one too
the cheapest i can find is like $200 =/

Stacey

and

zoeglassjd

here

same time

If you like to tinker, you can get yourself a CVS disposable video camera (30 bucks, as little as 15 bucks depending on coupons/sales) and modify it. You'll have to solder a usb cable to it, Then you download some free hack software and you're in business. (I'm assuming you have a computer).

I've never attached mine to my helmet, but I have attached it to my bike using twine and a some foam padding. It works well for thirty bucks. You can shoot 20 minutes of 320x240 29fps video.

If you google "cvs video camera hack" you'll get more than you wanted to know about it.

junkyard

An easier alternative to Stacey's post would be a cell phone and duct tape. Of course, you'll only get 15 seconds at a time. With the right editing software, you can do wonders.

Moochers_Dad

Check out this one by Samsung:

Here

jiiiim

here

Hopper

The best would be to get a proper bullet/lipstick cam and have it attached to a camera in your back pack via AV cables, or attached to a hard drive. My mate found a cheap webcam that took reasonable quality which he could hook up to a camera in his back pack. However if you want to be like the rest of us use a lot of tape and a video camera, it's as simpe as that.

The best 'dodgy' rig I saw was someopne at our local who made their own look back boom rig. This segment from Drift 3 shows one being used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcD0sisR6tE

The guy at the track rigged one up by tabing a camera to the end of a broomstick, then with immense amounts of tape and two bolts he stuck it to his helmet and then had a brick on the other side to counter balance the weight. With this rig you have to be careful of trees ahead of you and if you crash you will probably stuff up your neck, so don't ride 100% with it.

goosey

im gonna try using my mobile........it takes up to 15 minutes of footage......see what happens

WannaGetGood

I think that would be very bad quailty?

same time

"Quality" is relative.

Are you looking to shoot a broadcast tv show? Then yes, the tony hawk 50 dollar helmet cam is "crap".

Are you looking to shoot web movies you can send your friends, maybe post one on youtube? Then the toy cameras and cell phones are fine. Well, the toy cameras anyway. Cell phone cams really are crap.

apclassic9

Add a real live cameraman & you'll have the perfect solution!

Hopper

Actually you can get broadcast quality bullet cams and alot of the footage in lower budget MTB films (Early Drift Series, late Mud Cow Series........ actually maybe it's just an Aussie MTB movie thing ) is shot onto a Digital medium, not film. With the right equipment it can be cystal clear. As for just the type of shooting videos for mates to see recording to a Digital camera in your back pack or HD would be fine.




Yeah I love that camera, if you can get your hands on Drift 2: A new Race, there is an awsome section where someone is dirt jumping with one, the whips he pulls look amazing on the look back. Also Adam Smithson in Drift 3 is absolutely pinning it down an Aussie DH track called Amazon with one on his head, the camera really highlights how much body control is needed in DH. Also you learn the dangers of these cams when you see the footage from one of Sam Hill crashing, his head hits and the boom doesn't allow him to roll, his head stays still and his legs scorpion over his body, I reckon he was lucky not to get neck injuries.

junkyard

Exactly. Like when you go skydiving and they have that guy next to you doing the camera work.

apclassic9

There was a guy who used to race around at NORBA XC races with OLN's camera - of course, he cut the trail to catch up for his Roland Green shots.....

dminor 

Hey Pete, Getting back to the subject of pro-level helmet cam possibilities (I read your updated site info on lipstick cams, etc.), I was wondering if you had any thoughts on adapting a unit like this to do HC duty:

https://aacctv.stores.yahoo.net/paawp3cprcov1.html

I was originally looking at the AK-HC900 - - like they use in the Skycam - - but I think that is beyond the budget and a bit bulky. The AW is interesting with the optics remote-cabled to the camera.

dminor 

I guess you'd end up packing a bit of weight, but still maybe do-able? For power, I figured an SLA battery like for a UPS. You can get a 3 Ah one that's about 2½"x2½"x5" and weighs under 3 lbs. With 9.6W draw at 12V, a 3Ah battery should get you at least 2 hours shooting time shouldn't it?. So then you'd have the recorder, battery and camera base unit in the backpack.

Hopper

I agree I said best and by best I mean the one that will allow for best movement, less weight on head/neck and the onethat will be much less potentially damaging to YOUR safety in a crash. Bullet cams are actually strong enough to survive a crash, a cmaera is not. If you crash with a cmaera on your head that is only more momentum for your head to hit the ground, this is not cool. The helmet projects out from the helmet and reduces the helmet from being able to slide or roll over in acrash. Say you start rolling (head and body) the camera causes your head to stop rolling but your body still wants too......

I still stand by my statment that you can get very high quality bullet cams. Black Phoneix productions and Blitzkrieg Films (two Aussie MTB DVD makers) use bullet cams and I am willing to say that the change in quality is very small. Yes I will admit that they either use the best Bullet cmaeras you can buy and that Black Phoneix went as far to make their own but (was pretty much a normal camera with all the casing taken apart and electronics redone so that it was only as wide/round as the lense. Was kinda like a long toilet paper roll).

Hopper

Yes I will agree that a normal camera will have a better picture, well what do you expect? It has better processors and should have a higher quality lens. However unless this guy is making a DVD that will mean squat to him. However just because something is better doesn't mean the other thing is crap.

Some of the Sony CCD cam's recording onto a digital camera have a good quality picture with 480 Scan Lines.


Also the twenty20 helmet cam is excellent quality, I have seen amateur videos with a mix of digital video and helmet cam from one of these and the change in quality is not noticeable unless you try to look for it. https://www.twenty20camera.com/helmetcamera.php

You say I don't know what I'm talking about, I say I have done runs with a normal digital camera stuck to my head and a bullet cam stuck to my head. Want to know which gave the better video? The bullet cam, the big camera made me feel weird as I rode, the footage was more rocky and bumby because the camera moved more on my head. I still say that the best quality helmet cam video will be a good bullet cam. It allows you to ride better, the footage is better.

Want to know something, when you see helmet cam footage in a bike video, they are not riding around with a normal camera strapped to their head. They are using the highest quality helmet cams you can get or they are using those look back cams, which are effectively a hibrod between a bullet cam and a digital cam. They pretty much look like a TV remote control.

santiago

Fascinating.

You have specs for these? I am very curious about anything gadget.

Edit: What are the cameras that you see attached on cars during car racing? i know on a car you can easily get 12V, but i'm curious to know what they are using and if they could be adapted for cycling. Is it similar to what dminor linked to earlier?

dminor 

From what I remember F1 and Indy cars are using pretty compact stuff. We occasionally get MotorWeek fillers at the PBSstation where I work. They had a whole segment one time on in-car cameras. What I found interesting was the video crews really liked NASCAR cars - - they could bolt in a full-size field cam back on the rear shelf.

The F1 cams were in a tiny bubble beside the drivers roll bar; looked no bigger than an old Instamatic camera. Then, with all of the cams, they had a satellite uplink that shot signal up and then was pulled down off the sat to the remote truck. Pretty cool. (Although I guess I didn't really answer your question, Santiago

Audiophile121

i didnt ask people to argue and pretend that they know everything about videography, i asked if people could give tips from personal experience in the area of assembling makeshift helmet cams, or if there are any articles out there that somebody can point me to.

ive had a very long day and quite frankly, im getting really tired of seeing R.Danneskjold's pessimism all over these forums and i wish he could be banned by petition. please stop prancing around and acting like you know everything about everything. if i wanted videography advice, then there are plenty of sources much more tangible than these forums where i could get my advice. your posts remind me of something my dad would have said to me when i was younger, and i would rather vomit than read more of your nonsense. your sig says everything i need to know about your attitude. keep your reply posts relevant, or start your own thread and discuss totally irrelevant opinions over there. i wanted advice, so i came here and asked for it. i dont think you would appreciate it either, if people wasted your time giving you stuff to read that didnt apply in any way to the question at hand in the first place.

sorry for the rant, just really dont like it when i come to the forums with a genuine concern and then have people commandeer it and turn it into an argument over bullet/lipstick cameras or whatever theyre called. i just want to be able to get some video while i go riding with my buddies and then come home and watch it for kicks. thats all.

so, if anybody has anything REAL to contribute to this thread, then by all means, that's what it was made for. if not, then pontificate elsewhere.

Hopper

Sorry man, I don't know heaps about these things. From seeing riders with them on at national rounds riding for Black Phoneix Iwould say they are about 30cm long and about 5cmx3cm cross section. The first generation I thik had an inbuilt memory storage but the newer ones use a wireless transmission to a reciever in a back pack.

As for on cars, my mate who races Super karts was asked to have one mounted on his car, he has now said he will never allow them to do it again unless he gets to mount it. He said that it lowered his top speed due to drag, it stuffed up his handling due to the aero being disrupted over his rear wing. So I am assuming that they are atleast as big as a normal video camera. However in F1 I'd assume they use a much smaller hi-tech camera. Also saloon racing (your NASCAR, our V8 Supercars) would get away with larger cameras as they are mounted inside the car and all the cars (atleast in V8's) have the same number of cameras so any disadvantage is equal to all.

dminor 

In that case, check out the Viosport or Twenty20 cams linked previously. Relatively economical and will work for your pruposes. They can feed a compact camcorder in your Camelbak.

I dragged your thread OT because it reminded me that I wanted to re-take up the conversation on broadcast-quality cam ideas with Pete. But I won't really apologize for that; OT happens all the time here - - comes with the territory.