Fast Singletrack Video

Quoted message said:

Part one of some video shot today with JAR at Allaire
State Park in New Jersey.

Your soundrack is an odd choice, but it works well. Did you
ever get around to making a comparison between the lipstick
and normal camera shot?

My helmet cam mount is comming long nicly:

hostultra.comhelmet cam.Open ↗
htm

You'll have to excuse the rougness of it all, it's my first
attempt at a webpage and carbon fiber work. I've pretty much
finished it now so I'll be updating the page this week.

kantspel said:

Quoted message said:

Part one of some video shot today with JAR at Allaire
State Park in New Jersey.

Your soundrack is an odd choice, but it works well. Did
you ever get around to making a comparison between the
lipstick and normal camera shot?

My helmet cam mount is comming long nicly:

hostultra.comhelmetOpen ↗
_cam.htm

You'll have to excuse the rougness of it all, it's my
first attempt at a webpage and carbon fiber work. I've
pretty much finished it now so I'll be updating the page
this week.

I was in a rush to get part 1 posted for those who rode so
I chose the music rather fast. I was tired and didn't feel
like spending a day to mach the tune. It was rythmic, so
that's why I chose it. The lyrics are awful, at least for
an MTB video. I'm a product of early 80's british import
music, although Susanne Vega is not an import, it's still
of that variety.

It's not a bike video comparison, but you can look at
www.schnauzers.ws/sunset.mpg. This is with the miniDV camera
(I use the same MiniDV as you, BTW) and not the bullet
camera. I think the quality is much better with the
exception of the constant focusing. I think Pete leaves his
on manual focus at a fixed focal point because I never see
the focus adjusting in his videos.

I can't put four pounds on my head (2 for the cam and 2 for
the balance weight). I have a hard enough time keeping my
head straight as it is. I hardly even notice the bullet cam
is there except when I see my shadow. I think it is like 5
or 6 oz. I have a remote control so I can start and stop the
recording. This is a very usefull and inexpesive tool ($30).
No need to record aimlessly when you don't have to. I don't
like taking my hands to far off the bars so this works well
for me. The only complaint I have about the bullet cam is
all the wires and the extra battery pack to drive the bullet
cam. I have to get a Camelback Hawg just to carry it all.

Ride-A-Lot says:

Quoted message said:

Low bandwidth version available at
www.schnauzers.ws/allaire030704.wmv (8
MB)

THANK YOU!!

Sorry for shouting, but......

Steve "bandwidth challenged"

Quoted message said:

It's not a bike video comparison, but you can look at
www.schnauzers.ws/sunset.mpg. This is with the miniDV
camera (I use the same MiniDV as you, BTW) and not the
bullet camera. I think the quality is much better with the
exception of the constant focusing. I think Pete leaves
his on manual focus at a fixed focal point because I never
see the focus adjusting in his videos.

I'm not sure how pete handles it but my plan is to leave it
on manual focus. The autofocus on the canon is flaky in my
opinion but I don't really have anything to compare it to.
You should see how bad it gets when you throw a wide angle
lens on there, it's virtually impossible to keep it in
focus then.

Quoted message said:

I can't put four pounds on my head (2 for the cam and 2
for the balance weight). I have a hard enough time keeping
my head straight as it is.

I'm starting to have reservations about that myself. I'm
actually most worried about neck injuries, when I tried mine
out it felt like I could really strain my neck with one bad
jolt. Regardless of quality I may take the lipstick route
just for safety. Another luxury that pete has is that most
of his videos seem to be in fairly open places. The trails
that I ride have a lot of trees and I'm worried about
snagging the camera on one.

We'll see I guess, it's going to be a while before the
trails are ridable here but I'll be sure to post once I get
some footage.

Quoted message said:

The only complaint I have about the bullet cam is all the
wires and the extra battery pack to drive the bullet cam.
I have to get a Camelback Hawg just to carry it all.

It's probably still less weight than the camera + counter
weight and at least it isn't on your head.

kantspel said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I can't put four pounds on my head (2 for the cam and 2
for the balance weight). I have a hard enough time
keeping my head straight as it is.

I'm starting to have reservations about that myself. I'm
actually most worried about neck injuries, when I tried
mine out it felt like I could really strain my neck with
one bad jolt. Regardless of quality I may take the
lipstick route just for safety. Another luxury that pete
has is that most of his videos seem to be in fairly open
places. The trails that I ride have a lot of trees and I'm
worried about snagging the camera on one.

Bill Porter complaned about the weight when he first rigged
up his helmet mount. In fact, he carries a spare helmet
(without a camera) to wear when his neck needs some rest, or
when video opportunities aren't very good. With time, he's
gotten more used to the weight, and tolerates it better now.
As far as neck injuries, I wouldn't think that's a real
likelihood. Look at Pete's videos. He certainly doesn't have
a neck like a linebacker's, and we've all seen that he
sometimes crashes while wearing a simlar setup.

miles

miles todd said:

kantspel said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I can't put four pounds on my head (2 for the cam and 2
for the balance weight). I have a hard enough time
keeping my head straight as it is.

I'm starting to have reservations about that myself. I'm
actually most worried about neck injuries, when I tried
mine out it felt like I could really strain my neck with
one bad jolt. Regardless of quality I may take the
lipstick route just for safety. Another luxury that pete
has is that most of his videos seem to be in fairly open
places. The trails that I ride have a lot of trees and
I'm worried about snagging the camera on one.

Bill Porter complaned about the weight when he first
rigged up his helmet mount. In fact, he carries a spare
helmet (without a camera) to wear when his neck needs some
rest, or when video opportunities aren't very good. With
time, he's gotten more used to the weight, and tolerates
it better now. As far as neck injuries, I wouldn't think
that's a real likelihood. Look at Pete's videos. He
certainly doesn't have a neck like a linebacker's, and
we've all seen that he sometimes crashes while wearing a
simlar setup.

miles

True, it's probably just paranoia. But just the *thought*
of snagging the camera on a limb gets my neck and wallet
aching. Like I said, I'll give it a shot. So far I've
invested $10 into my camera mount so if I don't care for it
then all I've wasted is time (which I count as
entertainment anyways).

kantspel said:

Quoted message said:

It's not a bike video comparison, but you can look at
www.schnauzers.ws/sunset.mpg. This is with the miniDV
camera (I use the same MiniDV as you, BTW) and not the
bullet camera. I think the quality is much better with
the exception of the constant focusing. I think Pete
leaves his on manual focus at a fixed focal point because
I never see the focus adjusting in his videos.

I'm not sure how pete handles it but my plan is to leave
it on manual focus. The autofocus on the canon is flaky in
my opinion but I don't really have anything to compare it
to. You should see how bad it gets when you throw a wide
angle lens on there, it's virtually impossible to keep it
in focus then.

Quoted message said:

I can't put four pounds on my head (2 for the cam and 2
for the balance weight). I have a hard enough time
keeping my head straight as it is.

I'm starting to have reservations about that myself. I'm
actually most worried about neck injuries, when I tried
mine out it felt like I could really strain my neck with
one bad jolt. Regardless of quality I may take the
lipstick route just for safety. Another luxury that pete
has is that most of his videos seem to be in fairly open
places. The trails that I ride have a lot of trees and I'm
worried about snagging the camera on one.

You can see that I ride typical east coast technical
singletrack. Trees are an understatement. Once it gets warm,
the hangmans noose vines will be everywhere. I've snagged
the bullet cam on some low branches and damn near ripped my
helmet off.