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Corporate Runaways

Overland travelers and certified geeks, based in Vermont.

Kay

2-Minute Read

Using the V.O.I. P.O.V resulted in a lot of missed shots. I’d push the record button on the remote, and it’d be a crap shoot as to if I’d actually get anything or not. Plus the Contour HD had way better picture quality (ignoring the fact that it had higher resolution) and there’s rarely a question of if you’ll record when you tell it to. You slide it forward, it records. It’s not perfect. When it’s not recording it’ll turn off after a while to conserve battery. So, you’ve got to make sure it’s still on, but, the P.O.V. was always on and still failed to get shots.

Long story short, we got a Contour GPS* and temporarily mounted it and the P.O.V. which I knew was aligned correctly. When the footage looked about the same in each camera I mounted the new one permanently. Unfortunately, it was last minute and I wasn’t able to take a test ride because my gear was at the tailor getting a new button.

Today we discovered the unsurprising fact that a test ride is critical, but there was still a question. “Why, when they looked to be pointing the right way, and showed approximately the same footage off the bike, were they so wildly different in practice?”

Then, I took some pictures, and it all became clear.

Cameras side-by-side

They look just about the same in the one on the left, but tilt it a little and it becomes clear. Add into this the fact that the P.O.V. has a wider angle lens…

So, if you’re mounting a helmet cam. Make sure that it’s tilted when you put it on, and take it for a test ride before you mount it permanently.

  • Side note: we got the Contour GPS instead of the Contour HD because in light of our trip we thought it’d be useful to be able to tell someone where exactly we saw something. But, the GPS functionality isn’t really supported by any software or web site other than Contour’s so, it’s a great idea, but at the moment we think that it’s more of a gimmick.

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A couple with 2 dogs and a thirst for exploring the places in-between.