I picked up a Tony Hawk Helmet Cam, since it was $40, takes SD memory, is completely self contained.. And is $40. I figured fuck it, why not?
Youtube tends to hate me when I upload shit, so hopefully this link works. Here's the first test video. Nothing fancy, no wheelies, just a ride around the countryside with my buddy Jay to try the camera out. It's strapped to the right side of my helmet.
It's actually not bad, but at least in this application, having it on my head makes the video turn into a Blair Witch style nausea-fest, since on a motorcycle your head tends to do a lot of, well, looking around. Next time I'm going to try mounting it somewhere stationery like behind the windscreen. I had to put audio in it because the wind noise absolutely annihilates the microphone but on the upside if you do watch this, at least you're listening to Petrucci.
It also gets washed out really easily if you're aiming it anywhere remotely into sunlight, and since we did a bit of riding into the sun it's pretty evident here.
The camera itself is fussy. I had to low-level format the SDCard before it would read it, and a 128MB card (it comes with a 32MB, which is pathetic) only yielded me about 15 minutes of total video, so with the included card you're looking around 3-4 minutes max which is pretty useless unless you want to constantly run back to your PC to dump the movies off of it. I have a 4GB card, but for one reason or another the camera doesn't want to take it, which sucks. It also tends to lock up. A lot. Oodles, even. When I brought it back home to pull the videos off, I had to insert/eject the SDCard a dozen or so times to get the camera to actually recognize it. There's a 50/60hz switch on the back of it, and 9 out of 10 times I turn it on it simply displays "60hz" on the side panel and does nothing else.
All in all I got what I paid for. It's unreliable, the video isn't stellar but really for $40 it's still worth it because it's a fun little toy. I'll post up more videos of it next time I take it out in a stationary mount instead of strapped to my mug.
It's also worth noting that when you ride by the police with a camera sticking off of your melon, you REALLY feel conspicuous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfu-zrOecms
Youtube tends to hate me when I upload shit, so hopefully this link works. Here's the first test video. Nothing fancy, no wheelies, just a ride around the countryside with my buddy Jay to try the camera out. It's strapped to the right side of my helmet.
It's actually not bad, but at least in this application, having it on my head makes the video turn into a Blair Witch style nausea-fest, since on a motorcycle your head tends to do a lot of, well, looking around. Next time I'm going to try mounting it somewhere stationery like behind the windscreen. I had to put audio in it because the wind noise absolutely annihilates the microphone but on the upside if you do watch this, at least you're listening to Petrucci.
It also gets washed out really easily if you're aiming it anywhere remotely into sunlight, and since we did a bit of riding into the sun it's pretty evident here.
The camera itself is fussy. I had to low-level format the SDCard before it would read it, and a 128MB card (it comes with a 32MB, which is pathetic) only yielded me about 15 minutes of total video, so with the included card you're looking around 3-4 minutes max which is pretty useless unless you want to constantly run back to your PC to dump the movies off of it. I have a 4GB card, but for one reason or another the camera doesn't want to take it, which sucks. It also tends to lock up. A lot. Oodles, even. When I brought it back home to pull the videos off, I had to insert/eject the SDCard a dozen or so times to get the camera to actually recognize it. There's a 50/60hz switch on the back of it, and 9 out of 10 times I turn it on it simply displays "60hz" on the side panel and does nothing else.
All in all I got what I paid for. It's unreliable, the video isn't stellar but really for $40 it's still worth it because it's a fun little toy. I'll post up more videos of it next time I take it out in a stationary mount instead of strapped to my mug.
It's also worth noting that when you ride by the police with a camera sticking off of your melon, you REALLY feel conspicuous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfu-zrOecms
