Page 1 of 1

Review: 480 line "Xtreme Plus" kit from helmetcame

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 1:32 am
by macktruckturner
You might recall that many months ago - when I got back from Iraq - I started the search for an appropriate camera to record my rides from an interesting POV. The offerings from www.helmetcamera.com seemed to be the ticket, coming in an "indestructable" mount complete with a protective cover for the lense itself, a seperate microphone, and a battery pack to power it all. My kit was $301 shipped, and I recieved it the other day.

Anyway, I mounted the 3M "Dual Lock" strip as close to centered under the nose of my 2005 SV650S as possible, and ran the video/power cable for the camera up through my fairing. The microphone I mounted under the tail, and ran the wires through the bodywork up to my Canon ZR85 minidv camcorder in my tankbag.

All in all I had two issues, only one related to the equipment from the kit. Issue #1 you will hear in the video clip. It sounds to me like the combination of being right next to my exhaust, and in a pocket of dirty air is too much for the microphone to handle. There is what sounds to me like rather serious clipping on the audio side, and I think it's due to wind more than the exhaust as it isn't really a factor when the bike is stopped. To combat this, I'm going to try two things. First thought is to actually mounted IN the tail of my bike, under the seat - and hope getting it out of the direct wind is enough to kill the clipping but maintain my exhaust note. Second is to put the mic in a block of foam to shield it from the wind some. I'll have to test both to see which one works - or if I have to do both, or whatever. The second is that the buttons on the Canon are very sensitive, and I actually had to make two runs b/c it stopped recording the first run as I closed my tankbag. I'll be making some kind of rigid case/cover for the Canon before too long.

I haven't taken pics yet, but rest assured by lunch I'll have some photos in this thread - for now, be happy with 100MB of Video.

edit to add pics:
Image
everything in the box

Image
a shot of the mounted camera from the side

Image
a shot of the mounted camera from the front

Image
the microphone mounted, location will change for the next vid.

Anthony