THINKING OF BUYING A HELMET CAMERA?

It was a time consuming process to learn all about helmet cameras before buying one. I wrote this summary of what I learned to help others who are thinking about setting up a helmet camera.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars.

 Click here to see videos taken with the helmet camera.

There are a number of options for setting up a helmet camera.  I found the following website very useful in giving an overview of the different setup options:

http://www.helmetcamcentral.com

 
The main issues in choosing a setup:

Remote control.

For me this was not negotiable. I had to have a setup that allowed me to pack the camcorder away in my backpack, have the helmet camera on my head, and have a remote that allowed me to switch the camera on and off, and to start and stop recording. A LANC remote allows this. In order to use a LANC remote, you have to have a camcorder that has a LANC port.

 Camcorder capabilities

As noted, I wanted a remote control and so needed a camera with a LANC port. Very few mid to low end cameras have LANC ports.

When you plug a helmet camera into a camcorder, it is no longer really a camcorder, it is just a video recorder that records video coming in via the AV input port. This means two things: first, your camcorder has to have an AV input port; second, it is the quality of your helmet camera that will define the quality of your helmet camera video, not the quality of your camcorder.

I chose the Sony DCR-HC32 MiniDV Handycam Camcorder. I bought a refurbished one, off ebay.  At the time it would have cost $450 + tax at the Sony Store. It was a 2005 model and sold for $650 in 2005. The HC32 is now an old model. The replacement model does not have the LANC port. LANC ports used to be used for video editing, but nowadays that is all done on computer, so fewer and fewer modern cameras have LANC ports.

Given the requirements for LANC and AV input ports, not wanting to spend a fortune, and the abundance of HC32’s on ebay, the HC32 was an obvious choice.

Video quality

The first camera I looked at in stores was the Samsung SC-X210L Hands Free Helmet Camera Camcorder. Fortunately, before I bought it I read the reviews on helmetcamcentral and realised that from a video quality point of view, it is a $700 toy, not a serious video camera.  The other cheap cameras available evidently also have very bad video quality: see the helmetcamcentral website.

For when you are taking video with the camcorder without using the helmet camera, then the video performance of the camcorder is important. For a review of the HC32 see:

 http://www.camcorderinfo.com

 They also review the Samsung SC-X210L, and are less than kind about its video quality:

“As we said last year, this is a camcorder for a very specific market of rugged sporty types, but even people in those markets might be disappointed by the sorry, sorry performance”.

They are kinder about the HC32, but make clear that it is a point and shoot camcorder, not a high end one.

Since it is the helmet camera that defines the quality of the video, I bought a top end camera, the

580 Line Sony ExView HAD helmet Camera (3.6mm) NTSC, from Hoyttech:

http://hoyttech.com/default.cfm

Of the helmet camera sites I visited, I got the best impression from Hoyttech and was 100% satisfied with their prompt and friendly service. They also sell LANC remotes which the other sites don’t.

Hoyttech also has a list of all camcorders that have LANC and AV input capabilities: very useful! Hoyttech also has better warranty terms that some of the other helmet camera companies. Therefore, I highly recommend Hoyttech.

 However, here are some other links for helmet camera websites:

http://www.actionvideocams.com/wst_page4.html

http://www.jonescam.tv/products.php

Cost

The following table summarises what I paid for what. From the table you can see that looking only at the cost of the camcorder and the helmet camera, one would significatnly underestimate the total cost. 

Then I also had to upgrade the RAM on my computer to 512MB, most decent software requires at least 512MB of RAM. More would be better, I have exactly 512MB and the software sometimes crashes when working with long movies.

I will be using the camera for mountain biking and snowboarding and so a waterproof hardshell pelican case is essential to keep the camera dry, dust free, and not crushed. I drilled a few holes for the cables, but then plugged them up with epoxy glue.

 
I put in-line couplers for the camcorder outside the pelican box because I do not intend to use the helmet camera for watersports and I want the couplers to detach if I put my backpack down forgetting to take off my helmet first i.e. as opposed to ripping the cable out the back of the helmet camera.

 
I used velcro epoxied to my helmet, and to the helmet camera, to secure the camera to the helmet because I want it to be very secure (so that it does not fall off and so that I do not have to worry about it being bumped out of alignment) and want to have flexibility for positioning.

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