View Full Version : Contour HD Camera
At the recent Vickers Tactical Home Defense Class, one of the shooters had one of these cameras. It appeared to take good quality video, was lite and rugged. Cost was also low I thought (paid $246 for mine). So of course I had to have one.
Link to the manufacturer: http://contour.com/contourhd/helmetcam?q=contourhd/buy
Got it last week and finally mounted it onto my hat. Not the most ideal way (as the camera slopes down), but will rig something better later.
http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/ContourHD_HAT.jpg
To get my mind off my dogs recent death, I decided to go to my range and do some drills and test out our new stippling work on my S&W M&P. I took the Contour along for the ride. Here are some short vid of me shooting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoN_YiwntKw
Does anyone else own one of these cameras? Likes, dislikes, mounting options for hats and weapons?
C4
I'm really sorry to hear about your dog Grant!
Nathan_Bell
07-25-10, 17:51
Perhaps mounting it to a suspension system. Like that on a hard hat or welders helmet would be a better solution than a baseball cap.
Army Chief
07-25-10, 18:05
Wireless recording to an onboard MicroSD? Now that's money!
We've already got KAC iPod mounts ... surely a ContourHD mount can't be too far behind. ;)
AC
SeriousStudent
07-25-10, 19:29
Hmmm - what about one of the NVG mounts? Would it be possible to engineer something using one of the "rhino" flip-up NVG mounting systems?
It might end up costing as much as the camera, however. But it would likely not interfere with your cheek weld or Aimpoint if you adjusted it correctly.
Pretty neat video, by the way. I was impressed with the sharpness of it, even on a moving platform.
Wireless recording to an onboard MicroSD? Now that's money!
We've already got KAC iPod mounts ... surely a ContourHD mount can't be too far behind. ;)
AC
Call me crazy, but couldn't you use some scope rings for the contour? what is the diameter of the camera? Would it hinder any operation of the camera?
We've found it's better to mount these on the sides of earpros, not weapons.
In full disclosure my company actually designed the ContourHD for VHoldR. You guys will dig what we're working on for the next version.
We've found it's better to mount these on the sides of earpros, not weapons.
In full disclosure my company actually designed the ContourHD for VHoldR. You guys will dig what we're working on for the next version.
Earpro mounting makes perfect sense. Also gives the viewer a much better angle, as you are nearly in line with the shooters eyes/weapon/sights.
I actually picked up an EPIC StealthCam, very similar. It should be here tomorrow. A friend showed me some video of him during a paintball match with the camera mounted to his marker so most of the video was looking at the ground. (Nice foot-age! :p :rolleyes: :D)
FromMyColdDeadHand
07-26-10, 00:12
The way it started I thought it was going to be a biking version of "Apocalypse Now". Don't know if it is my laptop set-up, but I had a hard time hearing you talk?
Can't wait to see more video. I had a small digital video recorder from Kodak at the Magpul PRecision class, but the battery lasted only two hours.
I have one. Mounted it to my earpro. Broke it almost immediately (speaking of which, I need to call the company).
nolacopusmc
07-26-10, 00:48
Have one of these coming in tomorrow for review..
https://www.mypov360.com/shop/drift-hd170-helmet-camera/
Nathan_Bell
07-26-10, 07:33
I have one. Mounted it to my earpro. Broke it almost immediately (speaking of which, I need to call the company).
How and how?
as in how was it mounted and how did you break it?
That had some very impressive clarity for such a small camera. And no issue with the sound here, thought he was fairly easy to understand.
Also, didn't know you were doing paintball reviews now as well, Grant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRJ_ZmFUDjg&feature=related
But I guess diversity is always good. :D
We've found it's better to mount these on the sides of earpros, not weapons.
In full disclosure my company actually designed the ContourHD for VHoldR. You guys will dig what we're working on for the next version.
Cool! What SW do you use to edit the video's?
C4
The way it started I thought it was going to be a biking version of "Apocalypse Now". Don't know if it is my laptop set-up, but I had a hard time hearing you talk?
Can't wait to see more video. I had a small digital video recorder from Kodak at the Magpul PRecision class, but the battery lasted only two hours.
The mic sensitivity was set way down because I thought that the gun shots would be really loud (which they were). I also have a bad head cold so it sounds like I am underwater.
C4
Have one of these coming in tomorrow for review..
https://www.mypov360.com/shop/drift-hd170-helmet-camera/
That looks pretty good, but am concerned with the weight.
I like that you can plug it into a TV.
Let us know how it works out.
C4
If you could rig an articulated tripod style mount to a LaRue lever, you could mount it to one of those tactical skateboard type helmets that TNVC sells and then switch it to the rail on an AR.
I use final cut pro, but that's because it's my tool by trade.
thopkins22
07-26-10, 10:54
RetreatHell has been doing a lot of shooting on his. http://www.youtube.com/user/RetreatHell#p/u
Terribly sorry to hear about your dog.:(
Same, definitly sorry to hear about your dog as well.
RH actually has one of our 720p demo cameras we gave him to T&E (aka T&Free).
Some of my videos as well:
http://www.youtube.com/user/lawndartdesign
Also a review of the Drift. Ours doesn't suffer from sensor shifting, unlike the Drift.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/26/drift-innovations-hd170-helmet-cam-review/
When I uploaded my vid to youtube (which was shot in 1080), the resolution was cut down and actually looked kind of crappy compared to the video I have taken with my Kodak Zi8.
So I decided to upload the same video to contour's website and see if it looks any better.
http://contour.com/node/99926
What do you guys think. Look any better?
C4
The long and short of it is that just because a video is 1920x1080 pixels in dimensions that doesn't mean the pixels are square.
For example some cameras use rectangular pixels, so the video is more like 1920x960 using stretched data.
The Contour uses square pixels but sometimes youtube doesn't interpret it right and downsizes to 720p.
The way around this is actually a little complicated, and requires something like Adobe After Effects to re-render the footage as something youtube won't choke on.
YouTube murders the quality. The Contour site was nice. What about hosting on your store site and creating a link that uses an embedded player, or will that eat too much bandwidth?
YouTube murders the quality. The Contour site was nice. What about hosting on your store site and creating a link that uses an embedded player, or will that eat too much bandwidth?
Seeing the hits on my YouTube account I would be concerned about BW issues.
C4
Seeing the hits on my YouTube account I would be concerned about BW issues.
C4
Just tell your wife to stop hitting the 'reload' button. :D
What about Vimeo for hosting? I have seen more friends using it for higher quality, but none of them are using a reasonably new camera. Maybe I will give it a shot later.
What about Vimeo for hosting? I have seen more friends using it for higher quality, but none of them are using a reasonably new camera. Maybe I will give it a shot later.
Will check them out. I also like the Contour website as well and seems to be setup well for this type of stuff.
C4
Shadow1198
07-29-10, 23:50
I have one. I've only played around with it a little bit so far. I haven't tried uploading any clips as is in the format they save as. What I did was re-render it in Sony Vegas using a 1920x1080i HD format selection already built into the program. I think re-rendering it as a different file format may help in maintaining the quality. YT is bad about, if you don't upload with just the right codecs and formats, it will automatically re-render it once uploaded and sound/video quality usually decreases in the process. If I'm not mistaken, I think I re-rendered it as an .m4ts file, which is typically an HD format I believe.
To give you an idea on what mine looks like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_es5_Z8-H0
@ 2:59-3:12, 4:36-5:38 is the Contour HD footage in 1080p, bitrate set to highest setting with the software package.
I have one. I've only played around with it a little bit so far. I haven't tried uploading any clips as is in the format they save as. What I did was re-render it in Sony Vegas using a 1920x1080i HD format selection already built into the program. I think re-rendering it as a different file format may help in maintaining the quality. YT is bad about, if you don't upload with just the right codecs and formats, it will automatically re-render it once uploaded and sound/video quality usually decreases in the process. If I'm not mistaken, I think I re-rendered it as an .m4ts file, which is typically an HD format I believe.
To give you an idea on what mine looks like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_es5_Z8-H0
@ 2:59-3:12, 4:36-5:38 is the Contour HD footage in 1080p, bitrate set to highest setting with the software package.
I went in and maxed out my bitrate. Will see what that does.
C4
RetreatHell
07-31-10, 18:33
As Titleist said, he hooked me up with his company's demo model of the ContourHD helmet cam model (720p max). I've used the crap out of it and love the thing!
My only complaint is that it doesn't like dark areas, even shaded areas outside. You have to play with the configuration settings to find out what will work for the environment you will be filming in, and have to remember to adjust those settings BEFORE you leave to go wherever you're going with your Contour camera. So it can definitely suck if you put a lot of effort into recording and discover when you get home and upload your video to your computer that the video looks very dark and/or of poor quality.
So you have to keep that in mind. But if you're filming on a bright sun-shining day, you've got no worries, as that's where the Contour performs best. But I love mine and have used it a whole bunch. I suppose I'll eventually upgrade to the 1080p model as soon as Titleist gives me one of them:dance3: :lol:
Here's a couple of my latest videos from this past Wed when Iraq Ninja, his son, thopkins22, and me all met up at the range and had some fun. The first features my new BCM 12.5" Kino upper! The second is of Iraq Ninja's new(ish) Mk18 Novekse-barreled upper, and it looked badass with my Surefire can attached to its muzzle!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fizenL3qUPw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNOJV0nE3M0
One note on what Paul said, the quality of low lighting footage is impacted by the size of the aperture and sensor size on the camera.
As cameras become smaller their ability to pull in light is hampered. This is not just something seen in the ContourHD, but in all "lipstick" form factor cameras. Even taking in an off the shell HD camcorder (fullsize) you'll be pushing the levels of what the camera can do.
From my experience in video production, it's something you'll be spending in to the 10K range to achieve.
Per Titleist's recommendation, I maxed out the bit rate. I also mounted the camera to my hearing protection.
When I am instructing, the video is perfect and stable. When I shoot, I cant head (apparently), which in turn makes the video less than useful IMHO.
The quality of the Vid has come up a lot with the increated bit rate.
http://contour.com/node/101288
C4
Grant, looks like it's not angled in as well. I use some shock cord around the lens to pull the camera in to the left a bit more.
Here's how mine is set up:
http://lawndartdesign.com/guns/Camera.jpg
Grant, looks like it's not angled in as well. I use some shock cord around the lens to pull the camera in to the left a bit more.
Here's how mine is set up:
Roger that. Will attempt to pull it in some. The other issue though is that I roll my head in and down a lot (did not realize that before).
C4
Roger that. Will attempt to pull it in some. The other issue though is that I roll my head in and down a lot (did not realize that before).
C4
Yep, there's no perfect solution. On a bike (what the camera was designed for) it's fine since the bike is on a path.
Whereas your head is going to bobble around. I looked at some footage I took from Magpul Handgun 1, and I almost wanted to throw up during search and assesses.
Why I prefer head mounting is that I get to see how I was looking at targets while moving. Gun mounting only shows me what the gun was seeing when it was brought up on to target.
My other advice is that I want to angle the camera up a tad, because I tilt my head forward a good deals when I'm down on the gun. As such my first few experiences with the camera resulted in looking down in to the ejection port as the main framing.
RetreatHell
08-02-10, 12:13
Roger that. Will attempt to pull it in some. The other issue though is that I roll my head in and down a lot (did not realize that before).
C4
Yeah that's what I realized too when I shot carbine with it the first time. Well, actually when I dry fired my carbine for the first time in my house with it on, just to test it out.
So with the way I wear my ear pro, I angle the camera slightly up so that when I shoulder the carbine and bring my head down it goes level for the most part. Pretty much trial and error, though.
With handgun it's not as much of an issue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbTUpCMcglk
And once you find the sweet spot, carbine is good to go as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2qDOyVuavo
(BTW Grant I really dig those shoot house vids of yours, they're pretty kick ass, man!)
@Titleist- You never told me about the para-cord trick thingy to help pull the camera in, you dick!!!:mad:
And by the way, that vase in your earpro pic is friggin' GAY you homo!!!:haha:
;)
@Titleist- You never told me about the para-cord trick thingy to help pull the camera in, you dick!!!:mad:
And by the way, that vase in your earpro pic is friggin' GAY you homo!!!:haha:
;)
It's for a candle, you douche :smile:
It's also not paracord, it's shock cord, which has an elastic core.
RetreatHell
08-02-10, 12:27
It's for a candle, you douche :smile:
It's also not paracord, it's shock cord, which has an elastic core.
I bet it's probably a "smelly good" candle, too, isn't it?;)
Sorry, I'm just a little butt-hurt that you never told me your "shock cord" secret. But it's okay, I'm done crying and I'm now ready to get past it and move forward with my life.:cool:
:D
CaptainDooley
08-02-10, 12:43
We've found it's better to mount these on the sides of earpros, not weapons.
In full disclosure my company actually designed the ContourHD for VHoldR. You guys will dig what we're working on for the next version.
Awesome. I may hit you up for some use ideas in the future - we end up using small cams like this for some interesting shots. We're looking for an HD solution and I think your cam may be just the ticket. Last shot we did with cams like this was a guy wing walking on an old Biplane...
Cool vid... Will definitely picking up one down the road...
I am really sorry to hear about your dog Grant! That really, really sucks. I have a 12 year old Chocolate Lab that is my best friend and I dread even think about coming home without him there to greet me.
Yeah that's what I realized too when I shot carbine with it the first time. Well, actually when I dry fired my carbine for the first time in my house with it on, just to test it out.
So with the way I wear my ear pro, I angle the camera slightly up so that when I shoulder the carbine and bring my head down it goes level for the most part. Pretty much trial and error, though.
With handgun it's not as much of an issue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbTUpCMcglk
And once you find the sweet spot, carbine is good to go as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2qDOyVuavo
(BTW Grant I really dig those shoot house vids of yours, they're pretty kick ass, man!)
@Titleist- You never told me about the para-cord trick thingy to help pull the camera in, you dick!!!:mad:
And by the way, that vase in your earpro pic is friggin' GAY you homo!!!:haha:
;)
Thanks. Glad you like the shoot house vids.
C4
Cool vid... Will definitely picking up one down the road...
I am really sorry to hear about your dog Grant! That really, really sucks. I have a 12 year old Chocolate Lab that is my best friend and I dread even think about coming home without him there to greet me.
Thanks.
C4
Ok, I think I have fixed the camera mount problem. As we know, mounting it to a hat puts the camera at a downward slope (causing you to put targets out of view). We also know that most people cant their head to the side when shooting an AR. So I have a solution (that appears to work pretty well).
First, I took a small Magpul MOE rail. Then I drilled two holes in my hat. One in the center back and one slight off center to the left. Then I bought a bunch of washers and a 1" long bolt. Put the washers underneath the MOE rail so that it would sit level on the hat. Mounting the camera off center also allows for you to not lose any targets that are on your left.
The good folks at DD gave me one of their prototype mounts for the camera and I must say, that it works like a charm and made this all possible.
Here is a vid I took of me shooting at a steel plate at 175yds out (sound and video are not aligning for some reason, but you get the idea): http://contour.com/node/102292
Setup:
http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/Grants_Pics/ContourHD_Hat.jpg
http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/Grants_Pics/ContourHD_Hat1.jpg
http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/Grants_Pics/ContourHD_Hat2.jpg
C4
AWESOME. It's funny, we designed that damn camera and even we didn't know about the DD mount. :(
AWESOME. It's funny, we designed that damn camera and even we didn't know about the DD mount. :(
What is also cool is that I can quickly remove it from my hat and stick it on a gun if I wanted too.
DD made the mount for Vickers for his TV show. I think there are only two in existence (currently).
C4
is that a rapid prototyped part or machined high density plastic?
is that a rapid prototyped part or machined high density plastic?
Machined. Rapid Prototyped doesn't have that level of finish to it.
Machined. Rapid Prototyped doesn't have that level of finish to it.
I was unable to tell from my phone.
Just a bump, but I'm really proud to formally announce the new model, the ContourGPS:
http://gizmodo.com/5636541/contour-adds-integrated-maps-into-its-helmet-cam-videos
Spurholder
09-13-10, 11:19
^ Awesome.
My organization bought three of the Contour HD's a couple of weeks ago. Big thank you's to you guys - we'll use these to augment our AAR package on our UAC's and our new live fire shoot house.
Thanks, I'll pass that along to VHoldR. My company, Ziba, just handles the industrial design and figuring out how things should work on "user interaction level." We don't build 'em, but we're very happy to incorporate end user feedback in to future products.
Hell, I was a major fan of this product before I even joined the company. I've been playing with the new GPS model for a few months now, the new features are nice, and I would say just having the recording mode toggle as it's own separate switch is a MAJOR improvement (not requiring the back cover to be removed).
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/6379/screenshot20100913at929.png
Shadow1198
11-03-10, 02:08
Just thought I'd bump this thread. I got a couple more clips with my Contour 1080P from a recent pistol class (God I need to stop procrastinating and get out to a Paul Howe class already! lol):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgBQ1IhxJBg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIwedNlI7CY
Yes, I shot a hostage, yes my reloads sucked (swapped back to stock mag release from fact. extended, didn't reacquaint myself), and I had malfunctions out the ass towards the end of class (replaced all springs). ;) Anyways, that was with the following settings:
-Full 1080P mode
-Bit Rate: Max
-Mic Gain: 33
-Contrast: 56
-Exposure: -1
-Sharpness: 2
-Metering: Center
Personally I think the quality looks pretty decent. It doesn't look too choppy, even with fast movements, and the vid and sound quality isn't half bad either. So far, I'm very satisfied, especially considering this thing was only ~$260-280. I really need to work on cam placement though. Right now I have the thing mounted on one of the 3M pushlock velcro (or whatever they call it) adhesive mounts on a Protec skateboard helmet. I think I might rig up a mount to try and get this thing as close to eye level as possible so it's a bit easier to see.
Talked to a nice lady today at Contour and she said that a Picatinny rail adapter is in the works for 1st quarter this year. That'd be a little nicer than poking holes in my favorite hats!;)
Talked to a nice lady today at Contour and she said that a Picatinny rail adapter is in the works for 1st quarter this year. That'd be a little nicer than poking holes in my favorite hats!;)
Had meetings about that this fall. Our rapid prototyped one won't hold up to recoil, but it's a really nice little adapter.
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