Helmet Camera

There  are those of you who would  like to try  helmet cam but where  a bit put off by the price of all the equipment required to do it ,a handycam and remote camera !   $$$$$$$ ,   Well now  you can at a reasonable cost and with quite good performance  .

The unit is a helmet mounted video camera which records  sound and colour video at 25  frames per second  in  computer VGA  format  (640X480); storing the video as an AVI  file at about 1 Mb per second on average  , a    2Gb card is about 2000 seconds worth of recording ( very approximately) .
The camera  ( not waterproof) is powered by two AAA  cells and records on SD  media   , it is controlled by the sequential pressing of  a large  accessible button on the top of the  camera , the selected function is displayed on a small LCD  display on the side of the camera body

( just a note on using  SD Media cards  )  Most computers and card readers will handle SD cards up to 2 Gb  , however  the legacy card readers may not ( and usually)  wont read the new High Density  SD  cards with a capacity greater than 2 Gb  ie 4Gb 8 Gb  etc  so just be mindful of the fact that if you drop a 4 Gb card in this camera ......will you be able to view it  directly on the home PC / laptop card reader ?? , you can purchase from outlets ie dick smith and Jaycar electronics outboard USB  based  hi Density card readers to enable this at reasonable prices .

For those of you that do not  have a card reader , do not worry  as the camera also has a USB connection facility . Where upon connecting the cable from the camera into the computer enables the use of the   camera SD card as an external  memory unit so you can go into it and  down load the movie files that way ..

The easiest way to attach the unit to the helmet is by sticky back  Velcro  hooks and wool , one piece on the helmet and its mating surface on the camera . Velcro itself sticks like the proverbial to a dry blanket , make sure you have a clean dry  grease fee surface to enable the "sticky: side to adhere  firmly . I have never  had Velcro wool to hooks peel off while I am riding  ever !  but I have seen the sticky surface lift because I never cleaned the helmet thoroughly .

What is the picture like  ??      well it was with a bit of trepidation that I ordered evaluation models to try ,  and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the resulting Picture . it is very good  quality , sharp as  it uses a 0.3megpixel cmos camera  and provides good colour , contrast and detail , I'd say very good for a $225  unit 

Hints for use :
I mounted on the right  side of my open face helmet  with some sticky  Velcro as I found the supplied  elastic  strap was not long enough to go around my helmet . The unit has a small red  laser sighting aid , this is actually quite useful to orientate to camera to "look"  in the correct  direction. it pulses on and off when the camera is in standby mode ,ready to start recording . when you initiate recording ,the camera sounds a " beep " .  The position and angle of the camera attached to the helmet , will depend on your riding style ,posture  etc , so be prepared to fiddle a bit before you get it right ,  Your first trial run will be a disaster ! you will be surprised as to how much you move your  head around when you  ride ! your vision compensates for this and the extreme wide angle of our own built in optics  ( both eyes) and powerful image processing of our brain is such that we dont  notice it all , however you will notice the movement when reduced to the 50 degree viewing angle of the camera!!  with a bit of practice you will get it right , you could  even mount the  camera  on the bike itself, that will be more steady  platform . Use it as a small handheld  handicam as well at rallies and the like to record stuff off the bike ...  The sky's the limit . xp2000  has  Windows  movie maker with it as well and although an entry level software package, is a good start to edit your movies and stitch them together  ...have fun !

NZ$80   plus postage  intro  price  ( out of stock )

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                        Contact:

        Pinfold Health Services Ltd., 1172 Arawa St. ,Rotorua , New Zealand  ph +64-7-3488850 fax +64-7-3486555 pinfold@xtra.co.nz

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