This is a very old article. Cameras have come a long way since I wrote it. However, I still haven’t found one I am completely happy with.
EDIT: I have updated the VholdR links below – the website is now under the Contour name and the old website no longer exists. Sorry for any confusion.
I think I mentioned in a previous post that I had tried various camera systems in my car. The last one was a 550 line bullet cam – great video, but a real pain with the cables (plus the separate recorder: I started with an Archos hard disk unit, then experimented with a SanDisk V-mate memory card recorder).
I saw this in one of my computer magazines last month. It’s the VholdR Contour HD 1080p (actually, the one in the magazine was the 720p, but I did a bit of reading first).
It is a full-HD camera, and it records directly to a micro SD memory card. At full HD (1080p) a 16GB card will hold around 4 hours of video (it comes with a 2GB card), and it also has several resolutions – various 1080p sizes, 720p (so a 16GB card will hold 8 hours of footage), and WVGA (16 hours on a single card). It is battery operated, so no cables to worry about.
It is tiny… it just about sits in the palm of your hand. There is a range of accessories – the one I have been waiting for is the windscreen mount (and it came while I was writing this). My car is in the garage for a recurring fault today so I haven’t been able to try the mount properly yet, but it is extremely solid (made of metal and plastic). I’m also waiting for a 16GB card to arrive.
VholdR (now under the Contour name) – the company which makes the camera – is based in the USA and specialises in extreme sports. The Contour is designed to be wearable – it is supplied with several mounts allowing you to fit it to your helmet or goggles if you are skiing, skydiving, or bike-riding. You can also get a handlebar mount – and one which I like a lot is a waterproof mount so you can take underwater videos!
If you have a look at the VholdR (Contour) website you can see the quality of the footage it takes. There are lots of videos taken by extreme sports enthusiasts (and people who aren’t so extreme – when I used to go skiing I did scarier stuff than that by accident). Seriously, though, you can see how useful it is being able to wear something so small which delivers such high quality. You can also download VholdR’s own software for editing the video.. It isn’t cheap – not in the UK, anyway. The 1080p costs £350 everywhere! The 720p is £250. The official UK distributor is Madison. However, if you look around – and if you don’t mind ordering from overseas eBay sellers – the 1080p only costs $330 (which currently converts to £205). I suggest Easy Does It Customs (in Pittsburgh, PA). EDIT: They don’t list on eBay anymore. Google for “Contour HD” and you’ll find it for as little as £119 in the UK now (as of July 2012) – or the Plus version with GPS at around £300.. .