ContourGPS Helmet Camera

When planning an adventure, the first thing you want to make sure is that you’re not going to forget all the places you’ve explored and thrills you’ve experienced. Not only that but you’ll probably want to be able to share the best bits with the people you left behind. What better way to do this than with videos.

Some of the key considerations when you’re filming video on a motorbike are:

• How easy is it to mount?
• What resolution does it record at?
• What frame rate does it record at?
• How long can you record for?
• How big is the camera?
• Does it have any wow factor features?

Ok, that one probably isn’t a key consideration but, given the camera I’ve chosen it’s on my list now. The camera I’ve chosen for my trip to Morocco, as well as local adventures with the Pegaso, is the ContourGPS helmet camera from Contour. Not only do the basic recording features of the camera make it a contender but it’s so packed with wow-factor features that no other camera comes close to it.

Starting off with the basic features, it’s a HD video camera that is capable of recording in multiple modes:

The above table outlines the maximum frame rate at each resolution but these are configurable. The camera also has a weide-angle lens – 110º for Full HD and 135º at all other resolutions. It takes MicroSD memory cards, with a maximum capacity of 32GB. Of course, the higher the resolution recorded at the less recording time you’ve got. The average recording times are:

• HD » 30min/GB
• SD » 60min/GB

The camera has got a switch that allows you to select from one of two recording modes when out on the trail. The configuration of these modes is handled by the Story Teller software when the camera is plugged into you computer. Not only can you configure the resolution and frame rate for recording but you can also set the exposure mode, whether that be one of the presets, or you can create your own custom exposure mode.

The camera comes with various mounting options in the box:

• Googles mount
• 2x Rotating surface mount

The camera uses the Contour TRail mount system. There are various mounting accessories available such as a windscreen suction mount, headband mount, universal mount etc. When you’re mounting the it helpfully has two lasers on the front to help with aligning it. Hell yeah… friggin’ lasers beams!

It’s important to make sure that you get the camera settings sorted before setting out on your adventure. Lets have a break from this review, so you can watch this settings test video I created:

So that’s all the basic features covered, what about the wow features? Well, as the name suggests, it got a built-in GPS chip. That’s right, whilst it’s recording video it’s also recording your GPS location. What this means is that when you watch the video back in Story Teller it also shows you location at that moment in the video. The location information is also uploaded with the video if you share it on the Contour Stories site.

Being a bit of a techie I was impressed with the GPS functionality. But as cool as all the above features are, the one problem I have with the camera is not being able to see what you’re recording until you get back home. Wouldn’t be cool if there was a view finder on the camera. But that would make it too big to be a helmet camera. This is where Contour has pulled out its trump card. The ContourGPS has got a bluetooth chip built in! You what?! It has a bluetooth chip, which can be used to connect the camera to a phone.

Contour is working on software for both Apple iPhones and Android phones which will enable them to be used as wireless view finders for the ContourGPS camera. It will also enable you to change the camera settings, so you wont be limited to two pre-configured settings. How much better can they make this thing?

So, the bottom line…. should you buy it? Yes, right now. Unless you’ve just bought a ContourHD, in which case you should find a dark room and start crying!