[MemphisMechanic]

Okay, it's a boring dryfire drill, in a not-very-clean room, and the "dead air" needs editing out.

BUT MY CONTOURHD ARRIVED TONIGHT!

Click the link, click the "HD" button at the bottom right, and blow it up to fullscreen. If you have a really good video card, it'll look okay. If it gets really choppy, skip the "HD" option and watch it in standard-resolution fullscreen mode.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=4SM5iohzbJ0

I like the angle on the lens. Wider than my old Motocomm unit, without looking too fisheyed. Sound is much better, too.

Here's a random video with my old unit, for comparison:
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=ggTXLmZKwyA

This post has been edited by MemphisMechanic: 20 June 2009 - 09:06 PM

[MemphisMechanic]

Obviously, I'll take some pictures and try to list the features/likes/dislikes up here later on... But for now, I'm going to bed as a fully satisfied buyer...

Some guy in the Vendor's forum is selling them. Might be a decent place to pick one up.
http://www.brianenos...showtopic=84429

According to the makers, it's water resistant. There's a rubberized cap that covers the back... By looks I won't be afraid to take it out in a moderate rain. But it is NOT SUBMERSIBLE. I can see the back of the battery and micro SD card through a tiny gap between the housing and the cover. If your other hobby is kyaking, look elsewhere for a camera... But if it's raining at the range, I think I'll wrap the back half of this thing with electrical tape for the day. The rest of it looks/feels water resistant.

It uses a rechargable cellphone-ish battery, which is cool. No need for a box of AAs to feed it.

It also comes with LAAAAZERS. No... really... It has two laser-pointer emitters on either side of the lens. When you turn it on, they glow for about 10 seconds, and it's easy to see if it's level or not.
My main problem with the last one was keeping it level. painting a stripe down the bottom helped, but this is better. The lasers should be even horizontally if the lens is level. If not, the lens rotates inside the camera body, which is beyond badass. Glue it down, and never move the mount again. Just twist the lens to level.

It doesn't have a screen, which I'll miss. I liked being able to play back right away. ("Did I really earn that procedural?") But at least the field of view is absurdly wide. If you point it anywhere near the right direction, whatever you're trying to film will be in the shot.

It's bigger than my old one (which was a much smaller camera, cord, and recorder unit on the belt. This is all-in-one with no wires). The big picture above the snowboarder on this page is pretty much actual size on my 15" laptop screen:
http://pointofviewca....hd-camera.html

It's about 4" long, the cylindrical boddy is about 1" diameter, and the overall unit is probably 1.5-2" tall.

It fits on a baseball cap, but it's bulky up there. I'll endure, because the video is badass. Even the sound is much better.

So far I really like it. I'll use it in our indoor IDPA match Tuesday night, but I'm immediately leaving for the LFI-1 class with Massad Ayoob the following morning... so it will be a while before I can edit the video. I might just get to use my Dad's PC to post it while we're up there in the hotel, bored.

This post has been edited by MemphisMechanic: 20 June 2009 - 11:30 PM

[VoodooDaddy]

Very nice!!

I ordered mine two weeks ago and it won't ship for another 2-3 weeks

How are you mounting it to your cap? Pics?

Thanks.

Will

[MemphisMechanic]

VoodooDaddy, on Jun 21 2009, 08:56 AM, said:

How are you mounting it to your cap? Pics?

For that video? Packing tape and some super-ghetto-rigging.

Still need to figure that part out later on. But I figured that before I tried to mount it to the hat, I'd at least check to see if my gun would be in the frame with this one. Hence the video.

When I work out a mount, I'll post some pictures of the, er, assembly.

Annoyingly, I have a laptop with a not-very-good video card. It doesn't have a prayer of keeping up with the HD video (even compressed on YouTube)... and that's the PC I usually edit my videos on. If that's the worst problem I have with it, it'll be money well spent.

This post has been edited by MemphisMechanic: 21 June 2009 - 08:04 AM

[Aristotle]

I couldn't find the specs on the camera. What is the frame rate and resolution?

my POV captures at 30fps and 720x480 and I have been very happy with it.

For a mount, my camera is mounted on a pictanny rail that is on my ear muffs. I have a great angle to capture not only my gun, but my field of view. And I can take it off between my runs, which is nice. The camera is very light, and I can hardly tell it's there. I just put the CPU in my back pocket and it has worked out very good for me. It is built beyond mil spec and is water proof/shock proof. I've put this thing through the ringer the past few months.



Camera angle is very tricky and can make/break the video.

Here's some footage with my POV mounted on my muffs. I played around with it on the bill of my hat, and the camera angle sucked and bobbed around quite a bit, and was very uncomfortable.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=ljViP5LNBGI

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=CECf3AQNATg

HD on it is pretty amazing.

This post has been edited by Aristotle: 21 June 2009 - 08:45 AM

[PistolPete]

How do you know where the camera is pointed? I ask because it looks like it doesn't hook up to an Acros unit or camcorder so i was curious how you know where it is pointed and if it is level etc? Is there a lazer on the unit?

[DyNo!]

Awesome video - thanks!

[rupie]

Id like to see that camera mounted to ear phones

[MemphisMechanic]

Aristotle, on Jun 21 2009, 10:42 AM, said:

I couldn't find the specs on the camera. What is the frame rate and resolution?

my POV captures at 30fps and 720x480 and I have been very happy with it.

HD on it is pretty amazing.

... Except that yours isn't really HD, although it's pretty close.

Standard Def mode on this thing is 720 x 480 , 30 frames/sec, and a 90-degree lens.

High Def is full 720P resolution. 1280 x 720, 60 frames/sec, and a 135 degree lens. The extra-wide angle is my favorite thing about my current unit. They both appear to have more of a "fish eye" than yours does, so you don't have to mount it all the way on top of your head to get a wide view in HD mode. In standard mode, a couple of my test/dryfire videos wound up with targets out of view when torqued around a barricade in a wierd way, or something.

My current problem is that nothing edits HD footage that doesn't cost a bundle... Even if I convert the High-Def files to AVI (it saves them in Quicktime format, which I loathe) Windows Movie Maker won't save a video in a format larger than 720x480.

They sure are pretty. Too bad I can't edit them.

PistolPete, on Jun 21 2009, 03:25 PM, said:

How do you know where the camera is pointed? I ask because it looks like it doesn't hook up to an Acros unit or camcorder so i was curious how you know where it is pointed and if it is level etc? Is there a lazer on the unit?

As I mentioned above, it's got two laser pointers. One on either side of the lens. So you aim it, then twist the lens so that the lasers are level. No more cocked videos.

It's entirely self-contained. Power button, and a record/stop slide switch are your only controls:

• Turn it on, light goes green on front, and it beeps. Lasers glow for a couple of seconds.
  
• Slide the HUGE record switch forward, and it beeps to say it's recording. Light by the lens turns red.
  
• Slide the switch back to stop recording, and it beeps twice. Light returns to green.
  
• Hold down the power switch for about 5 seconds, and the lasers glow again breifly before it turns off.

Recharging and transfering data are done through the USB cable. Uses a standard mini-USB cable, like most digital cameras and a Motorola RAZR cell phone. At least that isn't something funky. I had enough cables already.

When I find something that will let me edit my HD videos so they still look high-def, I'll post a sample video with the airsoft gun (just built a plate rack and shot the heck out of it in the backyard with the camera on. Footage is cool) or from an indoor IDPA match.

This post has been edited by MemphisMechanic: 21 June 2009 - 10:37 PM

[kgunz11]

What is the blip @ 17, and 28 seconds into the clip?

[MemphisMechanic]

kgunz11, on Jun 22 2009, 01:58 AM, said:

What is the blip @ 17, and 28 seconds into the clip?

It's something YouTube did when it converted the video to FLV when I uploaded it. It isn't there in the original files.